Rest

Two hundred yards from President Roosevelt the swastika flew boldly under a fresh southeasterly wind. It flew from the stern of the German freighter Arauca, chased into Port Everglades, Fla. by a British cruiser soon after the outbreak of the war. For 15 months the Arauca had sported a swastika, but a small one. One day last week, when President Roosevelt's special train had pulled into the siding at the Port Everglades dock, the little swastika was replaced by a huge one.

The wind blew fitfully; long swells rolled outside the breakwater. The Presidential yacht Potomac, armed for the first time with .50-calibre machine guns fore & aft, prepared to cast off, tied up again at reports of rougher weather coming. From the rail of the Arauca, the 44 interned German sailors watched the drinks being passed around on the Potomac's afterdeck, stared at the Presidential party--Harry Hopkins, Cabinet Officers Robert Jackson and Harold Ickes, the President's physician, Rear Admiral Ross Mclntire, Secretaries "Pa" Watson and Steve Early.

For 36 hours the Potomac lay in harbor. Then she slipped out to sea with her two escorting destroyers, to undisclosed fishing grounds, to a rainstorm, to a period of rest and relaxation for the President. He needed it. The head cold that has bothered him through two critical weeks in Washington still hung on; the crises that were coming would require a reserve of strength through the spring.

But long before the Potomac sailed there was a question of how much rest the President could get. Before leaving Washington he had conferred with Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and Colonel Donovan, home from the wars. He went over Lauchlin Currie's final report on his trip to China. He talked over the setup of a "home defense" for the U. S. in a conference with ex-Ambassador William Bullitt, Assistant Federal Security Administrator Wayne Coy, Budget Director Harold Smith, Harry Hopkins. Before traintime he saw Secretary of War Stimson, talked with William Knudsen about appointments to the National Defense Mediation Board. Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones rode on the Florida-bound special with him. At Jacksonville the President paused to inspect the new $40,000,000 naval air training station. And out on the fishing grounds a seaplane shuttled back & forth, bearing messages from Washington and answers from the yacht. To onlookers who watched the Potomac sail, the swastika on the Arauca was a reminder of the force that, the world over, cut relentlessly into human rest.

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