The Gazette and Daily from York, Pennsylvania • Page 21

The Gazette and Daily, York, Wednesday March 24, 1948 EDITORIAL 21 The htufii's Plan of Conquest 3 International Blackmail Not Holy War (Third of four articles describing the aims and organization of the exiled Mufti of Jerusalem. Mr. Nuss-baum, former Washington correspondent of Life, magazine writer and Navy air veteran, has just returned from an extended survey of conditions in the Middle East.) New York (ONA) If the United Nations regards the "holy war" now brewing in Palestine as an "Arab" war, it is laboring under a remarkable misapprehension. A real knowledge of what is going on in the Arab world would lead to the conclusion that, in fact, it should be called the "Mufti's war." The military campaign can be termed an Arab one only in the sense that the Arab League will string along with the extremist program of Haj Amin el Husseini, the exiled Mufti of Jerusalem, so long as it brings no serious repercussions from the United Today's "holy war" is actually just a repetition of the Mufti campaigns of 1920-21, 1929 and 1936-39, when Mufti-aroused Arab mobs and volunteers fought the British and Jews. It has been built lup through an identical pan-Arab crusadelby the Mufti's skillful, 25-year-old propaganda machine.

But it is not necessary to look into history, which would show that in each case By DAVID W. NUSSBAUM ofoil and pipeline rights, preparation of military units and other immediate prob- lems. Last October at Aley, Lebanon (another high cool spot), a month before the UN vote for partition, the dissension continued and no advance was made on the Sofar "suggestions." At Cairo (winter had come), directly after the General Assembly adoption of partition the UN's first official act Azzam Pasha, League secretary and an Egyptian, went so far as to lift the League's curtain of secrecy. He publicly announced That the only decision reached was a decision not to use Arab state armies against the partition plan. To those, suoh as Arab newsmen and politicians, who knew what the Mufti organization was up to.

this League fuming and inaction was recognized as a severe blow to Haj Amines campaign. Up to this point the League had refrained from taking a single step to implement its hostility to Zionism. Each of the member states feared the ill-will of UN far more than the establishment of -a Jewish state. In the past two months, in tune with the hesitation in the American and UN attitude toward partition, the League has begun to adopt a firm position for the first time. Reports from Cairo indicate that the League has acted to forbid the construction of American oil pipelines.

It also gave its saction to the Mufti's recruiting campaign for volunteers to fight in Palestine. What is most noteworthy, however, about even these belated actions is that the Leagues states can defend them' as "unofficial" reactions to the UN partition agreement (volunteers can be likened to an international brigade) and not actual revolt against UN. If, however, the UN were to take the position that these did, in fact, constitute revolt, the League's previous behavior strongly implies that a hasty retreat wquld ensue. The progress of the recruiting campaign for volunteer fighters affords another opportunity to assess the extent of genuine Arab interest in jihad holy war. Fawzi Kawkaji, the Arab guerrilla leader who recently transferred his headquarters from Damascus to Palestine, is a jovial, debonair man in his forties.

Thoroughly Western in his looks, off-duty dress and manner, he has a sanguine, optimistic approach to things. My interview with him was on a confidential, only-for-background basis. Yet when I asked about volunteers, his face suddenly clouded and his answer was curiously evasive. It was obvious that I had hit a sore point. When I asked the Mufti about the progress of recruiting, he refused to reply, even with a general remark for propaganda purposes.

A newspaper publisher and one of. the best-informed men I met anywhere, told me that in terms of significant numbers the campaign was a flop. The Mufti's machine itself operates on the theory that a majority of those signing up will back out when they are actually called. The Mufti's tremendous fund-raising campaign has been meeting a similar fate. It is generally known that in all parts of Araby this campaign has lagged badly.

One. night in. Beirut my wife and I were awakened by a terrific explosion. We rushed out to our balcony to find that the house betide our hotel as being consumed by flames. The next two nights similar explosions and fires occurred.

We discovered that grenades had been thrown into the houses of native Jewish merchants who had refused to contribute to the "Palestine Cause." A friend on the Mufti's payroll told me with a knowing grin that the results had been spectacular. Donations had picked up considerably, especially among the well-to-do. (Copyright, 1948, 'Overseas News Agency, Inc.) The Payoff Question By RICHARD SASULY Washington (FP) All the things which people in Washington usually take seriously were pushed aside by Pres. Truman's March 17 speech to Congress. Housing, taxes, even high prices and Taft-Hartley, -disappeared from sight-behind a cloud of war fear.

Now the whole world waits for the answer to one question: Will there really be war? Will we have a fighting war instead of a war of threats and insults? Will the people of Moscow and Belgrade, Paris and Rome, maybe New York and San Francisco too, learn for themselves the power of atom bombs? All-week before the President spoke the sabers were rattling loudly. Gen. Hershey announced in San Francisco the draft system was ready for business. Sec. of State Marshall spoke of the dangerous rise of a tide of.

passion. Defense Sec. Forrestal rushed down to Key West for an emergency meeting with the shiniest brass hats in the armed services. By contrast the Truman speech sounded like a pistol going off in a battery of 105 mm. howitzers.

Of course Truman asked for Universal Military -Training and the immediate resumption of the draft. But more had been expected and feared. Wild Stories In Washington Wild stories had spread through Wash- -ington. The usual "seasoned observers" were talking about an outbreak of war, right away. It turned out even the military was talking loud and walking slow.

Army lawyers did not have a bill ready to legalize a new draft. For a while, fears and hopes of war sagged. Yet the danger remains. The pay-off question is unanswered. The cold, nasty fact is: every, major step taken in the last years has brought us closer to a last tense second when the gun lanyards are pulled and the atom bombs are airborne.

Relations between us and the Russians have gotten steadily worse to the point where now they hardly exist. Washington talk of more weapons and stronger armies has grown louder every month. Half a year ago the major argument was for feeding hungry Europe to stop Communism. Now all the talk has focused on one point in the speeches of Truman and the military leaders: we should be so strong no one will dare to fight us. Frightening Argument The last argument is tempting.

It is also frightening. Never in 7,000 years of the Mufti's expeditions eventually floun-J dered to a halt for lack of any real support either among the Arab masses or Arab leadership. Present history reveals that, despite the fact that an Arab politician is forced to support pan-Arabism, the Mufti has had great difficulty in interesting the Arab world in a holy war against a Jewish state. The greatest difficulty has been en-I countered with the Arab League. At each 1 League session the Mufti and his top henchmen, like Lebanese Premier Riad el Solh, a League member, drummed for positive and belligerent action, and their propaganda campaign in the press was I stepped up.

I The League's response to this pressure has been in exact proportion to the press-4 ure the League members have felt from I the United Nations. At the League meeting last summer in if the cool Lebanese mountain resort of Sofar, wrangling among the members pro-; duced such hot tempers that one delegate cracked: "We might as well Ije back at sea-level." No possibility of agreement A Problem Of World Shipping By ELIE ABEL sels as an "essentially measure, with the recovery program providing for the restoration of their merchant fleets by 1951. The UN report notes that "the maritime nations estimate that under Lake Success (ONA) The world shipping picture is so lopsided today that although the present total merchant tonnage is considerably larger than prewar, the tonnage in actual use is smaller. This anomaly is due almost entirely to the United States, which has tucked away in mothballs more than 11,000,000 tons of shipping one-fourth of the recorded American tonnage. A United Nations report on "Salient Features of the World Economic Situation" reveals that during the war, "owing to the huge development of shipbuilding in existed, but because reaction from the West had not yet become a problem, a secret list of "suggestions" for action wras finally hammered out.

The proposed by Riad, concerned the canceling Anthracite Silt May Become Valuable Fuel Source Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Those great heaps of waste anthracite silt near hard coal mines may soon be furnishing homes with fuel gas and automobile engines with liquid fuel, President Frank W. Earnest, of Anthracite Institute revealed. A new process for converting the present waste into fuel will be tested in a pilot plant under construction here by the Institute's research organization which Dr. Raymond C.

Johnson is in charge. In the anthracite country there are an estimated I OAA AAn AAA 1- -Mi 1 the European Recovery Program they require about 2,000,000 deadweight tons of surplus United States vessels. At present the shipbuilding of these countries totals about 3,000,000 tons. By the end of the proposed aid period in 1951 these nations would have more tonnage than they had before the war." Britain is setting the it considers shipbuilding one of its principal export industries, the British government has pushed ahead, with present vessels under construction well over a million tons better than in 1938. These ships will not all fly the Union Jack; the Scandinavian countries and Canada are importing considerable tonnage from the Clydeside.

in total tonnage now on the ways, other leading shipbuilders are Sweden, France, the Netherlands and the British Dominions. Granted improved coal and steel supplies and the stable economic conditions held out as the hope of TERP, these nations aim at wiping out the world shipping deficit by 1951 or 1952. Until then, however, it seems that shipping will remain a serious bottleneck. (Copyj-ight, 3948, Overseas News Agency, Inc.) U.S. Scientists Study Foot And Mouth Disease By DON ROSS Three U.

S. Department of Agriculture veterinarians have sailed for England to set up a new arsenal in the war against foot and mouth disease which has been threatening to invade this country from Mexico. The scientists, Drs. L. Howard W.

Johnson and E. A. Eichhorn, will work at European foot and mouth disease labor- atories. They are taking trunkloads of laboratory equipment to conduct experiments in cooperation wjth European sden tists. Other groups from the Department, of Agriculture will probably be selected soon for European work.

First stop for the scientists js Pirbright, England, about 30 miles west of London, where Britain has a research center for study of the disease which is threatening America's meat supply. The Department of Agriculture scientists will also visit foot and mouth disease laboratories in the Netherlands, Denmark and SwHzerl3nd. a U. S. center for research on the disease is in the real estate stage.

Congress is considering legislation which ions 01 mis siii nnmeuiaieiy available, and more is produced every year. Anthracite silt, washed out of the coal after mining, is about as fine as granulated sugar. It is not suitable for burning in grates and has accumulated at mine heads for years. Its use to produce fuel gas and liquid fuels will in no way decrease the marketable coal. Anthracite silt is an excellent fuel for recorded history has one nation been so strong all other nations were afraid to fight it.

The Romans came closer than anyone else. But they did it by conquering the civilized world, not by a mere show of strength. History seems to prove that armaments are made for killing and not for show. Passage of a new draft law and UMT will take us farther along the road we have been traveling for two years. While the whole world Waits, the decision will be made in Congress.

And here politics comes into its own. The whole House of Representatives stands election in the fall. It was noticeable after the Truman speech that there was less immediate support for the draft and UMT in the House than in the Senate, where only a third of the members have to answer for their jobs in November. The Taft-Hartley law went through in the face of what the people wanted. But that was.

1947, with no elections. This year every pair of ears on Capitol Hill is 'spread as wide as moose antlers to hear the popular voice. No one, and that includes every general and admiral, knows if or when a war. is going to start. The next big step in the decision is up to us.

In the coming weeks congressmen will weighing the mail sacks. Congress and history are waiting for the American people to speak. Federated Press East Coast. Several sites near Long Island have been ivestigated by officials who will decide on the. location.

When the island laboratory is set up, scientists expect to concentrate on new and improved vaccines for combatting foot and mouth disease. The new station will be "roughly modeled" on a similar German research center, now in the hands of the Russians. The- German station is on the island of Riems; a couple of miles off the Baltic Coast of Germany near Greifswald. One of the world's foremost authorities on foot and mouth Dr. Otto Waldmann, has directed work on this island for more than two decades.

When the U. S. S. first occupied the island which is near the famous rocket experiment station at Peenemunde, the foot and mouth disease laboratory was taken down and removed to Russia. Latest report is that the equipment has been returned to Riems, and that Dr.

Waldmann is continuing to direct his work there. The American scientists in Europe have no plans for visiting the German island, but some Department of Agriculture officials were there before World War II. (Science Service Staff Writer) the United States, the world merchant marine not only did not diminish, but increased, in spite of heavy losses at sea." In 1947 the world's merchant fleet amounted to 77,000,000 gross tons, more than the 1939 figure. Many of the ships going to sea today are faster and more modern. Why, then, is there a shipping shortage? One solid reason lies in the fact that the United States owns more than 5 per cent of the world fleet today as against less than 17 per cent in 1939; American shipping, traditionally more expensive than British or Scandinavian, is downright prohibitive for most importing nations because it must be paid for in precious dollars.

W7hat about the major prewar carriers of ocean freight Britain's merchant shipping has declined, due to war losses, from 21,000,000 to 17,000,000 tons. The fleets of Germany, Italy and J. i were virtually wiped out. Neutral Sweden alone of the big European shipping powers shows a slight increase in tonnage. The' need for ships has never been greater.

The war completely destroyed the historic patterns of trade by crushing Germany and Japan. In the Far East the disappearance of Japan as the No. 1 sea power and trading nation means that Asiatic markets afe no longer being supplied with low-cost manufactured goods out of Yokohama. These items must now be sent from the United States or Britain with longer ocean hauls and strain on scarce cargo space. Germany was the chief source in Europe of manufactured goods and coal, as well as the chief consumer of raw materials and food.

This whole trade design has been" wrenched out of shape. Wrecked port facilities, rail networks and internal waterways add to the problem; even were adequate shipping available, collection and distribution of cargoes would lag. In spite of universal price rises, Europe's international trade is smaller today lhan it was in 1938 in dollar value, and even more markedly so in quantity. Such vital commodities as coal, which Western Europe formerly drew from Germany and Britain, must move today from the United States. What is likely to happen when European recovery supplies begin to swell the trans-Atlantic traffic? For a time the pinch will be greater, UN experts say.

The 16 Marshall Plan nations see the importation of surplus ves the production of these gases, Dr. Johnson states, because it is non-coking, non-caking, free of tar, has a low sulfur content and a high, ash-fusion temperature. The new process is related to the German I method for gasifying brown coal. In it, I the anthracite silt can be processed into i three bases, two of which are fuel gases. In the process, anthracite silt, air and 'steam are fed into a refractory-lined cyl- inder.

Combustion takes place with the silt boiling inside the cylinder while the heav-, ier ash settles to the bottom and is ejected by a rotary, grate. The gas obtained is fed through a second bed of burning silt, fortifying it with additional carbon monoxide. The result is producer gas. If gas of higher heat quality is desired, steam is forced into the burning silt in the second stage of the process. To produce fc'ioca, wuiiji wjihu jiijuiu 10 i the same method of fluidized or boiling combustion bed is used.

However, by in- termittenly blowing air and stam into the combustion chamber, or by using a continuous blast of oxygen and steam, a syn-J thesis gas of carbon monoxide and hydro- gen is produced. It is from these the liquid would appropriate funds for an island station where experiments could be conducted with diseased animals without danger of spreading the dread virus. Agriculture officials are shopping around for the island. The new "Alcatraz" for foot and mouth infected animals is expected to be on the is made as is done in making liquid fuels from natural gas or other coal. (Science Service).