| Show Round Merry Merry Rou nd By DREW PEARSON and ROBERT S. S ALLEN WASHINGTON What WASHINGTON What has hap happened ned to the Russian wheat crop in the Ukraine This vast ranking along with the middle west and the Argentine in Importance was the big reason Hitler chose middle June to time his attack attack at at- tack on Russia However here is what happened happened happened hap hap- to the wheat crop according to diplomatic diplomatic diplo diplo- matic matte dispatches from U. U S. S officials abroad In the eastern Ukraine the Russians were able to harvest part of th grain ahead of the German advance This was removed the rest v was as burned The nazis got nothing In the western Ukraine where the harvest was a month late the Germans found the grain standing but again this will be no help to them for this grain is on big collective farms and the managers have moved out leaving only unskilled Russian workers More important important tant nearly all machinery has been removed or destroyed Thus the Germans are confronted with the problem of harvesting with primitive tools and unskilled workers Taking the situation as a whole the nazi conquest of the great Russian granary brings no advantage to the food situation in Germany And looking ahead Germany is also confronted with probable waste of this productive capacity t next year lor for the big problem will be to plant this vast area with over four fifths of the tractors tractors tractors trac trac- tors removed or destroyed and few horses hoses or cattle left S Note Note On On the other side of the picture other diplomatic dispatches report that Hitler has trained German farm managers to move into the Ukraine immediately to take over Stalin's collective farms Hitler incidentally apparently believes In Stalin's farm system for hi his managers have been trained in tion Ickes Taking the Rap nap No man In history of the new deal has taken more battering and more abuse from the public recently than Oil Administrator Harold Ickes His curtailment of oil has been investigated by a senate committee which reported no real oil and gas shortage His pleadings for gasoline gasoline gaso gaso- line economy haVe been resented by motorists His deputy administrator Ralph Ralph- Davies of Standard Oil of California has been severely criticised by the railroads which claim they have ample tank cars to move oil oU but that the big companies do not want to pay the rail rates However if there Is one man who Is extremely extremely ex ex- grateful to Harold Ickes for taking the theS rap in the oil oU and gas hullabaloo he is the S gentleman rh fh m the White House For there Is FD D R R. knows that most people dont don't know narn namely ly that another big request has Just come from the British for more oil oU tankers He also knows that whenever there Is a submarine raid the nazis nails pick out outS S the oil oU tankers and sink them first out of ot every convoy He also knows that extended U. U S. S naval operations in the north Atlantic which are going to be greater than ever before before again again something which F D R alone has reasons to toI I know know will will require much more oil than the navy has on reserve at present In other words the oil shortage may not be here at the moment but it is Just around the corner and Ickes has been standing the gaff gaU for lor the president and the British British Embassy I British has not breathed its last Canadian girls working in the British embassy in Washington testify testily that although picked with scrupulous care and brought from Canada Canada Can Can- ada for lor exacting war work they are among the lowest paid workers in the capital The going wage for these girls Is and SUO a month which is Js far lar less than British girls are getting for the same type of work in the same place t lace But many of the British girls come from the titled families of England and enjoy not only a higher base pay on which however they have to pay heavy income taxes but they are allowed 7 a day overseas allow allow- ance This In itself is nearly twice the salary of the Canadian girls Dissatisfaction of the Canadian workers has become a matter of concern for embassy oil dais dals who have still other reasons to fear their reaction Many lany of the Canadians are French Catholics and the bombing of French cities plus the possibility of bombing Rome has embassy embassy embassy em- em bassy O officials worried |
