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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne Laval Given French Police Powers As Germany Fears Invasion Threat; U. S. Bombers, Subs Smash at Japs; Increased Undersea Program Likely (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed la these columns, they are tbase of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) I (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) VICHY: Pressure from Berlin Regardless of underlying causes, or of how much justification there might have been, the overturn of government in Vichy which had brought Laval back to power as "civil supervisor" had been definitely definite-ly accepted by Britain and the United States as a decision to "go with the Axis." It had come at a moment when there were some indications that Vichy was wavering in its collaboration collabo-ration with Germany, and that Petain and his associates were looking look-ing with longing and friendly eyes toward the United States as a possible pos-sible source of food supplies. Some favorable steps had been made in this direction, then, all of a sudden, Laval seized the police power, and before the world knew it, Laval was back in the cabinet and many believed it marked the end of the Petain regime. London was very positive about the whole thing, saying frankly that the re-entry of Laval into the government, gov-ernment, the man who looks, acts and talks like Hitler, "reduces France to the level of a nickel Balkan Bal-kan state." The spokesman continued: contin-ued: "It clearly indicates the complete com-plete subservience of the Vichy policy pol-icy to Berlin." Two vital reasons were seen for the Laval development and both of them were envisioned as Germany "cracking "crack-ing down" on the Petain regime. The first was the German fear that an American-British invasion of the continent through France is imminent. immi-nent. The second was that Germany feared the growing friendliness of Vichy and Washingon through the ministrations of Leahy. Hardly anybody thought the French fleet would immediately go into the war on Germany's side, neither could most observers see French soldiers fighting against the Rus--sians, nor French fliers manning planes to bomb Britain. But they could see a strong effort to be made at once by Germany PIERRE LAVAL Who talks like Hitler. to man unoccupied France with troops which could be depended on to fight an invasion attempt and thus relieve Germany of the necessity, and already through field glasses they could see the Germans preparing prepar-ing gun emplacements on the channel chan-nel coast. MERCY SHIP: For Bataan The first revelation of identity of the men lost in the battle of Bataan (the Jap claim had been 6,700 Americans Amer-icans of 40,000 total prisoners) came when 600 relatives of 1,400 New Mex-'ico Mex-'ico soldiers pleaded for a "mercy ship" to be sent to Bataan with food and clothing'. They comprised fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers Of the men of the 200th coast artillery corps (antiaircraft), (anti-aircraft), all from the state of New Mexico. It was stated in their petition that they believed their unit to have had more men in it than that from any other single state. While some of the relatives did not sign, and hope was expressed that perhaps much of the corps had escaped from Bataan to Corregidor, there was enough evidence that the regiment had been trapped to induce Senator Chavez to go to work at Washington in their behalf. The first thing that had been done, however, was for the senator to ask the President for definite word as to the fate of New Mexico's 200th. U. S. BOMBERS: Sensational reports from General MacArthur's headquarters had provided pro-vided the information that American Ameri-can planes had made a devastating attack on Japanese bases in the Philippines. Maps showed, however, that unless un-less the planes had been carrier based or at some point not heretofore hereto-fore revealed as in American hands, the shortest roundtrip flight from Australian territory would have been 2.800 miles to the southern tip of Mindanao, or about 4,000 miles. U. S. SUBS: Wolf pack Tactics The success of American submarines subma-rines in the present Pacific war with credit for a substantial percentage of the amount of Japanese warships sent to the bottom, had caused Chairman Vinson of the house naval affairs committee to present a program pro-gram calling for $800,000,000 more in undersea craft. A program adopted in 1940 called for 65 such ships. This would call for 100 more, or more than double the amount previously authorized. The navy, last October, had 186 submarines in service, of which only a few were of the 1,500-ton "cruiser type," which are now under construction con-struction and planned by the Vinson Vin-son program. The naval plan would be for the United States to adopt the same I at '? Tr Jj l ip- It i & . fx: CARL VINSON An $800,000,000 program. "wolfpack" tactics used by the Japs and Germans against American shipping. Though it was pointed out tliat we are building ships faster than they are being sunk, Vinson felt that an increased sub program would kick the Japs out of the war faster, as their shipbuilding facilities were limited. MacARTHUR: In Command Although it had seemed clear enough through dispatches from Australia that the return of Mac-Arthur Mac-Arthur from the Philippines had been to place him in command of all armies of the United Nations in the Far East, some doubt had followed fol-lowed this in the eyes of the public largely because of stories about General Gen-eral Blarney, and the small amount of material coming direct from Mac-Arthur. Mac-Arthur. Finally the direct question was put to the American generalissimo, and his headquarters gave credence to the rumors when it frankly said it didn't know that the general's status sta-tus was not clear. This called for a statement by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Min-ister Curtin, the former stating that it was his understanding that Mac-Arthur Mac-Arthur was in supreme command. The following day this had been concurred in fully by Prime Minister Minis-ter Curtin, who went into enough detail de-tail so that little doubt could remain as to MacArthur's command powers. pow-ers. The only point remaining not clear was whether MacArthur's powers extended to New Zealand. A Netherlands Neth-erlands spokesman had confirmed his command over such Dutch forces as had escaped from the East Indies, In-dies, and the fact that General Still-well Still-well was in command of Chinese in Burma seemed sufficient confirmation confirma-tion from that quarter. PRICES: And Labor The chances were that President Roosevelt might "beat to the punch" congressional efforts to legislate on the labor situation by pegging all prices, including rents and wages and interest on capital, thus following fol-lowing the Canadian and Australian sytems already in effect. Australia, guarding against the "black market" troubles England had had, because of a dire shortage of commodities, took the same step Canada had, and brought all prices and services under control of the government. The price commissioner was given authority to peg all prices and services serv-ices at levels he might select. The announcement already had gone out from Washington that such a move was "under consideration by the government," and most observers observ-ers felt that under precedent as well as law, the Executive Branch had the wartime power to do this. Technically, this, if carried out by the President, would tend to spike the guns of congressmen proposing laws setting the work week and the return to capital on war contracts, because it would affect all workers, pegging their wages at certain levels, lev-els, and also, presumably, setting their hours of work. JAP INTERNEES: Paid Too Much? '. ' T?" " i ", ; . - r . - V ? y ! i' 1 V if - - - ?, ' - . " s SENATOR GILLETTE Offers a four-point program. Latest "scandal" to land on the front pages had been a report, given to the public by Senator Gillette of Iowa, that Japanese internees some of them were being paid $50 a month by the government as against $21 for selectees. J The senator said he was im- pressed by the sources of his information, infor-mation, and that he might ask for the congress to investigate. The senator added that in any case, he was offering a four-point program, as follows: 1. Put all Japs, native and aliens, under United Nations authority and remove them from the Pacific coast. 2. Rescind all their civil rights for the duration. 3. Draft all the males between 20 and 44 for farm work under army control and for basic army pay. 4. Support this entire program with funds obtained from frozen Japanese Jap-anese money now in this country. The senator said that he had information in-formation there was the sum of $130,000,000 now available, and that several hundred millions more could be liquidated by selling frozen Japanese Jap-anese assets in this country. RUSSIANS: Place names coming out in Russian Rus-sian dispatches spoke volumes, more than any claims of killed or wounded, because they definitely had showed that the German "spring offensive," although well under way with hundreds of thousands of men, was getting nowhere. For instance, the Reds had claimed to have pierced German lines in the vicinity of Bryansk; constant con-stant references were made to actions ac-tions north and south of Lake II-men; II-men; Kalinin was a common name in the dispatches and the reports from towns like Mariupol In the south, and Vitebsk pf Nazi atrocities atroci-ties could only have been obtained as the result of Russian advances. There were German admissions showing Russian advances, a breakthrough break-through admitted near Lake Ilmen, and Berlin broadcasts had said that the Reds were pounding the central front with an army of 90,000, including in-cluding hundreds of tanks. COUGHLIN: Social Justice, the weekly newspaper news-paper which was founded at Royal Oak, Mich., by the Rev. Charles E. Coughlin, radio priest, had been barred from the mails. Father Coughlin issued a statement state-ment denying present ownership of the paper, or any connection with its editorial content since last fall. Washington advices, however, had indicated that the principal ownership owner-ship rested with the "radio priest's" father and mother. The accusation against the publication publica-tion had been two things that it was conducted along the line of the Axis' propaganda war against this country, and, second that it had been "making a substantial contribution to a systematic and unscrupulous attack" upon the nation's war effort." ef-fort." AIR EPIC: A heroic epic of the air was the story of the rescue at sea of 17 survivors sur-vivors of a torpedoed vessel, including includ-ing one woman, by a navy patrol plane piloted by Ensign Francis E. Pinter of Bethlehem, Pa. Pinter's plane, a twin-motored bomber flying from San Juan to Guantanamo on submarine patrol got a radio message to investigate a raft at a certain point, and to report chances of effecting a rescue. He had taken off with 500 gallons of gas and had burned 300 gallons, or lightened his ship by 1,800 pounds, and though the sea was rough he decided to chance it "as rescue seemed necessary at once." Down he came, got the people into his plane, all of them so exhausted that they needed help for the transfer. trans-fer. One was tied to the deck, the woman got a bunk, the rest sat or lay where they could, three of them in the bomb compartment. MISCELLANY: Detroit: Henry Ford announced that his research engineers have discovered dis-covered a method of making a satisfactory sat-isfactory auto tire with one-sixteenth the rubber used in present tires. It will wear well, he said. London: A large number of Americans Amer-icans were in London taking a special spe-cial course on how to defend merchant mer-chant ships against attacks by U-boats. |
