The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-04-07

Lewis was vigorously opposed to calling in the Mediation Board. His secret hope was to force Roosevelt to invite him to the White House and ask his aid to settle the controversy. Interven- ton by the Board would end any chance of that.
 Defense chiefs, being apprised of Lewis plan, wanted the case certified to the Board last Mon- day before the old contract ex- pired and before Lewis could or- der the mines shut down. The idea was to take the initiative out of Lewis hands and place 1t with the Government as an ir1- partial arbiter. Also 1t was argued that the Board wss created not only to settle strikes but to avert them.
 However, Miss Perkins was out of town. Also Roosevelt was out of town. And Steelman refused to surrender the limelight and let the Mediation Board step in - despite the fact that he had got nowhere in avoiding the coal stop-' page.
 By the time the President and his Labor Secretary got back to their desks the strike was under way and Lewis, with ferocious waggle of his l,usliy eyebrows, was laundering that he would not permit the Mediation Board to intervene. Steelman had given him his opening and aroused anew his hopes of forcing a White House invitation. p
 NOTE-Miss Perkins sudden
 midnight certification of the AL
 lis- Chalmers case was at the direct instigation of the Presi-
 dent himself, after Q private talk with Associate OPM Direc- tor Sidney Hillrnan. '. DANGER AT GIBRALTAR
 Most startling information re- garding Hitler's secret strategy to bottle up the British fleet inside the Mediterranean has just leak out from Spain. There, the Nazis have arranged with Dictator Franco to rush a total of l20 giant 14-inch guns down to Gibraltar when the signal is given.
 The guns were manufactured by the famous French munitions firm of Le Creusot and were used in the Maginot Line. But the Germans have now taken them out, and offered them to Franco. At first Franco demurred, said the presence of guns on spanish soil, would open him up to re- taliation from the British. would spoil his chances of getting food and supplies from the United States. ,
 So it vas arranged to keep the guns on the French Spanish bor- der. They ar, mounted on rail- road cars ready to as rushed down to the Straits of Gibraltar. Over looking no detail, the Nazis have even put a second set of wheels on the flat cars for use on Span ish railroad tracks, which have a different gauge than the French.
 Fourteen-inch guns are a match for the guns on most battleships and are far more powerful than the 8-inch guns on used on cuisers. So military strategists believe that l20 of these inon- sters. able to fire clear across the Straits to Africa, probably could cork the western end of the Mediterranean, to say nothing of pounding Gibaltar into a shambles.
 Of course, closing Gibraltar
 would not mean much without
 simultaneous attack upon
 Suez, but this is what Hitler aI-
 ways has planned to do after
 taking Salonika.
 NOTE - Despite Franco's well known friendship for Hitler, the State Department has favored food and relief shipments for Spain: also OKd a $l3.000y 900 Export-Import Bank cotton loan to Spain. A larger loan of $l00s- 000,000 was considered but not approved.
 MAILBAG
 c. O.. Palo Alto. Calif.-out of a total of @ German ships in Latin American ports ct the out-