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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Nazis Tighten Lines on Russian Front I To Strengthen West Against Invasion; Hull Appeals for Unity on Peace Aims; Jap Forces Peril Indian Supply Bases (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) ; L Released by Western Newspaper Union if 1 ; Burma Lull in fighting on Burma front finds U. S. Major Graham Batchelor of Milledgeville, Ga.t dining with Chinese troops, chopsticks, rice-howl and all. PACIFIC: On Run, on Go On the run in the Pacific, Jap forces remained on the go in India, thrusting forward toward the Assam-Bengal railroad supplying Lieut. Gen. Joseph Stilwell's U. S.Chinese S.-Chinese troops in northern Burma. With U. S. forces closing in from the west, the Japs abandoned the northern and southern coasts of New Britain and fell back toward pfWAWMIiup WUII"'.''.'jlipjW!liW.MJ II. '! t v i. && "A I Gen. Stilwell and Adm. Mountbatten the once busy enemy base of Rabaul on the northeastern tip of the island for a last ditch stand. At the same time, U. S. naval fliers continued to bombard the Japs' outposts in the Carolines. As the Japs pressed on the Assam-Bengal Assam-Bengal railway in India, they severed sev-ered the network of highways feeding feed-ing Adm. Louis Mountbatten's British Brit-ish and Indian troops in the battle zone, forcing their supply by air in the mountainous jungle area. DRAFT: Take Younger Men Delay ranging from a few days to 90 days in the induction of men over 26 was forecast as the result of orders or-ders to local boards to postpone the drafting of registrants in this age group and rush the processing of those under 26, to meet the services' demands for younger men. v Following exhaustion of the pool of men under 26, those from 26 to 29, and 30 and over will be next in the order of induction, with fathers granted special consideration in all cases where other factors, such as employment in essential occupation, are equal. Meanwhile, congress studied proposals to push 1,000,000 4Fs into war work, by formation of compulsory labor battalions when 4Fs refuse to accept necessary jobs. The navy needs 400,000 men by September 1 to reach its goal of 3,600,000, and it will require 50,000 to 75,000 monthly after that to maintain main-tain full strength. Its objective of 7,700,000 men already attained, the army needs from 75,000 to 100,000 men monthly for replacements. SUPREME COURT: Labor Decisions In three far reaching decisions affecting af-fecting labor, the Supreme court ruled: 1. That under the National Labor Relations act, an employer must deal with a union designated as a collective collec-tive bargaining agent, and not with individual members of the union who have not formally renounced it. 2. That the National Labor Relations Rela-tions board can order an employer to bargain collectively with a union that has lost a majority of its membership mem-bership during negotiations. 3. That under the 13th amendment and the anti-peonage act, no man could be held for criminal action if he failed to fulfill his promise of going go-ing to work after receiving money. The court declared that the complainant com-plainant should have other legal recourse re-course in such cases. EUROPE: Straighten Lines Thousands of U. S. and British bombers thundered over Belgium and France to pound rail and canal routes serving the channel coast as the , zero hour for the invasion neared, while the harassed enemy straightened his lines in the east for a last ditch defense of the Balkans. Big formations of the AAF and RAF joined in bombarding the Germans' Ger-mans' communications lines in Belgium Bel-gium and France in an effort to impair im-pair their usefulness for shifting Nazi armies to the different sectors where the Allies may land invasion forces. Factories turning out war weapons for the enemy's military machine also were blasted as swarms of Nazi fighter planes rose to challenge the attackers.' : Taking up their positions alongside along-side of Rumanian soldiers now fighting fight-ing on their own soil, the Germans surrendered their last foothold in the Russian Ukraine, while farther to the southeast, Red troops threatened threat-ened Nazi lines in the Crimea, the huge chunk of land jutting into the Black sea and guarding the water route to the eastern Balkans. Nazi Aim Defensive action aimed at a negotiated nego-tiated peace is in back of the heads of the German leadership, competent compe-tent military authorities agree, as the Nazis shorten their lines in Russia Rus-sia and build up strength in the west against an invasion. By pulling in their lines in Russia and mobilizing Rumania, Hungary and the Baltic states, the Germans can defend their new positions with less men, while still offering stiff resistance to the Reds. Behind the extensive concrete and steel fortifications in the west, the Germans are estimated to have 750,000 troops in France and the low countries and 450,000 in the Balkans. In addition, the Nazis are said to have another 750,000 troops in reserve for . quick dispatch , to threatened areas. Planning economical use of these troops behind tough defensive barriers, bar-riers, with the advantage of short communications lines, the Germans hope to wear down Allied resistance and receive moderate, peace terms. FOREIGN POLICY: Hull Explains Because Russia's annexation of parts of Finland, Rumania and Poland Po-land and all of the Baltic states might be essential to pre- -3 vent future aggres- j sion and establish world security, such s- action would not be ?i s j contrary to the ob- p, jf 1 jectives of the At- lantic Charter, Sec- " retary of State Cor- a jpT dell Hull declared. toil? In explaining the Cordell Hull significance of the Atlantic Charter, Hull said: "It (the charter) is not a code of law from which detailed answers to every question can be distilled by painstaking painstak-ing analysis of its words and phrases. It points the direction in which solutions are to be sought . . . What is fundamental is the objectives objec-tives of the charter ..." Unity among the U. S., Britain, Russia and China is the key to future fu-ture world peace, Hull said, and dissension dis-sension among these powers caa only wreck postwar stability. POPULATION The south and west sections of the country have gained more than 2Vz million people as a result of wartime movements of military and civilian personnel. Meanwhile, the north central and northeastern states lost 450.000. Natural increase during dur-ing these two years added 2,101,225 bringing the estimated total to 133,-770,500. 133,-770,500. The census bureau also reported re-ported that of 29 states gaining population, pop-ulation, Virginia, Florida, Arizona, Nevada and California wer t 10 per cent or more. AGRICULTURE: Wheat Prospects With an indicated yield of 12.8 bushels per acre, the U. S. department depart-ment of agriculture predicted a 1944 winter wheat crop of 601,759,000 bushels. 72.153.000 more than last year's production. Western Kansas and the adjoining wheat sections of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado benefited ! most from recent rain, the precipitation precipita-tion offsetting a moisture deficiency of last fall. Nebraska, however, still was reported in need of rainfall to perk weakened plants. Frequent rains or snows gave the crop producing areas of the country the wettest March since 1922, the department said, delaying farm work in nearly all states. Farm Values Up Average prices of farm land in the U. S. were pushed up 15 per cent in the year ending March 1, the department of agriculture reports, with values now 38 per cent above the 1935-39 figures and sales of land are more numerous than during 1919. Much of the acreage is going into "active-farmer ownership" it was stated. More than half the sales were for cash. Some buyers resold for a quick profit, but the majority of purchasers purchas-ers are seeking additional land for planting. Compared with the 1935-39 averages, values have increased almost al-most three-fifths in the East-South-Central states and more than two-fifths two-fifths in the South Atlantic, Mountain Moun-tain and Pacific states. POLITICS: Deivey Boomed Growing strength of Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, N. Y., as the favorite for the Republican presidential nomination nomina-tion in June, and the strong showing made by Gen. Douglas MacArthur for the position in the Illinois GOP primary, highlight political talk. Of equal interest, however, ' is President Roosevelt's continued popularity pop-ularity in the Democratic party, reflected re-flected in his capture of the Wisconsin Wiscon-sin convention delegates, and his heavy vote in the Nebraska preferential prefer-ential primaries. ' Governor Dewey's candidacy boomed sky-high in the Wisconsin primaries, when 18 convention delegates dele-gates pledged to him won handily over the field. In the Nebraska primaries, pri-maries, approximately 15,000 voters expressed their favoritism for him by writing in his name on the ballot. Running strongly in the rural districts, dis-tricts, General MacArthur polled over 450,000 votes in the Illinois primaries. pri-maries. MEXICO: President Saved As Mexico's President Manuel Avila Camacho stepped from his automobile in the courtyard of the ex- p5"! ecutive offices in "tls, 4 Mexico City, a 30- tf-i,-",! year-old army lieu- ? tenant strode toward fQ- " fj him. As the two men 8 Vi approached each A. other, the lieutenant f ' j$ suddenly whipped f Xs!$' g out a revolver and v ijJt ' fired point-blank at imSJSeanuuua the president, but President the bullet merely Camacho ripped through the coat and vest of the president without with-out wounding him. Quickly overpowered by Camacho himself, the lieutenant was taken into custody, where he complained of a recent law prohibiting Mexican army officers from attending church in uniform. Later in trying to escape es-cape from guards, the assailant was felled with gunfire. As the news of the attempted assassination as-sassination stirred the emotional Mexican populace, Camacho calmly warned against turbulence, declaring: declar-ing: "I wish you to see this as an incident possibly caused by a sole individual or at the most a small group . . . Under no circumstances must we divide the Mexican nation. We must continue our effort for the conservation of its unity." RUM: Admit Old Stocks Because restrictions against importation im-portation into the U. S. would not help to divert alcohol to the synthetic syn-thetic rubber or other war industries, indus-tries, the War Production board lifted lift-ed all bans against the shipment of rum three years old or older into the country. As a result, it is expected that 2,000,000 gallons of the rum will be imported from Cuba, Mexico, Jamaica Ja-maica and other foreign countries. Heavy rum producing areas like Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands will not be affected, however, since the U. S. regulates the production of beverage cane spirits in its territories terri-tories and possessions. Since the rum affected by the new order was manufactured before the present emphasis on volume sales and lighter grades, it is of high quality, qual-ity, the WPB said. CIVILIAN GOODS To prevent a drain on manpower in war industrial centers, the War Production board froze production of civilian goods at the level of the last three months in 183 labor shortage areas throughout the country. Reflecting the changing needs of warfare, the WPB also raised production pro-duction of heavy artillery, munitions and gun carriages to top priority. One effect of the order freezing production of civilian .goods is expected ex-pected to be the reduction in output of electric irons. |
