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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Nazi Divisions Battle on Two Fronts As Campaign in Russia Intensifies; OEM Seeks Nationwide Auto Pooling; Germany Reported Critical of Laval (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) I Released by Western Newspaper Union. ,"-r, i &is 4 i ; J r r i U Robert A. Lovett, left, U. S. assistant secretary of war, as he was welcomed to Ottawa, Can., by Air Marshal G. O. Johnson of the Royal Canadian Air force. In center background is Artemus Gates, D. S. assistant secretary of the navy. Lovett and Gates attended the United Nations air training conference in which representatives of 12 countries participated. RUSSIAN FRONT: Two Offensives As the Nazis began massing new panzer divisions for the first 1942 thrust at Moscow from the west, further to the south their forces scored a strategic victory as they forced withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kerch peninsula. Their goal in that section of the front was of course the vital oil fields of the Caucasus. Around Kharkov, to the north of the Kerch area, Marshal Semeon rimoshenko's armies of the Ukraine held the offensive after more than two weeks of steady intensive fighting. fight-ing. Success by the Russians at Kharkov would expose rear lines of main German units attacking the Caucasus. Just across the narrow strait from the Kerch peninsula the Russians were reported to have heavily reinforced re-inforced their defenses on the Caucasus Cau-casus shore and the Soviet Black sea fleet was said to be massed near the strait and loomed as Hitter's Hit-ter's biggest obstacle in any Jump toward the oil treasure. United Nations strategists hope for a successful stand by the Russians !n the Caucasus region. For if Hit-.er Hit-.er can be kept from this oil his timetable time-table will be once more upset. Some experts expressed the suggestion that the threatened Moscow offensive offen-sive was a feint to lure heavy Russian Rus-sian defenses away from the oil Jelds. While the moral effect of Moscow's fall might be bad, the loss f rich supplies of oil in the Caucasus Cauca-sus would be far more damaging to the Allied cause. Both the Nazis and the Russians were claiming that the other had suffered huge losses in tanks and Dther armored material all along the front. In three days of fighting on the Izyum-Barvenkova front, the Russians reported the destruction of 15 German tanks. LAVAL ON SPOT? Nazis Impatient The removal of fuel from French warships at Martinique was announced an-nounced by Secretary of State Hull, who stated that further demobilization de-mobilization work is in progress and proceeding satisfactorily. Meanwhile rumors were revived that Pierre Laval might step out as chief of government in Vichy. Laval La-val had conferred in Paris with German Ger-man military and political leaders who are said to have become increasingly in-creasingly impatient with his slowness slow-ness in bringing France into full collaboration. col-laboration. Nazi party leaders were extremely critical regarding Laval's handling of the Martinique affair. Jacques Doriot, former Communist, Commu-nist, has been suggested as Laval's successor. Rumors from Vichy stated stat-ed that he might enter the government govern-ment or form his own collaborationist collaboration-ist regime in Paris. In a May 16 speech, Doriot evinced his own readiness read-iness to take over if Laval was unable un-able to carry out a satisfactory program. pro-gram. However, informed persons in Vichy believe that Laval is comparatively com-paratively secure for the immediate future. MEXICO:" 'National Pride' As Mexico moved toward war, government officials explained the necessity for such a step. Mexican national pride demanded that the deaths of 21 sailors killed by Axis torpedoes be avenged. A solemn demonstration in memory mem-ory of the dead sailors drew thousands thou-sands of people to Mexico City's huge central plaza. President Manuel Man-uel Avila Camacho, members of the cabinet and congress appeared at the demonstration. The memorial program was followed by a pageant at which the Nazi banner wac burned amid cheers for Roosevelt and other Allied leaders and boos for Hitler, Mussolini and Emperor Hifo-hito. Hifo-hito. Many German, Japanese and Ital-ian Ital-ian business houses were painted with slogans "Down With the Axis!" and "Down With Hitler!" REGISTRATION: Of 18, 19-Year-Olds Young men between the ages of 18 and 19 will register for selective service on June 30. The registration registra-tion will include youths whose 20th oirthdays fell between December 31, 1941, and June 30, 1942. Under pres-2nt pres-2nt law, the first age group is not subject to military service but the .after group can be called. Informed sources report the possibilities possi-bilities of a proposal to lower the Tiinimum age for compulsory service serv-ice to 19 years and possibly 18. An estimated 1,200,000 persons are in :ach age group. When the selective service act jvas revised by congress after Pearl rlarbor, the war department recom-nended recom-nended making 19-year-olds subject :o the draft. The senate acted favorably fa-vorably but the house voted to place Jie minimum age at 21. A com-oromise com-oromise resulted, permitting 20-ear-olds to be drafted. Rep. Andrew J. May of Kentucky, ;hairman of the house military af-'airs af-'airs committee, expressed the be-ief be-ief that the house would be willing .0 lower the age minimum. However, How-ever, Sen. Lister Hill of Alabama, democratic whip, said he expected 10 immediate action. New draft classification measures are expected .o be acted upon in the near future. I ' 1 TRANSPORTATION: Lonely Highways By June, 1943, the Office of Emergency Emer-gency Management reports that 20,-000,000 20,-000,000 passenger cars will go off the roads leaving about 8,000,000 unless car pooling can be made effective ef-fective on a nationwide scale. According to OEM statistics, the average passenger load per mile last year was less than 2 persons, although the average car capacity is 4.2 persons. The War Production board reported some labor-management committees have enabled workers to form their own car pools by indicating on conspicuously posted post-ed maps the home location of every man driving a car to work and of every man without a car. Meanwhile the Office of Defense Transportation banned operation of all sight-seeing bus services and restricted re-stricted use of chartered buses to such essential operations as transporting trans-porting members of the armed forces, war workers and school children. |