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Show M.I Mh qrewpearsdn JU i & ROBERT ALLEN Washington, D. C. DRAFT PICTURE If you are registered on the draft rolls, here is the general picture of your prospects under the selective service amendments just passed by congress: If you are between 20 and 45. unmarried un-married with no dependents, your status is unchanged. If you are married and now classified classi-fied as 1-A, your draft board will be directed to shift you to 3-A. That means the chances are strong you will not be called for at least another an-other 8 to 12 months, depending on the trend of the war and on what is done about lowering the draft age to 18. i If you are unmarried, but have dependents and are classed 3-A, you will be moved up to 1-A and headed for induction by fall. The new allowance al-lowance and allotment act, under which soldiers with dependents put up $22 a month and the government $28, is the basis for this change. As selective service officials figure it, by offsetting these two switches against one another, the 4,500,000 army which the war department wants to raise by January, can be obtained from 1-As in the 20 to 45 age groups. After that, if the army still needs men, selective service serv-ice either will have to turn to married men now deferred, or the draft age will have to be lowered to 18, as strongly favored fa-vored by military chiefs. That will take congressional action, ac-tion, and until next November, there is no chance of anything being done by congress. Even after November elections there is no certainty congress con-gress will be any more eager to act. It will depend on what happens hap-pens in the elections and the way the war is going. If it is not going well, congress is likely to be more willing to follow the demands of the military and include 18-year-olds. If that is done, then married ex-, ex-, empts will get another breather, probably into the summer or fall of 1943. It is estimated that 18-19 year-ers year-ers will furnish 1,200,000 new soldiers. sol-diers. This would bring the army to over 6,000,000 by next July. If by that time still more men are needed, then will come the turn of married registrants, beginning witl the lower age groups. Note: Privately, military experts believe that before the war is over the U. S. will have from seven to eight million men in the army and navy. EUROPEAN REVOLT After returning on the Drottning-holm, Drottning-holm, Leland B. Morris, U. S. charge d'affaires in Berlin, and George Wadsworth, charge in Rome, gave the senate foreign relations committee some eye-opening slants on international conditions in the Axis countries, coupled with a blunt warning. The warning was: "Don't depend on the peoples of Germany and Italy revolting against their masters." There is only a long-shot chance of an Axis collapse through revolution, revolu-tion, the two diplomats reported. The German and Italian people, they said, are under such severe military mili-tary rule and surveillance, that it would be extremely difficult to plan, much less carry out, revolts at present. Morris, who served in Berlin about 18 months, also pooh-poohed rumors that the German people are not loyal to Hitler. "They are weary of war," he said, "bnt they are still faithful to Hitler. Make no mistake about that. They may not consider con-sider him the idol they once did, but they are still behind him. Anyone who thinks otherwise other-wise is fooling himself." Asked about German "morale," Morris replied that from the standpoint stand-point of loyalty to the fuehrer, "it was good." Wadsworth said the Italian people are kept in such subjugation and fear by the Germans that it was difficult to get a true expression of their feelings, though the morale of the Italians definitely was not as good as that of the Germans. "Do you think there is any pos-' sibility of a revolt in Italy in the next year?" he was asked. "I do not," Wadsworth replied. WAR NOTES C Here is more good news for U. S. cotton growers: Camouflage requirements re-quirements in the far-flung war areas are making heavy inroads in the huge cotton, surplus. Vast quantities of cotton cloth are being bought by the army for camouflage purposes. C. Suggestion to the army and navy air branches: How about giving the navigators and radio operators of plane crews a favorable mention in announcements of successful attacks. at-tacks. Pilots and gunners, who of course richly deserve credit, are always al-ways cited. C. Australian External Minister Evatt, busy flying between Sydney, London and Washington to beg planes for his government, nevertheless never-theless found time co write a book on the Australian labor movement |