News among Newsmen

The news was brought to the President as he sat in the long ballroom of the Willard Hotel, surrounded by newspaper veterans, bigwigs from all over the U.S., Washington officialdom, the diplomatic corps and all the quasi-humorous paraphernalia of the semiannual Gridiron dinner. The dinner had been the same, the entertainment duller than usual. Massachusetts' tall young Republican Senator, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., had spoken for the Loyal Opposition.

Then came the first news, only an appetizer. At the far end of the hall a New York Times office boy came to the door, handed a torn-off news-ticker scrap to a Secret Service guard. The guard delivered the scrap to Times Bureau Chief Arthur Krock. Pundit Krock glanced at it, reached the scrap up to Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who adjusted his pince-nez, read that Soviet Russia and Yugoslavia signed a non-aggression pact. Impassively he handed the news to Franklin Roosevelt.

The dinner went on. The President made a 15-minute off-the-record speech, not a funny speech. While he was speaking, another message reached Mr. Krock. When the President had finished speaking, it was handed to him. Soon the President rose and left for the White House.

The time was a little past midnight; the young moon had gone down; Hitler had invaded Yugoslavia and Greece.

Strategy. The headlines pounded with the rich, twisty Balkan names: Zagreb, Cattaro, Salonika, Ljubljana. But the President and his counselors had to watch the whole enormous scene in a world where the U.S. was a fulcrum, balancing Britain in the Western scale with Chungking in the East.

Japan must be kept off balance. Out of Brisbane, Australia into the South Pacific steamed a flotilla of seven U.S. warships—two heavy cruisers, five destroyers. Out of Auckland, New Zealand into the Tasman Sea steamed a flotilla of six U.S. warships—two light cruisers, four destroyers.

In Manila, Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham, Commander in Chief of the British forces in East Asia, arrived for military conference with boot-tough U.S. Admiral Thomas C. Hart, chief of the Asiatic Fleet; elegant General Douglas MacArthur, Field Marshal of the Philippine Army; and High Commissioner Francis B. Sayre. On a Pacific Clipper, Manila-bound over the Midway-Wake-Guam steppingstone islands, flew Dr. E. N. van Kleffens, The Netherlands' Foreign Minister, to confer on the defense of the East Indies.

Ships. The whole great problem, and all the little problems, were bound up in ships. To supply even itself the U.S. must have more ships than it now has afloat. Washington studied and buzzed and figured. To supply Great Britain, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, China, the U.S. must have ships. Navy Adviser William ("Wild Bill") Donovan had said fort night ago: "Are we going to deliver the goods? . . . Are we prepared to take the chance?"