Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS by edward C wayne soviet claims strong counter attacks stall german drive in three sectors japan feels weight of rack crack down british get invasion s threat warning EDITORS EDI TOnS NOTE when ions are expressed ex in ID these column calum ni s they ue are those of the news an binions FIn at ina and not rily ol of this newspaper ne ws paper lRe leased by western newspaper union m n n J y S 1 0 rii MIR 1 M 0 K W 44 PA 01 M SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND A four motored consolidated liberator just received from the united states is shown in light flight over england it was flown across the atlantic by a crew composed of americans canadians and english and made the crossing in just over eight hours according to the british these ships have a wonderful record of service with the R A F NAZIS real trouble claims by the russians that they had not only stopped the nazis along the entire 1000 mile front but that they had taken the offensive at points asserting penetrations penetration s as deep as miles had been made featured the russo german war news there were many observers who believed the russian claims to be fairly accurate pointing at many admissions from berlin tending to show that the high command was dissatisfied with the progress being made this dissatisfaction was expressed in complaints against the difficulty of the terrain the bad character of the russian roads and the strong resistance of the russian troops using these statements as at least an explanation and a background for belief in the general failure of the german offensive observers sought to find the answer in russian tactics and russian preparedness they pointed out that in the last war russia had an army of about poorly mobilized well led but not enthusiastic for fighting this force was hurled into the eastern battlefield without good preparation ran into highly trained opposition and was defeated bit by bit this time apparently the general russian plan was to place a good sized portion of the huge army on the long front fight a series of rear guard and testing actions to discover where the main nazi punch would be directed and to keep the most excellent forces in reserve the german drive apparently was hitting in three general directions leningrad kiev and moscow with the heaviest attack in the center with sk the focal point it was around sk that the severest fighting occurred and it was there that the german eff effort ort bogged down most seriously for better than two weeks there was no real report of advance and finally came the moscow claims that the germans had been hurled out of their Ir trenches enches and were gradually giving way BRITISH view of scene churchill expressing the british viewpoint of the russian scene of action saw in it a german failure to execute a complete blitzkrieg but warned that britain was dealing with a dangerous maniac and claimed that the nazis failing against russia were thinking of turning to a british invasion attempt demanding that the defenders of the islands get themselves into concert pitch by september 1 the british leader seemed to attach especial import to that date a war anniversary niver sary for hitler churchill did not boldly am announce that the british had definite information of a planned invasion attempt but the british viewpoint evidently was that the russian defeat or victory would not necessarily settle the war the final scene of the war it was plain the british thought would be fought in the west either on british ai soil in repelling the invader or in a british of the continent GASOLINE curtailment gasoline consumption under mandatory control with a view to reducing the volume of eastern states demand to meet the oil transportation shortage moved a step nearer when secretary of the interior ickes recommended that more tha than n service stations in eastern states close from 7 p m to 7 a m every night in the week this was the first direct move on the part of the government to limit sales of gasoline rationing may follow it was indicated by so some me sources ickes said he was continuing his appeal for a voluntary one third cut in consumption hoping that the station closing recommendation plus the voluntary curtailment will be enough to put us across JAPAN A winner the japanese situation was highly confusing to the lay mind for the invasion of french indochina indo china even with the consent of vichy seemed plainly an overt act and one which should merit the strongest possible punishment from britain and the united states indeed this was the way it all started out with concerted action by the U S britain australia canada and the dutch east indies however as the days went on and as the japanese continued to land military forces in indochina indo china there began to be dispatches indicating that the adverse action would be much milder than had been anticipated in fact british sources said that oil shipments to japan might continue the dutch said they had not yet abrogated their agreement with japan for tons of oil a year washington hinted that the appeasement oil might continue to go to japan as long as she did nothing more than invade indochina yet there were some things on the other side of the picture because other british high authorities said wait and see what happens on japanese reprisals the du dutch announced that if the break ca came me japan need never expect to get east indian oil for the dutch had made preparations to destroy all wells and ref refineries instantly the question was whether japan was the winner or the loser by her move into indo china and there was evidence on both sides NIPPON behavior if future action against japan was to depend on the behavior of the nipponese there was little immediate evidence that this behavior would be mild almost immediately there was a serious serious incident when japanese bombers attacking paused directly over the U S gunboat tutuila part of the yangtze river patrol and dropped some bombs which damaged the vessel though there were no casualties the ship was anchored in the so called safety zone across the river from the chinese capital one bomb according to a report from shanghai feu fell only eight yards from the gunboat caving in a part of the ships stern and blowing some equipment off the dock U US S turning tide the frank statement by secretary of the navy knox that an american destroyer in the atlantic had dropped three depth bombs when it believed it was about to be attacked by a submarine focused attention on the battle of the atlantic it brought by senator george the statement that he believed the U S naval patrol of the sea lanes as far east as iceland appeared to have been of such assistance to britain that she was slowly gaming gaining the upper hand in the effort to keep the ocean free for the passage of supplies at about the same time however germany announced the sinking of 19 vessels in one convoy totaling tons yet the nazis admitted that the sinking was accomplished only with the greatest difficulty the german dispatches in describing the armed escort of the patrol admitted that there were nany armed ships in fact claimed ne ae sinking of one and the damaging of another partly due to american intervention churchill told the commons the battle in the atlantic is moving progressively in our favor and this sentiment was quoted and echoed by senator george from the turn of events however the senator drew the conclusion that there would be no attempt at invasion of britain this year he cited also the difficulty of the german invasion of russia as one of his reasons in this premise of the georgia senator however churchill hardly seemed to agree HOPKINS to moscow the flight of harry hopkins president Roosevel ts lend lease administrator and personal representative to warring capitals caused intense interest here because it was supposedly portending the sending of lend lease aid to russia hopkins was scheduled to confer with stalin in person also to talk with leaders such as molotov litvinov and others his departure was a closely guarded secret until he had arrived safely and indeed it was a dangerous flight as the nazi warp warplanes war lanes planes were occasionally flying over moscow JOINT tax returns one of the most dubious pieces of tax legislation found its central fight to circle about whether or not husbands and wives should be forced to file joint returns few prognosticators in washington could be found willing to bet that the battle would end one way or the other the tax bill came out of committee with the joint returns mandatory but only after the stiffest sort of a fight and with only the slightest sort of margin in the committee voting one of the first floor battles was to get the administration leaders to agree to open the matter for floor discussion during debate and in this skirmish the foes of mandatory joint returns won out it was finally agreed that an amendment will be offered to remove the mandatory joint return clause and that this may rna y be debated on the floor af |