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Show KXJ YJjt drew Pearson Washington, D. C. AIR PRISONERS IN GERMANY The fate of American fliers in the Doolittle raid has raised the question: ques-tion: What happens to airmen who go down over Europe? Here is the answer from an officer of the U. S. bomber command In England. It fliers ball out and get down safely over France, Belgium or occupied oc-cupied Europe, their chances of getting get-ting back to England are pretty good. They become prisoners of war, but In the course of exchanging prisoners, they may soon get back to base. If they ball out over Germany, there's not much chance of getting back. But so far as we know, the treatment of air prisoners is similar to that of other prisoners, and varies according to rank. There Is one incident, however, that damns the German record the story of Paddy Flnucane. Most people peo-ple suppose that the famous RAF ace lost his life because his Spitfire crashed Into the channel after being hit over France. The truth Is though this has nev-er nev-er been published that as Flnucane was failing, he was strafed by German Ger-man machine gunfire, and he was already dead when he hit the water. Thus a new meaning comes to Flnucane's famous phrase, "This Is it, chaps." TOUGH JOB When you sift down all the hullabaloo hulla-baloo about Elmer Davis and his Office of War Information, the only valid criticism you can make against the drawling Hoosier Is that he is working too hard. The last two weeks when he went on the air, he was so exhausted he had a stand-by alongside ready to take up his script if he collapsed. Davis works far into the night, tries to read all that his voluminous office produces, sees almost everyone every-one who wants to see him. But given a tough situation, basically basic-ally he has done a good job. Senators Sena-tors like Montana's Wheeler and Nevada's McCarran, whose acid digestive di-gestive systems are always poisoning their political outlook, make a wry face at Davis. But Wheeler and McCarran are always demanding more facts and inside fact Is that Davis has been fighting their battle in keeping the American public Informed. In-formed. Most of Davis fight is getting news, squeezing it out of government bureaus which don't want to give, making the army and navy release facts which show up their mistakes, rowing with Czarubber Jeffers because be-cause his estimates on tires are too rosy. When Davis stepped down from his well-paying radio job to correlate government information, everyone envied him his job, thought he had a softie. But the job of digging news, accurate news, unpleasant news out of the government is not soft. And It is not popular. Davis is a good newsman. Being such, he is not popular, never will be in some quarters. Note: Davis did his best to release re-lease the story on bombing Tokyo long ago. Several times he urged the White House that the American public should know the facts. Earlier, Ear-lier, when the Japs released a picture pic-ture of U. S. fliers supposedly captured cap-tured in the Tokyo raid, Davis wanted want-ed to point out the truth, namely that these were naval fliers, not Doolit-tle's. Doolit-tle's. They had been captured in a naval battle. This explanation was broadcast to foreign countries by OWI, but Davis, through no fault of his, was not permitted to tell folks at home. FDR'S CONGRESSMAN As commander-in-chief, the President Presi-dent has supreme powers in the conduct con-duct of the war, but he Is just another an-other citizen on the books of the Hyde Park, N. Y., rationing board. At a recent White House meeting, the President was telling three congressmen. con-gressmen. Gale, Republican, of Minnesota, Min-nesota, Jackson, Democrat, of Washington, Wash-ington, and Manasco, Democrat, of Alabama, about the "red tape" involved in-volved in buying meat and groceries on his trips home to Hyde Park. "I have my problems with point rationing the same as you fellows," he grinned. "Why don't you write your congressman?" con-gressman?" suggested Republican Representative Gale. The President reflected briefly, then threw up his hands and roared with laughter. "Oh, no," he exclaimed, "not that!" The man who represents the Hyde Park district in congress Is Hamilton Fish, one of the most vitriolic, vituperative vi-tuperative foes the President has in congress. MERRY-GO-ROUND 41 A high ranking army officer, just back from a U. S. tour, makes this observation: "High morale may be lowered by too much talk of postwar post-war planning, which makes the boys think the show is almost over." C If the Japs were still in their Washington embassy, they could set their clocks by lanky Will Clayton, astute deputy to Jesse Jones, who walks three miles to work every morning. He passes the defunct Jap embassy precisely at eight. |
