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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Truman Calls for Draft, Training To Bolster Resistance to Russia; U.S. Reverses Stand on Partition ' IU leased bf WNU Features (EDITOR'8 NOTE I When pinions art tipremrd In thru colomna. they art thoM of Western Newspaper Union's atws analysts and aol necessarily af tola newspaper.) Jf iprSy FORCES AT WORK . . . Increasing Communist pressure in Europe has been instrumental in dividing the continent into three component power blocs, all of which are influenced by a fourth force U.S. policy, symbolized by the presence of American troops in Germany, Austria and Italy. Map shows western bloc (I) of anti-Communist Britain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; northern bloc (2) of the Scandinavian countries, daily growing more apprehensive of Soviet tactics and eastern bloc (3) of Russia and its satellites. Present approximate ap-proximate American troop strength is indicated for Germany (120,000), Austria (10,000) and Italy (5,000). TRIESTE: Surprise In a move that surprised everyone every-one from the Russians to American congressmen, the U. S. proposed oTn ly with France and Britain that the free territory of Trieste be returned re-turned to Italy. Trieste, long a storm center coveted cov-eted by both Italians and Yugos ays, had been made a free state under United Nations guidance in the s.x-months-old Italian peace treaty The proposal was, apparently, a shrewd and calculated move to try to help the anti-Communist forces in Italy win the April 18 election. It literally put the Russians on the spot, leaving them with Utt.e choice of reaction. If they support the western powers' proposal to return re-turn Trieste to Italy they will be m effect, turning their backs on their previous arguments for a Yugoslav Trieste, thereby kicking their Yugoslav Yugo-slav cohorts in the face. On the other hand, if Russia were to side with Yugoslavia it would amount to a rebuff for the Italian Communists. Possession of Trieste is a great political issue in Italy, and it well may turn out now to be a deciding factor in the elections coming up there. Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito, however how-ever lost little time in answering the proposal of the U. S., Britain and France. He simply rejected the demand de-mand and proposed instead that a plebiscite be held in the free state of Trieste to decide whether it should be Italian or Yugoslav. ; Moscow diplomats were calling the action "another move toward war." Said one: "The beginnings of international order which emerged after the war are being destroyed." But to those who were working tooth and nail against the spread of communism it looked like a master stroke, one which might keep Italy and all of western Europe out of reach of the Kremlin. FOOD WASTE: Rats, Insects Although the world is crying for food, hundreds of thousands of tons of American foodstuffs are spoiled each year by the depredations of rats, mice and insects and often by the carelessness of some producers. Food and drug administration officials of-ficials say the amount of so-called "filthy food" they destroy every year is enough to contribute "very substantially" to the hungry areas of the world. "Filthy food" is the legal term for food spoiled by "contamination of rats, mice, insects or other repulsive re-pulsive foreign bodies." It is the job of the food and drug administration to find and condemn filthy food in the channels of interstate commerce and to prosecute those responsible. Since FDA's power to condemn filthy foods at their destination' was taken away a year ago, officials estimate that, as a result, 20 tons of such food appears in retail outlets every day. RABBITS: Meat Supply There is one vast source of meat maybe an inexhaustible one that the U.S. public might have to consider con-sider seriously if beef and pork become be-come as scarce and expensive as it is predicted they will: Rabbits. That is a department of agriculture agricul-ture idea. The department suggested sug-gested that the American people take up the raising of rabbits as a supplementary source of meat to eke out the usual protein fare, destined to become more scarce and costly. National rabbit week, which was observed during the week following Easter, would be "a good time" for families to plan to produce a "year round supply of this white, delicately deli-cately flavored, nutritious meat, comparable to breast of chicken," the department hinted. What does one need to begin raising rais-ing rabbits? Just rabbits. REACTION: Divided What are the true facts? Just how potentially lethal is the situation with regard to Russia? Senators and representatives were asking those questions after President Presi-dent Truman's "let's get strong" message. Many of them were demanding de-manding answers before they would consent to go ahead with any legislation legis-lation endorsing a military draft or UMT. Congress was divided, but the split was not along party lines. It reflected re-flected isolationism, discontent with the Truman foreign policy and in some cases an almost unhealthy respect re-spect for Russia's power in Europe. Greatest fear seemed to be that conditions in Europe, as precipitated precipi-tated by Soviet actions, may get I CONVINCING Closeted for 50 minutes with Secretary of State Marshall, Secretary Sec-retary of Defense Forrestal and Secretary of the Army Royal), the senate armed services committee com-mittee emerged from the conference confer-ence to throw its weight behind President Truman's plea for quick action to build up America's military mili-tary forces. Sen. Chan Gurncy (Rep., S.D.), chairman of the committee, reported re-ported that 10 of the group's 13 members were convinced that both a limited draft and universal military training have become an "absolute necessity." Just what the three secretaries told the armed services committee commit-tee was not disclosed, but it was undeniably powerful information. out of hand suddenly, despite the efforts of Russia or any other nation na-tion to prevent such a development. Best opinion holds that, while Russia Rus-sia is not now seeking war, the Communists have created a kind of Frankenstein monster in Europe that at any moment could plunge out of control and involve the world in another conflict. Secretary of State Marshall is said to feel this way: The Soviets are motivated by a sense of urgency to act before the European recovery program begins to function and before the union of western European nations is firmly established. Driven by this feeling of urgency, the Soviets may not be able to avert an incident which would lead to a shooting war. ABOUT FACE: Expedience To many persons it looked as though the United States, in abandoning aban-doning its support of the Palestine partition plan, had pulled a "Pontius "Pon-tius Pilate" on the same scene where the procurator of Judea had washed his hands not quite 2,000 years ago to sanction the Crucifixion. Cruci-fixion. In reversing its role in the partition par-tition struggle, the U. S. proposed that the Holy Land be made a United Nations' trusteeship, giving Jews and Arabs a chance to reach agreement on their own concerning the future of their country's government. THE PRICE Peace and War "We must be .prepared to pay the price of peace or assuredly we shall pay the price of war." Those words, spoken by President Harry Truman to the U. S. congress, con-gress, could be the seeds of the first genuine, effective foreign policy this nation has had for half a century. cen-tury. Disregarding any political overtones over-tones there might have been in the President's speech, his address to the joint session of congress reflected re-flected the realization at the top level of government that any successful suc-cessful foreign policy must be based on the fundamental concept of striking strik-ing a balance between commitments abroad and the national security or strength at home available to back up those commitments. By definition, the term "foreign policy" implies that any nation'ex-pressing nation'ex-pressing such a policy possesses the strength in military forces and alliancesto alli-ancesto follow it consistently at all times and to defend it just as con-( con-( sistently in case of war. In that connection Mr. Truman specifically asked congress for power to draft men to build armed strength against the ruthless aggression aggres-sion of Soviet communism. v He asked also for "prompt enactment enact-ment of universal training legislation," legisla-tion," indicating that the draft should be only temporary until universal military training is, giving the country coun-try the trained men it needs. Finally, he sought swift passage of the 5.3-billion-dollar European recovery program the Marshall plan for economic recovery of western west-ern European nations which is setting set-ting the Kremlin's teeth on edge. Bluntly -the President upbraided Russia for making a travesty of peace: "One nation has not only refused to cooperate in the establishment of a just and honorable peace, but-even but-even worse has actively sought to prevent it." Western Pact Lending force to Mr. Truman's scattering of the seeds of foreign policy was the fact that, an hour before he delivered his pronouncement, pronounce-ment, the just-completed five-nation western European pact for common defense against attack had been announced an-nounced officially. Under the treaty, Britain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands Neth-erlands pledged one another military aid in the event that any one of them should be attacked. According to the ne'v "Truman doctrine," the United States would be the principal guarantor of this five-power union. Without such a guarantee of U. S. backing, the western west-ern European treaty would be meaningless. By his declaration in support of the western European pact Mr. Truman Tru-man seemed to be guiding the U. S. to a point of departure from its historic his-toric adherence to the diplomatic enormity Of refusing to engage in "entangling alliances" even at the price of its own welfare. Warren R. Austin, American delete dele-te to the U.N., said that it was jvious that partition could not be carried out except by force, and the U.S. consistently has demurred against the idea of sending troops to Palestine. It was Ironic that the American statement withdrawing support from the partition plan was undoubtedly the death blow to that plan which never would have been adopted by the U.N. in the first place if it had not been for American pressure and influence. BACHELORS: Declining Evidence of an innate desire for family life among adult Americans is revealed in a study by the U. S. bureau of the census showing a long-term decline in the proportion of bachelors of both sexes. On a numerical basis, census bureau figures disclose, the num-I num-I ber of single men and women has dropped to the lowest level since 1920, despite a third increase in population since then. |
