The Wilmington morning star., 1940-02-05
WASHINGTON
DAYBOOK
BY PRESTON GROVER

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4.-Senator Pat Harri-
son of Mississippi never will be the hero of
a Finnish epic but political strategians already
credit him with one of the smoothest moves
of the new year in tossing back to the admin.
istration the hot potato of the Finnish loan.
Harrison's plan, which he announced to a
press conference on the eve of a meeting of
the foreign relations committee, was simple.
Let the government keep it's hands out Of the
business of making loans to the Firms. Since
the idea for a loan is a popular one, let a
popular loan be floated. Then sympathizers can
invest as much as they please in Finnish
bonds. The government will not be involved
in a matter of troublesome foreign policy.
Privately members Of congress have growled
a bit at the administration for putting the
Finnish loan baby in their laps during an cleo.
ton year. With equal candor, they insist the
President was glad to be rid of it after hav-
ing handled it to the extent of a $40, 900, 900
loan through the Export-Import bank.
Members of congress are almost 100 per
cent sympathetic with the Finnish cause. Har-
rison is among them. But he shares the view
of the others that a U. S. loan to Finland
would set a precedent that would be hard to
step around, even though Finland is in a
special position because of having kept up pay
ments on her debts.
Harrison could not conceal a CLINT of humor
in his eye when he suggested that an issue
of Finnish bonds would be first passed upon
by the Securities and Exchange commission.
That would be tossing the hot potato right
back to the administration in fine style. The
SEC coDlldn't avoid the obligation of telling
purchasers of the bonds that, win or lose,
Finland would be hard-pressed to make return
payments.
Roguishly. Harrison suggested that if the
bonds should prove worthless in the end, "it
is a deductible item in income tax returns"
The war has knocked one happy feature of
the U. S. weather reporting service into a
cooked hat. The coast guard is filling in the
breach by sending a pair of reporting ships
into the south central Atlantic.
Over a period of years the weather bureau
has received from ships at sea, both American
and foreign, a report Of ocean weather. 1t
has come in from every spot on the ocean
where a ship with a good radio happened to
be.
Four times a day at 1870 and 1880 o'clock,
Eastern Standard Time, morning and night,
the ships would report to U. S. receiving sta
tons. Quickly a world weather map would be
drawn. Then at 3 and 9 o'clock, morning and
night-Just an hour and a half after each re-
port-a weather message would be broadcast
worldwide over the naval radio station at Ar
lington, just across the river from Washing
ton.
1t was a splendid service, and the maritime
m of the world benefited by it.
Then came the war. American ships contin-
ued to send in weather reports four times a
day but no ship belonging to a belligerent
nation and few belonging to neutral nations
would report. For a ship to broadcast its loca-
ton and the kind of weather Whereabouts would
have made it dead meat for a submarine.
Since much American traffic has shifted
lately to the South Atlantic lanes. the coast
guard is establishing two reporting ships there
One will be a third of the way from Bermuda
to the Azores, the other two-thirds of the way.
Their reports will be particularly valuable to
the rans-Atlantic air service which now uses
only the southern route.