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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne Nazi Drive Cuts Deep Into Greece As Jugoslavia's Army Is Smashed; London Blasted With "Worst' Raids In Reprisal for Attacks on Berlin (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed in these colnmns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) I (Released by Western Newspaper Union. I BALKAN: Catastrophe Before the Nazis' Balkan campaign cam-paign had been under way two , weeks it was apparent that another j major catastrophe for Hitler's ene-I ene-I mies was in the making, but how ! extensive or how catastrophic none was prepared to say. After eleven days of fighting, Berlin Ber-lin reported that Jugoslavia's army of some 1,200,000 men had capitulated capitu-lated and laid down their fighting I equipment which had proved relatively rela-tively ineffective against the highly mechanized Nazi legions. London announced bad news too with the report that it had been subjected sub-jected to the worst air blitz "of all time." German sources say this terrific raid came as a reprisal for British raids on "cultural and non-military" non-military" objectives in Berlin. In the very beginning of the Balkan campaign, the Nazi-Italian forces took the offensive in Northern Africa, and the two battles proceeded proceed-ed almost in unison, the British being be-ing driven practically out of Libya by the time that the British sources were ready to admit that Jugoslavia had been defeated. Reaction of the British people was bitter, not that they were unwilling to receive news of a defeat that had been more or less expected, but because the ministry of information and the intelligence department were accused of having fallen down on the job. This also was the reaction in Washington, where it was freely aid by those in the military know I that the British permitted Roosevelt Roose-velt to promise aid to Jugoslavia and Greece when it should have been known that aid to the former was to be only a gesture, and that the Serbs and Slovenes could not hope to stand up to the attack more than a week or two. Washington sources of high military mili-tary information frankly said that the British intelligence had fallen down, as it had in the Battle of France, and that the best information informa-tion in our national capital had been to the effect that the infiltration of Nazi mechanized forces into North Africa had been of the smallest. These sources said they had been told that this shipping of tanks and men to North Africa had had only one purpose that of putting pressure pres-sure on the French colonies, and forcing them to stand firm with the Vichy government. Whether this was deliberate self-delusion, self-delusion, or an attempt to delude the American and British people was not known, but certainly it was bad Information, whether deliberate or not. For In about two weeks the British Brit-ish had lost everything they had gained in Libya, and found themselves them-selves seriously on the defensive as far as the vital Mediterranean port of Alexandria and the equally vital Suez canal were concerned. Highlights . . . in the news BELFAST: Observers were wondering won-dering what stand, If any, Eire would take in the face of the first serious bombing of northern Ireland. Ire-land. This city and surrounding towns were hard hit by a blitzkrieg from the air and there were many casualties. WASHINGTON: Danish Minister Henrik De KaufTman made the Greenland agreement with this government, gov-ernment, and then was fired, but ho is still recognized by the U. S. The same happened to French Vice Consul Con-sul Paul liibily, who, claiming he was the sole "real" representative of France In the U. S., olTered this country the use of bases in North Africa. CHUNGKING: China, despite the recent Japanese-Russian accord, has been ndvised that Russian aid to China In its fight against Japan will be continued. William Knudsen, Defense Commission chief, who has announced an-nounced that auto manufacturers manufactur-ers ivill curtail production 20 to speed defense work is shown as he inspected a shipyards at Quincv, Mass. He told workmen that: "Time is the thing." .wiiiujiiiujtSMj-'. . . """I William Knudsen, Defense I '....;,:1i'ji,s. : Commission chief, who has an- ,vv 4V-' " ' - nounced that auto manufacture I k "- ers curtail production 20 It ftt " fVirS, l sPepd defense work is shown P fvt ill as he inspected a shipyards at fe' . j. Quincv, Mass. He told uorkmen fC gl' tnat: "Time is the thing." I I. - "JT j . - V - , GREECE: On Her Heels The Greek armies, which had checkmated the unaided Italian forces presented against them in the Albanian campaign, found themselves them-selves facing a horse of another color col-or when the Nazi hordes moved in from Bulgaria and south from Jugoslavia. Jugo-slavia. Greek sources in the United States, many of them intensely patriotic pa-triotic and hoping against hope for a Greek victory, had been saying during dur-ing the Albanian battle that if the Nazis ever got in, Greece could not hope to hold out a month. How true these predictions were in their essence began to be seen as the Nazi campaign against northern north-ern Greece proceeded. Salonika fell, trapping much of the Greek army in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. Then the Germans broke through into the Struma river valley, through the Monastir gap and made contact with the Italians in northern Albania. Alba-nia. It was not long before the plan of the Graeco-British forces to defend a line running in an inverted V-shape V-shape from Adriatic to Aegean seas had to be revised, and the whole hinge of the V, in the Lake Ochrida-Phlorina Ochrida-Phlorina sector had to be abandoned, aban-doned, and the armies retreat until the line was more nearly straight. Along this line a frightfully intense in-tense battle started, and few were sanguine enough to believe that the line would hold and further retreat and withdrawal not be necessary, particularly as the line, as first drawn, lay over heavy mountain ranges with peaks up to 6.000 feet And the Nazis had broken through these, and the fighting in its secondary sec-ondary 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 an-nouncement by Bethlehem Steel that about 90,000 of its workers would get a 10-cent-an-hour increase in wages. This, for the moment, relieved the public of the anxiety lest a strike hit this eteel-producer, holder of more defense contracts than any other one concern in the country, and one of the nation's largest builders of merchant mer-chant ships. The coal strike, however, continued contin-ued to cause trouble, with four more killed near Harlan, Ky., at a mine which was continuing to operate despite de-spite the general shut down. Negotiations for the ending of this strike were in their final phase, with every evidence that the agreement would go through and that soft coal strikes would be over for another two years, if not longer. Those watching the labor situation situa-tion felt that the soft-coal agreement agree-ment would pave the way for better general Industrial conditions ond that promised strike threats against U. S. Steel and General Motors might not materialize. The settling of the Ford strike was held up as a shining example of handling han-dling what looked like a certain impasse. im-passe. Yet there were still moves afoot in congress which would not exactly outlaw strikes, but which would provide pro-vide for a 30-dny "cooling off period" pe-riod" before the actual calling of a walkout, and also calling for official offi-cial recognition of the Dykstra-hcaded Dykstra-hcaded national mediation board. SHOTS: And Spivs The shoot inn to death of Editor John I' Arena of an Halian lanuaKr newspaper In Chicago was tabbed ns a Fascist secret police slaying nfter It was learned that n 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 tie was murdered beside his automobile, quoted the editor ns unylnjC that he had received threats HK;iost his life. THE GERMAN: I Plan I Long range views of the eventual German plan in the Balkans as giv-1 en to the house of commons by : Churchill, and as figured out by ob- j servers in neutral points like Ankara and Berne centered on one general line, with certain individual ramifi-! cations. : Once Greece had been defeated, 1 said these sources, and the king- dom subjugated much after the pat- I tern of Norway, France and the Low , Countries, then the Nazi forces, i flushed with victory, would turn j their full attention to the Battle of the Mediterranean. ! In this observers saw the North African campaign and the Balkan J campaign as a huge pincers move- j ment, aimed at the Suez canal and ! points between. The recent overturn in the govern- j ment of Iraq, frankly said to have , been engineered in Berlin, provided a back-log of soil turned back of Turkey and Syria. The Nazis would then, it was said, ; turn their attention to Turkey and Syria, aiming at the oil in Iran and ; Iraq, and the wheat-fields of southern south-ern Russia. These would be mere by-products permitting a fuller supply source for the eventual campaign against Suez. In the meantime it was the plan,, these observers said, for the Italo-German Italo-German drive against Egypt to continue, con-tinue, and to meet the southward-pushing southward-pushing Nazis at that point STIMSON: j And Knox The growing seriousness of the crisis as far as the United States was concerned brought grave statements state-ments in congressional committees from Secretary of War Stimson and Secretary of the Navy Knox. Stimson, warning of the gravity of the situation, told congress that men now in uniform would have to be ! trained not only for service in the United States, but also in all parts of Central and South America, if need be, and "also in other parts of the world." There were many who believed that the secretary was not talking about the Philippines and Greenland, j but was pointing to the eventual like- j lihood of another A. E. F. ! On the same day Knox, addressing another committee, said that the day was past when we could consider con-sider ourselves as unmenaced, and declared that "America was being encircled by unfriendly countries."! The American people, meanwhile, had to guess at the amount of lease-lend lease-lend aid that was actually getting over the ocean. No facts or figures were being given out and yet on the surface, judging by reports from various ports along the Atlantic seaboard. 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 Ae? The selective service act, popularly popular-ly known as the draft, may be amended by this congress to include lads of 18, and also lower the top limit from 35 to some lesser age. President Roosevelt told newspaper newspa-per men that changing age limits was under study now in draft circles in congress, and tha-t the matter may be taken up formally early in Juno. Army sources also revealed that the war department has modilled i'.s ban against men with criminal records. rec-ords. From now on the induelion authorities will consider each of the cases on its merits, nnd will he permitted per-mitted to pass for possible military service thnse whom it considers desirable de-sirable to train. Trainees also have been given five more days In which to report for induction in-duction after receiving an order to do so. and this 10-day period can be extended to (10 days or muni by order of the local board, where a hardship might otherwise result. |