Show WEEKLY NEWS S cooling to chiang eian shelt russians agree to blockade talks truman wary on deflation prospect ct EDITORS S NOTE when opinions are re expressed in these columns they are th those I 1 of t west western ern newspaper union a news analysts and not necessarily of th 9 newsy newspaper r HOLE CARD childs chinas 9 with stakes terrifically high and the communists having him beat showing china s chiang kai shek fingered the pasteboards for a look at his hole card in a quick double take he looked again was it gone or had it dwindled to a deuce that s the way poker players might have described the tense sit bation which faced beleaguered china and her generalissimo the united states china s anly and all powerful ally appeared waning in ardor for the generalissimo generalissimos s lead enship no less an authoritative U S foreign policy spokesman than senator tom conna ly D tex who will head the senate foreign relations committee in the congress had spoken PUTTING IT BLUNTLY senator connally had said in effect that china generally and chiang kai shek especially should have done more to help themselves in the bat tie against chinese communist forces before pressing an alth hour appeal tor for more american aid the senator emphasized his view po nt tit he stated that the visit of IV adame chiang kai shek to the united states was not by indita tion of the united states govern ment he made it clear that madame chiang was just a protagonist tag onist of the chinese govern ment WOE PILED UPON WOE tor for the chinese coincident with sanator connally s statement press ices carried the following dispatch from new orleans william me chesney martin president of the U S export import bank said the bank would not even consider a loan now to nationalist china he said the export import bank does not have on hand as much money as china probably will want and that china is a poor business risk why was connally giving the back of his hand to the generalis simo hear the senator ch ang is a generalissimo except that he doesn doean t go out and generalize if he took command of one of his armies in the field he would do more to revive the morale of his people than anything else the texan was but voicing pub licay what other administration of ficiala have been saying privately that they are not too keen about madame chiang s all out kropa ganda drive to divert more money and materials to china possibly at the expense of the marshall plan countries connally summed up by saying that he was not prepared at th s time to pass any opinion on in creasing the 2 ad d to china but added I 1 am not in favor of send mg ing combat troops to china MEANWHILE CHIANG S su chow garrison was under orders to sally forth in an effort to save and rescue an entire army group trapped by the rampaging comman ats but gave no indica tion of heeding the call the fate of the frightened capital depended on the ability or willingness of the man suchow force to quit its fortress miles northwest of while the garrison was beliber atma its next move latest battle front dispatches said the govern ment s army group totaling about men was encircled by communists 67 miles south of suchow and miles northwest of little defense remained on the route to BERLIN blockade talks set hope for an early end to the ber lin blockade flared upward russia had accepted a new formula by the neutral nations of the U N cecur ity council tor for mediating the big four deadlock on the german cap ital issue juan A gramuglia Bra muglia argentine fore agn minister announced that soviet fore agn minister andrei Y had agreed to the plan at a meeting with him it called for the nam ng of a neutral corn com mission of currency experts BASIS tor for the resurgence of hope that the issue could be amicably re solved was a statement by U S senator connally that he believed the russian land blockade of berlin would be lifted soon senator connally told a news con ference that there is bound to be a way out of the deadlock over berlin he said the argument over the circulation of russian currency ir berlin does not justify the cost red mayor t N P german communists named fritz ebert son ot of the late pres ident friedrich Fried ebert of the wei mar republic as mayor of berlin at a frenetic outdoor rally before berlin university the I 1 rump city assembly attended only by communists voted for the immediate resignation of the acting mayor ferdinand fredensburg of the air lift supplying the city and does not relieve us of any threats of conflict he insisted on joint control of any currency dis tributes tri buted in berlin the united states france and britain gave approval in principle to the Bra gramuglia muglia proposal gha stated he hoped for immediate formal acceptance by the three western powers and saw a buty for the new mediation effort to get results THE NEW FORMULA of the neutrals china colombia syr la ia canada argentina Argent ma and bel gium was aimed at meeting west ern objections to talks on the cur rency issue under the threat of the soviet blockade of berlin it was also known to contain provisions tor for a commission of experts to try to unravel the berlin currency problem in consultation with the B g four s own experts the plan would recommend a complete and final lifting of the berlin blockade bt tit the same time the soviet zone mark is introduced in berlin as the sole cur rency the tour four powers agreed on the use of the soviet mark august 30 but became entangled in a dispute over when the measure should take effect and what kind of currency controls should be established DEFLATION truman on lookout like the horseman who galloped off in all directions president tru man is sprinting both to and fro in the vexatious price control rise just as the administration was girding to battle mounting living costs prices sagged and now its economic experts are debating the need to don armor against tion most economic policy makers be lieve inflationary forces still dorm domi nate the national scene but some of them feel these forces are just about spent ONE TOP LEVEL fiscal official declared inflationary pressures still outweigh the deflationary forces but they aren t as great as they were a few months ago inflationary pressures have sub sided somewhat in recent weeks but many government economists have adopted a wait and see pol icy they want to know first how much president truman will ask for cold war spending the cost of living is one of the important economic barometers in di cating at least a temporary slack ening of inflationary pressures As measured by the bureau of labor statistics living costs dropped slightly between mid october and mid november tor for the first time in seven months and department store sales have been below their usual pre christmas levels however economists point out that heavy spending for the armed services could quickly change the picture they expect president truman s 15 billion dollar ceiling on defense spending to be boosted and mill tary aid tor for china and lend len lease dlease arms tor for western european govern ments they add could swell the cost of foreign aid THAT KIND OF SPENDING economists point out puts more money in circulation and reinforces inflationary pressures by bidding up the price of labor and scarce material HOUSING realtors critical state socialism was the goal seen by the nat onal association of real estate boards tor for the promoters of public housing A pamphlet published by the boards legislative committee charged a clever propaganda cam laign about housing has been de by a coalition of planners socialists and radicals the objective of this powerful coalition is simple the pamphlet con continued cont tinted state socialism with all its darg dangerous erous implications control ol 01 of housing is their first and logical step THE PAMPHLET entitled the world owes me a living appeared to be an attack on public housing features of the taft ellender wag ner bill president truman is corn com to ask congress in january to revive and enact this measure the bill tailed failed to pass in the congress it would lay down a long range ange housing program including incentives for private industry and federal subsidies for colstr action of units of low rent housing the real estate group pointed out that many people think meat costs too much yet few of them the pamphlet added would propose that the government go into the meat business YET ALL OBSERVERS of the situation were agreed that no an awer would be forthcoming to the continuing and aggravating national hous ng rig shortage until more rental units were constructed NO MONEY no draftee army draft calls for january and february were reduced more than two thirds when military officials realized this was necessary if lim its on defense spending fixed by mr truman were to be observed THE JANUARY QUOTA was cut from 20 to 10 and the feb auary call which had been set to t take ake 25 to 30 men was low ered to 5 the army stated simply that the proposed budget for next year isn t big enough to build the man army authorized by congress the armed forces had tasked asked tor for 23 billion dollars for the fiscal year beginning july I 1 president truman set a 15 billion dollar ceiling on de tense spending of this total million dollars must be spent on stockpiling stra begic raw material the balance of 14 will be split among the armed forces with the army expected to get about 5 billion dol lars BECAUSE OF THAT the army figures it will have to limit its strength to officers and men this is 24 8 per cent under the authorized by congress last summer army officials saw in the budget difficulty probability of sharp re dictions duct ions in later draft calls too instead of some or 0 men marching off to the colors this fiscal year ending june 30 pros pacts were that the total would be but a fraction of either of those two figures embattled china PAN KOREA li L i MIE CHINA 7 4 1 pacific PHIL oceala 0 PM lf map shows how U S marine reinforcements from guam low er right were moved to Tsing too tto 1 american evacuation center safe conduct for evacuating americans was considered im operative pera tive as the desperate battle for suchow between chinese reds and chinese nationalists went into its final phase suchow 2 is the hot spot of china WARNING doctors must offer it s up to the nation s doctors themselves whether they U be drafted physicians attending the interim session of the american medical association in st louis were warned they must volunteer in sufficient numbers or face a cial draft dr james C sargent chairman of the AMA council on emergency medical service said many doc tors are go ng rig into uniform in the months ahead make no mistake about that sargent said a special draft would be undesirable but that it may have to come we must provide adequate medical care tor for our fighting men he said HUNGRY FED V U S great sharer america americas s millions shared with the hungry of the world in record amount during the past crop year and yet managed to teed feed themselves better than in all their previous history exports during the crop year end ed july I 1 totaled 19 long tons this is the largest quantity of food ever shipped by any coun try in a single year it topped amer can exports of the previous cu crop year by tons |