Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS by edward C wayne laval given french police powers As germany fears invasion threat U S bombers subs smash at japs increased undersea program likely when pinion opinions are re in these her to larnin the they EDIT NOT EWhen ars ar those e the tb news new analyst and nd slot not necessarily or s released by western newspaper paper union VICHY ires pressure sure from berlin regardless of underlying causes or of how much justification there might have been the overturn of government in vichy which had brought laval back to power as a 61 civil supervisor had been definite ly accepted by britain and the united states as a decision to go with tho axis it had come at a moment when there were some indications that vichy was wavering in its collaboration with germany and that petain and his associates were looking with longing and friendly eyes toward the united states as a possible louice of food supplies some favorule favors hie steps had been made in this direction then all of a sudden laval seized the police power and before the world knew it laval was back in the cabinet and many believed it marked thi the end of the petain regime london was very positive about the whole tiling saying frankly that the reentry re entry of laval into the government ern ment the man who looks acts act and talks like hitler red reduces aces uces france to the level of a nickel balkan state the spokesman continued it clearly indicates the complete subservience of the vichy policy to berlin two vital reasons were seen for the laval development and both of them were envisioned as germany crack ing down on the petain regime the first was the german fear that an american british invasion of the continent through france is imminent the second was that germany Ger mary feared the growing friendliness of vichy and washington through the he ministrations of leahy hardly anybody thought th the french eFrench fleet would immediately go into the war on germanys germanas Germ anys side neither could most observers see french soldiers fighting against the russians nor fre french rich fliers filers manning planes to bomb britain but they could see a strong effort to be made at once by germany A at 4 1 1 I FIE PIERRE LAVAL who talks like hitler to man unoccupied france with troops which could be depended on to fight nn an invasion attempt and thus relieve germany of the necessity and already through field glasses they could see the germans preparing gun placements emplacements em on the channel ico coast asti MERCY SHIP for hainan the first revelation of identity of the men lost in the battle of bataan the jap claim hall had been americans of total prisoners come came when relatives of 1400 new mexico soldiers pleaded for a mercy ship to be sent to bataan with food and clothing they comprised fathers mothers sisters and brothers of the men of the coast artillery artill cry corps antiaircraft all from the state of new mexico it was stated in IA their petition that they believed their unit to have had more men in it than that from any other single state while some of the relatives did not sign and hope was expressed that perhaps much of the corps had escaped from bataan to corregidor there was enough evidence that the regiment had been trapped to induce senator chavez to go to work at washington in their behalf the first thing that had been done however was for the senator to ask tik the president for definite word as to the fate of 01 new medicos cos I 1 LJ S BOMBERS sensational reports from general macarthurs Mac Arthurs headquarters had provided the information that american had made a devastating attack on japanese bases in the philippines maps showed however that unless the planes had been carrier based or at some point not heretofore revealed as in american hands the shortest roundtrip round trip flight from australian territory would have been 2800 miles to the southern tip df at manda mindanao ao or about mues miles U US S SUBS tactics the success liucc ess of american submarines in the present pacific war with credit for a substantial percentage of the amount of japanese warships sent to the bottom had caused chairman vinson of the house naval a affairs committee to present c a program calling for more in undersea craft A program adopted A in in 1940 called for 65 0 such ships this would call for more or more than double the amount previously authorized the navy last october had submarines in in service of which only a few were of the 1500 toh ton cruiser type which are now under I 1 construction st and planned by the vinson program the naval plan would be for the united states to adopt the same UN y t jpy I 1 A 14 I 1 i la 71 9 1 1 31 1 CARL VINSON an program wolf pack tactics used by the japs and germans against american Iship shipping pink though it was pointed out that we are building ships faster than they are being sunk vinson felt that an increased sub program would kick the japs out of i r faster as their shipbuilding facilities were limited Ala cARTHUR MacAi lit in command although it had seemed clear enough through dispatches from australia that the return of macarthur from the philippines had been to place him in command of all armies of the united nations in in the far east some doubt had followed this inthe in the eyes of the public largely because of stories about general gendral blarney amey land and the small amount of material coming direct from macarthur finally the direct question was put to the american generalissimo and his headquarters gave credence to the rumors rumors when it frankly said it know that the generals status was not clear this called ifor for a statement by president roosevelt and prime minister curtin the former toting tating that thai it was his understanding that macarthur was 1 in n P supreme command the following day this had been concurred in fully by prime minister curtin who went into enough detail so that little doubt could remain as to macarthurs Mac Arthurs command powers eis the only point remaining not clear was whether macarthurs Mac Arthurs powers i extended extend cd jonew zealand A netherlands er spokesman had conf confirmed irined his command over such dutch forces as had escaped froni from the east indies and the fact that General still well was in command of chinese in burma seemed sufficient conf conformal irmal tion from that quarter 0 t PRICES I 1 and labor the chances were that president roosevelt might beat to the punch congressional efforts to legislate on the labor situation by pegging all prices including rents and wages and interest on capital thus following the canadian and australian already in effect australia guarding against the black market troubles england had bad had because of a dire shortage of commodities took the same stem step canada had and brought all prices and services under control of th the government t theorice the price commissioner was given authority to peg all prices and services ut at levels he might se select I 1 act the announcement already aad ad gone out from washington that such a moye move was under consideration by th the 0 government and most observe irs ers felt that under precedent as welt as law the executive branch had the wartime power to do this technically this it carried out by the president would tend to spike pike the guns of congressmen proposing laws setting the work week and the return to capital on war contracts because it would affect all workers pegging their wages at certain lov 0 els and also presumably setting their hours of work 0 |