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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Axis Threat to Western Hemisphere Forestalled by Move on Martinique; Nazis Begin Eastern Crimean Drive To Gain Needed Caucasian Oil Fields (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) (Rpipaj-H by Western Newspaper Tr"'"" ' ' PROTECTORATE: In Caribbean Dealing directly with Adm. Georges Robert as the "ultimate governing authority" of the French possessions in the Caribbean and French Guiana, the United States moved to forestall the Axis powers from gaining any foothold in the Western hemisphere. Upon orders from President Roosevelt, American representatives arrived at Martinique and informed Admiral Robert that the United States desired to place troops in the French possession to guard against t - l 'i l "I f GERMAN DRIVE: In Eastern Crimea The long-heralded Nazi spring drive finally began with a thrust toward to-ward Kerch in the eastern Crimea. Kerch is a key peninsular point along the shortest route to the Caucasian Cau-casian oil fields. The Nazis' main effort was directed, direct-ed, as many observers thought it would be, at driving across the Kerch peninsula to win the rich fuel deposits. Too, they would be in a position to threaten the Allied eastern east-ern flank in Iran, another oil kingdom. king-dom. Comparative quiet had prevailed pre-vailed in the Kerch peninsula since last December when the Russians hurled the Germans back from the town of Kerch. Neutral observers stated that approximately ap-proximately 2,000,000 men were in action on the Donetz front. Early reports indicated vast Nazi strength on the 250-mile front between Dnepropetrovsk Dne-propetrovsk and the peninsula. MALTA: More Bombs In a ceremony punctuated by falling fall-ing Nazi bombs, Great Britain's Lord Gort was sworn in as the new governor and commander-in-chief of Malta, the "most bombed spot on earth." Lord Gort took his oath of office amid the ruins of a building smashed in a previous attack. Bombs were falling throughout the proceedings and the chief justice administering the oath had his hand cut and bleeding bleed-ing from a wound sustained during the raid. More than 10,000 high explosive, armor piercing bombs have been dropped on Malta this year, according accord-ing to an Alexandria, Egypt, source. The island, lying off the coast of Italy in the Mediterranean, has been under constant attack by the Nazi bombing forces because it guards the vital Axis supply routes to Africa Af-rica and the Middle East. As a result of these continuing raids an official British check-up shows that Malta's property losses include 15,500 homes, 70 churches, 18 convents, 22 schools and eight hospitals. Seventy-five per cent of the property in Valetta, the principal princi-pal city ,) has been made uninhabitable uninhabita-ble by the attacks. CORAL SEA: Heavy Toll TRAP SPRUNG: On Jap Invaders A stirring story of how Japanese invading forces on the Burma road were sent reeling back by a surprise blow from a "trapped" Chinese army was told by dispatches from Chungking. The Chinese on the Burma road followed their prearranged plan. They allowed the Japs to sweep into Yunnan province and lengthen their communication lines. .The Japs advanced ad-vanced triumphantly. A strong Chinese army, which the Japs had bypassed in central Burma, Bur-ma, struck hard into the exposed rear lines of the invaders. The maneuver cut off the main communication commu-nication route and line of retreat of the Japanese units, which had split into two columns to try to outflank the Chinese. One of these columns was wiped out in the first 24 hours of fighting. The other forces were expected to be "liquidated within a few days," said a Chinese communique. com-munique. GAS RATIONED: On Eastern Seaboard Approximately one-third of all automobile au-tomobile owners in the eastern seaboard sea-board states have been limited to three gallons of gasoline a week by an order from the Office of Price Administration. The one-third, whose use of auto-.mobiles auto-.mobiles is classed as non-essential, Will be entitled to purchase a total of 27 gallons of gasoline from May 15 to July 1, when a permanent rationing ra-tioning plan goes into effect. Motorists have been classified in five categories for rationing purposes. pur-poses. Holders of "A" cards are nonessential. "B-l," "B-2" and "B-3" cards have been issued to motorists, mo-torists, including workers in arms industries, whose cars are necessary in pursuit of their employment. The amount of gasoline they receive depends de-pends upon the amount of daily mileage mile-age they declared at registration time. It ranges from 4 57 to 8 17 gallons a week. The "X" cards were issued to unrestricted users, including buses. ADMIRAL JOHN H. HOOVER Messenger to Martinique. any Axis threat. The state department depart-ment ignored Pierre Laval, chief of the Vichy government, to deal directly di-rectly with Robert. Adm. John H. Hoover, representing represent-ing the United States, made it definite defi-nite that this country would desire to garrison the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, ofT Newfoundland, in addition to Martinique and Guadeloupe Guade-loupe in the Caribbean sea. The state department emphasized that no ultimatum was being served on the French admiral. Robert had been friendly with the two previous American missions since the fall of France in 1940. PRIME MINISTER: A Report As he reviewed the war on the second anniversary of his rise to the premiership, Prime Minister Winston Wins-ton r'yinrfViill nf firpnt Rritnin inHi- Exacting a toll of at least 21 Japanese Jap-anese warships in the Battle of the Coral Sea, American sea and air forces combined to slap back a Jap fleet in its first major attempt to smash through the outer defenses of Australia. Advanced Allied bases reported that at least 500 planes took part in the five-day battle which was fought 450 miles off the northeast coast of Australia. Battered remnants of the attacking attack-ing Jap forces were reported to taxicabs, physicians, nurses, ambulances, ambu-lances, hearses, ministers, highway maintenance crews and government of municipally operated cars. TRADE BARRIERS: Impose 'Heavy Toll' In an action-producing message to the Federal-State Conference on War Restrictions, President Roosevelt Roose-velt declared that legal obstacles to commerce, arising from a desire for regional and local advantage, have imposed a heavy toll on the national war effort. Rep. Emanuel Celler of New York, in a radio broadcast, pointed out a vivid illustration of existing trade barriers: "Rhode Island requires that all I f A , 1 ss. $ A -1 cated that he believed the tide of battle had turned in the favor of the United Nations. While he foresaw suffering ahead he told his people that deserved to hear the encouraging news that Britain's great air force had been constantly bombing a number of Nazi industrial cities and "would continue to bomb them." Churchill warned the Nazis that if they used poison gas against Russia, Rus-sia, that this same RAF would be used to carry gas warfare in the "largest possible scale against military mili-tary objectives in Germany." This remark received special attention as less than 24 hours before he spoke, Russia had reported that the Nazis were using gas mines in the battle of the Crimea. War shipments through the Arctic supply route are definitely getting through to Russia, said the prime minister, although there have been losses to the United Nations in these convoys. He also thinks Russia's army is growing stronger. COAL: Reserve Supplies Repeated warnings issued by the nation's coal dealers were strength-i strength-i ened when Donald M. Nelson, war 1 production chief, declared that emergency rationing of coal is prob-! prob-! able unless consumers build up their reserve supplies immediately to the limit of storage. Nelson pointed out that the fuel . oil situation on the East coast and I winter transportation problems - make stockpiling operations now of ; utmost importance to all consumers 1 who are dependent on coal for heat-1 heat-1 ing their homes or running their - factories. t Joseph B. Eastman, director of . the Office of Defense Transporta- i tion, stated that "there is no short- - age of coal, nor will there be. But . if consumers wait until the fall and i winter months to fill their require-s require-s ments, a serious transportation i shortage will possibly result. This we must avoid." Commander of U. S. naval forces in the great battle of the Coral sea was Vice Admiral Herbert Fairfax Leary of Washington, D. C. Admiral Leary is a gunnery expert and won the Navy Cross in World War I. have limped northward to their bases in New Britain and the Solomon Solo-mon islands following the rout. Sweeping claims by the Japs as to their success in the battle were discounted by both General MacAr-thur MacAr-thur in Australia and by the navy department in Washington. MacAr-thur's MacAr-thur's headquarters described Jap reports of Allied losses as "entirely fictional" and the navy department stated that while reports of the damage dam-age -to U. S. forces was still incomplete, incom-plete, neither a U. S. aircraft carrier car-rier nor a battleship had been lost. milk brought in from neighboring states must be colored 'pink.' Imagine Ima-gine drinking pink milk. The obvious ob-vious purpose is to keep out 'foreign' milk and make all drink Rhode Island Is-land milk." However, trucking restrictions were responsible for most of the wrath. Public Roads Commissioner Mac-Donald Mac-Donald said the following regulations regula-tions would remove the most serious seri-ous stoppages of interstate truck traffic: Maximum width for trucks, 96 inches; height, 12 feet 6 inches; length, 35 feet for single vehicles and 45 feet for combinations; load for a single axle, 18,000 pounds; gross weight, 30,000 pounds for vehicles ve-hicles having two axles and 40,000 pounds for vehicles with three or more. TOKYO ATTACK: iVoit; It's 'Official' Three weeks after American bombing planes rained bombs on Tokyo and other Japanese cities, the raid has been confirmed by an official offi-cial U. S. war department communique. commu-nique. The bombing flight was made in mid-day, and the "selected targets tar-gets were unmistakable and were accurately attacked." Further, the communique stated that "Military, naval and industrial plants were the objectives." Some of the large fires burned at least two days. |
