| OCR Text |
Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS , Japs to Press Suicide Attacks; Severe Terms Set for Germany; U.S. War Casualties Top Million I I Released by Western Newspaper Union. - . (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper L'nion's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Working under direction of Russian soldiers, German civilians clear rubble from Berlin's famed Unter den Linden for pedestrian and motor traffic. Picture shows extent of ruin of city during; historic siege. PACIFIC: Suicidal Intent . Faced with the material superiority superior-ity of the Allies, the Japanese announced an-nounced intensification of their suicide sui-cide plane attacks, and at the same time threatened to send piloted balloon bal-loon bombs over the American mainland. t In revealing the acceleration of suicide attacks, which have Inflicted a heavy toll of U. S. shipping off Okinawa without retarding its conquest, con-quest, the Tokyo radio reported that every Jap navy plane will be ordered to crash-dive into an Allied warship. war-ship. "If this tactic is successful," it was blandly stated, "victory is assured as-sured ... If otherwise, the navy will have many heroes for our shrines." In threatening to dispatch piloted balloon bombs over the American mainland, the Japs said that the present pilotless balloon bombs dropping on the west coast are being be-ing used for experimental purposes. pur-poses. Revealed by the army for their nuisance value, the missiles are borne by grayish, white or green-blue paper balloons 33 feet in diameter and lack direction. While the enemy talked of stepping up use of suicide weapons weap-ons to make up for his material mate-rial inferiority, huge fleets of . B-29s continued to raze Japan's Ja-pan's great industrial centers, producing Nippon's weapons of war. One by one, the enemy's sprawling sprawl-ing manufacturing areas are being put to the torch, with Nagoya, Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka and Kobe all smouldering from tons of jellied-gasoline jellied-gasoline incendiaries. In firing these cities, B-29 crewmen have seared air plants, steel mills, munitions factories, utilities, drug and dye centers, warehouses, port facilities and rail lines. As the superforts continued to wreck ruin on the great industry Japan has carefully built up over 100 years, Pres. Harry S. Truman announced the U. S.'s intention to press the fight to the finish. Calling upon the Japanese to quit and spare their country the destruction visited upon Germany, Ger-many, the President revealed that a force greater than the 3,500,000 men in Europe on V-E Day would be employed in the struggle besides the concentrated concen-trated might of the navy with its strength in excess of 3,000,000. Should the enemy elect to carry on the war, President Truman envisaged en-visaged no easy job, what with the Japs reputed to have 4,000,000 men under arms and millions of military mili-tary age eligible for service. The enemy still possesses 3,000 combat planes, he said, and Jap industry ' still is capable of turning out between be-tween 1,250 and 1,500 aircraft a month despite, bombardments. EUROPE: Severe Terms Stripping Germany of all Hitleri-an Hitleri-an conquests and subjecting the country to absolute Allied authority in every phase of national life, the U. S., British, Russian and French joint military control council, meeting meet-ing in rubbled Berlin, dictated the most severe terms ever imposed on a defeated power. As U. S. representative, repre-sentative, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's Eisenhow-er's presence marked his first appearance ap-pearance in the former German capital cap-ital following its downfall. The signing of the declaration did not set final terms, leaving the door open for further alterations of the German frontier already whittled whit-tled to its 1937 size, and reserving the right to formulate any other orders or-ders relative to the regulation of the country. In addition to remarking the German Ger-man borders and assuming full authority au-thority over the life and death of every person in the shattered Reich, the Big Four claimed control over every labor union, industry and service serv-ice for use in the occupation and reconstruction period. Immediate establishment, of machinery ma-chinery for the joint Allied military council to coordinate the work of the occupying powers struck a snag, with the Soviets insisting that the U. S. and Britain retire from the fringes of the Russian occupation zone before arrangements be discussed. dis-cussed. WAR CASUALTIES:' Top Million Costliest of American conflicts, World War H already has claimed over 1,000,000 U. S. casualties, including in-cluding 227,097 dead, 607,468 wounded, wound-ed, 63,455 missing and 104,867 prisoners. pris-oners. With the big pull against the Japanese Jap-anese still ahead, U. S. dead exceed the 190,000 Union and Confederate soldiers killed in the Civil war, and the 50,280 troops who gave up their lives in battle in World War I. In With Allied war expenditures esti-mated esti-mated at 558 billion dollars and those for the Axis 442 billion, the direct cost of World War 11 has topped the trillion mark, the American university of Washington, D. C, reported. Not included in the figures is the tremendous tremen-dous damage to private and public property, nor China's outlay during its 14-year conflict with the Japanese. all, 620,000 men died in the War Between Be-tween the States from all causes including in-cluding disease' and imprisonment while the toll in World War I approximated ap-proximated 125,000. Of the 1,000,000 plus casualties suffered suf-fered to date, 890,019 werte incurred by the army and 112,868 by the navy. Army deaths total 183,563 and navy 43,534. Of the 52,746 army men listed list-ed as missing, little hope is left that an appreciable number of the 44,000 unaccounted for in Europe will now turn up following their continued absence ab-sence after Germany's conquest. FOOD OUTLOOK: Cut Lend-Lease Along with stoppage of shipments overseas, improved distribution to acute shortage areas should materially materi-ally ease the tight meat situation during the July, August and September Septem-ber quarter, government officials said, though supplies will remain tight. Suspension of meat shipments overseas reflects the gradual curtailment cur-tailment of lend-lease operations following fol-lowing Germany's defeat, with total food deliveries expected to drop to 2 or 3 per cent of the nation's supply sup-ply by the end of the year compared com-pared with about 7 per cent in 1944. Overall relief shipments will rise 5 to 10 per cent, however, with wheat and flour the major "bulk" foods. With federally inspected packers unable to keep up with both military and civilian demands, and non-fed-erally inspected slaughterers' production pro-duction quotas cut, small towns reportedly re-portedly were beginning to feel the effects of the meat shortage. Except Ex-cept for those with food lockers, many farm wives were said to be taking their turn in line with townsfolk towns-folk for the dwindling supplies. NEW GERMANY: Pope's Hope j Declaring that his residence in Germany as a papal nuncio had ac- quainted him with the great qualities of its people. Pope Pius XII hoped for the nation's rebirth to new life ! and dignity after the overthrow of national socialism and the expiation of war criminals. Addressing the world on his name's-day, the Pontiff said that the Vatican had concluded the concordat concor-dat with Germany in 1933 to permit continued Catholic practice and establish es-tablish a spiritual barrier to the subversive sub-versive ' and violent doctrines of Naziism. In defending the rights of small nations, Pius XII said that though they could be expected to surrender some sovereignty in world cooperation, coopera-tion, they must be given full control over their internal affairs. With Europe desolated by the war, the Pope said that dispossessed, disillusioned disil-lusioned and hopeless men threatened threat-ened harmonious relations between the various segments of society. NEAR EAST: Power Politics France's major family row with Britain over Syria and Lebanon took on a broader aspect, with Gen. Charles de Gaulle insisting on a five power parley for settlement of the entire near eastern situation. Using his aces, De Gaulle's bid for a five power parley including the U. S., Britain, France, Gen.deGaulle Russia and China would put him in a position to play up to the friendly Soviets for greater concessions in Syria and Lebanon, while a conference involving just the U. S., Britain and France could be expected to tip the scales in favor of the English. In asking for a settlement of the whole near eastern situation, De Gaulle projected the question of British holdings there as protection for extensive oil concessions and the vital Suez canal, lifeline of the empire. em-pire. As the British moved in force to take over Syria and Lebanon to prevent pre-vent further disorders in the two countries, which balked at French demands for military bases following follow-ing their grant of independence, De Gaulle repeated charges that British agents had provoked the uprisings. Said he: "Everyone knows their names, and I would blush to give them to you." FRANCE: New Money Undertaken to invalidate the huge sums taken by the Germans, root out concealed fortunes of war profiteers prof-iteers and collaborators, and obtain ob-tain an accurate estimate of personal wealth upon which to slap a capital tax, France began the exchange , of $115,000,000 of old bank notes for new ones. Largest and most complicated operation op-eration of its kind ever attempted in France, the exchange proceeded smoothly following months of the most careful preparation. Armed with carbines, police and troops guarded banks, post offices and tax bureaus in every town, village and hamlet during the exchanges. Only $1, $2, $20 and $100 bank notes were being exchanged, with each holder given a maximum of $120 in cash and the remainder kept until the completion of the whole operation. op-eration. Lesser notes corresponding correspond-ing to American "change" were not included, leading to a frantic bid on the part of people short of them to obtain some for smaller but all important im-portant daily transactions. RECIPROCAL TRADE: Farm Split Testifying before the senate finance committee on the house-approved bill extending the reciprocal trade act for three years and granting grant-ing the President authority to reduce re-duce tariffs 50 per cent under existing exist-ing levels, farm organization leaders lead-ers split on their views of the legislation. legis-lation. Declaring that tariff making constitutionally con-stitutionally was a function of congress con-gress and duties should be based on the difference between cost of production pro-duction here and abroad, Albert S. Goss, master of the National Grange, called for continuation of the present act for another year and further study of effects the proposed legislation would have on agriculture. agricul-ture. Backing the bill, Russell Smith, legislative secretary of the National Farmers' Union, said that without the provision for presidential authority au-thority to slash tariffs an additional 50 per cent under present levels, the measure would lose much of its effect ef-fect as a contribution to international internation-al economic cooperation. RELIEF CLOTHING Army clothing unserviceable and beyond repair for further military use is being reconditioned to the fullest full-est possible extent for distribution to needy civilians in liberated areas. In no. way interfering with the existing ex-isting program for repair of all serviceable serv-iceable army clothing for reuse by military personnel, the new project is using facilities of the nine service commands which otherwise would be inactive during the interim period until redeployment of troops to the Pacific gets fully underway. |
