History Diaries

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Senator Léon Bérard, appointed by France to negotiate de jure recognition of the Spanish Nationalist (Insurgent) regime, headed by Generalissimo Francisco Franco, left Paris this evening on his second mission to Burgos, the Nationalist capital. This mission differs from Senator Bérard’s first in that it is official and may be interpreted as implying de facto recognition. M. Bérard expects to see General Franco tomorrow evening and open negotiations either directly or through General Count Jordana, the Nationalist Foreign Minister. On the success of his mission and the promises made by General Franco with regard to future treatment of the Spanish Republicans (Loyalists) will depend whether the Madrid government surrenders or tries to continue the civil war.

Julio Alvarez del Vayo, the Spanish Republican Foreign Minister, who had an interview with Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet of France this afternoon, left by train for Toulouse, whence he will fly to Madrid tomorrow. Their conference related mostly to Spanish refugees, and M. Bonnet promised the matter would be studied by the Cabinet tomorrow with a view to improving the situation. Señor Alvarez del Vayo expressed thanks for the hospitality extended to the refugees. According to the best sources here tonight President Manuel Azaña of the Spanish Republic has consistently refused to return to Madrid. Sources close to him tonight denied that Señor Azaña had signed a decree to be promulgated in Madrid approving reinstatement of the government there.

In view of Señor Azaña’s firm attitude and its inability to receive assistance from outside Spain, even if that were available, it is evident that the Madrid Government is now ready to listen to peace terms. Senator Bérard’s mission has thus become the double one of negotiating terms for his own government’s recognition of the Nationalist regime and of arranging at least In outline terms for the surrender of Madrid. During the past two days a concerted plan has been worked out with the British, linking recognition of General Franco’s regime with a promise of humanitarian treatment for the Republicans if they surrender. It is in the belief that he will succeed in getting his conditions accepted that M. Bérard has left for Burgos.

The German Law Academy replaces the terms “Aryan,” “German-blooded” and “of German and cognate blood” with “Europe-racial.”

Adolf Hitler opened the annual Berlin Auto Show. On display was the Volkswagen, scheduled to be available to the general public in 1941 at a price of 990 marks. Following the precedent established since he attained power, Chancellor Hitler today opened the first “Great German” automobile and motorcycle show with the now traditional ceremonious trimmings that lift it to a great affair of State that not only helps make Germans auto-minded but also promotes the German export drive which automobiles are to play an important part. The show itself displayed many improvements but no sensations for which reason Herr Hitler’s opening speech emphasized, for the most part, the need for mass production through standardization and greater lightness in construction that will also make possible lower prices — elements that Herr Hitler indicated were all combined in the Volkswagen. With proprietary pride in this car, which is his own idea, Herr Hitler said that “it is a sincere joy to me to show this car for the first time in this exhibit.” Mass production, Herr Hitler said, had been made possible in the case of automobiles as in radio sets by the fact that Great Germany now was a domestic market of 80,000,000.

A Führer order institutes a new service decoration for loyal service in the German civil custom service.

The vice president of the Reichsbank suffers a nervous breakdown so severe that he may not return to work.

The Rumanian commercial negotiations with the German delegation here continued today in the greatest secrecy. It is understood the object is to intensify exploitation of Rumanian oil fields and mineral output; such as bauxite. Germany would also like to see increased production of vegetable oils. Well-informed circles stress that the German negotiations will in no way interfere with British plans for commercial expansion. Their success anyway is very doubtful, since Germany still wants to pay in manufactured goods.

The fund for Pope Pius XI’s monument is expected to be 520,000 lire.

The French confiscate Spanish gems worth millions and may use these jewels to pay for refugee care. A French court at Ceret solved today in part the problem of how France is going to pay for the care of Spanish refugees. It confiscated millions of dollars worth of Spanish jewels and precious metals and fined a group of Spanish officers 18,000,000 francs for bringing them into France. Although officers of the Lister Brigade told the court they acted under orders to bring the treasure into France for deposit in the Spanish Consulate in Perpignan, all but five of seventy-six Spaniards under arrest were sentenced to terms varying from one month to two years in prison. The technical charge against them was evasion of customs. The treasures had been sent to Figueras in nine trucks when Barcelona fell. Three trucks were emptied and six others were driven into Figueras Castle and dynamited.

The French find no mystery in the 1938 death of Leon Trotsky’s son, ruling out poisoning.

British Royal Air Force training deaths mount. Some say the training is too swift. Great Britain’s accelerated campaign to strengthen her air fighting arm has cost an increasing number of Royal Air Force fatalities. RAF crashes for 1939, only seven weeks old, were brought to a total of twenty-four with forty-four fatalities when a squadron leader and a technician were killed yesterday while testing one of the planes imported from the United States. During 1938 there were 118 crashes, with 218 dead. There also have been a number of casualties among civilians resulting from RAF planes falling on populated centers. The latest accident of this nature occurred February 11 when an RAF plane crashed out of the fog onto an apartment building, killing a mother and two children besides the pilot. The heavy toll is attributed to the fact that the government is training a large number of recruits to man fighting planes that are being produced on a mass-production scale. Bitter criticism of the RAF training tactics has been voiced in the House of Commons. Defense strategists have been accused of sacrificing the lives of scores of young pilots in their hurry to prepare a giant air arm for the nation. They are charged with not giving the recruits enough ground training before sending them aloft.

Britain submits a secret plan to Arab nations that offers an alternative to an independent state.

Britain outlines its plan for Palestine. Zionists would need to concede on immigration issues but the constitution would prevent Jews from a political minority position.

A transcript of secret testimony previously taken before the Senate Military Affairs Committee and made public today revealed that President Roosevelt authorized the demonstration to the French air mission of the Douglas 7-B attack bomber, an experimental model, against the judgment and over the protests of the War Department and Major General H. H. Arnold, chief of the Army Air Corps. The President, according to the evidence, did not consult the Aeronautical Board of the Army and Navy, which was created to guide the demonstration or sale of military planes to foreign nations. Furthermore, the transcript indicated, those concerned in the recent negotiations for the purchase of planes by France understood that these transactions were to be kept secret. The transcript included testimony by General Arnold, Admiral William D. Leahy, chief of naval operations; Louis Johnson, assistant Secretary of War and Captain Sydney M. Kraus of the Navy.

Assistant Secretary Johnson, testifying on Wednesday, told the committee that Mr. Roosevelt told him and Secretary of War Woodring, at a White House conference, to authorize inspection of the airplane by the French experts. This decision in a controversy which had been running within the War Department for more than a month led to the test flight on which Paul Chemidlin, a member of the French mission, was injured when the plane crashed near Los Angeles. It was from this circumstance that the presence of a French mission to buy airplanes in this country became generally known. At the same time, it became known that the secrecy surrounding the arrival and activities of the French experts was initiated from the American side. Even after the crash in Los Angeles, the French Embassy here denied any knowledge of the presence here of an air mission from its country, but it is now apparent that its diplomatic ignorance was inspired by the State Department.

President Roosevelt assured business and industry today that they would not be called upon to shoulder new or higher taxes for financing New Deal programs and that they could look forward without any misgivings as to the Administration’s objectives in the months ahead. At the same time, the President extended an invitation to those who demand a balanced budget to specify the expenditures that should be cut and to what extent. He said, with some emphasis, that it was up to those who offered public criticism of Administration budgetary practices to say how they should be corrected. The statement that “the White House door is always open” was reiterated. The President stated his position at a press conference in the observation quarters of his private car on the way to Key West, where he is to embark tomorrow for a Caribbean cruise to view the fleet and to complete his recuperation from his recent illness. It was his first press conference in two weeks, and the first time in more than a year that he had received correspondents in his private car.

The Army plans to mobilize big numbers in the East, the largest amount seen since World War I.

The Montana State Senate bans hangings within 25 miles of a city.

The repeal of a law that forbids teaching evolution in Tennessee fails.

The World Fair Corporation president anticipates $3 million in advance ticket sales.

Baseball player Joe DiMaggio predicts a “big year” for himself.

Katharine Hepburn stars in “The Philadelphia Story.”

Seabiscuit’s x-ray shows no break.

The Brazilian Minister Aranha urges nations of the Americas to repel alien ideologies.

The Japanese drive against Chinese guerrillas in Southern Hopei and Northern Honan Provinces is continuing vigorously, according to Japanese reports reaching here. Apparently Chihsien, in Northern Honan, is the main center of fighting, and several engagements are reported from this sector. In the most important of these, the Japanese say, Chinese forces were defeated in a ten-hour battle. They also report the capture of large supplies of munitions and war supplies. The Peiping-Hankow railway is also the scene of various encounters between Japanese forces and Chinese guerrillas, who have clashed in five separate battles. Japanese military authorities here assert that the campaign is far from finished and declare that it is absolutely necessary to drive out all Chinese forces at present stationed. in Hopei and Honan between the Peiping-Hankow and Tientsin-Pukow railways.

Railway cars full of arms leave Burma for China, traveling on the new, 2,100-mile road. Fifteen railway carloads of arms and ammunition left in Rangoon last night under military police guard bound for China. Other munitions for China which are stored there will be dispatched soon. Fifty motor trucks also left yesterday, evidently to transport the munitions from the railhead in North Burma over the new road into China.

The United States Embassy and the Chinese Foreign Office announced today completion of arrangements to send an American and a British naval officer to Kuling, a mountain-top resort southeast of Hankow, where sixty-five foreigners are marooned. Lieutenant Commander Charles R. Jeffs, commander of the United States gunboat USS Oahu, and Lieutenant Commander R. S. Stafford of the British gunboat HMS Aphis planned to leave Kiukiang tomorrow morning for the resort, fifteen miles away.

Japan reassures the United States about Hainan Island, saying it would not occupy the land beyond military necessity. The United States made a formal inquiry of Japan today concerning the Japanese intentions in occupying Hainan Island, and was informed that the occupation would not go beyond military necessity. The inquiry was made by Joseph C. Grew, the United States Ambassador in Tokyo, to Hachiro Arita, the Japanese Foreign Minister, on instructions of the State Department. The facts were then made public by Sumner Welles, Undersecretary of State. Secretary of State Cordell Hull was still confined to his hotel with a cold. Ambassador Grew was instructed to say to the Foreign Minister that the Government of the United States would be glad to be informed of the intention of the Japanese Government in connection with the occupation.

Mr. Grew reported that in his conversation with the Foreign Minister, Mr. Arita repeated the former statements of the Japanese Government that Japan had no territorial ambition in China and that the occupation would not go beyond military necessity. At the same time a report, dated today, was received from Captain John T. G. Stapler, commander of the U. S. South China Patrol, who went to Hoihow, Hainan, on the destroyer John D. Edwards. He has returned to Hong Kong. Captain Stapler said that the situation at Hoihow and Kaiungchow was quiet, and that food and health conditions were satisfactory. The American Presbyterian Mission was caring for 3,000 refugees. All third power nationals in the two places were well and their properties intact.

The United States received precisely the same answer as France and Britain, when Ambassador Joseph C. Grew visited Foreign Minister Hachiro Arita tonight to inquire about Japan’s purposes in occupying the island of Hainan.

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 144.95 (-0.44).

Born:

Mary Ann Mobley, American model and actress (Miss America, 1959; “Diff’rent Strokes”), in Biloxi, Mississippi (d. 2014).

Naval Construction:

The Royal Navy British Power Boat 60 feet-type motor torpedo boat HMS MTB 15 is commissioned.

The U.S. Navy Benham-class destroyer USS Ellet (DD-398) is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Lieutenant Commander Francis James Mee, USN.

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