OCR Text |
Show Merry-Co-Round By DREW PEARSON and ROBERT S. ALLEN WASHINGTON All report from Europe Indicate In-dicate that the present wartime censorship is fr stricter than during the World war, especially on the western front. From diplomatic dispatches not jublect to censorship, however, it is possible to draw a pretty good picture of what actually is happening happen-ing on the western front. Most important fact is that the French are moving with extreme caution and there have been no major gains. So far they have not penetrated pene-trated any part of the actual Siegfried line. All of the town and village the French have captured cap-tured are In a sort of no man's land between the Msginot line snd th red beginning of th German Ger-man fortifications. The French have developed a heavy mountain moun-tain tank which ha been successful in blowing up pill-boxes. But these pill-boxes hold only machine-gun nests, and are the outposts of the Siegfried line. The heavier fortifications hsv not been reached. Most of the French offensive so far h been artillery fire. Infantry has not been thrown into great action, largely because the losses from infantry in-fantry charges against machine-gun nests are bound to be terrific. And the French are not anxious to have hcaw casualties reported to the civilian population behind the lines. The shock to public opinion might be disturbing. Even so, French losses have been greater than the censored reports indicate. French advances in the Saar, while not great have had one important effect. They have either taken awsy from Germany or put out of commission com-mission a vital coal-mining and industrial area. British Air Mystery On the British side, most important, behind-the-scenes military development is in the air force. This has been mysteriously inactive. Reason is the disastrous result of the British air raid upon the nazi naval station at Wilhelms-haven Wilhelms-haven In the first days of the war. The censor failed to disclose that the British lost five of the twelve planes which participated in that raid. They were (hot down by German anti-aircraft gun. This is a terrifically high casualty rate, especially in a surprise bombing raid. The II British planes approached Wllhelms-haven Wllhelms-haven at an altitude of oOOO feet then dove to 800 feet to release their bomb. Ordinarily bombers bomb-ers count upon their diving speed of over 300 mile sn hour to protect them from anti-aircraft guns. But the Nazis shot down five, an amazing record for anti-aircraft gunnery. All this has caused the British to do no more bombing themselves until they can work out new tactics. Until they do. they cannot afford heavy airplane losses, since Britain is far behind Germany in air strength. Raakob's Ranch For some time New Mexico has been speculating specu-lating over th sudden purchase of 100,000 acres of land by John J. Raskob, director of General Motors and former head of th Democratic national na-tional committee. Raskob, it was rumored, had struck Oil. Other rumor had it that he had found gold. No one, however, had the temerity to ask him until Evie Robert (Mrs. Chip Robert), glamor girl of the Democratic national committee, visited Santa Fe this summer. Evie lost no time in popping th question. "What are you going to do with all that 100. 000 acre of New Mexican desert," ah asked Raskob. "I'm going to run cattle on it." wat hi meek reply. Note Patrick J. Hurley, ex-ecretry of wr, also experimented with a brief New Mexican residence, thereby starting rumors that he would run for the senate. He is now back in Virginia, however. Genua Cable Inside fart regarding the nazi cablegrams urging neutrality letter to congress 1 that they were picked up by British intelligence agents. The British got them from the transatlantic cables, virtually all of which are British controlled. con-trolled. The messages were decoded and given to Ambassador Joe Kennedy, who sent them to the state department In each case, a name and address accom- riied the cable, and it is these sddresse which Edgar Hoover' G-Men are now investigating. investigat-ing. pie cablee asked various group in the United Unit-ed State to deluge congress with letter urging that th arm embargo be retained. Here is the text of one csble sent from Germany in cipher and decoded by the British: "In view forthcoming meeting .of congress and possible amendment of neutrality laws following fol-lowing the alleged ATHENIA incident -and bombing of open towns of Poland please ask all our American friends at once to appeal by telegram tele-gram for the full maintenance of neutrality law. Remind them of the last war and futility of sacrifice sac-rifice made by all, including th United States, and in particular that there is no real difference between American and German people. War should remain localized and a new world war avoided in all circumstance. Please do your utmost to ait me." Distributed by United Feature Syndicate ' w |