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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS OWI Predicts 6 Cut in Food Supply; Bombers Strafe Italian Supply Ports As Allies Close Axis Tunisia Trap; U. S. Promises MacArthur More Planes (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysis and not necessarily of this newspaper.) ) Released by Western Newspaper Union. I I k ' " x ! - 1 )'- .4v3?- ' v. ; 'lb 2- " V -a BALKANS : Hitler Builds Fences Even as Hungary was reported pulling 200,000 men out of Axis ranKs on the Russian front, a Rome broadcast broad-cast announced that Adolf Hitler in a move to strengthen his Mediterranean Mediter-ranean defenses had called in leaders lead-ers of his Balkan satellites for conference. con-ference. The seemingly frank tone of tne Rome broadcast, plus reports from neutral Spain and Sweden that German Ger-man engineers were dissatisfied with defense works in the Balkans led observers to believe that the Axis was on a fishing expedition for clues to possible Allied invasion plans. Commenting on a conference between be-tween Hitler and Rumania Premier Ion Antonescu, the Rome radio said: "The Fuehrer and the Marshal Mar-shal restated their decision to continue con-tinue the fight against the enemies of Europe until unconditional victory vic-tory has been achieved." ARMY: Cuts Food Waste Better planning by mess officers and co-operation by cooks and KPs has reduced the amount of food wasted at army camps by more than half since the beginning of the year, it was disclosed when testimony testi-mony of a private hearing of the senate war Investigating Truman committee was made public. Before the army's conservation program was inaugurated as much as 20 to 25 per cent of the food served at camps was wasted. This wastage has now been reduced to about 11 per cent a saving sufficient suffi-cient to feed a million civilians for a year. Figures on the extent of army food conservation were presented by Maj. Gen. E. B. Gregory, quartermaster quarter-master general. He told the committee com-mittee that army food purchases had to be sufficient for an average of 2,100,000 men overseas and 4,500,-000 4,500,-000 men in this country during 1943. He indicated that the average size of the army will be 6,600,000 this year. PLAIN TALK: Business Gets Lecture Silver-thatched Commerce Secretary Secre-tary Jesse H. Jones gave business in general some of his native Texas "plain talk" when he appeared as a speaker before the Committee for Economic Development in New York. Pointing out that the nation can-hot can-hot "indulge in another depression," but must pay the costs of this war which he said had been estimated at around 250 billion dollars, Jones said "the problem will be to provide pro-vide jobs at a living wage for every person willing to work." Business must form its own postwar post-war plans and meet the problems ahead with its own practical solutions solu-tions if it does not want the government govern-ment to step in and do the planning for it. RENTS: No Boost Noiv Landlords and tenants were informed in-formed by the OPA that present rent regulations will be continued. In rejecting rent control change proposals by the National Associa- Typical of the harvest of Axis prisoners in the Tunisia campaign is this batch of German soldiers guarded by a lone British Tommy. They were taken In the early stages of the drive northward, after General Montgomery's Eighth army had shattered the Mareth line. SOUTHWEST PACIFIC: Battle for Air Control While Gen. Menryo Sato, chief of the Nipponese military affairs bureau bu-reau in Tokyo threatened Jap air raids on the United States, enemy planes continuing a battle for control con-trol of the air over a wide area at the approaches to Australia mounted mount-ed a 100-ship raid at Milne Bay, New Guinea. Allied fighter planes, alert to the danger, shot 30 of the enemy raiders out of the sky. Meanwhile, Allied air forces ranging rang-ing over the vast battle area described de-scribed by Gen. Dougls MacArthur MacAr-thur as "our bomber lihe the first line of Australian defense" attacked a Japanese convoy of six merchant ships and three warships approaching approach-ing the enemy base at Wewak, 450 miles north of Port Moresby, New Guinea. Three of the merchantmen were hit, including two 8,000-toS and tone 5,000-ton ships. In answer to warnings from General Gen-eral MacArthur' s headquarters of the increasing strength of Jap air, sea and land force concentrations threatening Australia, Secretary of War Stimson promised that enough planes would be sent to the South Pacific to counter the rising Jap power. TUNISIA: 84 to 3 As the Allied armies closed in on the Axis' last mountain bastions in Tunisia, the gravity of Marshal Rommel's supply problem was shown by the heavy German reliance oh aerial transport from Sicily. That this supply problem would become even more critical was evident evi-dent from two facts: 1 The Axis had lost all but three airports in Tunisia; Tu-nisia; 2 Rommel's thin supply line was being menacingly depleted by American Flying Fortress attacks. Typical of the potency of the American aerial offensive was a raid on Axis rear bases at Castel-vetrano Castel-vetrano and Milo in Sicily in which 84 enemy planes were destroyed with the loss of but three American aircraft. With the Mediterranean at their back, the forces of Rommel and Col. Gen. Von Arnim were hemmed into an area less than the size of Connecticut Con-necticut in Northeast Tunisia. The Axis did, however, have the advantage advan-tage of holding mountainous positions posi-tions difficult for the Allies to storm. The strongly fortified ports of Tunis Tu-nis and Bizerte were the Allies' final goal. Operating under the supervision supervi-sion of Commander-in-Chief Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the British First army in the North, American and French forces in the center and General Montgomery's British Eighth army on the South steadily closed the trap on the Axis. MEAT: Ceilings Deferred Following through on President Roosevelt's directive to "roll back" the cost of living items found too high, OPA Chief Prentiss M. Brown suspended until May 17 the price ceiling schedule on beef, veal, lamb and mutton. Meat trade sources disclosed that the OPA had received complaints that its previously proposed standard stand-ard prices on these meats would have resulted in higher prices. FOOD: You 11 Get Less in '43 Controversies might rage over whether the Office of War Information Informa-tion had or had not sugar-coated its estimates of forthcoming food shortages, short-ages, but the sober fact remained that civilians will have at least 6 per cent less to eat this year than they consumed last year. Warning that the food situation is serious, OWI experts said, "There will be more or less continuous shortages of some kinds of food such as canned vegetables . . . (and) . . . meat products." Civilians, Civil-ians, however, will get enough to eat. In fact, compared to the prewar pre-war years they will have about 3 per cent more food. Among food supplies on the debit side for 1943, OWI roughly estimate ed: 11 per cent less meat, 21 per cent less butter, 11 per cent less Cheese, 3 to 25 per cent less canned Vegetables, 27 per cent less canned and shell fish. Among items on the credit side, OWI calculated: 30 per cent more chickens, 57 per cent more margarine, 13 per cent more frozen fruits, 7 per cent more wheat and 13 per cent more rye. Listed among food supplies that will be about the same as last year were: Fresh and frozen fish, eggs, fluid milk and cream, lard and other cooking fats, fresh citrus fruits, potatoes and sweet potatoes. RUSSIA: Sparring Tactics Still sparring like prize-fighters seeking advantageous openings, the Red and Nazi armies on the far-flung far-flung Russian front held each other off in preparation for the cudgelling blows that will fall when dry ground makes movement possible. Military activity was confined to minor skirmishes. In the Kuban valley of the Caucasus, the Russians mounted attacks which resulted in the capture of a series of pillboxes and trenches from the German defenders. de-fenders. In the Donets river area the Germans Ger-mans attempted another offensive in the Izyum sector, but were repulsed, a Soviet communique said. North of Chuguev in the Kharkov area, Russian artillery was credited with dispersing a German infantry batal-lion. batal-lion. AIR RAIDS: Sardinia to Stuttgart From Sardinia to East Prussia, Allied bombers struck at Axis-held Europe with increasing fierceness as the tempo of "softening up" raids continued to rise. British, American Ameri-can and Russian planes had simultaneously simul-taneously taken the offensive. Among spectacular raids was the vast British foray against the big German industrial city of Stuttgart. Observers reported that planes on this raid could be heard roaring across the British Channel toward the continent for an hour and a half. Nazi radio broadcasts were the authority for reports that Red air forces had raided Koenigsburg in East Prussia three times within a five-day span. American Flying Fortresses continued con-tinued to destroy Axis shipping facilities fa-cilities with punishing attacks on the port of Cagliari in Sardinia. ' : ' ' if.- ; ; l """ " 11 ' - 1 1 in im.am, i, i' PRENTISS M. BROWN OPA frowns on rent changes. tion of Real Estate Boards, the OPA ruled that any such changes would be in conflict with the President's orders "to hold the line" against inflation. Commenting on the realtors' suggestions. sug-gestions. Price Administrator Prentiss Pren-tiss M. Brown said that "while the proposals do not explicitly request any general increase in the rent level, their adoption wou'lg clearly achieve such a request." While the OPA is considering a few minor changes in its rent rules Brown asserted that so far as the basic program is concerned, "I do hot intend to alter either its method or administration." DIES COMMITTEE Although its publication was delayed de-layed a year because of an intra-committee intra-committee split, the Dies committee's commit-tee's special report to congress on prewar Nazi espionage nevertheless served the purpose of further convincing con-vincing the American people of the far-flung plans of the Axis for world domination. More than five years ago, the report re-port set forth, Hitler and his Nazi party had put into operation in this country a "diabolical scheme" for spreading Naziism. WOMEN More than 2,000,000 women, including includ-ing housewives and married women wom-en without small children will be required to work in munitions factories fac-tories and other essential industries before the end of 1943, according to Fowler W. Harper, deputy chairman of the War Manpower commission Altogether the nation will need 6,400,000 more workers this year Harper said, to replace 4,300 000 men taken for military service and to meet industries' demands for an additional 2,100,000 workers. |
