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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Corregidor and Other Philippine Forts Fall After Constant Pounding by Japs; Eastern Supply Routes Safeguarded By Allied Occupation of Madagascar (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of the newm analyst and not necessarily ot this newspaper.) t , .(Released by Western Newspaper Union. 1 i. ii- -rn if- I I 1 I huul.u..iimhiiiMi.,.juiii NAZI WARSHIPS: Three Cripples Last February when the three Nazi warships, the battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, and the cruiser Prinz Eugen, made their startling escape from the Nazi-held port of Brest through the English channel, a naval offensive in northern north-ern waters to cut the United Nations Na-tions Arctic supply line to Russia was foreseen. Now the British admiralty has explained ex-plained why such action has been lacking. An announcement from this source indicates that the three ships will be out of action for some time. They were severely damaged, say the British, by torpedo and bombing bomb-ing attacks in their channel flight, and by British mines and submarine subma-rine action later. Thus instead of six powerful warships war-ships to smash at British and U. S. fleets, the Nazis have only three capable of immediate action. NON-VIOLENCE: Gandhi s 'Defense' Mohandas K. Gandhi once more proved his power over India's masses when the All-India Congress party's working committee decided to urge a policy of "non-violent non-co-operation" if their country is invaded in-vaded by Japan. The Congress thus returned to the ideas of Gandhi in spite of the more belligerent attitude of Jawaharlal Nehru and other party leaders who have stated that India must fight. Peace-loving Gandhi has advanced his policy of non-violence to the point of opposing the scorched earth policy. The British government again took the blame for India's stand. The Congress party's resolution declared that such a policy was necessary. I 1 - ' V - . .... . I : ' trfr Y - v r ' a ' ifiW, y" 1a - i i To David Fairfax Oyster, 18, of Chevy Chase, Md., went the honor of being the first (and youngest) high school cadet accepted in the navy's aviation program. He is shown being sworn in by Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, the first cadet to enter navy's Class V-5 by which hieh school graduates may qualify for commissions in the air force. CORREGIDOR: Chapter Ends Even as the first British Commandos Comman-dos were landing on one important island (See Column Two Madagascar: MADAGASCAR: A Coup When British troops landed on the French island of Madagascar to forestall an expected coup by the Japanese the United States state de- it A J A Coup), American troops were engaged en-gaged in their last stand for the Philippine island fortress, Corregidor, Corregi-dor, in Manila bay. For almost a month since the fighting had ended on Bataan, American forces commanded by Lieut. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright had been holding this fortified rock against a terrific air and artillery pounding by the Japs, thoroughly entrenched en-trenched on Luzon, across the bay. The Jap's final assault ended after about two days of constant hammering hammer-ing from big guns and aerial bombs. When the first Jap landings on the island itself were reported, military experts in Washington could see that the end was near. It was from Gen. Douglas Mac-Arthur's Mac-Arthur's headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, that the blunt announcement announce-ment finally came: "General Wainwright Wain-wright has surrendered Corregidor and other fortified islands in Manila Ma-nila harbor." The other island strongholds in addition to Corregidor Corregi-dor are Fort Mills, Fort Hughes, Fort Drum and Fort Frank. Then from Washington, the war department reported that it had ". . . received a message from Corregidor that resistance of our troops has been overcome. Fighting Fight-ing has ceased and terms are being arranged covering the capitulation of the island forts in Manila bay." AUSTRALIA: A Jap Headache partment was not long in announcing announc-ing that this country was in sympathy sym-pathy with the move. British sources explained that the move was made after the Laval French government in Vichy had played host to visiting Japanese officials of-ficials en route to Berlin. And thus, continued this story, the Vichy government gov-ernment was very unlikely to put up any opposition to a movement by the Japs to seize the important island is-land which is considered a vital base for guarding the sea lanes in the Indian ocean off the east coast of Africa. Retaliatory action by the French was to be considered as an act of aggression against the entire group of the United Nations, according to the U. S. state department and this country, with Britain pledged to return re-turn the strategic island to France after the war. RUSSIAN FRONT: A Pledge If the Russian soldier can fulfill his pledge to Josef Stalin, 1942 will see the final defeat of Adolf Hitler's military might For from Moscow came the report that Russian soldiers sol-diers all along the 2,000-mile German Ger-man front had taken an oath to make this the final year of the war. Meanwhile other Russian dispatches dis-patches told of a strong drive by Marshal Timoshenko's Red army of Guiding force behind the Royal Air force's devastating bombing raids on Germany is Air Marshal Arthur Travers Harris. Continuous Continu-ous raids on strategic Nazi industrial indus-trial plants and bases have resulted re-sulted in a reported German request re-quest for a "bombing truce." 'QUICKIES: OUT? The practice of granting army and navy "quickie commissions" to unqualified un-qualified civilians was condemned by Rep. Charles I. Faddis of Pennsylvania, Penn-sylvania, chairman of a house subcommittee sub-committee on army matters. At the request of Faddis, who declared de-clared that congress must stop such tee had written into the army pay bill an amendment requiring that future commissions be granted only to graduates of officers' training schools. National Guard and ROTC officers, or those who completed military mil-itary courses at approved schools. He stated that "Too many of these commissions are being issued. It may be true that in certain cases a man from civilian life is needed for a commissioned post, but there is no reason to commission a thousand of them." FOUR DESTROYERS: A new world's record was established estab-lished at Kearney, N. J., when four destroyers slid down the ways in a mass launching which Gov. Charles Edison of New Jersey described as "the equivalent of a splendid naval victory." The destroyers were the U. S. S. Fletcher, the U. S. S. Radford, the U. S. S. Quick and the U. S. S. Mer-vine. Mer-vine. The exceedingly brief time in which they were constructed plus their condition (90 per cent complete) com-plete) were the factors responsible for the world's record. r or over a montn the United Nations Na-tions had been letting the world know, with Japan included, that their strength in Australia was assuming as-suming increased proportions. American troops in large numbers have been poured on to this continent conti-nent to aid in its defense and to participate in the expected offensive action to recapture the East Indies and the Philippines. Evidence of this increased strength has been indicated by the news dispatches of hard-fought air battles off the coasts of this important impor-tant outpost In one week-end, Allied Al-lied headquarters reported a toll of 20 Jap planes destroyed and four Jap ships blasted by planes in scattered scat-tered battles to the north and northeast. north-east. In one thrilling 35-minute fight a four-motored Jap flying boat was severely damaged. This activity added impetus to the reasoning projected by military strategists to the effect that Japan was concentrating naval forces preparatory pre-paratory to a flank attack on U. S. communications in the South Pacific. Japan must cut these vital lines if she would stall the threatened offensive against her. With the U. S. occupation of the French island of New Caledonia these communication lines of the United Nations have been further secured. Alarmed by this news, Japan's opening moves were seen coming from the Marshall islands either through the Gilbert and Ellice islands is-lands or through the Solomon islands and the New Hebrides. Added to these developments was the earlier report that strong Jap naval forces which had gathered in the Bay of Bengal as a threat to India had suddenly disappeared. Only the Japs knew where they were headed, but the United Nations expected next to see them along the sea lanes between be-tween San Francisco and Sydney. WAR LABOR SUPPLY: Reaches High Peak Chairman Paul V. McNutt of the War Manpower commission has estimated es-timated that the number of men employed em-ployed in war work by the end of 1942 may reach 17,500,000, compared com-pared with 1,500,000 at the beginning begin-ning of 1941. McNutt said that although labor, like materials, must be re-directed for war production purposes, no draft or regimentation of workers is contemplated. Premier Marshal Josef Stalin Timosheuko the Ukraine, which cut deep into the Nazi position in the Donets industrial in-dustrial basin. This wedge would offer an effective obstacle to the German offensive aimed at the oil of the Caucasus.. RESOURCES: Strong opposition to the war department's de-partment's plan to lower the draft age to 18 or 19 was seen in congress as Louis B. Hershey, national selective selec-tive service director, instructed state draft directors to include men of the 20 to 21 and 36 to 44 groups in the June calls. At present the army and navy both are accepting voluntary enlistments of 18 and 19-year-old youths. Lowering Lower-ing the minimum draft age would make approximately 2,500,000 young men eligible for conscription. An alternate plan was suggested by Sen. Claude Pepper of Florida. This would call for the pre-draft military training for those less than 20 years old. Success of either proposal pro-posal depends largely upon the war department's ability to convince the house and senate military committees commit-tees that they have exhausted military mili-tary man power resources in the 20-46 20-46 age brackets. However, Paul V. McNutt, chairman chair-man of the War Manpower commission, commis-sion, stated that no draft or regimentation regi-mentation of workers is contemplated. contemplat-ed. JUGOSLAVIA: Harassing Hitler Out of Istanbul, Turkey, came a report that the Nazis were being forced to send additional large numbers num-bers of troops into Jugoslavia to quel the general attack by Gen. Draja Mikhailovitch's Serbian army. Guerrilla warfare and sabotage have been sweeping the area in increasing in-creasing degrees since the passing of winter and sending of Nazi forces here on the eve of Germany's spring offensive was good news to the Rus- sians. |