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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Russian Front Grows in Importance As Nazis Win New African Victory; Oregon, Canada Shelled by Axis Sub; Japs Gain Second Aleutian Foothold (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed (n these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) I Released by Western Newspaper Union . I PARITY: Fight Goes On Farm, church and labor groups united in a move to back President Roosevelt against a legislative bloc which is opposed to the administration's administra-tion's plan to sell government-owned wheat and corn below parity prices. In a letter to the White House, these groups said that the success of the President's program for farm security in this regard was essential essen-tial for the winning of the war. Included in the groups backing the letter were the National Farmers Farm-ers union, the American Federation of Labor, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the Railway Executives Execu-tives association, the National Catholic Cath-olic Rural Life conference and the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. This joint move was believed to be part of a plan being set up in opposition to the "high price through scarcity" concept backed by the American Farm Bureau federation, headed by Edward A. O'Neal. The Farm Bureau federation is reported to have been successful in withholding withhold-ing approval of the President's formula for-mula for selling government-owned wheat and corn at 85 per cent of parity. -ft" o i m : LU A ft ! - -v v f ' I ' v . - 4 Photo shows oil wells located near Salem, 111., which has been designated desig-nated as the terminus for the proposed oil pipe line from Longview, Texas. The VVPB announces that the cost of the project will be between 30 and 40 million dollars. Acute oil shortage and gasoline shortage in the eastern states will be considerably alleviated by the new line. TAXATION PROGRAM: Behind Schedule To ease the taxpayers' burden in 1943, the treasury department proposed pro-posed to congress a modification of its plarf to withhold federal taxes at the source. Under the plan the treasury would collect 5 per cent of the taxable income starting on January 1, 1943, instead of 10 per cent, would collect 15 per cent in 1944, and 10 per cent in 1945. Earlier the treasury department proposed a 100 per cent war "supertax" "super-tax" to carry out President Roosevelt's Roose-velt's recommendations for limitation limita-tion of individual income to $25,000 a year after payment of all taxes. The President told the press that taxation provisions of his anti-inflation anti-inflation program were running slightly behind schedule and that, in his opinion, the bill should be split into sections in order to get part of it into effect as soon as possible. JAP FOOTHOLD: On K iska Island Japan gained a second foothold in the Western hemisphere when forces were put ashore at Kiska island to establish a base on that Aleutian island less than 600 miles from the navy's base at Dutch Harbor. The Japanese, operating under cover of fog, were able to establish their base. The occupation was not a surprise. Kiska is approximately 175 miles east of Attu island, which the navy announced on June 12 had been occupied by the Japanese. A break in the weather within the past few days enabled discovery of the occupation of Kiska. A navy communique said that "Tents and minor temporary structures struc-tures were observed to have been set up on land." Kiska has a fair harbor, the site of a former coaling station for ships. Attu has few facilities for ships of any size. In Honolulu, Lieut. Gen. Delos C. Emmons has urged all non-residents not engaged in essential war work to leave for the mainland as soon as practicable and at the same time warned that Japan might attack at-tack Hawaii at any time. TOBRUK: Its Aftermath ' When the fall of Tobruk was officially of-ficially confirmed by the British, Allied plans for a second front received re-ceived a setback. Egypt. and Suez are threatened by Axis forces, under un-der the leadership of Nazi Marshal Erwin Rommel. According to German and Italian communiques, 25,000 British soldiers sol-diers and several generals were captured. These figures almost duplicate the number of Italians RUSSIAN FRONT: Increased Importance With the fall of Tobruk in Libya the fighting on the Russian front took on added importance for it became increasingly clear that if the United Nations were going to fight Hitler to a standstill the Soviet forces must continue to occupy the major portion of Nazi armed strength. Soviet soldiers were doing just that. Even as the British were admitting ad-mitting the loss of their Libyan stronghold, a report from Moscow took the optimistic note that with the continued material aid of Britain Brit-ain and the United States the Russians Rus-sians would be able to hold out against Germany. While an official Russian communique commu-nique admitted a German breakthrough break-through at Sevastopol, Soviet troops had blasted their way across the Donets river in the critical Kharkov area and recaptured a number of localities in a terrific counterattack. counter-attack. Earlier, two German regiments regi-ments with heavy air and tank support sup-port had crossed the river in a violent vio-lent attack and forced the Russians back. The German success at Sevastopol Sevasto-pol came only after huge losses, according ac-cording to the Russian official version ver-sion which admitted: "In the Sevastopol sector of the front our troops repelled repeated furious German attacks. At a cost of enormous enor-mous losses the enemy succeeded in driving a wedge in our defensive positions." WEST COASTS: Shelled Almost four months to the day after a submarine had shelled the California coast, another U. S. state, Oregon, felt the impact of enemy shells. The more recent shelling took place against the shoreline north of Seaside, Ore., just south of Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia Colum-bia river. The Fourth Army and Western Defense command announced the firing of six to nine shells by an unidentified un-identified craft near the midnight hour. No damage nor casualties were reported. Although the army did not immediately identify the attacking at-tacking vessel it was believed to be a Jap submarine. This conclusion was reached after the Canadian government had announced an-nounced that about 24 hours before the Oregon attack a submarine had landed shells at the government telegraph station at Estevan Point, Vancouver island. This was the first time that an enemy submarine had attacked shore installations in Canada and the first time in Canada's history that enemy shells had landed on her soil. Canadian officials said that while one of the shells landed near enough to the telegraph station to "shatter windows" the other missies mis-sies "fell harmlessly on the beach." The U. S. army's first brief announcement an-nouncement of the Oregon attack indicated in-dicated that the firing had lasted about 15 minutes. Earlier residents of Astoria had reported hearing be'-tween be'-tween 10 and 16 shots fired at sea and said they could hear the shells whistle over head. Still another report re-port said that an Astoria resident had sighted a submarine off the coast. Washington and Oregon had dimouts of their coasts at the time of the attack. 1 aM'1 MORE ROYALTY: In Washington Second monarch in ten days to visit Washington and hold conversations conversa-tions with President Roosevelt was the 19-year-old boy king of Jugoslavia, Jugo-slavia, King Peter II. He arrived in the capital by plane and was accompanied ac-companied by Foreign Minister M. Nintchich. Main topics of discussion with the President were Jugoslavia's unrelenting unre-lenting guerrilla warfare against Germany and the effects of a master mas-ter lend-lease agreement for his country which would provide for after-the-war understandings and collaboration. King George II of Greece had left the capital before King Peter arrived ar-rived and Queen Wilhelmina, ruling head of the Netherlands, was on her way to Washington, via Canada, at the time. WAR MANPOWER: Staggering Total The effect of the war upon everyday every-day life was emphasized in a statement state-ment of the War Manpower commission, com-mission, which said that the goal for men in the armed forces is six to seven million men by the end of 1943, and "eventually" may be 10 million. By 1944, at least 20 million workers work-ers will t(e needed in war production produc-tion and transportation. The 1943 crop will be harvested by 12 million workers. Chairman MacLean of the President's Presi-dent's Committee on Fair Employment Employ-ment Practice stated that in 1944 high school enrollment might be reduced re-duced by 40 to 50 per cent, college enrollment by 70 to 80 per cent, and half the nation's schools may be closed due to increasing needs for war workers. CHINA: ' Rocks, Grenades A rough mountain pass along the Honan-Shansi border north of the Yellow river was the scene of a bitter bit-ter struggle as poorly equipped Chinese Chi-nese troops repulsed the seventh attempt of the Japanese to break through. Fighting with rocks, hand grenades gre-nades and machine guns against 10,000 Jap troops supported by planes and heavy guns, the Chinese are extracting a bitter toll from the enemy. Spokesmen claimed that the Chinese still were holding a 50-mile 50-mile gap along the Chekiang-Kiang-si railway in the area south of the Yangtze river. The Japanese opened a new offensive of-fensive north of the Yellow river, driving from the north Honan province. prov-ince. They succeeded in pushing the Chinese back to the foothills of the Taiheng mountain range. FARM PRODUCTION: If the weather for the remainder of 1942 is normal, says Secretary of Agriculture Wickard, farm production produc-tion "will break all records." This announcement came at the time Wickard was reporting that the 1943 national wheat acreage allotment allot-ment had been set at 55,000,000 acres. At the same time he asked growers to plant part of the allotted acreage in other needed crops because be-cause the prospective 1942 wheat supply is nearly 1.400.000.000 bushels, bush-els, including carry-over. GEN. SIR ARCHIBALD WAVELL It was 17 months ago. captured when Tobruk surrendered to the British in January, 1941. Australian and British troops moved into Tobruk 17 months ago when Gen. Sir Archibald Wavell was driving driv-ing across Libya. The Italian troops offered little resistance, although they burned much of the material in the city. Following the Italian defeat, German Ger-man troops were sent to Africa and a strengthened Axis army drove back across the desert to Egypt's borders. Tobruk was placed under siege in April, 1941. The garrison was kept in action by the British navy, which managed to hold open the sea lanes for supplies and reinforcements. re-inforcements. Explanation Wanted The news of Tobruk's fall came as Prime Minister Winston Churchill was in the United States to confer with President Roosevelt on "the war, conduct of the war, and the winning of the war." Not since the prime minister satisfied sat-isfied the house of commons over the losses of Hongkong, Malaya and Singapore has the nation been more unified in demanding a full account of the conduct of the war. Charges of inefficiency and blundering blunder-ing are widespread. |
