Ii.-ILt - SUNOCO. MONDAY. JULY 19 r 19 S 7 , GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: A solar plexis blow to th© Preisdent’s court plan^ was administered today, Coming as it does from one of his warmest followers, it may prove a knockout. At any rate, thatfs what the Court Plan opponents claim. Senators and Congressmen are still on the officials train returning to # Washington from the funeral of Senator Robinson, when Gov­ ernor Lehman of New York made public a letter he had written to Senator Wagner. Though moderate in tone and language, it was in every way a definite uncompromising statement of oppo­ sition. As the whole country knows. Governor Lehman has been hitherto one of the most consistent, staunch and unfailing of the Roosevelt partisans. Politically speaking, he is considered a Roosevelt protege. But there's at least one person inthe United States other than Governor Lehman himself who has no cau^e for astonishment. That person is the President. He has known for months that his loyal supporter and friend would not trail along with him in the court fight. As the New York Governor says, he has supported most of the President’s social program, both while Mr. Roosevelt was Governor of New York and since becoming President. He says further: "Like many others, I frequently felt keen disappointment that important legislative measures have been declared unconstitutional by slim and unconvincing margins in the Supreme Court." "This bill, however, I believe to be contrary to the interest of the people. Its enactment, would create a danger- our precedent which could be availed of by future less well- intentioned administrations." Governor Lehman said to Senator Wagner: "I am writing this letter as a citizen of the State of New York to express my hope that you will vote against the court bill." There was an ironic, even tragic, ending to one of the many strikes harrassing America today. For some hinety years, many people in the east, going from New York to.Massachusetts or Massachusetts uo New York, nave been using .the boats of the Fall River Line that ply up and down Long Island Sound. Some weeks ago, the Union called a, strike of not only — engine room and deck hands, stewards, waiters, everybody. ^ A It has been a sit-down strike with the employees occupying the boats. Today those sit-downers received the sad news: nYou might as well go home, boys, the Line is going to fold up.” XI "What do you mean fold up?" demanded the strikers. nWe mean the service betweeri New York and Fall River is going to be permanently discontinued. We were going to quit anyway after the end of this season. This strike has just hurried the end along.n outibag Some of the stewards and waiters of those boats have service as many as twenty-five to forty years, for all that agth of time, some of those gray haired waiters and stewards have ^se^g^niilS^paiwge^^ad^om^to-&theB we!!l § PALESTINE Reports from Palestine indicate that an outbreak may be expected any day or even any moment. The Holy Land is seething. There*s high tension on both sides, both the Zionists and the Arabs led by the Mufti of Jerusalem. But for those fourteen thousand British soldiers and armed policemen, rioting would have broken out long since over the report of the Peel Commission, the proposal for another par­ tition of Palestine. I encountered an eminent authority on the poltics of that troubled area, at the Waldorf today and brought him along to tell us something about this. Ameen Rihani has passed the better part of the last fifteen years writing on this subject in various languages. He knows intimately all the rulers and politicals leaders hot only of his own country^ Syria, but also of Arabia, Iraq, Transjordania, and Palestine. L.T.s — Mr. Rihani, from your perch high up in the mountains of the Lebannon you have prophesied many events correctly in the politics of the iiear East? Will the partition of Palestine PALESTIflB - 2 as reconmended by the Peel Commission establish peace and security in the Holy Land after the present excitement has died down? MIL—Ho, Mr. Thomas, partition has never worked in Palestine. Even the mighty homan empire under Augustus Caesar wasn*t able to make it work. Today there are many other reasons why it won't. L.T.:- For instance? MR. RIHANIs- For instance, the Jewish Dead Sea concession is to be within Arab territory which will never satisfy the Jews. Also, the two Important Arab cities of Tulkarem and Jaffa on the coast, jut Into the Jewish State. Even if it were practical would it work? The flat lands go to the Jews, the holy places to the British, and the olive-clad hills to the Arabs. L.T.s^- The Peel Commission says the claims of the Arabs and the Jews cannot be reconciled. Vxhatis your observation? PAT,E8TlJift - 3 mr . RIHAMIs- I believe they can be reconciled. The fact is no attempt has been made to reconcile them. During the past fifteen years there have been seven uprisings in Palestine. Never* after any one of these uprisings, has the mandatory government attempted to bring the more peace-minded leaders of both Arabs and Jews to a round table of discussion. L.T.i- Would they themselves consent to a round table discussion? MR. RIHANIs - There are moderate men, practical men, on both sides. The world at large has never heard their side of the ease. Throughout history don’t we always hear chiefly the extremists. L.T.;;- What solution would you suggest? MR. RIHANT * _ Get the moderates to sit down and talk everything over. X understand that the Arabs are willing to concede that the Jewish population in Palestine shall be raised to forty Per cent within the next ten years, which would be an immense Jewish growth. AiliS.- And now Br.Rlhani, as Jtou sail for your home In glorl- Qus Lebannon Mountains, plant a cedar for mel SPAIN / Another terrific battle going on around Madrid**^ said to be the crucial battle of that Spanish Civil War* bul wtii^hwwrH At any rate. General Franco's Rebel armies apparently are putting all they have into a desperate effoA to regain the ground lost to the government troops last week.) / Reports from the front tell us that rival squadron of fighting are so numerous and thick as almost to obscure the sky. The government defenses are being literally bathed in a downpoir of shells from planes, field guns, mortars and tanks. Buildings In Madrid were shaken by the terrific concussions of the bombardment. Meanwhile, General Franco, the Fascist fEtatxsklJEf Rebel Chief, received a preemptory demand from John Bull. n Release that British ship you seized last weekl" was the gist of it. Foreign Minister Anthony Eden told the House of Commons^today. At almost that exact moment, the British admiralty was announcing that still another vessel flying the British flag had been captured by an insurgent warship inside Spanish territorial waters. on top of that, two British warships steamed out of a French harbor bound for some point on the Spanish coast* However, SPAIN - 2 the^admiralty denies that the departure of those two men-o-war has anything to do vrith this latest seizure by Ggn£i* 2 Q. Francois cruisers. ITALX A new note was sounded in European diplomacy today. Perhaps not precisely new, but at any rate different from what we*ve been hearing. John Bull, openly and cordially made a friendly gesture to Mussolini, preferred an olive branch. Significantly enough, it came in the shape of a state­ ment by Foreign Secretary Eden in the House of Commons. As wefve often heard, a good deal of the recent antagonism between Britain and Italy has been due to the personal and mutual dislike of Mussolini and Eden. Captain Eden was ex­ plaining the foreign policy of the British government to Parliament. And he took the opportunity to deny the reports that there was a vendetta between the two countries# nThe word *vendetta*^he said, "has no English equivalent." And he added; "We wish to live in peace and friendship with our neighbors in the Mediterranean or elsewhere, for while we defend our own we cosiet naught of theirs," said he speak­ ing like a sage of old. add sfadi Lata this afternoon there was a serious and entirely unexpected scene in the House of Commons over the Spanish question. It wasn't about neutrality, it was about the forts which Franco is supposed to have built on Spanish territory near Gibraltar. There has already been a good deal of alarm in England about those fortifications which are supposed to have bean designed by German engineers end built under German supervision, military engineers loaned by Herr Hitler. So when Captain Eden ended his explanation of his foreign policy, Winston Churchill, leader of the opposition, sprang a surprise. For the last few months, statements by Cabinet Ministers have been received by the House with more or less acquiescence* Instead of that, today Mr. Churchill arose and demanded that the government take action about those fortifications and insist that Franco remove all his heavy batteries from them, has been said that they are so placed they they can silence the hitherto impregnable batteries of Gibraltar. Captain Eden refused to make any reply to Mr. ADD SBAIfl - a Churchill. Then sprang up Lloyd George, the war-time Premier, from whom exceedingly little has been heard of late. He took Mr. Churchill’s side with all his old time fire, and insisted that the Foreign Secretary’s statement was unsat­ isfactory and that now was the time to take a firm stand with General Franco. To this also Captain Eden made no reply HHRHMK CHINA V Japanese ultimatum to China*. And the Far East is on nerves edge. The Chinese are mobilizing.^) Americans in China*s ancient capital are anxiously on the alert. American marines hurried through the streets of the city last night and knocked at the Peking gates of all gardens occupied by nephews and nieces of Uncle fcSam. They warned them to watch the lights in the embassy tower. Signals have been arranged. If war is declared, the lights will flash in the tower of Uncle Sam*s Embassy. So, at this moment across the world they are waiting and watching. And again there’s a conflict of reports. /A dispatch from Shanghai declares that the Chinse government has definite­ ly refused Japan's ultimatum to withdraw China* forces from Northern China. At the same time, another message comes through that General Sung has verbally agreed to withdraw his Twenty-Ninth army.^) But Nanking intimates that even if he did promise, the central government would not ratify his action. TENNIS the Davis Cup, the blue ribbon trophy of the tennis world. And that’s something to chuckle over because two months ago almost every expert in that field was talking like "Gloomy Gus." "America^ n they said. It’s something that happened in Wimbledon today to give the experts a swift change of heart. Two American aces, Don Budge and Gene Mako, whacked out a brilliant and decisive victory over the German aces, Baron von Cramm and Henrich Henkel. They took that match three sets to one, after ^ i ^ loosing the first;orte* But they didn’t have such an easy time doing it. They lost the first round, four to six, and the next two ran to deuce games, seven-five and eight-six. But the last set they took six to four. Let’s see where that puts us, America was playing Germany for the right to challenge England, the present holder of the Davis Cup. The Americans have now two matches to one. If they win one more, the £inal issue will be between the American and the English teams. And tomorrow the brilliant Californian, Don Budge, has to meet Germany’s Gottfried von Cramm. If Budge flEMiaiS - 2 wins, he'll put the Germans out of running. And Budge has been playing in top form and is considered virtually unbeatable this year. But you never can tell. Von Cramm EARTH wOAKE There* s a ,f to-do'1 in New York today among experts as to whether there actually was an earthquake on Htaten Island, Brooklyn; and other part of Long Island. Father Lynch, the earthquake expert of Fordham Oniversity, said that if there was an earthquake, it was nine thousand miles away, somewhere around Java or Sumatra - or New Guinea where the capitol city of Raboul was recently destroyed. The seizmograph at Harvard University, on the other hand, recorded a slight quake, probably somewhere on Long Island. People who live on Staten Island, and elsewhere In the neighborhood, are saying tonight: "Whatever the experts and their seizmographs say, how about our broken windows?" They declare the shock could be felt distinctly, houses shook and pictures fell off walls. WALKER A handsome, nattily dressed beau brummel walked into the White House this afternoon and thereby created a bit of sensation not only in Washington but in New York* For that natty visitor was none other than ifames J* Walker, the genial Jimmy, and for a while the most popular New York ever had* Naturally, that visit promoted a cloud of speculation and conjectures* many people wondered whether he had come to the White House to discuss the tangled political situation in New York, the thnee-cornered campaign for the Mayor1 s chair* There's quite a little excitement about that in Gotham, with Senator Copeland, and Grover Whalen, both throwing their hats into the ring against Mayor LaGuardia. However, ex-Mayor Jimmy explained that he had not come to talk politics with President Roosevelt because, he said the puprose of his visit was to discuss a new bridge across the Hudson River, a rail­ road freight bridge from Manhattan to New Jersey, -^nd he was twenty minutes early, '^he one time late Jimmy Walker and I'll be late if I don't say SO LONG UNTIL TOMORROW*