"Temporary Extinguishment"

From President Roosevelt to the State Department's scrub ladies, Washington officials last week had their labors interrupted by the rape of Czecho-Slovakia (see p. 16). The scrub ladies once more found their nocturnal activities impeded by anxious young men decoding dispatches from London, Prague, Paris, Berlin, Bucharest. The President had to decide what to say, what to do. Since he must not say in public what he really thinks of Herr Hitler, his most important statement of the week was made through the icy Bostonian lips of Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles:

"This Government . . . cannot refrain from making known this country's condemnation of the acts which have resulted in the temporary extinguishment of the liberties of a free and independent people. . . .

"It is manifest that acts of wanton lawlessness and of arbitrary force are threatening world peace and the very structure of modern civilization. . . ."

Mr. Welles's word "temporary" neatly conveyed Mr. Roosevelt's wishful conviction that Herr Hitler's ultimate downfall is sure. The statement as a whole was preliminary notice, to be more thoroughly and forcefully worded this week, that the U. S. did not and would not soon recognize Czecho-Slovakia as part of Germany. Minister Wilbur Carr was told to close his legation in Prague, come home. But other branches of Franklin Roosevelt's Government had to face facts. They took steps which not only recognized Adolf Hitler as CzechoSlovakia's new ruler but dealt him backhand blows.

President Roosevelt's Post Office Department ordered all mail to Czechoslovakia held temporarily at Manhattan and Paris, until its senders could recall letters and funds they would hate to have fall into Nazi hands.

His Treasury Department ordered all imports from Czecho-Slovakia treated at once as imports from Germany, thus depriving them of tariff concessions formerly en joyed under the CzechoSlovak trade treaty.*

His Attorney General ruled that it would be legal to apply a 25% penalty tariff on all dutiable German imports, except those proved unsubsidized by the Reich, before releasing them from customs. The Treasury announced such penalties would become effective April 22 and would be adjusted after release to equal the subsidy.

This last act was one of those "short of war, but stronger and more effective than mere words" to which Franklin Roosevelt referred in his January message to Congress when he discussed dealing with the Dictators. It is expected to put an end to Germany's export trade to the U. S., which amounted to $92,000,000 in 1937, $64,000,000 last year. Said Adolf Hitler last January. "The German people must export or die."

President Roosevelt's Senate spokesman on Neutrality, Chairman Key Pittman of the Foreign Relations Committee, brought forth a plan to amend the present law so that the President need no longer prohibit munitions sales to belligerent nations, but only forbid U. S. ships to transport any goods to belligerents and U. S. nationals to travel on belligerents' ships. A "cash & carry" plan for all exports to belligerents would obviously work against Adolf Hitler, who in case of war with England and France would lack both cash to buy and ships to carry.

> The President, his Treasury officials and members of Congress pondered tax revision in the light of March 15 income-tax returns indicating that revenues are off from last year slightly less than anticipated. Waning of Mr. Roosevelt's enthusiasm for business "appeasement" was suggested when he pressed for continuance of the power given to him six years ago, but never used, to issue $3,000,000,000 in greenbacks. It was a sound idea, he said, in press conference, to have a club like that in the closet. On second thought, he changed his metaphor to one about Old Mother Hubbard: if she had $3,000,000,000 in the back of her cupboard, she never would find it bare.

> On St. Patrick's Day the President wore his new suit (green with flecks of red) and a bright green tie. He telephoned Mrs. Roosevelt in San Antonio, Tex., to remind her it was their 34th wedding anniversary.

> Clerks discovered that Colonel Edwin M. ("Pa") Watson, who was promoted last fortnight from Colonel to Brigadier-General so that he could retire with the higher rank and become a $10,000 Roosevelt secretary, would lose his new rank if he retired before a year. "Pa" Watson elected to remain an active general at $7,500 until next March, meantime doing the job of secretary.

> Satisfied with the flight of his trial balloon (TIME, Feb. 27), President Roosevelt named Chairman William Orville Douglas of SEC to fill the vacancy left by Louis Dembitz Brandeis (resigned) on the U. S. Supreme Court (see p. 13).

> For the next Chief of Naval Operations (succeeding Admiral William Daniel Leahy), Franklin Roosevelt last week picked able, abstemious Harold Raynsford ("Betty") Stark. As the Navy counts age, "Betty" Stark is a youngster of 58, and he has been a Rear Admiral only two years. But the President made no offhand choice of the Chief of Operations who is more likely than any other since 1914 to have to send the U. S. Navy to war. Harold Stark won a Distinguished Service Medal for his exploits in hunting enemy submarines during the last War, has served as Chief of Ordnance, aide to Secretaries Adams and Swanson, commander of cruisers in the U. S. battle force.

Soon-to-be-chosen: a successor to the Army's Chief of Staff Malin Craig. By law, he must retire at 64 next August.

*The formerly Czech province of Ruthenia (Carpatho-Ukraine), occupied last week by Hungarian troops, was similarly given Hungary's tariff schedules.

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