Roosevelt asks Congress to spend more on Military building

President Roosevelt recommended to Congress, in a special message today, the strengthening of our national defense. The President reported with deep regret that armaments were increasing "at an unprecedented and alarming rate". He called attention to the ominous fact that at least one fourth of the world's population was involved in "merciless devastating conflict" in spite of the fact that most people in most countries wished to live at peace.

As Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, the President deemed it his constitutional duty to report to the Congress that the national defense of the United States was, in the light of the increasing armaments of other nations, inadequate for purposes of national security and therefore required increase.

The President said that "adequate defense" meant that for the protection not only of our coasts but also of our communities far removed from the coasts, we must keep any potential enemy many hundreds of miles away from our continental limits. We could not assume, he stated, that our defense would be limited to one ocean and one coast and that the others would certainly be safe. "

Specifically and solely because of the piling up of additional land and sea armaments in other countries" the President recommended to Congress that authorizations be granted for substantial increases in military and naval armament. Included were recommendations for increasing by 20 percent the existing naval building program and for appropriations to lay down two additional battleships and two additional cruisers during 1938.

Banns on traffic in Kaiser-Wilhem Canal

Germany has banned foreign warships from the Kaiser-Wilhelm Canal today. It was effective immediately.

The Canal is located in the Schlewig-Holstein province of extreme northern Germany. The canal links the North Sea at Brunsbüttel with the Baltic Sea Kiel-Holtenau. The Canal is a boon to shipping in the the North Sea Region. It saves 460 kilometers in length of voyage for ships. Ships can avoid having to sail completely around the Jutland.

The Canal was given International Status in the Treaty of Versailles. However, Germany's Chacnellor Hitler repudiated this in 1936.

Laws about Servants for Jews

In an effort to prevent any racial mixing, there has been a Romanian decree forbids Jews from employing Christian female servants under the age of forty. This came out yesterday and is probably going to be followed by many such decrees once Octavian Goga gets his government going.

Jews in Romania still citizens?

The new government, barely a fortnight old, has stripped the Romanian Jews of citizenship. The government is now run by poet Octavian Goga and A.C. Cuza, a theorist from the University of Iaşi. Both have strong far right politics and racial theories.

The Goga-Cuza government has passed a law aimed at reviewing criteria for citizenship (after it cast allegations that previous cabinets had allowed Ukrainian Jews to obtain it illegally). All Jews who had received citizenship in 1918-1919 to reapply for it (while providing a very short term in which this could be achieved - 20 days).

In the recent election, 25% of the vote went to Anti-Semitic political parties: the Totul pentru Ţară, the Iron Guard, and the National Christian Party. Both are considered extreme right-wing and very nationalist.

Italian Navy Construction Boom

Today, the Italian government announced the beginning of a huge naval construction program. This plan augments the Italian rearmament program introduced in 1937.

US Congress bans aid to Spanish Civil War Belligerents

In response to the ongoing Civil War in Spain, the united States Congress has seen fit to outlaw shipment of arms to the parties fighting in the war. Congress passed the bill yesterday prohibiting sail and shipment of arms to Spain.

The United States continues its stance of neutrality in the increasingly bloody civil war. Conflict has raged in the country since July 1936. Before that there was upheaval in the government in 1931.

Hull says US can't intervene in Romania

U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull declared today that America cannot intervene in Romania's internal affairs.

In the last week of the year, the National Christian Party established a government at King Carol's request. Octavian Goga formed a government that many fear will be vehemently anti-semitic and much like Germany's Nazi Regíme.