Brick, Balloon

Though the Nazi wave of war has flooded Norway, the Norwegian Legation in Washington is not submerged. In fact, the Legation is such a busy little island that last week it dedicated a new wing. On the Legation roof, while such distinguished guests as Russian Ambassador Constantine Oumansky, OPM's Big Bill Knudsen, A.F. of L.'s Little Bill Green looked on, Crown Princess Martha raised a Norwegian flag, in a rich, clear soprano led the guests as they sang Norway's National Anthem :

Ja, vi elsker dette landet,

Som det stiger frem

Furet, veirbidt over vandet. . . .*

The heaviest brickbat any high official of the U.S. had yet thrown at Adolf Hitler then left the hands of cool, calm Sumner Welles, Acting Secretary of State, who purposely chose that gathering as audience for his brick-heaving. Said he, answering rumors that the Nazis may soon campaign for a negotiated peace: "There can come no peace until the Hitlerite Government of Germany has been finally and utterly destroyed."

Without even brushing his hands, Mr. Welles then produced a balloon from his pocket--a trial balloon for a new (and New Deal) League of Nations after the war. Said he: "At the end of the last war, a great President of the United States gave his life ... to further ... the splendid vision of ... an ordered world, governed by law. ... I am unalterably convinced: First, that the abolition of offensive armaments . . . can only be undertaken through some rigid form of international . . . control . . . and, second, that no peace . . . would be valid or lasting unless it established . . . the natural rights of all peoples to equal economic enjoyment. . . .

"I cannot believe," said Sumner Welles gravely, "that peoples of good will will not once more strive to realize the great ideal of an association of nations. ..."

The applause from the people who heard him, most of whom had good cause to remember the League of Nations, and not too favorably, was equally grave.

* Yes, we love this country, As it arises Lined and weatherbeaten from the sea.

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