| OCR Text |
Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne Germans Claim Deep Gains in Russia With Three Thrusts on 'Stalin' Line; New Japanese War Policy in Offing; British Push 'V Propaganda Drive (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed In these columns, Ihey are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) (Released by Western Newspaper Union. I I ; U'.v 'i:-c- rKrf An important neighbor of the United States Cuba, has just installed a new cabinet and its members are shown above. Lett to right are Dr. V. Caballo, secretary of government; Dr. Jose Cortina, secretary of state;' Dr. Carlos Saladrigas, premier-minister; President Batista; behind him' are his adjutants, Major Garcia and Colonel Barking, and Secretary to' the President Amadero Castero. I JAPAN: And Russia Two things began to emerge out ot the formation of. a new Japanese government by the old premier, Prince Konoye. 1. The army and navy were to be in the saddle. 2. The attitude toward Russia is to be stiffened, probably including the breaking of the neutrality pact and possibly with some overt move either in Siberia or from Manchukuo toward the Siberian border. Even the Chinese, apparently well-informed well-informed about Japanese intentions, failed to pierce the veil of mystery surrounding the new government's plans. The Chinese called it a "water-bird" "water-bird" government, which meant that it would be calm on the surface, but that this calmness would mask a terrific activity soon to be launched. Yet a report in Washington (coming (com-ing from diplomatic quarters, back of which was that powerful figure Ambassador Grew) tended to indicate indi-cate that the likeliest Japanese move would be toward the South Pacific, the direction in which Hitler is believed most anxious for Japan to turn. Washington says that Japan's plan to "send a million men toward the north," ostentatiously "disclosed" from Nipponese sources, is entirely too boldly and obviously displayed, and is intended to mask a move in the exact opposite direction. The capital's viewpoint probably is most highly influenced by the doubt that Japan, faced by the never-ending war with China, is able to undertake any such major move as would be required to threaten Russia's Far-East armies, and that Nippon is much more apt to take the "soft touch" in the direction of Thailand and Indo-China. DRAFT: RUSSIA: Line Pierced Though claims of Russians and Germans continued to conflict, it was apparent that the Stalin line had been pierced at least three times, once each in the northern, central and southern fronts. Thus it was' evident that despite the huge numbers of troops involved, which lent a confused element to the picture the Nazi technique of spearheads and pincer movements was working out inexorably, even though more slowly than the Nazis themselves had figured. Some of the German claims met public denial from the British mission mis-sion to Moscow, such as the assertion asser-tion from Berlin that the Russian air fleet had been rendered useless in the face of German air attacks. The British in Moscow informed London that this claim was premature, prema-ture, that Russia still had a large and active air-force, and was dealing deal-ing important damage to the Nazis. Though perilous and daring, the spearhead technique which with equal armies might prove a terrible boomerang, especially if defenses as worked out by Weygand should be effectively carried out, was apparently appar-ently beyond the Russian armies' ability to withstand. The fall of Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev in many quarters was believed inevitable and perhaps imminent, and whether the Reds could get their armies back of the Moscow-Leningrad-Kiev line and go on fighting rear-guard actions seemed dubious in the extreme. Still unconfirmed reports had Smolensk, Smo-lensk, vital city on the road to Moscow, Mos-cow, in German hands or surrounded, surround-ed, and there were even reports from Sweden that Moscow was under un-der terrific bombing and that the Kremlin had been "ruined." This, however, the Germans did not claim, the high command simply sim-ply stating that the Nazi forces would content themselves with the destruttion of the effectiveness of the Russian troops before going on to Moscow. With regard to Leningrad, the Germans said that their pincers were closing on the city, and that it was sure to fall soon. As to Kiev, Nazi sources claimed their advance units were to the east of the city, having passed it to the south. From the Russian viewpoint, all-was all-was not so hopeless, for while they admitted German advances on the central front, they claimed that the two pincer-heads attacking Leningrad Len-ingrad were not moving through the Russian defenses, and that on the south the German-Rumanian armies were stalled also. Men, Business The drawing for the second draft, that of 750,000 new 21-year-olds, came at a moment when the controversy contro-versy was at its height over two other drafts that of whether the older selectees and National Guardsmen Guards-men 'should be kept in more than a year, and whether the bill calling for a "draft of business" if necessary, neces-sary, should be passed. General Marshall had not pulled any punches in letting congress know his stand in the matter, which was to keep both guardsmen and selectees in over the time limit, and he had President Roosevelt apparently appar-ently vigorously back of him. On top of this, the senate military affairs committee revealed that it had been informed that a "vital military mil-itary weapon" which might prove to be of the "utmost importance" had been denied to the army by the fact that the government did not have the power to "draft industry." indus-try." No further details as to the nature of the weapon were revealed, but the report was important in that it showed a spirit on the part of the senate body to ask the passage of this bill, which had been under a legislative cloud for some time. As to the addition of time of service serv-ice for the guards and selectees, some Washington observers reported report-ed sentiment growing for passage of the measure, others seemed to see it doomed to defeat. TAX: Stormy Session That income taxes would be two to three times as high as at present was agreed on by the house ways and means committee, but that body ended a three-hour secret session ses-sion on the tax bill in a row over whether husbands and wives should be forced to file joint returns. It was unofficially reported that the husband-wife plan had previously previous-ly been approved by a 15-1 vote, but in the secret session vigorous opposition is said to have developed. The big revenue measure, designed de-signed to raise three and a half billions, covers 87 typewritten pages. But the row over the joint return was apparently the only serious cause for dissent in the committee, com-mittee, and there were reports that when the bill was reported out, there would be no recommendation one way or the other on this item, but that the report would indicate how the committee stood. There was some hope that the measure would be in form to present pre-sent to the house by the end of the month. VOICE: With an Idea Great Britain, after quietly and without much fanfare experimenting experiment-ing with a radio broadcaster who would give Europe something equal to or surpassing Germany's Lord Haw-Haw, came out boldly with "Colonel Britton," and polished off his opening broadcasts with a "V for Victory" day. It was to be a campaign to enroll all the disgruntled conquered peoples peo-ples in a new secret organization whose purpose would be to harass Germany's army of occupation at every possible turn. Colonel Britton, an anonymous broadcaster but a person who, unlike un-like Lord Haw-Haw did not pretend pre-tend to be a member of the nation he was talking to, nevertheless, the English said, could converse in French, Italian, German, Dutch, Danish, Belgian, Norwegian or what-have-you, and had been given a station of a wavelength and power which defied all Nazi efforts to "jam" him off the air-waves. The launching of the V for Victory campaign took place with no less a personage than Winston Churchill Church-ill delivering a message. "Colonel Britton," quoting Churchill, Church-ill, said, in part: "The V sign is the symbol of the unconquerable will of the occupied territories. "So long as the peoples of Europe continue to refuse all collaboration with the invader, it is sure that his cause will perish." The campaign urges the people to chalk the letter V on walls and doors and pavements, and to tap the letter let-ter out in Morse code, three dots and a dash, so that the comrades of the vast "V" army to be will hear it and the Germans will hear it too. |
