The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-08-08

NOTE - One way or another, Secretary and Mrs. IckeS have managed to cut their own use of gasoline by about 50 per cent. CAPITAL CIIAFF
 Harry Hopkins insists that the President dictate all letters to Winston Churchill himself. He says that relations between these two men are so important that not even Q cabinet member should write to Churchill, only Ropse- welt himself . !. TruStbusting Thurman Arnold has a consent decree in the bag with the oil pipeline operators. They were indicted for giving rebate of 36 per cent to big oil companies using theri lines; the little inde- pendents had to pay regular rates. They have now agreed to desist. .. The director of British Gen. sorShip for the Western Hemi- sphere was responsible for the new War Department order by which the boys in the camps can not write home about matters pertaining to national defense" He warned that some of their let ters were going to foreign coun- tries.
 UNSCARED JAPANESE
 Best guess as to why the Jap anese have not been scared by Roosevelt's embargo on gasoline and lubricating oil is that this embargo is almost exactly what he put into effect one year ago. Being slapped twice on the same wrist doesn't worry Tokyo.
 As revealed exclusively in this column last year, a majority of the Roosevelt cabinet persuaded him in August to embargo all oil (not merely gasoline and lubri- eating oil, but even crude oil burned by the Japanese Navy). Roosevelt was up in Hyde Park at the time, andethe embargo was put over by Secretary Morgen- thau, who lives next door to him in DutchesSs County.
 Roosevelt actually signed the
 oil embargo order. But when it
 got down to the Secretary of
 State, who officially promuIgates
 all executive orders, he pro-
 tested so vigorously that RoOse- veIt changed his mind. Only
 aviation gasoline was embargoed.
 However, the Japanese merely set up their own refineries and added tetraethyl to ordinary gasoline. Thus they got plenty of aviation gas, plus all other kinds of oil not affected by the amhargo. Foreign oil companies 2 in Japan were required to keep a years supply on hand, and dom- estic use was severely rationed. Also a lot of aviation gas was bootlegged and D. s. officials did almost nothing to stop it.
 So the slap on the wrist Japan got one year ago merely warned her to set tip refineries and lay in extra supplies for the slap she got last week. In the interim. she had imported not merly one years supply of gas and oil, but nearly two years supply.
 One year ago, the U. s. Navy
 estimated that 1t would take
 Japan four to five months to
 conquer the Dutch East indies.
 But Japan at that time had oil
 on hand to last her two and n
 half months. Today 1t might
 take Japan even longer. per-
 haps six months, to conquer the ] Dutch East Indies but slae
 has nearly two yeaF's supply of
 oil oil with which to do 1t.
 NOTE - This Illustrates one essential difference between { the Roosevelt and Churchill cabi- nets. When the British cabinet decides Q 1najor policy, a vote is taken, and the majority decision is carried out even if the Prime Minister happens to be on the minority side. But in washing ton, If enc cabinet member in charge Of q certain policy says No. and If the President backs him up, the entire cabinet cane not oVerrllle him.
 Thus with C0rdell Hull oppos- ing an oil embargo against Ja- ; pan last year. the entire cabinet could not override him Also