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Show KAJ CREW PEARSON Washington, D. C. UNPROMOTED COMBAT FLIERS One thing that gripes the boys at the front is the way a lot of the desk officers in the war department and others here at home seem to get promotions more rapidly than the boys who are up on the firing line. Some of them feel so badly about it that they aren't anxious to come home, though given opportunities of furlough, because 'they are outranked out-ranked by their old friends at home. For instance, most of the new pilots pi-lots just arriving in England are second lieutenants. They haven't been on any missions at all. Meanwhile, Mean-while, men who have been in England Eng-land for two years, and have been flying over Europe constantly, still remain second lieutenants. "How many do you have?" asks some newly arrived pilot who has flown twice across the channel, each flight being a mission. TIRE-RATION PROBE The Office of Price Administration is quietly probing several cases of tire ration violations which promise to be sensational. They go right into some of the biggest tire companies com-panies of the country. One of the big tire companies is being probed on a charge of having failed to void the tire ration certificates turned in to them by retailers. In other words, when a retail tire store or garage sells a tire, it has to send back to the tire manufacturer manufac-turer the certificate issued by the OPA ration board. However, Howev-er, the OPA is tracking down reports that these tire certificates, certifi-cates, instead of being stamped as used, are going back to the dealers, or else remaining with them in the first place. Thus, they are able to sell more tires without requiring more certificates certifi-cates in exchange. Another big company is being investigated by the OPA for buying buy-ing up new tires of various makes from dealers and later reselling them through the company's com-pany's own stores at considerable consider-able loss. Even though not the tires made by this company, the loss was considered a good investment in-vestment because it got motorists motor-ists into the habit of trading with this company's retail stores. There may be some startling news breaking on this soon. GERMANY'S SMART CHOICES U. S. experts who have studied fhe Nazi military setup to resist in-vasion in-vasion figure that Hitler or whoever whoev-er did the picking for him was smart in his selection of German military leaders. Three of the best men in the German army have been given the job of combating what the Nazis know is the death thrust at Germany. No. 1 is Field Marshal Karl von Rundstedt, considered the best strategist and over-all commander in Germany. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, immediately under him, is the best man for lightning moves and panzer tactics. Finally, Colonel General Heinz Guderian is considered the best tank commander in the German army. U. S. experts, who believe in looking look-ing facts in the face, classify these three as among the top military brains of Europe. DAYLIGHT SAVING TO END? It looks as if daylight-saving time were going to be abolished without with-out giving the President a chance to block the repeal. Several resolutions have been introduced to abolish war time, as a result of protests from farmers in agricultural areas. These are now before Representative Repre-sentative Clarence Lea of California Cali-fornia and his Interstate Commerce Com-merce committee, and it looks as if one of them would be reported re-ported out and passed. If so, it cannot be vetoed by the President, for the original bill establishing es-tablishing war time provided that it was to end six months after the war, or upon a concurrent resolution by both houses of congress. This latter provision precludes a veto, since resolutions are not subject sub-ject to being overruled by the White House. In fact, Congressman Lea wrote his original daylight-saving bill in this form for the specific purpose pur-pose of heading off the White House in case Congress wanted to abolish war time. CAPITAL CHAFF C. Congratulations to Lieut. Harry B. Paul Barnhart for bringing laughs to the boys in the South Pacific with his army show "Stars and Gripes." Every day the state department condenses foreign news developments develop-ments for its officials both at home and abroad. It is one of the fairert news summaries in Washington. C The navy is starting a school of government, similar to the army's at Charlottesville, Va., to train men to govern occupied territories. Some navy men are wisecracking that they don't need to train governors of occupation because the British take over all Pacific possessions as soon as we capture them. (The Solomons Solo-mons and New Guinea were largely British before the war.) |