| OCR Text |
Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Russians Cheered by U. S. War Pact Pledging Support of Second Front; Nation's Scrap Rubber Pile Grows; U. S. Information Units Consolidated (EDITOR'S VOTE When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) ) Released by Western Newspaper Union. I ALEUTIANS: Foggy Details When the Jap radio announced that Nipponese troops had made a landing on the Aleutian islands there was no immediate denial by the U. S. government. For the navy had to wait for the fog to clear in that area to check these claims. When the weather turned better it was found that enemy landings had been made on the island of Attu, at I the extreme tip of the island group which stretches off Alaska in the Pacific ocean. Also Jap ships had put into Kiska harbor on an island nearer the North American mainland. main-land. Navy "operations" were called into play immediately to squelch any threat of a Jap drive for Alaska. It was believed that the landings took place at the time of the first raid on Dutch Harbor and about the same time as the beginning of the Midway island battle. Rear Admiral John H. Towers, U. S. navy chief of the bureau of aeronautics, classed the Jap thrust as of "no real importance" and figured that it could even become a liability to the enemy. WAR INFORMATION: Gets an Overhauling At long last there came word from Washington that all the information functions of the government agencies agen-cies were being consolidated by the creation of an "Office of War Information" In-formation" to be headed by Elmer Davis, well-known writer and radio commentator. All the duties and activities of the Office of Facts and Figures, the Office Of-fice of Government Reports, the division di-vision of information for the Office of Emergency Management and the foreign information service of the co-ordinator of information, will be under the authority of the new office, of-fice, according to a White House announcement an-nouncement Further, Director Davis will have "full authority to eliminate all overlapping over-lapping and duplication and to discontinue dis-continue in any department any informational in-formational activity which is not BYRON PRICE To collaborate with Davis. necessary or useful to the war effort ef-fort . . ." Under policies laid down by the President this office will "issue directives to all departments depart-ments and agencies of the government govern-ment with respect to their informational informa-tional services." This means that while the various agencies and departments will still continue to operate, their activities must now conform to such direction as the Office of War Information may give them. The presidential order provided for close collaboration between Byron Price, director of censorship, and Davis to "facilitate the prompt and full dissemination of all available avail-able information which will not give aid to the enemy." HOUSING: 'Conversion Loans' With a term as long as seven years, a new type of "war conversion conver-sion loan" up to $5,000 is available for converting an existing structure into additional living accommodations accommoda-tions for war workers in war production pro-duction areas. This new type loan was announced by Federal Housing Commissioner Ferguson at the same time it was revealed that during the first five months of 1942, 70,225 new dwellings dwell-ings were started in war housing areas. New home programs generally gener-ally are from 35 to 45 per cent lower than a year ago. RUSSIA: Diplomacy and Death In Russia, even as the "citizens army" took up arms to defend to the death their city of Sevastopol, word came from Washington, Moscow and London that gave them cause for cheer although their immediate fate was darkened. It was the word that the Soviet Union and the United States had reached a "full-understanding" with regard to the urgent tasks of opening open-ing a second European front in 1942. After a conference between Russian Foreign Commissar Molotov and President Roosevelt in Washington, methods of speeding U. S. war aid to Russia were developed and the fundamental problems of post-war co-operation to safeguard "peace and security" were decided upon. The state department of the United Unit-ed States had further good news for VYACHESLAV MOLOTOV In full accord with F. D. R. the Russian people. It was that a lease-lend agreement similar to that signed betmeen the U. S. and Britain Brit-ain as well as China, had been entered en-tered into with the Soviet. The good news from London was .that Russia and Britain had signed a 20-year mutual assistance pact But in the Sevastopol area and around Kharkov the Nazis continued their pounding at Russian lines. Civilian Ci-vilian morale was good, said Moscow Mos-cow reports. BOTTOMS UP: For Jap Navy Eight Japanese aircraft carriers at least half of that country's known carrier power were sunk or so badly damaged in the Midway and Coral Sea battles that they will be unfit for early action, informed naval sources have estimated. Based on communiques issued by the U. S. army and navy and Allied headquarters, capital ship losses of Japan and the United States from December 7 up to and including the Midway battle are as follows: JAPAN 1 Battleship 1 Seaplane tender 4 Aircraft carriers 16 Cruisers UNITED STATES 1 Battleship 1 Seaplane tender 1 Aircraft carrier 1 Cruiser The official communiques concern only those ships whose loss is unquestioned. un-questioned. Unofficial reports include in-clude ships whose loss, though unverified, un-verified, is fairly certain. TREASURE HUNT: This Time Rubber Although it was only one cent a pound, that fact didn't stop Americans Ameri-cans from stripping their homes, garages and factories of every available avail-able pound of idle and (to them) useless rubber. The rubber salvage program got underway upon President Roosevelt's Roose-velt's order. Collected by the nation's na-tion's gasoline filling stations, the scrap rubber is being transported to central collection points by petroleum petro-leum industry trucks and sold to the Rubber Recovery corporation. ; Undersecretary of War Patterson reported that army and navy crude rubber requirements during the 21 months after April 1, 1942, will be 800,000 tons, compared with the present U. S. reserve of 600,000 tons. He said he hoped the difference differ-ence would be made by the synthetic syn-thetic program. WPB Rubber Coordinator Co-ordinator Newhall stated that the synthetic program will produce 30,000 tons in the rest of 1942 and 300,000 tons during 1943. VENGEANCE: ' Promised Czechs By President In a broadcast from London, Czeehoslovakian President Eduard Benes promised that following the war, military law, including the death penalty, will be imposed on all Nazis responsible for the "bestial "bes-tial destruction" in the Czech nation. Benes declared flatly that on the first day of victory the policy of : personal responsi- : bility would be car-y car-y ried out mercilessly i against all expo-t expo-t m nents of the Nazi I -v 5J l Par'y anc e Reich j " j government on I i Czech territory, be- ' -f ' 'I ginning witn the I - " f 1 former protector, v,? f sit Baron von Neurath, iVsw. all leaders of the Gestapo and SS for-Eduard for-Eduard Benes mations, and all Germans in the political and military mili-tary administration of Bohemia and Moravia." In Washington, Jan Masaryk, Czeehoslovakian vice premier and foreign minister, urged destruction j of "several" German villages by air bombardment in retaliation for the wiping out of the Czech town of Lidice. (Lidice was eradicated as a reprisal measure for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich, Reich protector for Bohemia and Moravia.) "To my mind," said Masaryk, "it should be ten teeth for one and ten eyes for one." CHINESE FRONT: ! Nancheng Falls On the Chinese front the Japanese drive in Kiangsi province had advanced ad-vanced 100 miles and forced the defenders de-fenders to evacuate the town of Nancheng, Nan-cheng, bringing the Japanese within 125 miles of closing the gap between be-tween their eastern and western j forces. Dispatches stated that the Chinese had recaptured the town of Tsung-jen, Tsung-jen, approximately half way between be-tween Nanchang, Jap Kiangsi base, and Nancheng. A Domei news agency report claimed that Japanese troops, advancing ad-vancing rapidly, have occupied Kwangfeng, 18 miles southwest of Yushan. i Japanese forces northeast of Wu-ning Wu-ning were reported to be under severe se-vere attack, and Anyi, west of the Jap base of Nanchang, was under seige. SYNTHETIC RUBBER: And 'Cracking' U. S. chemists have perfected a new petroleum "cracking" process for making high-grade aviation gasoline gas-oline that should also help break the bottleneck in synthetic rubber production, pro-duction, according to the War Production Pro-duction board. The same refining plant turning out aviation gas would be able also to turn out butadiene, a vital ingredient ingre-dient in making synthetic rubber, according to this announcement. Although both these products come from the same petroleum base, up to now they have been produced in separate operations. Plants which can handle the production pro-duction of 120,000. tons of synthetic rubber from butadiene will be in use before January 1, 1943, but until this new process was discovered, there were grave doubts as to whether or not a sufficient supply of butadiene to keep them going could be supplied. It is believed that the new process proc-ess will permit just that. LIBYA: Tanks at Tobruk Bir Hacheim in Libya had fallen and the British thought this might slow somewhat the desert thrust of the Nazi forces aimed at Tobruk but on came the tank army of Col. Gen. Erwin Rommel. Forgotten was the fact that last year the British Brit-ish had held that city throughout the Libyan campaign and had made history his-tory during its siege. There were mine fields and strong barbed wire defenses stretching almost al-most 15 miles around the city and at its back door was the Mediterranean Mediter-ranean sea. But it was at the center cen-ter of the land front that Rommel threw his heaviest tanks. These were met by British soldiers at the controls of American-made "General "Gener-al Grant" tanks, most successful weapons yet found to harass the mechanized units of the enemy. There was some speculation at first as to whether or not Rommel might try a flank thrust to reach the sea to the east or west of the city but from the start of the battle the fate of Tobruk hinged on a frontal drive itself. This fact stood out, experts said, because Rommel was intent on taking the city itself and thus avoid the risk of leaving it as a British "sore-spot" as it proved to be last year. MANPOWER: Industry and the armed forces must forget the "quest for the 'ideal man' for every job," according to Selective Service Director Hershey, who said the time was not far off when all men and women will be needed and Selective Service will touch the "fringe of men deferred . . . because of dependency." Congress had acted to raise the base pay of army men to 550 per month and the plan for authorizing assistance to dependents of members mem-bers of the armed forces cleared. J |
