OCR Text |
Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne U. S.-British Forces Fight Grimly In Resisting Heavy Jap Pressure; 'Joker' Found in Price Control Bill Has Power to Check Farm Prices (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of the news analyst and nut necessarily o( this newspaper.) I T?0)0-g0 by Western Newspaper Uruon.) Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, shown conferring in Washington, D. C, with naval officers and John W. Studebaker, on a plan to have high school youth of America participate in a vital part of the U. S. navy's training program, plane model making. Looking over some of the models are (left to right) Artemus Gates, assistant secretary of the navy for air; Secretary Knox and Mr. Studebaker. In the rear is Adm. John H. Towers, chief of the navy's bureau of aeronautics. About 26,000 American youths in the high schools throughout the country are being asked to build 500,000 aircraft models 10,000 each of 50 different types of fighting planes for training personnel in aircraft recognition and range estimation in gunnery practice. The models likewise will be important in the training of civilians in aircraft recognition. MIRACLE: Man on Luzon The continued holding out of General Gen-eral MacArthur's "smoke-begrimed army in its foxholes on Bataan peninsula" to use his own words, challenged and won the admiration of all Americans. It was felt that his long stand in the face of more than 10 to 1 odds, his ability to maneuver his men into a position where only a fraction of the Japanese power could be used against him, and the fact that he was still immobilizing a vastly superior su-perior force, entitled him to the title of "miracle man" of warfare. If the Japanese attempted to in-, nitrate his lines, as often as not he checkmated them with counterattacks. counter-attacks. If they succeeded, either by a skillful withdrawal or by vigorous vigor-ous counter-measures at hand-to-hand, the following day would find the MacArthur army still intact, still fighting, still able to resist all efforts ef-forts to drive him into the sea. Though the communiques from Luzon never had given hope of a successful outcome, there was no tinge of heroics, save the tribute of the general to men who, without relief re-lief and subjected to almost constant attack by fresh troops in rotation, continued a defense that seemed to grow from day to day in strength rather than to be collapsing under pressure. General Homma, Japanese commander, com-mander, sent over a "leaflet raid" in which he strongly suggested surrender, sur-render, paying tribute to the magnificent mag-nificent defense of MacArthur's army. It was not rejected the army simply paid no attention to it whatever. SINGAPORE: Siege The Japanese, having increased their pressure on the narrow and difficult Malayan peninsula, had finally induced the British defenders to make a sudden, dramatic withdrawal with-drawal from the mainland, starting the long-expected siege of Singapore. This, a battle expected to go down into history as one of the bitterest and bloodiest in the history of warfare, war-fare, started with the 750,000 population popu-lation of Singapore largely added to by civilian refugees from the mainland. main-land. It was the first test in battle of a fortress and stronghold called by British tradition the "Gibraltar of the Far East" and now, after 118 years of building and rebuilding its defenses with more and more modern mod-ern armament, the time had come for its testing. Singapore stood buttressed on the north by a mile-wide strip of land from which the British had attempted attempt-ed to strip all obstructions which might -offer refuge and cover to enemy soldiers or batteries; by another an-other mile-wide strip of water which had become the "moat" of Singapore Singa-pore following the destruction of the granite causeway which connected the potato-shaped island with the peninsula. Buy Defense Bonds CHECKMATE: On Farm Prices The administration in Washington, having apparently lost an important point in the Price Control bill, seemingly seem-ingly discovered that "all was well" when a joker was found in the measure. Agriculture Secretary Wickard said that the government power to buy and sell commodities in case inflation in-flation threatened, probably would give the administration powerful curbs to keep farm prices down to parity. The senate agriculture committee questioned Wickard for four hours, left his office somewhat ruefully admitting ad-mitting that his claims were probably prob-ably true. Some were quoted as saying that they felt their legislative victory over the administration had been nullified by a power the bill itself conferred on the government. Wickard was frank about "the whole thing. He told the senators that cotton, wheat, tobacco, will be stabilized at' parity. He said that corn and other feed crops will be stabilized at around 85 per cent of parity, probably to keep stock prices from going sky high, also to encourage farmers to stock, dairying and poultry-raising. Livestock, dairy and poultry prices will be permitted to go above parity on the same basis of reasoning. Farmers who grow corn, however, will be given benefit payments by the government to permit their return re-turn to be up to parity. 1 PINCERS: In Island Empires Little by little a study of the maps of the island empires of the ABDA forces in the East Indies began to show the picture of the Japanese effort, ef-fort, and demonstrated that a giant pincers movement was being carried car-ried out with three major objectives. On the extreme west, the two prongs of the Japanese pincers were working on Rangoon and Singapore. The former, if the Japs could crack it, they felt,' would put an effective stopper on the Burma road. The latter lat-ter would jettison British hopes of defending the west half of the island empire, and leave the Japanese fleet in command of the India-Australia supply lines. In the center lay Borneo, and with invasion forces going both to left and right of this island, it was evident that the Japs were seeking to wipe out the advance defenses of Java and Sumatra. On the east was the Bismark archipelago, and the drive here, while not so well established, apparently appar-ently was seeking an invasion of Cape York, Australia, and a sweep down the east coast of the continent "down under," the only rich and populous section of the whole huge island. As Singapore rocked under bombings, bomb-ings, and held grimly in the face of actual siege at last, the Japanese began be-gan an all-out assault on Amboina, tiny island naval stronghold of the Dutch south of the larger island of Ceram. PILOTS: By Thousands Secretary Knox electrified the nation na-tion when he announced that four large American universities would "join the navy" and serve as training train-ing centers for a huge army of combat com-bat pilots for the new navy air force, to be created with a 25 bUlion dollar dol-lar appropriation. Keeping the identities of the universities uni-versities a secret, Knox revealed that the plan will be put into operation opera-tion so swiftly that by May 1 it will be in full swing perhaps sooner. Briefly, the plan was this. Each school is to become an Annapolis of the air. The entire facilities of the universities will be rented by the navy for the duration of the war. A rigorous routine will be adopted for the students, future combat pilots. pi-lots. They will handle 2,500 naval flying cadets monthly. A three-month preliminary training train-ing will be started, with men digging dig-ging ditches, marching up to 40 miles from sunup to sundown. They will chop wood, clear land, will learn jiu-jitsu, boxing, rough-and-tumble fighting. The whole course is expected to take a year, from the time the student starts until he has his navy wings. But when the first class gets through, the navy's supply of pilots will grow at the rate of 2,500 a month, according to the plan. SOVIET: Continued Groundhog day came and went, but regardless of shadows, King Winter reigned in Soviet Russia, freezing into motionless hulks the majority of Hitler's mechanical war-fighters, and giving the Russians continued strength to hurl the Nazis back along the entire long front. A 93-mile gain in the Ukraine had brought the Reds to within easy striking distance of the lower bend of the Dnieper river, brought within the realm of possibility the capture of Dnieperopetrovsk, where the $100,000,000 dam had been blown up by the Russians in their retreat Most remarkable dispatch was the announcement of the capture of a town named Berestovoya, 115 miles west of German-held Taganrog, a serious blow to the German rear, and forming a possible trap for thousands thou-sands of Nazi troops. CHINESE: Drive Japs Back What a major disaster the closing of the Burma road would be had been convincingly demonstrated by the Chinese in their latest victory, an important defeat of the Japanese east of Canton. The fight was in the Waichow area, only 60 miles from the city, and the Japs were reported in disordered flight, with the Chinese armies in close pursuit. Of tremendous interest in this dispatch dis-patch was the report that one entire division of Chinese troops of the Nanking government, armed and equipped by the Japanese, had deserted de-serted to Chiang Kai-shek's banner. If this fight should develop with continued favor to the Chinese, they would place the Japanese holding forces on Hong Kong with a tough job to retain their tenure of the island. Canton is only 60 miles from Hong Kong, and the Chinese said they had possession of the Canton-Kowloon railroad. The Chinese are driving to liberate Canton, and then move on Hone Kong itself. 5 TEMPEST: Arrival of a large number of an-parently an-parently well-equipped U. S. troops m Northern Ireland, seemingly Tom the Mlddle West, provided thVfiS reinforcement story of land forcel sent to combat areas by this counW and started an Irish tempest DeValera, in southern Ireland h jected strenuously to the arrl of American troops, and critic most sharply for being what h' called "a British attempt to make more sharp the breach between northern and southern Ireland" There were some critics ai Northern Ireland, though 2 e populace was welcoming 1 disembarked troops, and frafe3e mg was on a most pleasant basis What their mission mieht hD ,' obscure, but expected to te cLfl before long. "anfled Whether that meant that i can forces would ue bX6"' as way-stations to Africa J ?T Far East, or that they wouUtake" up training duty to replace b f defenders of Great Bri ta n was a matter o, conjee |