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Show !i : 1 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Red Communiques Admit Grave Peril As New Flank Attacks Harass Nazis; CIO President Proposes Peace Plan; I Cargo Planes Get Qualified Approval fKDITOIt'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of W cittern Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) 1 Released by Western Newspaper Union. ' ' i - y, ; " '' . ' ?''- w ! k , ", a "' " ' ' ; - ' ' i Mr-A, t t, , " , - 4 f i i i One of Uncle Sam's newest weapons for the armored force, the M4 tarflt, is shown on special demonstration at Fort Knox, Ky. Here the 28-ton 28-ton tank plows through a barn to demonstrate its ability to negotiate I obstacles. It has a 75-mm. cannon in a revolving turret and a completely I welded hull. RUSSIA: Flank Tactics While Moscow's official radio was telling the Germans in their own language that the United States and Russia had come to their agreement on the creation of the second front in 1942, Soviet troops were busy with flank attacks on the Nazi forces all along the 300-mile Don river front. German drives had pushed far beyond be-yond Rostov, toward the Caucasus, but the Russians were claiming that their new flank attacks were netting a terrific toll of Nazi tanks and men. At Voronezh, northern anchor of the Don front, the Russians had been holding out doggedly while their columns col-umns were being pushed back in the other sectors. If Germans in the homeland had been listening to the Russian radio tell of the coming of the second front, they heard too that their country coun-try would be confronted with 15,000,-000 15,000,-000 men, 85,000 tanks, 100,000 guns, and 50,000 airplanes. But this was brave talk for even the official Russian Rus-sian communiques admitted the gravity of their nation's peril. Most feared was a Nazi break-through in the center of the Caucasus front. This would more than likely mean that the so-far orderly Russian retreat re-treat would stand a chance of being turned into a rout a result that would be disastrous for the cause of the United Nations. Soviet officials had other troubles, too. There were reports out of the Don valley that large rings of fifth columnists had been uncovered. Many of the spies in these- groups were quickly executed as they were caught trying to co-operate with Nazi parachute troops who were dropping behind the Soviet main lines. Meanwhile, through England and the United States the cryv was get-tjng get-tjng louder for military officials to establish the much-discussed second front. From widely diversified groups and sections came the urging. urg-ing. There was considerable agitation agita-tion for this move for many people feared the United Nations would suffer suf-fer a most severe blow should Russia Rus-sia fail to last the year on the European Euro-pean side of the Ural mountains. ALEUTIANS: 10,000 Japs Breaking an official silence, a navy spokesman officially estimated estimat-ed that the Japanese have succeeded in putting "not more than 10,000" troops into the Aleutian island area and at the same time announced there was no evidence that the Pribilof island to the north had been occupied by the Nipponese. The statement came in answer to a report made by the Alaskan delegate dele-gate to congress, Anthony J. Dimond, that between 20,000 and 25,000 Jap troops were on the Aleutians Aleu-tians and that the Pribilofs had been occupied. Questioned about Dimond's reports, re-ports, the spokesman said that "we believe that not more than 10,000 Japanese are in the Aleutians, probably prob-ably one-half ashore and one-half afloat." The Japs gained a foothold in the Aleutians on June 3. So far, the navy has confirmed the presence of Japs only on three of the islands: Attu, Agattu and Kiska, at the western west-ern end of the chain. The Pribilofs are in the Bering sea, and consist of four islands: St. Paul, St. George, Otter and Waldrus. The latter two are small and uninhabited. PETRILLO SAYS 'NO': To Davis Plea "I cannot grant your request to cancel the notice that the AFM members will not play for transcriptions transcrip-tions or records." With those words. James C. Petrillo, president of the American Federation of Musicians, refused a request by Elmer Davis, director of the Office of War Information, to rescind his ban against the making of new phonograph records or radio transcriptions for commercial purposes pur-poses by union members. PEACE PLAN: ForCIO-AFL A proposal that the Congress for Industrial Organization and the American Federation of Labor "initiate "ini-tiate discussions regarding possible establishment of organic unity" was made by, Philip Murray, CIO president, presi-dent, in a letter to William Green, AFL chief. Peace proposals between the two organizations have been discussed for several months as a step toward speeding war production. In his letter, Murray proposed the establishment estab-lishment of a committee composed of representatives of both organiza-1 organiza-1 1 tions, with an impartial arbitrator, to settle all jurisdictional disputes between the two groups. Murray named a committee of three to discuss the problem of "organic "or-ganic unity." He named himself, R. J. Thomas, president of the CIO United Automobile Workers, and Julius Emspak, secretary of the United Radio and Machine Workers union. BEEF: Tivo Varieties In butchershops from the Bronx to Boise there was considerable beefing beef-ing about beef. Beef was high. Beef was hard to get. What was the trouble? President Roosevelt told his press conference there were three main , reasons for the current meat shortage: short-age: (1) this is the off-season for beef; (2) people have more purchasing purchas-ing power now, with which to buy better cuts of meat; and (3) around 4,000,000 men under arms are now eating much more meat than they ever ate on their own dinner tables at home. Meanwhile Agriculture Secretary Claude Wickard reported that there may be some relief in the temporary beef shortage this fall when more cattle are brought in off the range. But other sources looked with disfavor dis-favor on what effect this would have on the normal spring beef market. GIANT PLANES: From Shipyards There was a new answer to the shipping problems of the United Nations Na-tions looming on the horizon. It was an unofficial agreement from the War Production board to give the "green light" to plans of Henry K. Kaiser, West Coast shipbuilder, to build giant cargo and troop transport trans-port planes in nine of the nation's shipyards. First hitch to be overcome in the suggested set-up was the granting of authority by military officials to release re-lease engines and other parts needed need-ed in the building of aircraft for the army and navy. Donald Nelson, WPB head, appeared ap-peared to be willing to proceed with the plan if these materials could be obtained without hampering the war effort This came as a surprise as WPB first voiced skepticism on the plan. Kaiser's idea calls for the conversion conver-sion of three shipyards on each coast to produce 5,000 flying boats a year. The ships would be of 100-ton design de-sign fashioned after the 70-ton flying fly-ing boat Mars, now in active use. Support of Glenn Martin, Baltimore bomber builder, Tom Girdler, steel magnate and all others with knowledge knowl-edge of production problems of plane building would be sought, according ac-cording to Kaiser. After Kaiser had discussed the idea with Nelson he appeared before be-fore a senate military subcommittee subcommit-tee to testify and Nelson later issued a statement stating that the WPB was willing to "co-operate to the limit in any practical way for increasing in-creasing the effectiveness of our . . . transportation systems." At the same time, James H. R. Cromwell, former U. S. minister to Canada, was proposing that Kaiser be made "czar of air transportation." transporta-tion." He said: "If we can't get supplies sup-plies to the fronts by air transport we are going to lose this war." |