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Show PETAIN : On Spot I ' 1 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne Drive of British Troops Into Libya Forces Axis to Fight on Two Fronts; Peace Comes Again to U. S. Coal Fields I As Miners Accept Plan for Mediation 1 IFDJTOR 8 NOTE When opinions are expressed In these columns, Ibej re mono 01 the new. analyst end not necea.arlly ol thl newspaper.) ( (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) 1 TOKYO: Tinder Box Oddest of all the potential volcanoes volca-noes in the world had been the Far East situation, with Tokyo hard pressed by the Nazis to plunge actively ac-tively into the war on the theory that it would create a new front for the British and American navies to cope with. But Kurusu had found Secretary Hull not at all frightened at the prospect, and with the exploratory BRITISH: Open Second Front The long-awaited, bitterly demanded de-manded "second front" in North Africa Af-rica has Anally been opened by the British with a surprise attack of surprising sur-prising power and terrific impact upon the combined German-Italian forces in Libya. The severity of the military blow drew for a time all interest from the magnificent stand the Russians were making, and presented Hitler's generals with the difficult problem of either conceding the Royal Air force complete mastery of the African Afri-can skies or the withdrawal of many hundreds of planes from Germany or from the Russian front. Rapidly the British drive went 50, 60, 80 miles into Libya, and a glance at the maps had been sufficient to show that the typical Nazi blitz tactic tac-tic was being employed. Instead of a frontal attack against the Axis forces the British moved to the south and shoved tank spearheads spear-heads in an enveloping action which reached Tobruk's garrison, that had rushed out into a sortie and were practically able to join hands with their advancing comrades in arms from the south.1 ' This trapped what the British reckoned as half the German tank forces, (reckoned at two divisions) in a triangular space bounded by Tobruk, Bardia and the Mediterranean Mediterra-nean coast. On this triangle the British were pouring all their fire, by land, sea and air, and battles were developing which might turn out to be the EMPEROR H1ROHITO Japan prepared for the worst. talks quite in their midst, the head of the American state department had called a conference of the ABCD nations' (American, British, Chinese and Dutch) representatives from which the Chinese ambassador had emerged with a broad smile. Coincidentally the British had renewed re-newed their blunt warnings to Japan not to plunge another area of the world into a "blood-bath," but to reflect re-flect that the personnel of the British Brit-ish navy had expanded 300 per cent, and that the navy now was in position posi-tion to divert considerable of its forces to the Pacific. At the same time it was evident that Tokyo itself was preparing its people for the worst. That Japanese Japa-nese leaders were badly frightened over the spot they were in was evident, evi-dent, yet few of them could see a way out without war. STRIKE: Sixth Appeal The sudien end of the coal strike, and the answer of John L. Lewis that he was willing to accede to J -1.. K MARSHAL HENRI RETAIN How much would he promise? Marshal Petain, head of the Vichy government, had been reliably reported re-ported as on his way to a conference confer-ence with, first, Hitler and then Mussolini as the hour drew near when the French would have to decide de-cide definitely whether to join the Axis as full partner or not. The conference, according to the Rome radio, was "to be held soon somewhere in occupied France." The increased pressure on France was seen as a sequel to the British offensive in Africa, and the sudden resignation of Marshal Weygand as commander of France in Africa was seen as part and parcel of the same reaction. Germany, observers said, was prepared to offer Petain a full peace instead of an armistice, based entirely en-tirely on how much increased aid the old marshal was willing to promise, thus making France an Axis ally in truth if not in name. Even in Washington a presidential presiden-tial source said that Germany was planning a general European conference con-ference in December or January, and that following it would probably come some "high-sounding scheme" for economic rehabilitation in the name of peace and order. Two reports were current one of them that the French had been asked to give naval convoy to Italian supply ships moving to north Africa and had refused; the other was that Germany was asking France for 300,000 soldiers to take over the policing of areas in occupied Russia Rus-sia in the spring. ALIEN HANDS: Helping Nazis A Berlin dispatch, hence author, ized, declared that the labor problem prob-lem in Nazi war industries, now that most of the manpower was engaged in war with Russia, ' was being solved by the use of alien labor. Aliens from occupied countries, largely Poles, had been recruited outside Germany and put into the factories, with Storm Trooper managers, man-agers, and a plentiful sprinkling of police through the plants to discourage discour-age breaking of time rules and sabotage sab-otage of other types. Croats and other nationalities believed be-lieved friendly to Germany also are manning many plants, and are reported re-ported to be getting better food, pay, living conditions, etc., than the Poles, who get the least of all. The Polish workers have yellow-bordered yellow-bordered black "P's" on their left arms. Polish and Belgian men are quartered in dormitories, while those of so-called "friendly" nations are permitted to live in suburbs near their work. RUSSIA: Saves Machines A Walter Kerr dispatch from Kuibyshev Kui-byshev had been enlightening on the subject of what Russia's losses had been in the area occupied by German Ger-man troops. S. A. Lovsky, Soviet spokesman, had declared that Russian factory equipment had been almost entirely entire-ly evacuated from the occupied area. Kerr, checking on this statement, wrote that he had made a 2,280-mile 2,280-mile railroad trip from Archangel through the Soviet Union, and that machinery was being moved, and in quantities that would astonish most Americans. His trip took 16 days because his passenger train was sidetracked often to permit trains carrying machinery ma-chinery and workers eastward were given preference. Day after day he saw an endless procession of freight trains of from 30 to 40 cars, drawn by one to two locomotives, carrying machinery, machine tools and skilled workmen. He said he never saw a wreck nor evidence of a previous wreck. He also saw munitions being landed from America and Britain at the wharves of Archangel and moving rapidly on railroads to the interior of Russia. He said he did not dream that Russia had so much rolling stock, nor of such magnitude. WINSTON CHURCHILL The second half would follow. forced surrender of all the Axis forces in the trap, or a debacle similar sim-ilar to those which Germany had forced on weaker opponents. That it could be another Dun-querque Dun-querque was impossible, for the Axis forces had no possibility of escape by sea. It was stand and fight against forces at least equal to their own. Of especial interest to Americans were the reports which told of feats performed by American-made equipment, equip-ment, particularly airplanes and tanks. One-fourth of the British tanks were said to have been built either in the U. S. or in Canada. Objectives of the British attack in North Africa were twofold the destruction de-struction of every Axis weapon of war in the territory; the knocking of Italy out of the war. The first of these, Churchill said, would be half accomplished when the battle of the Tobruk triangle had resulted re-sulted in a British victory. The second sec-ond half would follow immediately, he added, indicating that there would be no slowing down of the drive. As to the second objective, it was not so obvious what the British plans were. Some felt certain that the British, once in undisputed possession posses-sion of all North Africa save French territory, would launch an expeditionary expedi-tionary invasion against Sicily, and then use it as a base for further invasion. in-vasion. Others felt sure that Britain's only idea was to hold its gains, and with the Mediterranean free of menace, to launch air attacks on all of Italy from the nearest points in Libya and Tripoli, and so to discourage Italians with the war that they would .rise against it. The British felt sure that this would cause the Germans to attack Italy, just as the Germans turned against Russia, and that thus another an-other problem of occupying a hostile country would arise to plague the Nazis. ROSTOV: Berlin Claim The important and strategic city of Rostov on the Don river was claimed as a German capture in dispatches from Berlin, and on the same day the Russians admitted that the Nazi advance had been resumed. re-sumed. The sixth month of the Russian war found the Germans renewing an attack against Moscow at Mozhaisk, Moz-haisk, according to the Reds, who admitted that their troops had been forced to give ground. President Roosevelt's sixth appeal for labor peace in the captive coal mines brought a question to the fore in the strike crisis who was the winner in this bitter battle, the President Pres-ident or Lewis? Some reporters described the sudden sud-den ending of the strike as a distinct dis-tinct victory for the President, in that Lewis had agreed to "binding arbitration" of the strike, something some-thing he had held out against since the fall-down of mediation board efforts ef-forts to end it. But when the personnel of the deciding de-ciding committee became known, the matter of the President's victory vic-tory became dubious, because the committee included Dr. John R. Steelman, head of the conciliation service of the department of labor, representing the public; Mr. Lewis himself, representing the strikers; and Benjamin F. Fairless, president of U. S. Steel, representing the mine owners. There was little question about the stand that Lewis would take in the fight for a closed shop contract for his members. That was a foregone conclusion. As to the other two, Dr. Steelman was generally given credit by labor for having won them the closed shop in commercial mines. Looking at Mr. Fairless, it was generally believed by the union workers, and so stated by Lewis more than once that Mr. Fairless, during other conferences, had apparently ap-parently been the only steel man willing to give in. In fact Lewis put the blame for the failure of previous pre-vious negotiations squarely upon Eugene Eu-gene G. Grace of Bethlehem SteeL Lewis had declared that he faced the decision of the committee with the utmost confidence in the outcome. out-come. The ending of the strike was dramatic. The union policy committee commit-tee of 200 waited 24 hours for its meeting. They didn't know the reason rea-son but Lewis did. He was waiting for a letter from the President of the United States. It was delivered. Lewis took it into his private office. He read it, came out again with his thumbs in the armholes of his vest and descended de-scended into the cellar meeting hall. He posed for pictures, asked reporters re-porters to leave, and the meeting opened. Fifteen minutes later the "end strike" call was sounded. Lewis had submitted to arbitration arbitra-tion an arbitration he was confident confi-dent could only end in victory for his union. For the President? Perhaps, Per-haps, because his letter had ended the strike. For Lewis? At least Lewis Lew-is thought so. |
