Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS by edward C wayne russian army plan for slowing blitz follows chinas cainas retreating technique churchill hails soviet as real ally extension of draftee service sought EDITORS NOTE when opinions opinion are ft expressed in these columns columna they are rt those of the new nevis adalist ani lt and not necessarily of 0 this abl newspaper I 1 released by western newspaper union aar t I X deeper into russia than their companions but unarmed these invading nazi soldiers are marched off to a red prison camp after capture somewhere on the eastern front that bald headed shirt clad panzer trooper fourth from left in the front line looks out of place among his companions who seem to be shock headed boys BEAR on defense the russian bear no matter what the might say was obviously putting up a hard fight before the advancing german mechanized forces and the british who had taken the quick defeat of russia as a foregone conclusion were beginning to cheer churchill who had been through three previous milder stages of hailing russia as a companion in arms finally and very bluntly told the house of commons of course russia is an ally of britain one of the signs that the reds defense of their homeland was vigorous and not without military merit came from an official admission on the part of germanys germanas Germ anys high command that the nazi armies had hurled back a considerable counterattack solvers naturally saw in this admission proof that the russian armies were actually fighting and battling to some purpose in their gradual withdrawal to the stalin line and perhaps further to the interior washington observers cautioned against too much faith in an eventual russian victory however unless the defenders would be able to withdraw their armies with much of their equipment intact into that hinterland broadly described as the urals brals As in the battle of france it was conceded that the french would have had a chance of immobilizing the war only if they were willing to give up paris and other cherished cities and move backward with the assault harassing the advancing nazis and softening their blows riding with the punches as the boxing phrase has it this was the technique which enabled to make a four year old war of position out of the japanese blitz of 1937 in china it was the same technique which observers in this country were recommending for russia there was nothing in dispatches to show that the reds were not doing just that save that no city of vital importance like leningrad moscow or kiev had yet fallen though ge germans mans claimed they had passed the latter it was impossible in view of conflicting claims to determine with even probable accuracy and allowing for a wide margin of error to figure the price being paid by either side in the russo german war if german claims were to be believed russia had left only a fragmentary part of her motorized equipment and her air force if russia were to be believed germany was reduced to using canvas tanks and mere boys to operate them but even the german admitted russia still had hundreds of tanks in action and hundreds of planes and the reds bombing activities were reported from neutral points to be hitting tai targets far within rumania and far within finland the actual facts of the war however remained continually clouded in mystery despite the fact that correspondents fits finally were admitted to moscow which also installed a short wave radio to give out war news to the united states and 0 ther other countries HOPKINS to london harry hopkins president roose belts trouble shooter and confidant was being sent to london again i 0 while there was little definite information readily available as to the reason for hopkins second trip to england it was recalled that only the other day in the house of commons there had been some bitter statement over the handling of american plane purchases MARSHALL his plan gen george C marshall chief of staff of the U S army urged two major points before congress senate military affairs committee and apparently the president was willing to go along with one but not with the other point no I 1 was that the tees should be kept in uniform longer than a calendar year from the time of their induction he wanted this restriction removed by congress from the selective service law point no 2 was that he wanted the restrictions removed ordering that tees could serve only in the western hemisphere the president apparently was willing to exert some white house pressure on congress to get the second provision passed however early polls of senatorial reactions to both points were unfavorable vo rable though a majority of those questioned reported themselves undecided and preferring td to hear the debate the question had broadly resolved itself into how large an army the U S should have and how long it takes to train a soldier general marshall also made the point that the tees had been poured into all army units with the result that if they were sent home after a year these units would suffer dismemberment JAPAN on the verge the sudden resignation of the japanese cabinet together with many dispatches quoting the indefinite diplomatic sources seemed to indicate that nippon might be on the verge of some important step in world aff affairs airs what this might be remained hidden though british statements seemed to hint that japan might be contemplating a move into indochina A secondary guess was that japan might be planning a token assault on dussias Rus sias east coast siberia perhaps to attempt to close the port of vladivostok name famous in the japanese russian war at the turn of the century the quitting cabinet is the one which put soviet russia into the rome berlin axis and also strangely enough into a neutrality accord with russia the government was almost exactly a year in office so it could not be charged with the stalemate in china in fact it was not organized to do anything about the chinese war there was little that could be said surely about the situation some holding that the cabinet resignation meant that japans whole foreign policy would be reoriented sin in view of the german russian war whether this would mean that the next government would be more pro german or whether japan was getting ready to withdraw from all european commitments could hardly be told certain it was that in tokyo was a little group of nazis who were said to have dominated the last cabinet and to have been urging the strongest possible intimidation of america in the pacific in order to occupy the united states so strongly with the west coast that aid to britain might be minimized ROOSEVELT nazi names the german press in its previous references to this country had been relatively mild on the contrary the papers were now with each other to use strong language about president roosevelt the president said one paper Ls is circling like a vulture ov over er the azores and the cape verde islands another said roosevelt has raised to be a symbol in politics SYRIA now british the victory of the british and free french in syria being somewhat dwarfed by the news from russia and the war developments in this country seemed to receive receive only minor mention in the american press though the british were getting more solid satisfaction out of it than had appeared on the eve of the armistice some of the terms began to come overseas and it was significant that they called for the turning over to the british of all arms except those belonging to individuals including ships and planes paris was quick to report that all planes and ships had escaped capture though this dispatch comin coming 9 from german controlled territory was somewhat discounted churchill summed up the advantages of the syrian victory briefly as removing to a greater distance the threat to suez also the fact that some of the disaster of crete had been overcome in that the air base on the island of cyprus now could be protected the germans heavily engaged with russia however seemed in no hurry to try another air conquest from crete to cyprus that the germans air position in the eastern mediterranean was suf strong was indicated in the sinking of a british small naval vessel of 1200 tons by air fire th the e survivors reporting that they were attacked by 80 dive bombers at one time their convoy escaped with supplies destined for To bruks be league red garrison most important of the syrian armistice terms was the choice to be offered to french residents civilian and military as to whether they would be deported to french territory or whether they would join the free french government under british mandate R RAF A F business as usual the royal air force stepping up its bombing scale steadily reported as one day of business as usual al I 1 the dropping of 1500 tons of bombs on cities in germany and occupied countries the british were claiming that these attacks were at least as severe as any britain had had to withstand during the heyday hey day of the german onslaught from the air and that they would get stronger as time wore on one contrast between the nazis blitz of london and other british objectives and the british attack on germany and occupied countries was in the photographic evidence outside of one or two pictures sent out from germany showing fire fighters atop buildings in berlin the country might as well be entirely unscathed as far as picture evidence would go whereas the american newspapers had carried literally thousands of photographs of air raid effects in england from the digging diggin 9 out of the dead and wounded to the damage that was done to westminster abbey and the tower from which big ben chimes out the hours hour S the reason was that the british took the pictures of their own damage and the censors permitted them to be sent out so the united states got a view of what modern war was like the germans permitted t two w 0 or three such pictures to get to this country but for more than a year nothing of the kind was shown and as the air attacker cant get low enough to photograph his own damage it look as though any would get out among the targets were bremen cologne and other big centers of rail and steamship traffic and the british assumed that 1500 tons of their bombs would wreak about the same havoc on bremen as the same weight of german bombs had on london churchill summed it up when he said that he believed if the british people were permitted to vote on whether bombings of cities would continue or be stopped by both sides they would vote NOI and his audience cheered to the echo |