OCR Text |
Show LABOR: Stress Eases Hoi i"mLYSIS By Edward c' Wayne Conflicting British and Nazi Reports Tell of Fierce Fighting in Balkans; Russia -Japan Sign Neutrality Pact In Surprising Diplomatic Maneuver (l-:iITOK'H NOT!: When opinions are expressed In these colomns. thef art those of the news anul)l and not necessarily of this newspaper.) ffteleased by Westerrf Newspaper lr"'"" V --V : I ; - ' h' I J i - ' Jh , i l " .',.-'" - - -j m jut: fsn o vr ' . LEON HENDERSON Almost a price czar. Although 400,000 soft coal miners were still locked in a disagreement that kept mines in states idle, it was obvious that this strike was just "slow in settling" and that the general labor situation was better. Tne Ford strike was settled, Henry Ford for the first time in his career entering into an agreement with a labor union, and the great River Rouge plant with its ,85,000 employees em-ployees was reopened. Statisticians figured that the strike had cost wage-earners several millions mil-lions of dollars, the figure running as high as $8,500,000, probably tak- Concrete evidence of the manner in which the U. S. Army is being expanded in line with the defense speed-up is this view of the motorized Nintn division during a review ai fori Bragg, N. C. Some 15,000 men and about 1,500 vehicles of all types participated with three infantry companies marching in front of the motorized units. What happened then was not clear, but the Greek dispatches immediately immediate-ly began to take on a new note of confidence. The Germans had been , hurled back their advance had J been shattered, the Germans were ! in full retreat these terms and , others of like ilk were used. Whether this would prove a turn-: turn-: ing point or a standing point where the war might halt its fierce move- ment, remained to be seen. Typical of the puzzling reports were some that told of British and Nazi tank battalions slashing in an open plain when the relief maps showed the lines to be drawn in a mountainous territory. According to the most optimistic Greek report, the vanguard of German Ger-man tanks, motored armored cars, motorcycles and divebombers struck against the organized central line of the Greeks and British on a 12-mile front. The report said "the defeat of this German column was a terrific disaster. dis-aster. The German tanks, motorcycles motor-cycles and infantry were hurled back into a broken retreat on a 12-mile front, from Fiorina to Vanitsa." Berne, Switzerland, was one of the few points which was sending anything any-thing that sounded at all reasonable about the Jugoslavian situation. It seemed that the Serbs were planning to defend a big triangle, mostly mountainous, which seemed to leave mg into consideration several thousands thou-sands of workers who had been forced into idleness by the closing of the main plant. The immediate lessening of pressure pres-sure in the strike situation did not, however, mean that the whole thing was "under control," for there were many bitter fights looming over the horizon, one of them involving General Gen-eral Motors, another threatening U. S. Steel, and several others threatening threat-ening smaller plants. Chairman Dies of the unAmerican investigating committee claimed there was a Communist plot to tie up the vital aluminum industry. It was almost a relief when the picture changed somewhat and the forces in Washington began to train their guns on employers instead of employees, for a change. Leon Henderson, vibrant former member of the SEC, and head of the President's price-control setup, was given additional powers and set up almost as a price czar. His first pronouncements came as a clap of thunder. He announced that there was "ruthless profiteering" profiteer-ing" among the producers and dealers deal-ers in cadmium, a vital defense metal. met-al. This was his first "shot" and it was followed quickly by others. He named 11 industries in whicn there was profiteering and announced an-nounced that he intended to stop it. He was asked what prices were too high, and answered "all prices are BATTLE: Of Greece Descriptions tending to show that the Battle of Greece was becoming even fiercer and more furious than anything which had taken place in France or the Low Countries were penned by newspaper correspondents correspond-ents during the early days of the Balkan struggle, although these correspondents cor-respondents were having difficulty in getting their stories across. Never in warfare had there been such confusion in reports. One day the Nazis predicted that the Jugoslavs Jugo-slavs would "surrender in 48 hours," that "tens of thousands of prisoners had been taken," that King Peter had fled to Turkey and that General Simovic had done likewise to Moscow. Mos-cow. On the same day the Jugoslavs denied all these reports and said their "resistance was stifTening," told of bitter "counter-attacks" and urged the people hot to believe false reports. Nazi reports that there had been a governmental overturn in Croatia were followed by dispatches telling of the invasion of Croatia by Hungary. Hun-gary. On almost the same day came Serbian dispatches, telling of "stern resistance" north of Zagreb, in the very territory where the Hungarian invasion was supposedly taking place. Athens was virtually the only source, except Berlin, that was apparently ap-parently getting news direct. From the Athens dispatches came a series of events that clarified themselves, though the picture in the gross was still much muddled. These told of two main achievements achieve-ments on the Grecian front by the Nazi invaders. They were (1) the break-through from above the Struma Stru-ma river valley, and (2) the capture of Salonika. The latter came with a suddenness that was utterly shocking to those who had believed that the Greeks would do the impossible, and put up a stern fight. It also was a shock to those who had believed that the British Brit-ish were based on Salonika. A glance at the map showed the import of the news. Eastern Thrace had been cut off, and how many Greek soldiers were in that territory Athens alone knew. The Nazis immediately sent out a dispatch saying that 300,000 men had "laid down their arms." The Greeks said they were continuing to fight, but admitted the eastern forces had been cut off. It was not immediately imme-diately apparent why they would have to surrender, for the way seemingly seem-ingly open for them, if beaten, to retreat and interne themselves over the Turkish border. . Another vital phase of the battle then manifested itself, when it became be-came known that the Greeks had decided de-cided to make their main defense line a V upside down, stretching from near Valona on the Adriatic up to Lake Ochrida in the center, and to the Aegean near K3terina on the east It became known that from Mount Olympus, mythical home of the Greek gods, near the Aegean sea, to Lake Ochrida was the "Anglo-Greek line" and that here the main resistance resist-ance could be looked for. The contact came after about five or six days of fighting, when the Germans broke through at Monastir gap tBitolj) and ran slap into heavy British and Greek contingents. Belgrade and other parts of the Jugoslav plain territory undefended. One corner of this triangle was the southeastern town of Skolpie, but the tall of this point was early claimed by the Nazis. But for days thereafter the Jugoslavs were reported re-ported from Berne to be counterattacking counter-attacking vigorously in this neighborhood, neigh-borhood, and to be driving southward south-ward from central Jugoslavia with determination and courage, determined deter-mined not to be cut off from the Graeco-British lines. Part of the German strategy, however, how-ever, was to accomplish just this, and early it was claimed that the Germans and Fascists in northern Albania had joined hands, though this was not borne out immediately in subsequent stories from the front. Churchill warned that some "surprise "sur-prise move" might come from Russia, Rus-sia, and indeed the whole of Europe watched expectantly. He then bared his weapons. He said that his theory was that price increases would never "bring out production" and that "jail sentences" wouldn't do it either. He talked about economic "sanctions" against profiteers, and said, in the cadmium instance, that if the profiteering didn't stop, the government would "put the dealers out of business" and that "they would have only themselves to blame." He even stepped out into the arena and announced that he considered wages came within his territory, because be-cause they were a "prime factor in costs." He said he would find ways and means to keep wages down if they got too high, also. Americans took Mr. Henderson with a grain of salt, perhaps, but it, was a change in a picture which had painted the forces of Labor as the Big Bad Man who was halting national na-tional defense, and showed a new picture in which the Businessman was the villain, and not the worker. NEUTRALITY PACT: Soviet-Japan In an unexpected diplomatic move Russia and Japan announced the signing of a five-year neutrality pact between the two countries. In effect ef-fect the pact provided that either nation would not become involved should the other find itself involved in-volved in war. The pact came as a surprise to international observers who had been inclined to believe that the Russian Rus-sian government was beginning to lean away from axis-dominated policies. pol-icies. It was said in some sources however that Russia was anxious to be sure that she would not be attacked at-tacked by Japan should the Soviet So-viet find it necessary to open a military mili-tary drive against Hitler in the Balkans. Bal-kans. For Japan the pact looked like a green light for a further stepping up of war against China and an expansion expan-sion move to the south in the Pacific area. U. S.: Attitude Following his messages of comfort and friendliness to Jugoslavia and to Greece, President Roosevelt promised "all possible aid" as "soon as possible" to both countries, and then took two steps which seemed to fall in line with the general war picture. Dispatches were telling of British planes "rushing into the battle of Greece in constantly increasing numbers," but how many of these were being rushed across the 6,000 miles from the United States was a military secret. The two steps President Roosevelt took openly were to take over for this country the defense of Greenland, Green-land, by special agreement with the king of Denmark. The second was to open the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to American Amer-ican snips carrying aid to Britain, Greece and Jugoslavia. Some isolationists whooped it up against both of these moves on the part of the administration, but the word was generally received throughout the country with calm, most people figuring we were practically prac-tically in the war and that this was another step. The Greenland decision apparently left Hitler cold, for he made little reference to it Yet it was important impor-tant because Nazi planes had been reported flying over Greenland, and if the U. S. was to look ahead to I the time when it would have an air I base there, it might spell trouble. |