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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS 1943 Farm Goals to Be Biggest Ever; U. S. Increases Strength in Pacific As Air-Naval Forces Blast Japanese; Nazis: 'No Need to Take Stalingrad 1 I F:i)ITOK'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysis and not necessarily f this newspaper.) i Released by Western Newspaper Union. I - 1 ' - ' 0'. -'j:4 .f J "if i , - - ; , A secret landing by American forces in the Andreanof group of the Aleutian islands made it possible to establish an airfield from which planes could blast Japanese positions on Kiska island. The above photo shows American troops in a "bucket brigade" passing supplies ashore from a small boat. SOUTHWEST PACIFIC: Yank Power Grows The Japs learned a lesson about American air and naval strength in. the Pacific when five of their ships including a heavy cruiser were damaged dam-aged by a U. S. aircraft carrier task force which pierced Nipponese defenses de-fenses at Shortland island in the north Solomons. In addition, an air field was blasted at Bougainville, main Jap air base, and numerous aircraft destroyed. A navy communique reported that the Japs were caught by surprise and the American operation was carried out without loss of men or equipment. Besides the heavy cruiser, the American battle score against the Jap forces included one transport damaged by heavy bombs, one seaplane sea-plane tender and two cargo ships damaged by light bombs. In New Guinea, the advance of the tough Australian bush troops continued over the Owen Stanley mountains which the Japs had penetrated pene-trated weeks before. Although craggy trails had prevented pre-vented swift movement, the Australians Austra-lians had cleared the enemy before them and had removed the threat of a Jap surge that once had pierced to within 32 miles of strategic Port Moresby. A communique issued by Gen. Douglas MacArthur's headquarters in Australia disclosed that the Allies' Al-lies' New Guinea advance had been made "with practically no loss." "Information from native carriers who deserted the Jap forces plus reports re-ports from our own patrols, indicates the retreating Japs were exhausted, living on short rations and badly needing supplies," the communique reported. Much of the Australian success was said to be due to a constant air attack on Japanese supply lines. FARM GOALS: Boosted for 1943 A nation-wide wartime plowup next spring, reminiscent of the days of 1918, loomed as the U. S. department depart-ment of agriculture drew up tentative tenta-tive production goals calling for even greater acreages and outgut of most farm products than was requested under the record 1942 production. The goals for all farm crops but three wheat, short staple cotton and commercial vegetables were set higher than for 1942. Corn and other feed grains, beans, peas, peanuts, pea-nuts, potatoes, sugar beets, hemp and vegetables for processing were given the green light. So were production pro-duction goals for cattle, hogs, dairy products, poultry and eggs. With less manpower, machinery and other facilities to operate with, farmers had their work cut out for them. Moreover, the needs of the armed forces and the Allies, particularly particu-larly Russia, were said to be much greater than had been expected a few weeks before. If 1943 farm goals are not reached, civilian consumers will have to tighten their belts. Consumer rationing ra-tioning was to be inaugurated January Janu-ary 1, but civilians had already been asked to limit meat consumption to 2Vz pounds weekly. A possibility remained that sooner soon-er or later, butter, cheese, cooking fats, vegetable oils, eggs, poultry and canned fruits and vegetables would be placed in the same category catego-ry as meat. RUSSIA: Stalingrad Checkmate Unnoticed at the start, Marshal Timoshenko's counteroffensive, begun be-gun far up the northern arm of the Don river in the vicinity of Klet-skaya, Klet-skaya, had moved forward. Its object was to draw off German striking strik-ing power from the Stalingrad area. Timoshenko had struck first, in a 50-mile area between the Don and Volga northwest of Stalingrad and had extended his forces southwest to the German flank. That Timoshenko's strategy had worked was indicated by a significant signifi-cant statement on the Berlin radio which announced that the Germans would abandon frontal attacks on Stalingrad and destroy what was left of the city with heavy artillery. "It is no longer necessary to send German Ger-man infantry and assault engineers into the battle," the announcement said. "The finishing touches will now be entrusted to heavy artillery and dive bombers." Observers noted that the German announcement was reminiscent of propaganda covering the Nazi withdrawal with-drawal a year ago from Rostov, when the Russians gained their first victory of the war. Southward, in the Caucasus the Nazis had succeeded in advancing in the Mozdok area, while Rumanian reinforcements were reported pushing push-ing southward from the German-held Black sea base of Novorossisk. WAR COSTS: 210 Million Daily War costs will exceed 210 million dollars a day by January 1, 1943, according to figures based on revised re-vised calculations by Budget Director Direc-tor Harold Smith. Mr. Smith's estimates esti-mates placed total war spending at 78 billion dollars in the current fiscal year which will end June 30, 1943. The budget director's upward estimate es-timate was about 25 billions more than President Roosevelt's figures last January and eight billions more than a previous calculation by Smith. Increased expenditures for all war purposes would make it necessary for the treasury to borrow approximately approxi-mately $60,300,000,000 from the public pub-lic during the current fiscal year. LABOR: Lewis Divorces CIO Labor leaders and politicos had long awaited the formal secession of the United Mine Workers of America from the CIO. Bushy-browed Bushy-browed UMW Chief John L. Lewis kept his own counsel, but chose a dramatic moment for the divorce. The occasion was the miners' annual an-nual convention at Cincinnati. Brusquely warning the delegates that he would no longer remain the union's president if it remained in the CIO, Lewis obtained unanimous consent to withdraw. A committee report urging the separation charged the CIO with failure to pay a $1,650,000 debt to the UMW and denounced de-nounced alleged attacks by CIO officers of-ficers on Lewis. The convention action merely gave public recognition to a situation situa-tion that had existed for months. Lewis and Philip Murray, CIO president, presi-dent, were feuding after a friendship friend-ship of years standing. Murray, a former miner and vice president of UMW, had been "read out" of the union, last spring. ALEUTIANS: Japs Fold Tents As mysteriously as they first appeared, ap-peared, Japanese forces disappeared from the two westernmost Aleutian islands, a navy communique revealed. re-vealed. The two islands abandoned were Attu and Agattu, lying close together nearly 200 miles from Kiska. Heavy bombing by American aircraft air-craft which destroyed most of the Japanese buildings on the two islands is-lands was cited as a reason for the withdrawal. The Japs still held a foothold on Kiska island, but Yankee flyers made their tenure precarious. Army heavy bombers operating from the newly acquired American bases in the Andreanof An-dreanof islands in the Aleutians blasted Jap-held positions on Kiska in repeated raids. The islands of Attu and Agattu were originally seized by the Japs shortly after the Aleutian campaign opened last June. SCANDINAVIA: Headache for Nazis Germany's influence in the Scandinavian Scan-dinavian countries had been weakening. weak-ening. This was evident when a general election in Sweden had returned re-turned a record number of Communist, Commu-nist, anti-Nazi delegates to the national na-tional assembly. It was evident, too, in frequent peace feelers from war-plagued Finland. Thus when rioting and disorders broke out against the Axis overlords in Norway Nor-way and Denmark, few observers were surprised. Swift was the Nazi action in countering coun-tering with force the Scandinavian threat. The Germans proclaimed a state of emergency in central Norway Nor-way from the seaport of Trondheim to the Swedish border. Reprisal executions ex-ecutions followed. Reports from Copenhagen said tension had mount- ' ed to fever heat because of clashes ' resulting from the "overbearing and provocative" attitude of the volunteer volun-teer pro-Nazi "Free Corps." The Nazi radio gave official confirmation con-firmation of Scandinavian unrest by announcing that the' Norwegian emergency was proclaimed because of recent sabotage attempts "which if they had succeeded would have endangered Norway's supply system." sys-tem." RUMOR MONGER: Menace Described Americans were called upon to beware be-ware of rumor mongers by Robert P. Patterson, undersecretary of war. Speaking before the American Federation of Labor convention in Toronto, Mr. Patterson cited rumors assailing the quality of and effectiveness effective-ness of weapons made by American labor as evidence of Nazi propaganda. propa-ganda. "Criticism of the Garand rifle, U. S. tanks and P-40 planes ROBERT P. PATTERSON Warns of Nazi rumor factory. as inferior died away in the face of actual performance," he said. "In the days to come Hitler will redouble his efforts to divide the nations now united against him. In this task he will make use of the rumor mongers among us. "His agents will spread stories in the United States and Canada that will reflect on Britain. In Britain, his agents will spread the story that Americans are not doing their part in fighting, but are interested only in making money out of the war. And he will try to alienate us from Russia." Mr. Patterson said that production produc-tion of armaments for the Allied nations na-tions will cut deeper and deeper into production of civilian goods and require re-quire suspension of many peacetime standards of hours and working conditions. con-ditions. SNUB VICHY: Urges Ex-Envoy Even as Pierre Laval imposed a labor draft to speed the delivery of 150,000 French workers for German . war factories, Walter Edge, former American ambassador to France, urged withdrawal of U. S. recognition recogni-tion of the Vichy government. Such action, he said, would solidify 95 per cent of the French people behind be-hind the United Nations. Emphasizing that he was speak-' ing as a private citizen, Edge said it was "unfortunate that the government govern-ment seems to feel it necessary to continue recognition of the Vichy regime." "There may be many things that warrant continued recognition that I know nothing about,'; he declared, "but only a small percentage of the French people are in sympathy with the Vichy government. It must be discouraging to the majority to see their overlords recognized by this country." |
