a jam" since Germany has to conserve her supplies for a possible later fight with Russia. Hitler's alliance with Russia came at a "stiff price" by alienating Spain entirely and weakening Germany's support in Italy. Had Spain gone along with Germany, Franco could have mobilized an army on the border and forced France to do likewise, drawing men from the German front. "Great Britain", he pointed out, "made a smart move in its trade pact with Russia, in that it can take what it needs, at the same time, keeping these imports and supplies from Germany. "Stalin," he said, "is only interested in Russia, and will be with any country that can put gold into Moscow." Koehler offered that the present British government was "in poor hands" with Chamberlain as prime minister and Sir John Simon as head of the treasury, since both men believed in keeping arms spending low. Aside from Britain "blundering" in its negotiations with Germany preceding the war, Koehler observed that Britain made a strategic error in "building battleships, which are only good to fight other battleships. A blockade could be effected as well with destroyers." He reasoned that Germany had not used its air force to break the embargo due to the high cost of ammunition, as it would require many planes dropping hundreds of bombs to sink a warship. Koehler considered Mussolini "wise" to stay out of the conflict because Italy's "army is not strong enough to make a good showing." As to Gibraltar and Malta, they are no longer the "towers of strength" due to airplanes which could launch bombing attacks in the darkness. Koehler saw the war on the Western Front as being a "perfect stalemate" due to the Maginot and Siegfried lines, overestimating in particular the false impregnability of the Maginot line. As to the German U-boat and aerial offensive, he thought it "possible but not probable" that Britain's blockade would be broken. In a talk before the Newport Art Association in September 1940, Koehler announced, "We are already in the war, even though we are not technically at war, in fact we've been in the war ever since that last November when Congress modified the Neutrality Laws in favor of the Allies. We are in as bad a state today as the French were before their collapse, the basic cause of which was the easy indifference of the masses of