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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Nazi Divisions Battle on Two Fronts As Campaign in Russia Intensifies; OEM Seeks Nationwide Auto Pooling; Germany Reported Critical of Laval fFDITOK'S NOTE When opinions are expressed In these columns, they I are lliuae of the ntwi analyst! and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Released by Western Newspaper Union. 1 f ' ' ' 't V " - I ' " , r: 0 v -j t ' f ' ' -h f' 1 f ' SHIPBUILDING: Vital Front With the launching of 27 cargo vessels the nation marked its observation ob-servation of National Maritime day. War Shipping Board Administrator Adminis-trator Land said that by that date 138 ships had been delivered deliv-ered Into service since the beginning be-ginning of the year," approximately approxi-mately 35 per cent more than were delivered in all of last year." Two ships a day are now being delivered under Shipping Board's program and by fall there will be three a day. This means ships "put into active war service." Maritime Commission Vice Chairman Chair-man Vickery estimated that by the end of 1943 American shipyards will be able to turn out 28,000,000 tons of shipping or "in two years will do more than twice as much as the World war yards did in five years." President Roosevelt on Maritime day said, "I can assure you that we will perform this near-miracle oi ship production. The nation's shipbuilding ship-building capacity has been increased more than 500 per cent. That of itself it-self is an outstanding achievement." Despite this progress, he stated, the country still is confronted with a serious ship shortage, partly because be-cause of the heavy toll taken by enemy U-boats. But the submarine menace, like other problems, "is being solved," said the President. MANPOWER: Mobilization In a program to promote fullesi utilization of manpower a program was announced in Washington which directed the U. S. employment service serv-ice to prepare and maintain lists of skilled occupations essential to war production in which a national shortage short-age exists. Preferential referrals of workers would then be made to employers em-ployers engaged in war production in order of their priority before making mak-ing referrals to other employers. Further the employment service was directed to analyze and classify occupational questionnaires distributed distrib-uted by the selective service system and to interview persons skilled in critical war occupations and refer them to war job openings, and increase in-crease its activities and facilities Robert A. Lovett, left, U. S. assistant secretary of war, as he was welcomed to Ottawa, Can., by Air Marshal G. O. Johnson of the Royal Canadian Air force. In center background is Artemus Gates, U. S. assistant secretary of the navy. Lovett and Gates attended the United Nations air training conference in which representatives of 12 countries participated. RUSSIAN FRONT: Two Offensives As the Nazis began massing new panzer divisions for the first 1942 thrust at Moscow from the west, further to the south their forces scored a strategic victory as they forced withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kerch peninsula. Their goal in that section of the front was of course the vital oil fields of the Caucasus. Around Kharkov, to the north of the Kerch area. Marshal Semeon LAVAL ON SPOT? Nazis Impatient The removal of fuel from French warships at Martinique was announced an-nounced by Secretary of State Hull, who stated that further demobilization de-mobilization work is in progress and proceeding satisfactorily. Meanwhile rumors were revived that Pierre Laval might step out as chief of government in Vichy. Laval La-val had conferred in Paris with German Ger-man military and political leaders who are said to have become in- riculture workers. In addition assistance to the farmer farm-er in helping him meet serious labor la-bor situation was seen in an order to the Farm Security administration to increase mobile labor camps to make agricultural workers available. availa-ble. The Office of Defense Transportation Trans-portation is to assure adequate transportation facilities for such workers. In discussing these labor mobilization mobiliza-tion programs, War Manpower Chairman McNutt stated that if it is possible to insure full and effective utilization of manpower through voluntary vol-untary co-operation, "it will be unnecessary un-necessary to put into effect legal controls" to limit freedom of action of workers and employers. Skilled labor shortages have forced 384 out of 700 war contractors to reduce production, pro-duction, he said, and estimated that by the end of 1942 war labor forces will be boosted by approximately 18,000,000. DOOLITTLE: To Do More More raids on Japan were promised prom-ised by Brig. Gen. James H. Doo-little, Doo-little, commander of the U. S. air fleet which bombed Tokyo in mid-April. mid-April. In a nation-wide radio broadcast broad-cast he praised workers and manufacturers manu-facturers of American airplanes and Timoshenko's armies of the Ukraine held the offensive after more than two weeks of steady intensive fighting. fight-ing. Success by the Russians at Kharkov would expose rear lines of main German units attacking the Caucasus. Just across the narrow strait from the Kerch peninsula the Russians were reported to have heavily reinforced re-inforced their defenses on the Caucasus Cau-casus shore and the Soviet Black sea fleet was said to be massed near the strait and loomed as Hitler's Hit-ler's biggest obstacle in any jump toward the oil treasure. United Nations strategists hope for a successful stand by the Russians in the Caucasus region. For if Hitler Hit-ler can be kept from this oil his timetable time-table will be once more upset. Some experts expressed the suggestion that the threatened Moscow offensive offen-sive was a feint to lure heavy Russian Rus-sian defenses away from the oil fields. While the moral effect of Moscow's fall might be bad, the loss of rich supplies of oil in the Caucasus Cauca-sus would be far more damaging to the Allied cause. Both the Nazis and the Russians were claiming that the other had suffered huge losses in tanks and other armored material all along the front. In three days of fighting on the Izyum-Barvenkova front, the Russians reported the destruction of 75 German tanks. REGISTRATION: Of 18, 19-Year-Olds Young men between the ages of 18 and 19 will register for selective service on June 30. The registration registra-tion will include youths whose 20th birthdays fell between December 31, 1941, and June 30, 1942. Under present pres-ent law, the first age group is not subject to military service but the latter group can be called. Informed sources report the possibilities possi-bilities of a proposal to lower the minimum age for compulsory service serv-ice to 19 years and possibly 18. An estimated 1,200,000 persons are in each age group. , When the selective service act was revised by congress after Pearl Harbor, the war department recommended recom-mended making 19-year-olds subject to the draft. The senate acted favorably fa-vorably but the house voted to place the minimum age at 21. A compromise com-promise resulted, permitting 20-year-olds to be drafted. Rep. Andrew J. May of Kentucky, chairman of the house military affairs af-fairs committee, expressed the belief be-lief that the house would be willing to lower the age minimum. However, How-ever, Sen. Lister Hill of Alabama, Democratic whip, said he expected no immediate action. New draft classification measures are expected to be acted upon in the near future. creasingly impatient with his slowness slow-ness in bringing France into full collaboration. col-laboration. Nazi party leaders were extremely critical regarding Laval's handling of the Martinique affair. Jacques Doriot, former Communist, Commu-nist, has been suggested as Laval's successor. Rumors from Vichy stated stat-ed that he might enter the government govern-ment or form his own collaborationist collaboration-ist regime in Paris.. In a May 16 speech, Doriot evinced his own readiness read-iness to take over if Laval was unable un-able to carry out a satisfactory program. pro-gram. However, informed persons in Vichy believe that Laval is comparatively com-paratively secure for the immediate future. MEXICO: 'National Pride' As Mexico moved toward war, government officials explained the necessity for such a step. Mexican national pride demanded that the deaths of 21 sailors killed by Axis torpedoes be avenged. A solemn demonstration in memory mem-ory of the dead sailors drew thousands thou-sands of people to Mexico City's huge central plaza. President Manuel Man-uel Avila Camacho, members of the cabinet and congress appeared at the demonstration. The memorial program was followed by a pageant at which the Nazi banner was burned amid cheers for Roosevelt and other Allied leaders and boos for Hitler, Mussolini and Emperor Hiro-hito. Hiro-hito. Many German, Japanese and Italian Ital-ian business houses were painted with slogans "Down With the Axis!" and "Down With Hitler!" TRANSPORTATION: Lonely Highways By June, 1943, the Office of Emergency Emer-gency Management reports that 20,-000,000 20,-000,000 passenger cars will go off the roads leaving about 8,000,000 unless car pooling can be made effective ef-fective on a nationwide scale. According to OEM statistics, the average passenger load per mile last year was less than 2 persons, although the average car capacity is 4.2 persons. The War Production board reported some labor-management committees have enabled workers to form their own car pools by indicating on conspicuously posted post-ed maps the home location of every man driving a car to work and of every man without a car. Meanwhile the Office of Defense Transportation banned operation of all sight-seeing bus services and restricted re-stricted use of chartered buses to such essential operations as transporting trans-porting members of the armed forces, war workers and school children. BRIG. GEN. JAMES H. DOOLITTLE Jap planes "never had a chance." called these U. S.-made machines the best in the world. Japanese pursuit planes which rose to challenge the American forces during the daring raid "never had a chance," he said. Doolittle later told of the great disappointment of two-thirds of the volunteer fliers who were secretly trained for the job attacking Japan. They were "heartbroken" he explained, ex-plained, because the limit of the number of planes to be used on the raid forced them to remain behind at the last minute. WITHHOLDING TAX: Employers Responsible In a far-reaching, all-inclusive proposal, pro-posal, the treasury department recommended rec-ommended to congress that 10 per cent of an individual's estimated taxable income be withheld at the source. The withholding tax, according to the treasury department, would lighten the taxpayer's burden, speed the government's program to combat com-bat inflation and aid in collecting taxes from small wage earners. |