Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS by edward G C wayne java defense gains cains new strength As dutch troops get reinforcements tanker losses indicate U boat drive against eastern petroleum supplies RIll TOIla ahm opinions arc airs expressed in these columns colum ni tier they are those thor of th the news new analyst and ani not ot this newspaper I 1 released ne leased by western union 1 I JAVA defense impressive following tho the fall of singapore walling women many of 0 them carrying babies had arrived on an rescue ships in java worried over the tato ato of their men who had been left behind but nil all of them were highly impressed with the spirit and tho the defenses of batavia Bat ovla there was every evidence that java whether it got sum cleint reinforcements or not would be adequately defended by the tha forces now on the island the dutch not only were massin masking 9 nil all their own man power their ships and planes but it was plain that they had some american reinforcements largely believed in this country to be constituted of the very vital antiaircraft anti aircraft guns and men to man them the fight that still had raged around ball was a good curtain raiser for what the japs could expect when ohen they moved in on java aava itself with its population and the concentrated strength of everything the dutch and the ilia other united nations had which had been salvaged from other fronts churchill ha had dould said that the tha total japanese land strength in the for east bast was estimated at 26 divisions there were ware many who believed that it would take halt half that number to conquer java alone provided it was propof properly aly defended a and nd many bell believed eved the japs could not spare spara that hat many troops nor transport them hem to java some military authorities believed the japs would not even try but would content themselves with bombing military installations and with surrounding the island with naval forces thus rendering it incapable cap able of taking part in east indian defense while concentrating most of it the ae jap forces on an in caslon of australia the news of the day had not so f tar r borno born a out this contention contenti on however tor for the japanese landings on sumatra to the west and bau ball to the east had been in considerable force washington cleaning up the national capital which was under fire ever since tho the douglas cha ney ncy boondoggling fight started with the OCD as a central point had started the job of self cleaning with president roosevelt taking a leaf out of his own notebook and finding that le 16 agencies were engaged in housing activities bilone alone the senate and house had I 1 not been idle in the self cleaning matter either for they had repealed the pension bill which already had been signed by the president the president had not signed it II as such but it had been a rider on and thor bill and thus had become effective but the national outcry had ben terrific and the congressional repeal had joll followed owed with but few con gressmen of either house willing to put themselves on tho the spot as voting pensions for thern themselves selves alter the outcry representative reed of new york was perhaps most frank tor for while most congressmen had said they had voted for or the an previous measure without v considering it much if at all i said 1 I was not called away by a i telephone call I 1 11 was not out eating a sandwich W I 1 was not talking with a constituent at the time I 1 rep hep reed was in favor of the bill ile he was not however recorded cs as voting against repeal the OCD still was the center of attack senator byrd of virginia having said that his investigation of lobs jobs paying over 2500 in the OCD included actors baseball players football coaches track men tennis players newspaper and magazine writers social workers army and navy officers doctors engineers nurses ex public officials lawyers and others in every walls walk of life many had quit after mrs roose belts resignation but it was evident that the rest of them were under fire with the senate on the firing line BATAAN bomber campaign 0 perhaps a rather grisly humor had been shown in the dispatch from bataan that tho the men of general macarthurs Mac Arthurs command were planning to take up a collection from their own pay to have a bomber sent them it would have been a one day i story if the newsmen newsmen had not taken i it up at president Roosevel ts cor con ference the president said it if anybody will tell me how CU see sec that they are sent 11 STORM and torpedoes Torp eloes not only y the german torpedoes but a terrific atlantic storm had taken a toll of american shipping tho the fact that in 30 odd vessels torpedoed in our shipping more than half calf had been tankers showed that tho the U boats had their orders to prey on our coastal petroleum supply this thia attack however it was conceded could dould do no worse than accentuate the oil shortage on an tho the eastern seaboard as the installations of oil 0 11 refineries and tank farms had suffered buffered no attacks nor had the big petroleum producing fields but the storm which cast two american naval vessels up on the rocky coast of newfoundland took lives and provided tho the worst naval disaster of the kind in history tho the destroyer truxton and the naval cargo auxiliary pollux were lost and by a quirk of fate they happened to go around where foot cliffs jutted butted up straight from the ocean tho the vessels pounded on rocks almost immediately disintegrated and their crews had to scramble ashore r I 1 JF 41 K a wv S LIE UT RALPH HICKOX skipper shipper ol of the Trux truxton lon as best they might they landed on a rocky coast where half their number were battered and drowned without a chance approximately men were rescued from the two wrecked ships BURMA all india Contri command tand the closing of rangoon though much better defended and bitterly contested than had been singapore had given the japanese a long stride toward the demobilization of the burma road Though the chinese were believed already to have developed another line of communication partially if not completely ruining this objective for the japs it was proof of the fact that something drastic would have to be done about the reinforcement of the british defense of in dla dia or marek territory would fall into the nipponese hands the chinese were holding the northern sector but the british having been driven back from the bilin river fortifications had to fall back on rangoon and the work of destroying ying all military goods in the city which could not be ba moved was the signal for the closing of the port it was a tough 43 hours for the american military mission there for it was their duty to see that the final shipments of thousands of tons of american lease lend goods started on its rail journey up the burma road to the chinese before the japs got in some of this it had been reported reporter report ei I 1 faced destruction and among what wha t could not be moved were hundreds of american made trucks which had not been assembled after shipping the british had made their last stand at the slitting river and there in good positions they covered the final removal of lease lend goods and destruction of british materiel RUSSIA guerrillas in news one byproduct by product ot of the russian victories over the germans on the cast front had been the contacting by the red lied armies of the partisans or guerrillas who had been burled buried but active back of the nazi unes lines more and more of these intrepid bands had been uncovered and the tha news reporters were beginning to get to them and to send to the world their stories of heroism and of dost destruction st also a product byproduct by of the russian advance had been mounting stories of brut brutality aUty meted out by the nazis to russian civi civilians most of them based whether true or not on the activities of these same 9 guerrillas thousands of civilians civilla ns eyewitness sa reporters had cabled had been sl slain ain by the nazis while other thousands thou sanda had died of freezing or starvation herded in forced marches often after their clothing had been pillaged the guerrilla bands were able by hiding in woods and mountains tl tb prey upon german communications which by very necessity of temperature and topography had been chained to the few russian roads the guerrillas were bushing ambushing am germans destroying not only trucks but tanks as well and blau slaughtering such of them as fell into their hands one leader of such a band told a newsman that he and his fellows had blown up two large german trucks and that three members of the trucks crews had been shot to death by their own superior officer for permitting the trucks to be destroyed the russian guerrillas had ranged in age from 10 to 35 33 LABOR not so quiet labor troubles which had been almost nonexistent after pearl harbor had bad hurled the nation into war began cropping up somewhat over the nation though the federal government was not delaying to have them settled as rapidly and forcefully as possible congress too was wai having its labor a difficulties A proposed wartime suspension of the 40 hour week caused heated debate with charges of labor despotism being hurled by representative cox of georgia later in answer sidney hillman Hlll man labor chief of the war production board said enactment of the proposal would result in contusion and demoralization notable among the difficulties had been one in st louis where power company employees had threatened a strike which would have crippled a whole defense industrial du arua area an odd strike occurred at san pedro where the tha bethlehem steel company was building worth of destroyers for the navy the men did not walk out but they worked eight hours and then quit going back to work again at the usual time refusing to work 10 hour shifts as they said the company demanded there also had bad been dispatches from the west coast that numbers ot of employees had refused to work on birthday though specifically requested to the day came on 10 sunday but many factories reported large numbers of their workers stayed home on monday the unions had demanded demand cd double pay for the holiday and employers had refused this demand hence the big horday lay oft off digging its in reports from australia that the aus aussien ties were digging in from ons one end of the eastern coast to the other seemed to make it dubious that any extensive aid for java would be sent by australia however according to correspondents the spirits of the australians fis as they faced increasing evi evidence dence that they have a defense job of their own to consider were uniformly good |