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Show Washington, D. C. AXIS MORALE IS CRACKING Military reports that have leaked ' out of Germany in the past two or three weeks indicate quite definitely that Nazi morale is cracking. These reports, through channels which cannot can-not be revealed, were quite definite even before Propaganda Minister Goebbels delivered his give-away speech warning that saboteurs on the home front would be beheaded. Reports also are definite that the German army no longer has the reserves, re-serves, no longer has the fighting backbone for a long war. Resentment Resent-ment against Hitler boils beneath the surface in the German army. German soldiers will keep on fighting, fight-ing, and are toughly trained, desperately des-perately hitting adversaries. But their heart isn't in it anymore. All these factors, plus powerful wallops by the Allies, have created an atmosphere in which anything might happen. It is an atmosphere not unlike that which existed in the autumn of 1918. There are those in high places who think the war in Europe might be over anytime this winter, depending entirely on Nazi morale. But in Asia the war is moving at a snail's pace. In Burma, though the rains are already over, nothing has happened. Many observers think that nothing will happen until late this winter, and that the real drive through Burma toward South China will be reserved for a year from now the fall of 1944. WILL ROGERS IN LONDON Congressman Will Rogers of California, Cali-fornia, son of the cowboy humorist, 1 came back from London singing the praises of American-British co-operation in England. American troops, which he described de-scribed as the new "Army of Occupation," Occu-pation," live off .the fat of the land and are treated royally by the British. Brit-ish. There is nothing too good for them. Only trouble is they occasionally occa-sionally take a girl away from a British Tommy. Will's father was a frequent visitor vis-itor in London, and everyone remembered re-membered him. So it was like old home week for the young congressman congress-man from California. BRITISH IDLE OIL Maine's eagle-eyed Senator Brewster Brew-ster met Gen. B. B. Somervell, chief of the army's service forces on the Pacific island of Fiji, immediately tackled him on the dynamite-laden, all-Important question of why the U.S.A. was supplying nearly 70 per cent of all Allied oil, though we have only 25 per cent of the world's oil reserves. "Right around the Persian Gulf," reminded Senator Brewster, "the British have oil refineries and limitless limit-less quantities of oil. Why don't we get more oil out of the Near East instead in-stead of hauling it all the way from Texas?" "We are rushing refining equipment equip-ment to Arabia as quickly as we can," replied General Somervell. "Yes," countered the senator from Maine, "but why use precious shipping ship-ping space carting refining equipment equip-ment half way around the world when the British already have a refinery re-finery at the Gulf of Persia. The manager of the Anglo-Persian oil company told us that his refinery could produce 60 per cent more oil. Why not put it to work instead of exhausting ex-hausting our own oil reserves? "Furthermore," Brewster continued, contin-ued, "the crude oil from Persian wells is so good ,that it can be pumped right into ships as bunker oil without refining. If we don't get busy and use it, we'll wake up after the war to find the United States with no oil left, and dependent on the British Empire." CABOOSE SLEEPERS Cornfed Senator Ed Johnson of Colorado got his start as a railroad telegrapher, still proudly carries a union card. So he was well qualified to preside over the War Mobilization committee when A. F. Whitney, president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Rail-road Trainmen, testified on manpower manpow-er and other railroad problems. Whitney objected to the policy of some railroads in refusing to let train crews sleep in idle cabooses. Trainmen away from home frequently frequent-ly can't get hotel accommodations, but railroad officials argue that it is unsanitary and also dangerous for them to sleep in "cabs," which sometimes have to be switched. "When I was a working trainman, we always lived in our cabooses," Whitney said, "not because rooms were not available at hotels but because it was more convenient." "Many's the time I have slept in cabooses myself," reminisced Johnson. John-son. MERRY-GO-ROUND fl, American doughboys in Iran have found a good way to dodge U. S. military police and get out of camp at night. They take advantage of the Mohammedan custom of veiling their women, and slip on a full-length, full-length, cover-all veil which Iranian women wear from head to toe. Military Mil-itary police have been instructed to protect Iranian uomen and prevent all flirting, so they don't dare stop a veiled figure to ask her (or him) I to lower the veil, and see whether I an American doughboy is behind it. |