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Show WEEKLY MEWS ANALYSIS Nazi Forces Retreat Tovvard Rumania As Russians Regain Rich Farm Lands; Allied Troops Drive New Wedge Into Germans' Main Defense Line in Italy (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are " Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily ol this newspapers , Released by Western Newspaper Union. . IRELAND: Faces Isolation Traditionally strained, Ireland's relations with Great Britain have again tensed, this time over London's Lon-don's threat to completely isolate the Emerald Isle from the outside world if German and Japanese officials offi-cials are permitted to remain in Dublin and carry on alleged espionage espio-nage activities detrimental to Allied invasion forces massed in the United Unit-ed Kingdom. Anxious to maintain its neutrality, one reason being given that its cities cit-ies were open to destructive bombings, bomb-ings, Ireland replied that it could not banish Axis diplomats without inviting war, and insisted that it had clamped down on any suspicious enemy activity. As the U. S. refused to sell Ireland ships for carrying needed imports and Britain closed all travel between be-tween the two countries, Eire grimly grim-ly awaited events, its economy already al-ready hard hit by unemployment caused by a scarcity of imported raw materials. COLD STORAGE: More Meat, Produce With cooler space 73 per cent occupied oc-cupied and freezer capacity 92 per cent filled, U. S. storage holdings as of March 1 were at record levels, with only apples at a low mark. Beef stocks aggregated 276,300,000 pounds; pork, 792,700,000 pounds; trimmings, 151,300,000 pounds; lard and rendered pork fat, 354,300,000, of which War Food administration held 200,200,000. Frozen fruit stocks were 29 per cent over those of a year ago, frozen vegetables 107 per cent, creamery butter 792 per cent, cheese 85 per cent, frozen eggs 75 per cent, and poultry 117 per cent. 1 -J: -"TTTl I" 4? " ' r Italy Row on row, these little white crosses in Mount Soprano cemetery ceme-tery mark the graves of fallen American Doughboys in Italy. EUROPE: Drive Wedge in Italy Having driven a wedge into the Germans' main defense line by leveling lev-eling Cassino with a devastating aerial attack by heavy bombers, Allied Al-lied forces fought hard to advance up the road to Rome and get at the rear of the enemy hemming in U. S. and British troops on the Anzio beachhead. Although the thunderous leveling of Cassino left that once-fortified village standing directly on the road to Rome a pile of jumbled mortar, Nazi guns established in the surrounding sur-rounding hills continued to rake Allied Al-lied troops, making progress slow. Preliminary to the big showdown in the west, Allied bombers continued contin-ued to roar over Axis Europe, ripping rip-ping at Nazi channel defenses, France's network of rails over which the enemy plans to shuttle troops to meet invasion armies, and German industries turning out the weapons of war. To counter the raids, the Nazis sent up swarms of fighter planes, and great sky battles raged. PACIFIC: Troubled War-Lords As U. S. army and naval forces kept up a running fire over the entire en-tire Pacific area, Japan's jumpy little lit-tle war-lords had this to worry about: Continued Allied bombings of Wee-wak, Wee-wak, New Guinea, and Rabaul, New Britain, feeder bases for Jap troops in those regions. U. S. control of the Admiralty islands is-lands lying along the supply route to Rabaul. General MacArthur's increasing isolation of the 30,000 Jap troops hemmed in on Bougainville island in the Solomons, with the U. S. fleet and air force in control to prevent major reinforcement or general withdrawal. Navy and army bombers continuing continu-ing attacks -on the Jap fleet's big outpost of Truk, guarding the entrance en-trance into the waters of the enemy's ene-my's South Pacific empire. OPA: Renewal Sought Claiming that OPA has held wartime war-time price increases to half the level of World War I, Vi'trt'X " Price Administrator " Chester Bowles ap- ' ' peared before the f . i senate banking com- & I - mittee to testify for I continuation of the t k agency for another I year' I lf 1 Following early in- , jj. 1 creases to iron out prewar depression Chester prices, the cost of liv-Bowles liv-Bowles ing has been held absolutely ab-solutely stable during the last 11 months, Bowles said. Asking for retention of present powers, Bowles said OPA would continue con-tinue with present techniques for keeping down prices, including subsidies, sub-sidies, which he called essential. Cattle Subsidy To bring cattle oft the range and prevent a market glut in the fall, OPA considered increasing packers' subsidies by 30 cents to enable them to offer higher prices for the stock during spring and summer. At the same time, government officials of-ficials considered placing a floor under un-der medium and lower grade cattle whose quality may be affected by the tight feed situation, with floors for the spring and summer above those for the fall. While increased subsidies were being be-ing considered for cattle, lower subsidies sub-sidies were being studied for hogs, in line with government policy for decreased pig production. Now $1.30 a hundred pounds, the hog subsidy may be cut by 30 cents. SOLDIER VOTE: President Gets Bill Passed by congress, the compromise compro-mise soldier vote bill, allowing use of the short federal ballot if certified cer-tified by the governor and state ballots bal-lots are unobtainable, found its way to President Roosevelt's desk for signature sig-nature or veto. Once outspoken in his opposition to a bill limiting soldier voting to state ballots alone, the President took up the compromise measure with caution before acting, wiring all 48 governors to report to him whether they would permit use of the short federal ballot, which only lists the presidential and congressional congres-sional offices without including the names of the candidates. If the governors O.K. the short federal ballot, servicemen will only be able to use it if their states have no absentee voting laws, or if they have applied for state ballots but have not received them. Knitting Vet f : ivf 4 ' 1 I ! -4 w . v . . -ii ' I I :. I I in nun mi-" i ii - rrl Ninety-two-year-old Mrs. Christine Lorenzen of Clinton, Iowa, is an old hand at knitting for the boys, having first made mittens for Civil war soldiers, sol-diers, and other apparel for vets of the Spanish-American and World War I conflicts. Now, Mrs. Lorenzen Loren-zen knits for the Red Cross for World War II's heroes. Declaring that Americans are suffering suf-fering little deprivations compared with Civil war days, Mrs. Lorenzen said: "We had no coffee at all, and, sometimes, little to eat but corn-bread." corn-bread." WAGES: Control Attacked Labor's efforts to revise the War Labor board's stabilization formula limiting wage increases to 15 per cent over January, 1941, were thwarted by the public's and industry's indus-try's representatives on the board, who advised holding off consideration considera-tion until congress goes over the whole question of price control. In an effort to revise the stabilization stabiliza-tion formula, labor asked that the President be requested to modify the wage ceiling to reflect actual living costs, and the War Labor "board hold public hearings to bring out facts which might justify higher pay. Steelworkers pressed for public pub-lic hearings on their demands for a 17-cents-an-hour raise. MONEY SYSTEM: Shaped for World Long in consideration, the United Nations' plan for an international money system after the war is taking tak-ing shape, with bld to play an important im-portant part as a result of Russia's support. Based on a plan drawn by the U. S. treasury's monetary expert, Harry D. White, the new money system would require each country to contribute a certain percentage of gold and its own currency to a stabilization fund, which would then operate to prevent any nation's exchange ex-change from rising or falling. White's plan differs from Britain's, Brit-ain's, which considered having each nation contribute to an international stabilization fund on the basis of its prewar trade, thus tending to favor countries which had heavy foreign commerce. With a comparatively small pre. war trade, Russia found the U. S. plan more acceptable, thus swinging the balance in its favor. POPULATION DRAFT: Tighten Deferments In order to meet the services' demands de-mands for 1,160,000 men by July to bring military strength to 11,- n 300,000, local draft v boards have been , directed to tight- en up on all de- Ci""" j ferments, particu- I f J larly for those in the 18 - 25 age I t r , i group. Under the new J directives issued " y A J by Selective Serv- k-i ice Chief Lewis B. Gen. Hershey Hershey, only indispensable in-dispensable employees, regardless of family status, are to be deferred, and only the state draft head or national na-tional headquarters is to pass on any deferments for the 18 to 25 year age group. Only farm workers producing 16 units will be eligible for deferment, and careful consideratibn will be given to the cases of 470,000 farm workers under 26. While Selective Service pressed for more men, General Hershey said few of the 3,485,000 4Fs will be found acceptable ac-ceptable for military service. Only about 11 per cent of those with dependents, de-pendents, including fathers, have been taken thus far, he said, and only about 1 in 10 will pass physicals. RUSSIA: Free Ukraine Germany's remaining foothold in the Ukraine was loosened as Russian Rus-sian troops smashed into Nazi lines along the Bug river, and as the enemy's en-emy's forces fell back toward Rumania, Ru-mania, the Reds ' regained the rich farm and mineral land. As Russia scored its military success suc-cess in the south, Finland in the north turned down Moscow's armistice armis-tice offer, based on restoration of the 1940 borders and internment of German troops entrenched in the little country. Russia's southern drive carried Red troops to within 30 miles of the prewar Rumanian border, while farther far-ther to the northwest, they were within 100 miles of the old Czech and Hungarian frontiers. At the present rate of increase, the Russian population will number about 250,000,000 people by 1970, or 25 million more than there will be in all northwestern and central Europe, Eu-rope, according to a survey by a League of Nations committee. The 1939 census of the Soviet Republics gave a total of about 170 millions. Current estimates place the figure at 180 millions. The survey stated that the population popula-tion of Europe as a whole is now declining. CORN Because of the shortage of corn on the market, War Food administration administra-tion laid plans for requisitioning from 20 to 30 per cent of all grain held in elevators for processors on a priority basis. No less than 20 farm and processing organizations backed the plan. With corn pegged at an average of $1.16 a bushel, farmers have found it more profitable to feed hogs with the grain than ship it to mar ket, thus tightening the commercial supply. |