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Show Draft Touchy Issue ' C : For Nation's Politicoes , .f s II; Fear Strong Reaction Against Military kp f j Service Even as Occupation Needs Point y Up Requirement for Large Army. : By BAUKIIAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street NW, Washington, D. C. One of the administration's hottest political potatoes is a matter that nobody likes to talk about even the opposition. It is military service. Not ' universal military service next month or next year but any old kind of military service today and tomorrow, tomor-row, right up to election day, 1948. The problem has many .facets but It has one, awesome nub the veteran vet-eran vote. There are several danger signals which the Democratic administration ad-ministration is watching with some trepidation: the criticism over continuation con-tinuation of the draft which the President has given his complete and unqualified support; recurring complaints of discontented soldiers and their families appearing in radio, ra-dio, congressional, national committee commit-tee and other Washington fan mail, which add up to a resounding demand de-mand for more and quicker discharges, dis-charges, and finally, a growing fear that the feeling which used to be called isolationism is cropping up in a new form "anti-militarism." The administration doesn't dare make any move to permit a drastic reduction in the armed forces now. Military experts think it will be the middle of October before any such move can be contemplated. By that time they think the danger of any serious outbreak in Japan will be over, or there will be evidence that one is coming. Await Jap Reaction To Occupation The full Impact of the occupation of Japan will not be felt until American soldiers are deep in the heart of the country. Before that, the reaction of the Japanese people and the influence of the military leaders as opposed to the influence of the emperor, cannot be gauged. Suffice it to say that the surrender terms as well as the surrender itself it-self came as a shock to the Japanese Japa-nese peeple. Many Americans fail to realize that a relatively small American army landed in Japan in an area in which there were no Japanese except those permitted to be there by the authorities who arranged the surrender. There was no contact with the general population or the military. Scattered over the rest of the country is a powerful Japanese arm, as yet fully armed, in defense "positions, strengthened when the Japs completely reorganized their home defense . against invasion after the capture of Okinawa. Disregarding Dis-regarding the thousands of Jap- anese sailors now on shore, the air force, the supply troops and others, it is known that on Hokkaido there were two full divisions. (A Jap division divi-sion is between 15,000 and 20,000 men.) On Honshu there "were 44 divisions and 7 brigades (a brigade is roughly half a division). On Kyushu Kyu-shu 14 divisions and 7 brigades. ' It is estimated that we would have 500,000 men in the islands by the middle . of September. That is against a Japanese army (not count-. count-. lng the sailors, airmen and others)' of well over a million. That is why there can be no sharpr reduction, in( American troops until , we knr)W( what, if anything, is cooking' jt'iirider1 the cherry trees. And then when that question is answered we have the question of occupation. It has been estimated that to police Germany, Japan and Korea and perhaps parts of China will take 1,200,000 men. Where will they come from? Where will 300,000 come from for that matter? Already a sharp reversion re-version against military service hB3 begun and if it follows -the curve after the last war recrujjtrrfent on a basis of voluntary emitment la hopeless. At its loj'point the--arrny after WorlWar number l'30,-' 000 men. I 'well r-cnll the. axory of one of my rfficer frianjls whose regiment, regi-ment, stationed in the middie-wet,"" dropped sd low that men them fika vi'trd to spend their postexrhaetje funds for I a recruiting eampaign. With a band and a jcompariy e paraded the countryside for a vetk He got just three recruits and two of those were rejected as physically unfit. j ! j As one oflficer remarked bitterly to me: "How. arc you going to get a man to J'iin the arrrry for. -$21;' a month (the basic peiif-etimA pay) when Uncle Sam will pay him $25 a week for not working at all?" (He referred to the unemployment compensation com-pensation called for in pending legislation.) legis-lation.) That's the position the administration administra-tion is in when the cry to end the draft arises. Vets' Attitude Bears Watching The complaints from the veterans is another matter. They are not so much concerned over who gts into the army as who gets out. A lot of them are marking time right now, later a lot will be sent overseas in the boresome jobs of policemen. Why shouldn't I get out now and get a start in business? Why shouldn't my husband come back and support me in the manner to which I have been unaccustomed since he joined up? Why shouldn't my boy get back to school where he belongs? Why shouldn't my sweetheart be allowed to come home and marry me like he said he would? And some day sonny and daddy and lover will come back. And they'll join a veteran's organization and they will vote at the polls; ah, there's the rub! Now we come to the third point which is really the most Insidious, the one which has to be handled the most delicately. We may have learned in this country that an ocean is no longer a barrier against the enemy. But we know there is another barrier which separates our maritime states from the heartland of the nation bordering the Mississippi Missis-sippi flood plain. That part of the country forgot its so-called isolationism isola-tionism and threw its whole heart into the war. But the war is over on paper anyhow. It is time to put the hand back to the plough again. There is need, of stout arms and strong backs in the fields, and though Japs and the Germans may require watching, why not let George do it? That is a natural feeling and clever politicans would have little trouble in turning it to account, by raising the cry of militarism, of imperialism im-perialism and all the other isms which men whose barns are their castles and whose meadows are their empires, dislike. Such a sentiment senti-ment could be turned against one administration as ,well as another but it so happens that the middle mid-dle west is naturally somewhat Republican Re-publican in its leanings normally and the Democrats are now in the saddle.' , $ j One very keen political observer who has watched ,the way of the voter for many years said to me the other day: "If there were a Presidential Presi-dential election tomorrow . Truman would win it." And when you consider con-sider the matter coldly there are good reasons for the statement. The Republicans have had one healthy issue after another knocked "out from under therrij Truman .has given giv-en business its head, he has sat on the OPA, he has released one control con-trol after- another he has most solicitously soli-citously deferred' to cohgress, he'is on the way to, .break" up .the war 'agencies arM get the business of -g'fryeTn'rlientDb'ackrSnlo' the olef iriV departments,-. . ,fr ., ,. ii-iSu'ehMsith'e-'pictureas tff 'tbd-ny all clear except for one little cloud in the sky, .not much bigger than a servicemanls hand, but. there is thunder ani lightnin'ln' fijiat cloud and-.if- the circumstances -vere such that its l?olts of wrath vwerjs directed a- trie .dnnistratirtt'wbuld not! -evcn-.tyike, jsay .TStaiWie, to.'wIn, tlie 'Pr'tfsideitial.iace ou f. ftlfcr'i : -t ! .-,-,-.- 5 ..By next February bairinfl-unex-pected developments all.soldiefjrtn Europe exceptfhse in the armyif , occupation arid tje mlnlhuiriTc-quired mlnlhuiriTc-quired tj dlypose'p the arrrty's stlr-plus-rfroperty.will ; have been re-t re-t tuw'Cd to .thUititAd Slati. Maj. , Gch. p.-, P. Gross.-flcX of trrrmqor' itation.Vsald Inu( atiriourlcernentjby he war dop'&rlment.j --J -Retiini of American forces In'tho Pacific will be completed next June, "according tq present estimates:1 "More than L-7nO,000 rjien are schedT ulcd jfor return frofn the Pacific I tb'iaUu-s, 'vhile approximately 2.000,-l 2.000,-l 000 rekfialn to be retilrncd from Eu-rope.--1. Some, 150.000) othef .troops ' also arA to bo rcturiir-d mjrrr other iivirrseaA theaters. "I |