Showdown Near

Last week there could be no doubt of it: Franklin Roosevelt knew that the hours of peace were running out. Without great tension, almost without excitement, Americans watched the steps that took them nearer & nearer World War II. Without hatred, with almost a feeling of inevitability, Americans read that the Robin Moor had been sunk by a Nazi submarine (see p. 17)--though they knew that U.S. shipping could not give up the seas to the Axis. With hardly a sense of imminent change, Americans read of the seizing of Axis assets in the U.S. (see col. 2)--though perhaps with a conviction that it should have been done before. Without knowing how rapidly the showdown was approaching, Americans read of the strongest step --the closing of the 25 Nazi consulates in the U.S.

But unlike other Americans Franklin Roosevelt did not watch these things like a pageant. He lived them. He had a sore throat and felt poorly but, unless for once his sense of history had deserted him, he must have counted beneath his breath the steps that every hour brought the U.S. closer to war.

The ousting of the Nazi consuls was symbolic of the U.S. position in the crisis. It did not actually sever relations between the U.S. and Germany. But it was as near to a final expression of hostility as the U.S. could make without severing relations. When Sumner Welles handed his note to the first Secretary of the German Embassy, it was not quite as final a commitment as would be an order for the head of Germany's embassy to leave the U.S. But it was like a rehearsal for the moment when the German charge d'affaires would be given his papers, and the U.S. staff in Germany summoned home.

For the note that Sumner Welles handed over did not merely close the Nazi consulates. It said: "I am directed by the President to request that the German Government remove from United States territory all German nationals in anywise connected with the German Library of Information in New York, the German railway and tourist agencies and the Trans-ocean News Service.. . ." It ordered them to leave by July 10.

Flatly the note said that German consuls "have been engaged in activities wholly outside the scope of their legitimate duties," and it added: "These activities have been of an improper and unwarranted character. They render the continued presence in the United States of those agencies and consular establishments inimical to the welfare of this country." The note could not well have been much stronger if relations had been broken off.

The one Nazi consul the U.S. has come to recognize--and take as a symbol of all German consular intrigue--is Captain Fritz Wiedemann in San Francisco. Asked whether the order was a surprise to him, the consul shrugged his shoulders, replied: "I would say no."

The President obviously did not expect that Hitler would be much surprised either. He waited to see how Hitler would strike back.

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