The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-12-13

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 Those who champion it the most ardently are U. s. Ambassa- dor Weddell in Spain and As- sistant Secretary of State Breck- enridge Long, both of whom, in- cidentally, married wealthy St. Louis wives and both of whom now seem to have sold their Spanish gift" idea to Cordell Hull.
 Those who most ardently oppose the hundred millions to Franco are Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau and Secretary of the Interior Ickes. Morgenthau, as a director of the Export-Import bank, is in a strategic position to block the gift" and may do so.
 His fear is that any large loan to Franco would rouse American public opinion against the more worthwhile credits which are now in process of negotiation-$160,- 100000 to China and $l00,000 to Argentina. The Argentine credit is considered vital to the Good Neighbor policy, while the credit to China is to help continue re- sistance against Japan.
 Purpose of the Spanish credit, according to the State Department career boys, is to keep Franco out of the war. It has leaked out. however, that in his talks with Ambassador Weddell, Franco has refused to give a definite pledge to stay out of the war, and will only go so far as to say that he docs not f0resee war;.
 Real fact is that Franco will have to go into the war on the
 side of Germany whenever Hit
 Ter wants him to, and no ad-
 vance pledge of any kind would
 be worth the paper it is written
 on. Hitler already has about
 20,O0O troops stationed in Spain,
 and one reason he has them
 there is not only to keep an eye
 on Franco, but because there is so much political unrest in Spain
 that Franco faces revolution.
 Spanish jails are crowded with political prisoners; Republican sentiment is stronger than ever. Meanwhile food is more scarce even than during the long Span- ish civil war, one reason being the fact that Franco has had to send large shipments of grain to pay for the arms sold him by Hitler during the civil war.
 So now the State Department wants the U. s. Treasury to com- pensate Franco for the food pay ments he has had to send to Hit Ter.
 THE SOCIAL WHIRL
 After bad beginning, Wash ington's social season is swinging into the old glamour tempo.
 During the autumn, that unique group of women who make a profession of running the big so- cial functions of the town, was deeply depressed. They feared that the war would send this years business into the cellar.
 One debutante, Miss Louisa Gle ment, gave the $500 which her grandmother had allotted for the coIning-out party to British aid. This was fine for Britain, but bad news for the social business.
 Then the tide began to turn.
 A fortnight after the election,
 the wealthy Mrs. William Laird
 Bishop staged the Black and
 White Ball. That broke the ice.
 War-b0rn nervousness began to
 disappear. Wavering mamas de- cided to go through with daugh-
 ters' parties after all.
 And now restraints seem defin- itely lifted and the parties are getting really lavish. Champagne is being uncorked with gay aban- don, and the professional social secretaries are happily amazed. "It's going to be the gayest season in years," they say, "gayer than anything since the depression" WAR CREDIT BARRIERS
 Mere repeal of the Johnson Act won't clear the way for financial aid to Britain. There Is another hurdle that seems to have been generally forgotten-Section 2 of the revised Neutrality Act passed by Congress just 6 year ago.
 This clause extends the credit ban to all countries. regardless Of whether they are in default or not, which have been officially declared to be at war. By It's language the section makes 1t un- lawful for any person" in the United States to ''purehS1e, sell,