The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-07-29

did not leak out at the time, but the State Department complained to the White House that Ickes' action had interfered with the policy of appeasing Japan so she would not go south to the Dutch East Indies. And the President called in Ickes.
 However, Ickes held his ground. He insisted that he was not meddIing in foreign policy, but that 1t was nonsense to ration oil and gas on the Atlantic seaboard and at the same time let Japan ship oil away from the Atlantic Seaboard.
 In the end Ickes won.
 FDR SIGNED ORDER
 AGAINST OIL
 But eighteen months before the oil administrators and several of his cabinet colleagues did not win, The same issue was at stake. It came up at a dinner given by the late Lord Lothian at the British Embassy in August at which Sec retary of War Stinson, Secretary of the Navy Knox and Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau de- cided to ask the President to ern- bargo all oil and scrap iron to Japan.
 The President agreed and acc tually signed the executive or- ders. But they were never pub lished. When the State Depart ment saw the orders, its officials almost jumped down the White House threat. So the orders were changed to apply only to avia- tiOl gasoline and No. 1 scrap iron, though later modified to include all grades of scrap.
 This debate over appeasing Ja- pan has continued inside the cab- inet ever since. The State Depart ment has contended that to cut of oil meant an immediate Jap anese attack on the Dutch East Indies-which has oil.
 The Ickes-Knox- Stimson- -Mor- genthau group has claimed first that the Dutch. East Indies were pretty well defended, that it would Japan four months to seize them, and that Japan did not have enough oil to operate her fleet that long.
 Also the British fleet then was better able to help defend the Dutch and Singapore. Now 1t isn't. Also we had far more ships in the Pacific at that time. Now some are at Iceland. a So it locks as If we appeased Japan until she got ready to pick her own sweet time as to the best moment to head toward the Dutch Indies.
 BONTBARD TOKYO
 Naval strategists make no secret as to what they would do to clrb Japan. They consider it foolhardy and suicide to send a lot of U. s. warships across the vast expanse to Singapore or the Dutch East Indies.
 They figure we are going to get into the war anyway, and 1t is good strategy to deal knock out blows in the very first round. They favor sending waves of U. S. bOmbers from the Philippines to raxe the paper and bamboo cities of Tokyo, Yokohama. Kobe and Osaka. They also favor sending the fleet, plus airpIane carriers to the coast of Japan.
 They favor doing this imnedi- ately. There is no use, say the navy men, of punching at a mans legs when you can strike for his heart.
 SENATOR CARAWAY
 The Shoreham terrace is the swanky, high-priced rendezvous where lobbyists and debutantes dance under the summer stars. Into this Fcene one evening came the modest little figure of Hattie Caraway, Senator from Arkansas. Hattie ts not debutante any more. but she had some young relatives visiting her and wanted to give them . good time.
 As the evening wore on. she was persuaded to join the group on the dance floor. Hattie is short and her partner was six feet tall, but she kept up the rhythm 0s the dance and enjoyed herself.
 After she had sat down. q voice called from a nelshboFlng table.