Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS by edward C wayne impending menace of allied invasion post postpones p ones german spring offensive army adds new draft classification hero of philippines stages repeat role EDITORS NOTE when opinions opinion are ar expressed in these here columns to lumn the thy art are those there of a the news new ans yet and not net notes sAilly of this i released by western newspaper union JITTERS hit japs nazis doth both japan and nazi germany were reported to bo be suffering bad attacks of the jitters the former because of air raid expectations in a country badly equipped to withstand them the latter because of tho the impending menace ot of an american british invasion of europe reports had reached norwegian circles in london that several divisions of now new troops had been rushed to norway it was known that vast labor battalions were engaged feverishly in building defenses along the channel coast As to the japs they were said to be having air raid alarms constantly even when no enemy planes wore were in sight many of these reportedly had been caused by their own planes in practice or patrol flights believing tho the american ships which raided the jap mainland had como come from eastern china japanese planes had lashed out at various towns there which might have harbored american bombers unquestionably the raids upon nipponese cities were a serious blow to japanese morale their sacred soil was not immune to outside attack the worriment believed to bo be suffered by hitler over possible invasion thrusts was such loridon london had said to have caused a practical abandonment of any offensive in libya or the mediterranean front it was possible they had declared that the german spring offensive might be forced to be a spring defensive and that the offensive might bo be postponed until summer if put on at au all many believed that it hitler w was a 9 to win the war at all it must be in 1042 and that the practical abandonment of a grand scale offensive on all fronts at once was really a confession of defeat GOP Cont comity ity operation cooperation co opera tion following their chicago convention the republicans had gone back to their homes somewhat surprised to fand themselves with a platform of internationalism to find that they had abandoned isolationism and that this program was written and put over by WIll willkie kle an ex democrat however they went back resolved to try their utmost to win a few elections this year and some of the tha leaders were frank in saying they hoped for new life tor for the party from the change of heart the national committee chairman joseph VV martin jr said the republican party may well be proud of its accomplishment it was a great day for the party when the willkie resolution was na adopted opted 11 some observers had felt during the battle against it that mr martin so pleased as he expressed himself afterward but in the main the GOP was confident and lively about it all the big paragraph in the platform was number three which read wo we realize that after this war the responsibility of the nation will not bo be circumscribed within the terri MARTIN AND WILLKIE A great day for the me party limits of the united states that our nation has an obligation tu to assist in the bringing about of an understanding comity and co opera tion among the nations of the world in order thit th t our own liberty may be preserved and that the blighting and destructive processes of war may not again be forced upon us and upon the free and pence peace loving poo peoples of the earth I 1 outside of this the party pledged itself chiefly to an attempt to hold down non war expenditures DRAFT has new class instead of classifying men as elther cither physically fit or unfit for military service along certain rigid standards the army had worked out a new class men who if certain detects wore were corrected would be marked fit for duty this was a now designation under the class IA I A grouping it will bo be called suspended IA I A in it will go men who have been declared unfit for dental reasons because of nasal obstructions hernias heraias which can bo be repaired or stomach troubles by di eting the now draft rules also called for men to be sent to hospitals for three day periods it if there was real doubt about their physical ability there more detailed study could b be made and perhaps some minor repair work done once these men have been corrected physically they will bo be subject to reexamination examination re by the army medical staffs and it marked OK OIL would be taken out of the suspended list and put in full class IA I A BULKELEY hero repeats not often Is it in the cards for a hero to stage a return engagement on the lold field of valor but this has happened for john D bulkeley and his squadron of motor torpedo boats operating in the waters of the philippines in january Bulke leys men had daringly entered bay and had 4 JOHN D BULKELEY return enga engagement lement of a hero sunk a ton enemy warship they returned the following day and did it again this time Bulke leys squadron had darted by night in between a flotilla of destroyers and discharged their lethal torpedoes at a japanese light cruiser which had been reported badly damaged and probably sunk in this later foray he had had the misfortune to lose two of his boats the PT 34 and the PT 35 the former was wasi forced ashore on the island of cebu and the crew presumably made prisoner the other was destroyed when trapped in the harbor of cebu to prevent its falling into enemy hands bulkeley Bulk cley already holder of the navy C cross was in line tor for more honors at the very time the report camo came through from his home in ne nef york came word that he was the father of a baby son a brother for the Bulke leys 18 month old daughter joan LUEBECK blown to atoms neutral sources had reported in sweden the effect of the royal air forces nonstop non stop blitz in the form of day and night bombings on one important german port the city of luebeck on the baltic I 1 swedes returning to sweden from this port described it as blown to atoms they said the people of luebeck had told of torpedo bombs landing in the city and literally flattening whole blocks of buildings scarcely one stone was left on another they had reported one big shipping firm had written to a swedish correspondent on a plain piece of paper saying their companas comp anys building and docks had been totally destroyed st not even a letterhead remained intact seamen returning to stockholm reported to newsmen that very little it if any of the port installations were left and that the destruction in the town itself was beyond description LABOR peace nace Is hailed t 4 I 1 V 4 ia WILLIAM IVILLIA 31 11 II DA DAVIS is lie ile points with pride the chairman of tho the war labor board a division of the production board william 11 davis had issued a report hailing with pleasure the figures on labor troubles since the first of the year he cited the fact that strike stop pages in war production had been only of 1 per cent practically a negligible amount strikes during the first quarter of 1942 he said had been only one fifteenth of those ahme during the same period of 1941 1041 he said that the no strike policy of the board which had been sold to the major union leaders had worked out beautifully and that there was no doubt about the success of the war production as long as this condition was maintained at the same time however tho the only rift in the peaceful lute of labor was the issuing of joint statements by presidents green and murray of the and CIO now themselves at peace attacking the national association of manufacturers both green and murray accused the NAM of making disparaging statements concerning the war labor board in a series of newspaper advertisements N this they felt was distinctly a blow aimed at the solidarity of labor in the production setup FLEET 0 of france interesting discussions most of them theoretical over the possible future activity of the french heet fleet assuming that laval was turning it over to german uses either directly or through vichy had reached the press some fi guting the fleet an important addition to nazi might others saying it would be of little help if any british naval authorities pointing to the experiences of their own handling of war vessels during wartime said that when a ship was put in fighting trim it could move miles or more with only minor re fitting but they said when ships have been demilitarized that Is laid up as have the french ships for extended t a periods of time re fitting them for war duty Is a big task this they said was especially true of huge battlewagon battle wagons IS like the giving the opinion that it would take months perhaps a year before she could be put in true fighting condition PATENTS formal seizure president roosevelt had ordered formal seizure of all enemy owned patents in the united states whether they had been directly or indirectly owned this was a climatic step foll following dwing the revelations of a series of pool ings of foreign patents by american large business concerns it bad been revealed that a philadelphia concern merely identified by the state department as a german national had been shipping chemicals from the united states to south american blacklisted firms as late as february 1941 that this company had paid out a large sum in royalties to germany last year and that this year although no more had been paid the company was holding its royalties later to be sent to germans that about half of the 1940 royalties were on a product indispensable for the use of this country in building planes to fight the nazis this sort of activity was what actuated the president in having ordered the seizure of such patents oddly enough however at the same time as the facts about this company were coming out it was stated that much more information on the product had come from germany to this country than had gone the other way oni one official said 1 I dont know what we would have done about producing it for american planes without this information INVASION following the return of general marshall to these shores there were general hints that an invasion soon of europe was to be attempted by allied forces it seemed that in this picture the polish troops wore were not going to play such a small part it had been re ported from cairo that tens of thousands of polish troops had been sent to the middle east to organize themselves into a resisting army to combat any german thrust against syria |