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War Telescope 43-04-04 xxx What Money Will We Use In Germany
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War Telescope 43-04-04 xxx What Money Will We Use In Germany
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- [00:02]
Morgan Beatty
At this time, the National Broadcasting Company presents Morgan Beatty's War Telescope, a review of the war week and a forecast of possible developments to come. Morgan Beatty is NBC's veteran war reporter in the British capital. And so for his regular Sunday report, we take you now to London. This is Morgan Beatty in London looking at the 187th week of war through the War Telescope. This has been a week of signs on the horizon, the widening horizon of war. Perhaps the best way to reflect these signs across the Atlantic would be to give you a day out of this Reporter's notebook. A typical day of hunting news and signposts of the future in the capital of the British Empire. On the particular morning I have in mind, I drew back the blackout curtains and below me in the street a company of British soldiers swung along, throwing out that right arm with a will. And they were singing. They were singing or whistling more often these days. And that's the first sign I have to report a growing confidence. Maybe Russia's advance last winter or perhaps Tunisia had something to do with it. Anyway, you do feel it. It's a definite something in the air. The men were singing that old World War favorite, Tipperary, and I wondered as I ate my rationed breakfast of tea and toast and butter, I wondered why this war had produced no smash favorites like Tipperary or or Keep the Home Fires Burning or Over There. My first appointment of the day was with one of those unknown men you can't say much about. The reason is this. They don't carry the responsibility of government on their shoulders, so they cannot tell you the weighty decisions. They may merely give you background pointers along the way. The pointers I got on this particular day had to do with the world's post war money and what's going to be done about it. As I reported to you last Monday evening, the United States and Great Britain both have plans for post war currency plans based on gold. But they differ in that the United States would lean more heavily on gold, while the British would also use commodity credits so that non gold holding nations could trade more easily with gold, wealthy nations like the United States. Secretary Morgenthau confirmed my report later in the week in Washington, but he did not discuss the immediate money problem that faces the Allies the minute Europe is invaded. Are we going to use the money the Germans are circulating? Money adulterated with German promises to pay but without specific gold backing? Or are we going to print money in Washington or London special money and back it with our gold and send that into these countries? Or would it be Better to overstamp local currency already in use, that is, put a special stamp on part of the money in circulation and call in or destroy the rest. That might be a way to check inflation. I don't know the answers. Neither did my friend know them. But I doubt if the powers that be have made up their minds completely about it. But once again, my friend impressed me with the complexity of the problems we face. The money problem alone presents angles and obstacles, dark bypasses and dead end streets where a mistake could mean ruin to the Allied cause just as surely as a major defeat on a battlefield. So no wonder both Churchill and Roosevelt keep warning us to expect setbacks, disappointments and mistakes. It's not a question of making no mistakes at all. It's. It's a question of how few mistakes we can make. Anyway, the experts are hard at work on the money problem and many another. Both the British and American plans for money will be published soon. This means there's an urgency about it in the minds of our leaders. And that's another signpost of war. Urgency for action in many fields. And so I took leave of the man who knows his money. I decided to cut through a park. Beyond the big gate I discovered a fairyland of spring blossom blossoms. The bulbs were planted long before the war and as the British say, they wanted tending. But they persisted in showing their beauty and shedding their perfume. Suddenly I heard a sound that sent a wave of homesickness over me. Or were my ears playing me false? No, there it was again. A cracking sound that rang like a bell in my ears. Unmistakably, it was the sound of an American baseball bat against a regulation big league baseball. For the first time in years, I really wanted to see an infield swing over when a left hander came up to bat. I wanted to see a first baseman stretch himself a mile and spare the throw from short. I actually broke into a run toward the crack of the bat. And sure enough, there they were. Uncle Sam's soldiers warming up for the American baseball season in London. And of all things, scores of British spectators braved the raw wind and looked on, fascinated. A burly fellow with a pipe, obviously a cricket or a rounders fan, spotted me as an American and brought two of his friends over for a chat about the American game. Must the batter always run when he hits the ball? They asked. Yes, unless it's fouled, I said. And what's a foul? I explained the best I could, but how can a foul be a strike? For the first time in my life, I understood how complicated is American baseball? Or rather how complicated it has become through the years with the speed up rules. I did the best I could to cover the general idea to the man with the pipe and but for the life of me I couldn't tell him how many feet there are between the pitchers box and home plate. As an expert, I fizzled out right there. But my English friends liked the game. It looks a good sport, they said, but it wants a lot of knowing, which in American means it's okay, but it's hard to figure out. My old eye for the game returned gradually, however, even though it was distracted a bit by the silver barrage balloons hanging in the sky and the big guns leaping over a parapet of the anti aircraft defense system. They were a little beyond home run territory. Soon I spotted a professional player, obviously the best man on the field, and I asked him all about his team. He was Chuck Eisen, Lieutenant Chuck Eisen. He confessed he had led both major and minor leagues in strikeouts when he was in the Pacific coast league in 1941. He went to the Red Sox for $17,000. But before he got a chance to play last year, he went into the army. And here he is. Chuck says he's going to have the best team in the British Isles and they'll play in the first World Series in Britain this fall. His boys were out to Practice first on March 6, to be exact. Chuck's counting on several good boys. At short, he's got Private Johnny Farrell from Brooklyn and Private First Class Bob Korcher of Scranton, Pennsylvania. He may play third base. Incidentally, Sergeant Red Summerall of Eden, North Carolina is shaping up as an outfielder. The only fly in the baseball ointment at this moment is the dearth of uniforms and shoes. Only one team, London based command, has both uniforms and shoes in this area. The army has given examples right away to a British war contractor. And the men may get their togs by May 15, and they may not. Baseball uniforms and shoes must take their chances behind rush war orders, which is another sign of the times. But enough of baseball. My next appointment was pressing close. I took a train for a place which must remain nameless. It's a secret American 8th Air Force bomber station. And there I met one of the rarest people in England, an officer in the American Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, the wac. You've heard of her before, perhaps? She arrived seven weeks ago and the newsman interviewed her then. She's Lieutenant Dorothy Swart of Elsa, Texas. I asked the lieutenant to come to the studios here in the heart of London today and tell you folks how she likes England and what she thinks of it. After seven weeks. It took a lot of persuading, but here she is. Lieutenant Dorothy Swart, a dottie to her friends back home before she put on her uniform. She's 5ft 4, brown eyes, beautiful skin, toned by the sunshine of Texas. She's got a contagious grin and she's every inch an officer and a most desirable dinner companion. She's one of the very few American women soldiers among many men. One of the airmen at the bomber station brought the lieutenant to London tonight and he's planning to take her to dinner in one of those swank West End spots, I suspect. For coming to London is a rare occasion for the busy people in Bomber Command. Lieutenant. I'm addressing you, young lady, not your escort. Lieutenant, what's your job?
- [07:50]
Lieutenant Dorothy Swart
I'm sorry, Mr. Beatty, we can't go very far into that. But I can say I'm in communications. We help supervise the white. The Royal Air Force girls on our station.
- [08:00]
Morgan Beatty
And how long do you work each day?
- [08:01]
Lieutenant Dorothy Swart
We get up at 7:15 and work until our job's finished. Often it's pretty late at night. Then again, we have normal working days.
- [08:09]
Morgan Beatty
Then I take it you could use more wax from home.
- [08:11]
Lieutenant Dorothy Swart
If they could be spared, we certainly could.
- [08:14]
Morgan Beatty
And how do you.
- [08:15]
Lieutenant Dorothy Swart
How do I like England? How many times have I answered that? Here goes. I like England. I'm not homesick. I haven't been bothered much with Brussels sprouts that you have in London because we have army food. And no, I didn't bring near enough stockings. I only brought 12 pair. I could have used three times that many. I don't have much time to go out, but when I have gone to dinner dances in London or another base, I enjoyed them very much. The English could not be kinder or more considerate. They tried.
- [08:44]
Morgan Beatty
Thank you, Lieutenant, for clearing up all the standard points in record time. Now let's get outside the regular sphere. What do you miss most?
- [08:52]
Lieutenant Dorothy Swart
I don't like comparisons, but I do miss good old American sunshine. Next. I miss soap flakes. We have excellent bar soap in England. If you can get a flake, you can't get flakes anywhere. And bar soap is not as easy on our precious stockings. I miss American cosmetics, too. Not because American is better. I really don't know much. Don't know which is better, but because our cosmetics are very hard to get over here. But I'm so busy, I don't have time to worry about things I miss.
- [09:24]
Morgan Beatty
But how about those crisp salads and French dressings?
- [09:27]
Lieutenant Dorothy Swart
Oh, yes, the salads, too. But if this keeps up, the folks back home will think I'm complaining, and I'm not.
- [09:33]
Morgan Beatty
And the things you miss aren't hurting you any, judging from your appearances.
- [09:38]
Lieutenant Dorothy Swart
But let me tell you about the fun we have. I've got an English bicycle. It took a little while to get used to the handbrake instead of the coaster brake and riding on the wrong side of the road instead of the right.
- [09:47]
Morgan Beatty
Oh, oh, oh, oh. The British think the left side is the right side of the road, Lieutenant.
- [09:52]
Lieutenant Dorothy Swart
Well, anyway, both sides of the roads are the right side for me. Now, it's still a little confusing.
- [09:56]
Morgan Beatty
Tell us, lieutenant, what's your biggest drill to date? That dinner dance. The Ritz or what?
- [10:01]
Lieutenant Dorothy Swart
No, not the dinner dance. I deserted that dance so I couldn't be on hand for the great event of my life. A party was given for some airmen where I could see Mr. Winston Churchill. I hurried from London and arrived just in time to meet one of the greatest men of modern times. The prime minister. He looked exactly like his picket. This was a high point for me because, well, when I saw him and shook hands as the man who has so many responsibilities like our own president, I began to think how hard a job he has. I thought how wonderful it is in a democracy for the leader to mix socially with the boys who are really fighting in the battles on the front line.
- [10:37]
Morgan Beatty
Yes, this must have been an impressive experience for you, Lieutenant. I remember the day I first saw you. You're different somehow. In only seven weeks, you're more mature, more of a soldier, more of a personality, capable of carrying on the democracy that Roosevelt and Churchill stand for. Thank you for coming in today. You're another and. And an inspiring sign of the times for us. As you folks back home may have gathered, a correspondence day is a busy one. After my visit to the bomber base, I returned to London to check over the news of recent days. More and more people are being called up for national service of one kind or another. And Brendan Bracken, Britain's skillful minister of information, has discovered that the ministry supplied the British people with 40,000 talks last year on every conceivable subject, most of them by experts. But he's going to cut down on talks because the British passion for oratory, as Mr. Bracken puts it, has developed through monstrous proportions. And that's another sign of the time. Less speech and more action. And the Russians are demanding our maximum effort in the near future. Soviet Ambassador Mask Maisky puts it bluntly. We want to bring this terrible war to an end at the earliest opportunity, he said. And that brings us to my major engagement of the day. I talked with a student of war, a man who has spent much of his life studying the history of warfare. That evening I asked him a question prompted by the Mysky statement. What is the earliest possible opportunity to crush the enemy? I asked. Not the time of it, but the place. My friend of the maps and books prefers the back door of Europe, as he calls it, the Balkans, the same backdoor the allies used in 1918. But he reminds me that this war strategically is developing several interesting back doors for Allied attack. Would you name them? I asked. He told me to consult the stream of news pouring out of the world. All the clues have been published. Then he smiled. So off I went, pondering. After several hours of digging, I discovered what my friend was talking about. Series of developments. These signs began cropping out before the end of March and they're multiplying fast now. The first one, developed on March 30, 4,000 square miles of Britain has been set aside as a possible springboard for offensive operations against the Axis. Then Stockholm reported rumors of mysterious parachuter activity by Allied forces in Norway. Bern, Switzerland said the Germans and Italians are building a Riviera line across the soft underbelly of France. King Boris of Bulgaria been talking to Hitler about the Balkans where seething undercurrents are again developing. And General Eisenhower says the Tunisian campaign is shaping toward a decision. And the British United Press today says the Royal Navy is massing in the Mediterranean to prevent a Tunisian Dunkirk. In the midst of all these reports, our own paper, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, reveals that the United States Navy is working in the Pacific with floating docks, which means we're moving toward independence of shore bases. This is a threat of offensive action against the Japanese on the other side of the world. All of these things add up. They spell opportunity for the Allies on many fronts. At last the tables are turned strategically, thanks to the back doors of the Axis created by the strategy of the Allied high command. And now this is Morgan Beatty saying so long until next Sunday. You have been listening to War Telescope, a weekly report on the war as seen from London by Morgan Beatty, NBC's veteran war observer in the British capital. Mr. Beatty is presented every Sunday at this same time, so be sure to tune in again a week from now. This program came to you from London and New York. This is the National Broadcasting Company.