Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS by edward C wayne nazi drive cuts deep into greece As ns s army Is smashed london blasted with worst raids in reprisal for attacks on berlin EDI T ORS NOTZ NOTE when ln lorr r la in does 4 olg mai are it those thai of 1 I the th news dir an aal iril 1 I and nd a not a rily ot this newspaper nw pir rived released RIi ed by western newspaper unton william knudsen defense com q mission chief who has announced 1 t that auto manufacturers will cur tail production 2 to speed de lense wo rh is shown as he inspected a shipyards at quinby abass he told wor lemen that time is the thing q M asi 1 34 BALKAN catastrophe before the nazis balkan campaign had been under way two weeks it was waa apparent that another major catastrophe for hillers Hit lers enemies was in the making but how extensive or how catastrophic none was prepared to say after eleven days of fighting berlin reported that army of some men had capitulated and laid down their fight fighting 1 ng equipment which mch ahad h pr proved oved relatively ineffective against the highly mechanized nazi legions london announced bad news too with the report that it had been sub ejected to the vorst wor stair air blitz bofill of all ill time german sources say this terrific raid came as a reprisal for british raids on cultural and non noni U military objectives in berlin in the very beginning of the balkan campaign the nazi nail italian forces took the offensive in northern africa and the two battles proceeded almost in unison the british being driven practically pracilla ilca lly out of libya by the tha time that the I 1 british sources were ready to admit that i had been defeated reaction Rit tion of the british people was bitter not that they were wele unwilling to receive news ol 01 0 a defeat that had been more ar or less expected but because the ministry of information and the intelligence department w were aie accused of haying having fallen down downa on the job this also was the reaction in washington where it was w freely I 1 said by those in the military knowl i that the tha british permitted roosevelt to promise aid to and greece when it should have been known that aid to the former was to be only a gesture and that the serbs gerbs and slovenes venes could not hope to stand up to the attack more than a week or two washington sources of el high military information frankly sold said that the british intelligence had fallen down as it had in the battle of france fiance and that tho the best j tion in our lour national capital had been to the effect that the infiltration of nazi mechanized mechanize il forces into north africa had been of the smallest these sources said they hey had been told that this shipping of tanks and men to north africa had had only one purpose that of putting pressure on the french colonies and forcing them to toi stand tand firm with the vichy government whether this was deliberate self delusion or an attempt to delude the american and british people was riot not known but certainly lt it was bad information whether deliberate or not for in about two weeks the british had lost everything they had gained in libya and found selves seriously on the defensive as far as the vital mediterranean port of alexandria and the equally vital suez canal were concerned highlights in ill the news BELFAST observers were wondering what stand it if any eire would take in the face of the first serious bombing of northern ireland this city and surrounding towns were hard hit by a blitzkrieg from the air and there were many casualties washington danish minister henrik do kauffman made the greenland agreement with this government ern ment and then was fired but he is still recognized by the IL U S the same happened to french vice consul paul bibily who claiming he was the sole real representative of france in the U S offered this country the use of bases in north africa china despite the recent japanese russian accord has been advised that russian aid to china in its fight against japan will be continued i GREECE ott her heels the greek armies which had checkmated check mated the unaided italian forces presented ted against them in the albanian campaign found themselves facing a horse of another color bolor or when the nazi hordes moved in from bulgaria ind and south from gie greek k sources in the united states many of them intensely patriotic and hoping against hope for a gre greek ek victory had been saying dalr during the albanian battle that if inthe the nazis ever got in greece could not hope to holdi out a month how true these predictions were aln their essence began to be seen a as s the he nazi campaign against north northern ern greece gi proceeded kalonika Sal fell in trapping rapping much of the greek army in eastern macedonia and thrace then the germans broke through into the river valley through the monastir Mo gap and made contact with the italians ln in nor northern thern albania it kasnot was not long before the plan of the gracco british forces to defend a line running in an inverted V shape shap efrom from adriatic to aegean seis seas had to be revised whole hinge of the V in the lake Ph phlorine lorina sector had to be abandoned and the armies retreat until the line was more nearly straight along this line a frightfully intense battle started and few were sanguine enough to believe that the line would hold and further retreat and withdrawal not be necessary parti particularly c as the line as first drawn lay over heavy mountain ranges with peaks up to 1 feet feel and the nazis had broken through these and the fighting to in its secondary phase was on terrain more to the liking of the mechanized units LABOR and defense the strike situation showed some further amelioration with the announcement no Ino by bethlehem steel that about oi of its workers would beti a 10 cent an hour increase in wages this for the moment relieved the public of the anxiety lesta lest a strike lilt this steel producer i holder sholder of moret more defense contracts than any other one concern in the country and orte ohe of the nations largest builders of merchant ships the coal strike however continued to cause trouble with four more killed near harlan ky at a mi mine ne which was continuing to operate despite the down 1 I I 1 negotiations for the ending of this strike were in their theW fInal phase with every evidence that the agreement would go through and that soft coal strikes would be over tor for another another two years if not longer those watching the labor situation felt that the soft coal agree J ment would pave the way for better general industrial conditions and that promised strike threats against U S steel and gin general ral motors might not materialize the settling of 0 the ford strike was hold held up as a shining example of han dung what whal looked like dikea a certain impasse yet there were still moves afoot lyl in congress which would not exact exactly outlaw strikes but which would pro I vide for a 30 20 day cooling off period before the actual calling of a walkout and also calling for official recognition of the dykstra headed national mediation board SHOTS arid and spies the shooting to death of editor john F arena of an italian language newspaper in chicago was tabbed dabbed as a fascist secret police slaying after it was learned that a few hours before he was shot he had furnished information to the dies committee A chicago newspaper man who had talked with arena a few hours before he was murdered beside his automobile quoted the editor as saying that he had received threats against his we life THE GERMAN platt plan long range views of the eventual german plan in the balkans as given to the house of commons by churchill and as figured out by observers in neutral points like ankara and berne centered on one general line with certain individual ramifications cat ions once greece had been defeated said these sou sources i aces and the kingdom subjugated muan after the pattern of norway france and the low countries then the nazi forces 1 flushed with victory would tui turn n their full attention to the battle of the mediterranean I 1 in this observers saw the north Afric african ah campaign campal gri and the balkan campaign as a huge pincers movement aimed atthe at the suez canal and aid points between the recent overturn in the government of iraq frankly said to have been engineered in berlin provided a backlog back log of soil turned back of turkey and syria the nazis would then it was said turn their attention to turkey and I 1 syria aiming at the oil in iran Irani and iraq and the wheat fields of southern russia These would be mere products byproducts by permitting ei a fuller supply source for the eventual campaign against suez in thi the meantime it was was the plan these observers said for the italo german drive against egitto Egypt lo continue and to meet the I 1 southward pushing nazis at that point STIMSON and knox th the growing seriousness of the crisis ceisl as far as the united states was concerned brought grave statements in congressional committees from secretary of war stimson and secretary of the navy knox Si finson warning ozithe osithe gravity of the situation told congress that men nome now in uniform would have to be trained not only for service anthe in the united states but also in all parts of central and south america if need needie be and al also in other parts of the world there were many who believed that the secretary was not talking about the philippines and greenland but was pointing to the eventual likelihood of another A E F anthe same day knox addressing another committee said that the day was past when we bould consider ourselves as and declared that america was being encircled by unfriendly countries the american people meanwhile had to tb buess guess at the abou amou amount antof of lease lend aid that was actually getting over the obeah ocean no facts or figures were being given out and yet on the surface judging by reports from various ports along the atlantic iea sea board british bound merchandise was showing a tendency to pile up and the action regarding danish and other seized vessels was still being talked about in washington LOWER draft age the selective service act popularly known as the draft ma may be amended by this congress to include lads of 18 end and also lower the top limit from 35 to some lesser age president roosevelt told etolil i 1 per men that changing age limits was under study now in draft circles circle s in congress and that the matter may bo be taken up formally early in june army sources also revealed that tha t the war department has modified its ban against men with criminal records from now on an the ahe induction authorities will consider each of the cases on its merits and will be permitted to pass fori fon possible military service those whom it considers de to train trainees also have been given five div more days in which to report for induction duct fork after receiving an order to do so and this 10 day period can be extended to io 60 days or more by order of the local board where a hardship might otherwise result |