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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Brazil's Declaration of War on Axis Aids Western Hemisphere Solidarity; 'Largest' U. S. Convoy Reaches Britain; Marines Score Again in Pacific Drive (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of I Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily ol this newspaper.! I Released by Western Newspaper Union. ' ALLOTMENT: Speed -Up Dependents of enlisted men in ths U. S. armed forces will be getting their allotments earlier than November Novem-ber 1 under the terms of a bill passed by congress and now signed by the President After the President had affixed his signature the navy said it would issue is-sue such allotment checks "very soon" and the army announced that their payments would start early in September. Originally these payments would have started November 1, although applications filed early would be retroactive re-troactive to June 1. Basic payment to dependents is $50 per month, servicemen serv-icemen contributing $22 and the army or navy $28. It could not be determined how many applications for such payments pay-ments had ben made to the army or navy. It was estimated however how-ever that about half the men in the service would have dependents receiving re-ceiving the allotments. YOUR DRAFT STATUS: 0 Wsmswkss "'P May Change Soon Married men and men now deferred de-ferred because they work in essential essen-tial industry will be called in the draft in the not distant future. That was the statement of Brig. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, national director direc-tor of selective service, before a well-packed forum at a Chicago-university. In respect to men deferred because be-cause of war work, Gen. Hershey said: "You just can't go on deferring defer-ring a man for work reasons alone if you can find an older man, a woman, wom-an, or a physically handicapped per- V. S. fliers in London celebrate after the first raid on Hitler's European Euro-pean arsenals. Target of the first raid was Rouen, France, which was left in flames. Center: Holding the wire from the first bomb dropped by a Flying Fortress is Capt. William Musselwhite of Jackson, Miss. ! :-' x . A; LARGEST CONVOY: Arrives in England Shape of things to come in Europe was clearly etched by the announcement announce-ment that the largest U. S. troop convoy con-voy ever attempted in this war had landed safely in Great Britain. Military Mil-itary experts quickly viewed this move as a speed-up gesture in United Unit-ed Nations' second front plans. Included in the convoy were "many thousands" of soldiers and airmen plus vast quantities of war materials. Troops were swiftly disembarked dis-embarked and scattered to the interior in-terior of England, there to join other oth-er units already in training for the attack on German held Europe. "Special units" and "task forces" in the convoy added weight to the theory that U. S. troops will play an increasing role in future Commando raids or other action on the continent. conti-nent. MORE ACTION: In the Pacific As U. S. forces were continuing their mopping up activities in the Solomon islands word from another sector of the Pacific indicated that the marines had done it again. This time it was the Gilbert islands that felt the power of a marine detachment detach-ment as it smashed a Jap seaplane base, radio installations and stores on the island of Makin, island in the Gilbert group. This action came in the form of a hit and run attack. Caught entirely by surprise, the Japs were so confused that bombers bomb-ers from other bases actually destroyed de-stroyed their Jap planes on the ground. BRAZIL AT WAR: First in South America Angered by months of Axis aggression, aggres-sion, Brazil became the first South American nation to declare war upon Germany and Italy, thus swelling swell-ing the ranks of the United Nations to 29. Brazil's declaration of a state of war climaxed a week filled with mass demonstrations against the Axis sinking of five Brazilian ships with the loss of approximately 600 lives. The state of war did not include Japan, although Brazil broke diplomatic diplo-matic relations with all three Axis nations last January. The declaration of war cleared the way for immediate measures to secure the protection of what has been termed the most vulnerable land area on the Atlantic side of the Western hemisphere the Natal bulge only 1,600 miles from Dakar in Africa. Military men long have pointed to this sector as the place where Axis forces would strike first if they were able to consolidate their African and European positions. Brig. Gen. Amaro Soares Bitten-court, Bitten-court, Brazilian military attache to the United States, said that Brazil "is defending the continent," and that "we must congregate and reunite re-unite all our military elements for the defense of the northeast, the strategical point on the bulge of Brazil for invasion by the Axis." RUSSIA: Bloody Battle Good news resulting from Allied offensives in the Pacific was offset by continued reversals on the Rus- BRIG. GEN. LEWIS B. HERSHEY Work reasons alone aren't enough. son to take that man's place. It's going to be necessary to reclassify those 2A's and 2B's (war-work deferments) de-ferments) and necessary means just that, necessary. Just because they are in war industry is no reason rea-son for permanent deferment. The industrialists will simply have to train substitutes." He was also asked about the prospects pros-pects for 3A's deferred because of dependencies. "The first in order are the so-called so-called "grandmother cases," the men with second-class dependents grandparents, . mothers, brothers, step-brothers and so on. I think they're under the light right now. As sure as September 1 comes around well, obviously, those fellows are next. "And the men with wives only are just as obviously next after that. Then would come the men with wives and children, and the question there seems to be what is the degree de-gree of dependency?" COFFEE, OVERALLS: One Down; the Other Up The possibilities of coffee rationing ration-ing appeared more imminent with the government's order to restrict deliveries to dealers to 65 per cent of last year's deliveries as compared com-pared with the present monthly quota quo-ta of 75 per cent. The decrease in coffee deliveries was but one of several actions which will bring the war ever closer to Mr. and Mrs. John Public. Increased employment has resulted result-ed in steps by the War Production board to make cotton looms turn out more rugged fabrics needed for serviceable work clothes. The theater-going public may have reduced fare in the not so distant future. Operators of movie and stage theaters were warned by WPB that shortages of materials would make it increasingly difficult to keep all show houses open. Meanwhile all was not quiet m tne Solomons, scene of the earlier and more extensive action by the U. S. forces. Here the marines were busy cleaning out the Japs that retreated to the hills after initial successes were scored by the American attackers. at-tackers. Trouble for the marines came from another source but an official communique from Pearl Harbor revealed re-vealed that it had been treated with typical marine thoroughness. This was a night attack by fast boats of 700 Japs who stormed the marine-held marine-held positions from the sea. After a night and day of fighting, 670 Japs were dead and the other 30 were captured. Marine losses were 28 killed and 72 injured. WAR PRODUCTION: An Important Date Straight from the source that should know the War Production board the nation learned how it was doing in the battle of the assembly as-sembly lines. Donald Nelson, WPB chief, told the U. S. frankly where it stood. It amounted to this: War production is ahead in some categories, catego-ries, behind schedule in others. Biggest Big-gest problems are shortages of materials ma-terials and balancing of output among various agencies and service sian front. As the Nazi pincer movement move-ment drove relentlessly toward Stalingrad, the official Soviet communique com-munique admitted new crossings of the Don river. "In the area northeast of Kotel-nikovo," Kotel-nikovo," the communique said, "our troops fought intensive battles with large tank and infantry forces. On various sectors the Germans, at the cost of tremendous losses, managed to advance." Fresh Nazi reinforcements brought out of the reserve pool or shifted from other sectors, were thrown into the bloody battle for Stalingrad. The reckless disregard of losses gave evidence of Nazi desperation des-peration for a knockout blow to the Red army. Stalingrad is a rich prize. Its prime importance is in its location on the Volga river, along which the oil of Baku and Allied supplies shipped through the Persian gulf reach central Russia. In addition, the city's huge plants produce tanks and war supplies, and its oil refineries re-fineries add to its strategic value. COMMANDO RAID: 'Official Success' As Allied service chiefs studied the results of the Commando raid branches. These, he said, are getting get-ting vigorous attention. Such production also now has a date objective. Nelson said that U. S. war production is being planned to provide the maximum impact on the enemy by July 1, 1943. This does not mean that our offensive will necessarily reach its peak by that date but this is the definite strategic goal of production and all production will be gauged by the one question: "How much will it contribute to the war effort by July 1, 1943?" ELECTRIC POWER: Less for Civilians In a move to readjust its wartime war-time power expansion program the War Production board has halted or suspended work on 85 public and private power projects. In addition, the WPB assigned such low priority ratings to 28 federal projects that completion probably will be postponed post-poned until after the war. unless new demands arise. The WPB said that "civilian inconvenience and sacrifice must be expecied." on Dieppe, official sources declared that the operation fulfilled its objective. objec-tive. Valuable information on Nazi defenses was secured. The raid, employing British and Canadian Commandos supported by American Rangers, was a nine-hour battle on the Nazi-fortified coastal defenses at Dieppe, midway between Calais and Le Havre. Initial German Ger-man estimates placed the invader force at 15,000, but the exact number num-ber remained an Allied secret. The force carried tanks and artillery with them. "As the result of heavy fighting . . . our casualties were high but not unduly so in view of the operation," opera-tion," the British communique said. "The navy lost a fairly large number num-ber of landing craft because naval craft did not leave the French coast until it was known that every possible possi-ble man had been taken off." The raiders were reported to have destroyed ammunition dumps, a six-gun six-gun shore artillery battery, a large anti-aircraft battery and a radio location lo-cation station. Reports from Vichy placed British dead at 500. |
