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Show r THE PROGRESSIVE OPINION 'Han 'Hirohito Now' Strategy Gains New Proponents New Line of Argument Developed in Favor Of Immediate Action Against Japanese Empire. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 1343 H Street. N-- Washington, D. C. Some weeks ago the story of the real purpose of the visit to America of Madame Chiang Kai-she- k was told in these columns. Since then it has been confirmed by unofficial statements credited to "Chinese quarters" that her mission was a show-dow- n fight for an immediate of-fensive against Japan. In the in-terim two things have taken place. The Chinese government has let it be known unofficially that it realizes that America is so occupied else-where that a drive on Japan with China as a base cannot be expected at the moment. This would seem to be a retreat. It may be only a demarche, for suddenly, from sev-eral other quarters including Aus-tralian and Dutch with many Amer-ican voices echoing in between, the demand for "Hirohito Now" action is being heard. It may be team work. The Chinese course so far is this: Chiang Kai-she- discouraged be-cause of the futility of his pleas for additional supplies and help and America's failure to replace certain supposedly unsympathetic American representatives in Chungking, he or- - ' 1 , Chiang Kai-she-dered the Chinese military mission to the United States to come home. At the same time stories appeared to the effect that China felt that she was not being given a position of equality among the United Nations when it came to strategy and over-all planning. Polite Chinese Then the head of the Chinese mis-sion was called to the White House and it was explained that if he with-drew at this moment it would embar-rass the United Stateswould he please take a nice long trip investi-gating American war-plan- until the disturbance blew over. Perhaps he had the promise of more of the products of these plants. But that has not been made public. In any case, the Chinese, noted for their politeness acquiesced. A little later Britain and the United States signed treaties with China relinquishing their extraterritorial rights there. But no sooner had this step been taken than suddenly voices, unofficial to be sure, but fairly strident, began asking if this "Hitler first" strategy was really sound? Couldn't Britain and the United States divide our ef-forts and still conquer? By the time this reaches print there may be similar, statements from official sources down under, or from the vitally concerned Dutch, but meanwhile, either or systematically inspired, continual calls for action in the Far East now are being heard. Of course, this is not new. There were similar demands which had to be silenced by official utterances from Roosevelt and Churchill nearly a year ago which, if they had not sufficed alone, seemed effective when bolstered by the launching of the American and British expedi-tionary forces in Africa. Airplane's Role By a change in the face of the war, I refer particularly to the role the airplane is te play. Aircraft is a vital factor in offensive and de-fensive warfare, but it has been dem-onstrated that airpower alone doesn't win and hold. This has been proved by the success of the convoys which have "gotten through" in the face of terrible onslaughts by the Luftwaffe. Two things have served to cut down the airplane's offensive power. First, there is the improvement of guns and second, in-creased experience in warfare. I talked to a British naval officer who had been aboard two convoys which fought their way to Murmansk and three that weathered the fierce attacks in the Mediter-ranean taking supplies to Malta. He emphasized the fact that green gun crews could not meet the onslaught of the dive bomber. Trained crews could. I talked with an American naval officer who had been through Coral sea and the battles in the Solomons. He said that the ft de-fense of our most modern warships was such that fighter plane defense was hardly necessary, that time and again it had been proved that this 'new equipment could raise a wall of fire which rendered air attack by the Japs futile. Now, how does this affect the "Hirohito how" argument? This way: We cannot leave Japan alone until we are quite ready and then expect to finish her off with an overwhelming airforce. As this is written, in spite of the constant and terrific bombing by Allied planes, the Japs have been able to complete and operate an airbase at Buna, the nearest Jap outpost to Guadalcanal. And further, the Allies, in spite ol mass raids, devastating to ordinary buildings, have not been able to de-stroy the German submarine bases and submarine plants. Navy and Land Troops We must therefore depend on oui navies and our land troops for the final destruction of Japan. And, it is argued, every day that Japan has to increase her fortifications, every day that she has to exploit the raw materials of her conquered territory, the harder it will be to beat her. It is further argued that Germany cannot be absolutely beaten without terrific losses on our side, once she retreats within her own borders, a tight area, and can operate on a con-solidated and shortened front. She can be starved out Therefore the argument is: Continue to move in through the rim of occupied coun-tries until an iron blockade is formed about the Reich, but meanwhile be-gin an all-o- offensive in the Far East; first, with the capture of enough of Burma to get an inlet to China, then, perhaps, through the rest of Burma or Thailand move into China, reinforce her, send in our own troops and attack Japan with China as a base. If that is not done now Japan may be able to isolate China, may be able with silver bullets to win some of her provinces to puppet independence and completely paralyze that valu-able ally and block off entrance through her territory, so it is argued by the "Hirohito now" advocates. War-Wear- y Europe The argument presented by the same proponents against waiting un-til we have finished "Hitler first" is two-fol- When Germany finally falls it will leave Europe and its people, especially its fighting manpower, so y that it will be hard to interest them in a war half way around the world. We may get less help than we need for the job. Second, the process of reaching into Japan island by island, is a slow process as we have found at Guadalcanal and on New Guinea. The northern half of New Guinea, a long-hel- d Japanese stronghold, will be harder to conquer than the part now won back by MacArthur's men. We know that the Japs will not sur-render. We know that in some places, like the Netherlands Indies, where a large part of the population is at best indifferent, the Japs can live off the land. It would mean fighting every inch of the way against "no surrender" troops while the main Japanese armies were moving into China, for-tifying the gateways to the continent. Those are some of the arguments we may expect to hear frequently these days. Madame Chiang Kai-she-when she recovers, may find it easier to be insistent upon aid than her husband's unsuccessful mil-itary men in Washington were. Meanwhile the going in Tunisia is tough and the military men are in-clined to say, "one field, well tilled" is enough of a job for them at present WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Farm Implement Quota Boosted 30; Hitler's Disasters Mount as Russians Speed Up Caucasus-Ukrain- e Offensive; Tripoli's Fall Spurs Tunisia Drive ' (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are d 'h".!?ruT "' and not lh "n PP Western Newspaper Union s news analysts I Released by Western Newspaper Union. . i v!t HARD COAL: Miners Bow to FDR crippling hard coal Dangers of a shortage were averted and a face-savin-maneuver for labor execut-ed when 12,000 Pennsylvania miners returned to work after a three-wee- k old unauthorized walkout following a curt ultimatum from President Roosevelt. The President had served notice that unless the miners ceased their wildcat strike within 48 hours, he would take "necessary steps to safeguard the war effort. A tangled skein of labor politics had complicated the eastern hard coal situation. Efforts of John L. Lewis president of the United Mine Workers, and the War Labor board to get the strikers back on the job had failed. Strike leaders said the miners had walked out in protest against a UMW dues increase of 50 cents a month. The strikers, how-ever, had also demanded a $2 a day wage increase. AXIS TRUMP: Subs Still Potent Hurled back on all world fronts by of Unit-ed the ferocity Nations attacks, the Axis still controlled one ace offensive weapon German submarines. Hitler was said by British Admiral Sir Percy Noble to be maintaining200 of his fleet of 500 at sea all the time in an effort to keep the tremendous output of Allied war fac-tories from the battlefields. Unof-ficial British estimates placed Nazi submarine construction at 15 to 20 a month faster than naval experts believe the Allies are sinking them. Elmer Davis, director of the Of-fice of War Information, reported that German submarines had sunk more Allied shipping in January than in December. A brighter side of the picture emerged, however, when the Lend-Leas- e administration announced that the United States and Britain had sent Russia 5,800 tanks and 4,600 airplanes up to January 1 and prom-ised that aid to the Soviet "will grow still more in 1943." Regardless of " i ftf "imp- - Closer relations between the United States and Chile and a harder crackdown on Nazi espionage in South America were results expected from the recent action of the Chilean government In breaking diplomatic relations with the Axis. Shown above are Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles (left) and Senor Don Rodolfo Michels, Chilean ambassador, dis-cussing the situation. submarine wolfpacks, convoys were getting through- - RUBBER : Jeffers vs. RFC With his synthetic rubber pro-gram facing further curtailment so that more convoy escort vessels can be built and more high octane gaso-line produced for fighting fliers, Rub-ber Conservation Director William M. Jeffers assumed control of all rubber import programs formerly exercised by the Board of Economic Warfare through the Rubber' Re-- '"'-- , ' 0 ass "lliillll A . " J- - FOOD PRODUCTION: Gets Neiv Incentive Two significant steps to spur the "Food for Victory" campaign were taken when the War Production board authorized a 30 per cent in-crease in production of farm ma-chinery and Secretary, of Agricul-ture Wickard announced a program of federal credit designed to extend from $200,000,000 to $250,000,000 to farmers for stepping up essential food production. The WPB increased the steel al-lotment for farm machinery from 137,000 tons to 187,000 tons for the first quarter of 1943. This new ton-nage was in addition to an increase previously authorized for the pro- -' duction of repair parts for farm im-plements. Mr. Wickard said loans needed mostly by small and medium-size- d farmers would be extended through the Regional Agricultural Credit corporation. Size of loans will be limited only by the amount needed to do the production job. The loans will be of short-ter- duration at 5 per cent interest. NORTH AFRICA: Death of Empire Tripoli's fall had various meanings for various interpreters. To histori-ans it wrote finale to Mussolini's grandiose dreams of empire, for it was here the Duce had begun his disastrous expansion policy. To military observers it meant that the Allies could now concentrate closer attention on cleaning up the last Axis strongholds in Tunisia. It had been apparent to observers that Marshal Rommel's retreat through Tripolitania had had Tuni-sia and not Tripoli as its goal. Rear-guard efforts to protect the main body of his retreat had constituted the only action in and around Tripoli. Allied airmen had not only strafed doomed Tripoli, but General Mont-gomery's British eighth army and General LeClerc's Fighting French had constantly harried the retiring Afrika Korps. In Tunisia the Axis had made strenuous efforts to cover Rommel's withdrawal by launching offensive thrusts against French positions southwest of While junction of Rommel's army with those of Nazi Col. Gen. Von Arnim would strengthen Axis forces in Tunisia, the Allies would similarly be strengthened by the addition of British and Fighting French troops to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower's legions. PRICE RISE: Predicted by Brown As additional rationing and price regulations were promulgated, the American public learned that Price Administrator Prentiss M. Brown's direction of the OPA would be less dramatic but no less firm than that of his predecessor Leon Henderson, Mr. and Mrs. Average Citizen were assured by the new adminis-trator, however, that the OPA would be operated solely for the protection of the American people. Frankly acknowledging that price rises were inevitable, Mr. Brown promised that such rises would be "slow and RUSS STEAMROLLER: Impact Hurts Nazis From Leningrad to the Black sea the Russian steamroller offensive rumbled on, gathering momentum on all fronts. Nazi armies were forced to yield ground won in bloody battles last year, to surrender strate-gic "hedgehog" strong points and to see supply and communication lines shattered. Russian sources asserted ' that 500,000 Germans had been killed and 200,000 captured since the winter offensive was launched in Novem-ber. Red strategy had specially con-centrated on five key Nazi-hel- d cities between the Ukraine and the north Caucasus. These were Kharkov, steel producing center; Rostov, com-munications city at the mouth of the Don river; Voroshilovgrad, industri-al metropolis of the Donets basin; Salsk, important rail junction; and Armavir, gateway to the Baku-Rosto- v oil railroad. Possession of these cities would not only open a vast reservoir of materials and machinery tothe Rus-sians, but it would loosen the Nazi stranglehold on the central and southern front. It would mean that the Germans would have to fall all the way back to the Dnieper river and hold lines dangerously close to Rumania, Poland and Lithuania. CHILDBIRTH: Pain Is Stilled To a world snuffing out lives in pain on scores of battle fields, the American Medical association brought tidings that the sufferings attendant on life's beginnings might be banished through a new method of childbirth anesthesia that is with-out danger either to mother or baby. Designated as "continuous caudal anesthesia" the new technique was developed by Drs. Robert Hingson and Waldo Edwards of the Marine hospital at Staten Island, N. Y. Their report was corroborated by statements from 19 other clinics and hospitals which tested the new meth-od on 589 patients. SOUTH PACIFIC: Prelude by Air "Softening up" attacks by air on Jap-hel- d Lae were carried on by Allied fliers as a prelude to land movements by General MacArthur's forces. For Lae was the next call-ing spot on the Allies schedule after mopping-u- p operations had been suc-cessfully concluded in the Sanananda area, last Jap toehold in the Papuan peninsula. Aerial activity was not' confined to the Lae area, for American and Aus-tralian planes bombed shipping at Finschaven and hit the airdrome and wharf sections of Madang in New Guinea. Elsewhere Allied air-men visited Cape Gloucester and Gasmata in Jap-hel- d New Britain and strafed an enemy barge concen-tration off Willaumex peninsula. In Australia, Allied bombers con-tinued their pounding of enemy war-ships and merchantmen far to the north. At Ambon, 600 miles north-west of Darwin, they scored hits on a cruiser and cargo vessel. WILLIAM M. JEFFERS serve company, a Reconstruction Finance corporation subsidiary. This action meant that henceforth Jesse Jones, as head of the RFC's Rubber Reserve company, which supplies the money for operations, would take orders from Mr. Jeffers instead of from the BEW on rubber imports. It meant, moreover, that Jeffers hoped to bolster lagging syn-thetic rubber production by imports as a means of keeping civilians sup-plied with automobile tires. NAZI AIRRAIDS: RAF Welcomes Reprisals Tragic as was the death of scores of school children in German bomb-ing raids on London, aviation author-ities hailed the renewal of Nazi at-tacks as a further opportunity to weaken the Axis in the air. Every raid means a further thin-ning of Hitler's already d air forces, these authorities point- ed out. In the biggest daylight air assault on London since the 1940 bat-tle of Britain, the Nazis lost 13 planes while the British lost two. Because of improved defense destruction and loss of civilian life were held to minimum levels The German raids have been in reprisal for gutting attacks on Ber-lin by large flights of RAF bombers raining down four-to- n "block bust- ers" on the Nazi capital, and spew-ing incendiary bombs that caused untold damage. British losses on these raids were comparatively light ' officials revealed. MORE BLOOD: Asked by Red Cross Mounting war casualties prompt-e- d a request from the army and navy for the Red Cross to procure 4.000,000 pints of blood durtog m3 obtT311 ree times toe nouni donors last year. Red Cross Chairman Dwight F Davis disclosed that the request had come from MaJ. Gen. James C Magee and Rear Admiral Ros, T SUTgeons enerl of the army and navy respectively. PHONE BILL CUTS: For Long Distance More than $50,000,700 a cut from the nation', "stance te ephone bill, when theVel Telephone and Telegraph concluded an agreement wnTt Federal Communications commit urn to reduce long line charges f.T 40 4118 pubUc w"l be overtime charges. No re. duction will be made for the Initial three minutes of long distance cans ' E'VE borrowed April's tulips to bring you this irresistible little apron with its gathered skirt and cross straps. Short, medium and tall tulips grow in applique from a strip of color to give a re-freshing lift to an otherwise plain apron. Order Z9528, 15 cents, for this tulip apron pattern grand for making gifts Send your order to: AUNT MARTIIA Box 166-- Kansas City, Mo. Enclose 15 cents for each pattern desired. Pattern No Name Address cWt buy aspirin that can do more for you than St. Joseph Aspirin. Why pay more? World's largest seller at 10c. 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V Many Doctors AJA: 01derfolk.takeH;;; Emulsion (iaUylTon tern, helps build lds, also pro"00'" weakening after', -- if there is JOIN THE C.B.C terns take and reta n'..,, (CitilUn $orob Cot pi) y CM raits Utt Ssviup Bond? iSUmps si A speck of salt grey's chocolate, caram a; frostings and candies . ' When clothing i, rain, place a clean h ' the material and moderately warm iron " ' When plain pjMo from tubing are parii!1- - rHCUt ffihe Sea slips a fold in the center taw their life. ' "t: . When using nn aI ! pan for boiling eg1 drops of vinegar to 'im-part from discoloring '' The popular wran bans should be washed ? because they are 1 much. Those made of or knit wool can be laurn"'"" lukewarm water and m"V the color is fast . . To clean a soiled felt , ' with a very fine grade! paper. ' Furniture for a man's , appearing in bleached ar finishes rather than i ,." oak which used to hold Draperies that shrink - remedied this way: AH contrasting color to the"-- ' the old curtain, using a ing color or cording two materials, and the r be very pleasing. The secrets of washiD. r successfully are: (l) V suds; (2) luke-war-throughout the washing ? ing; (3) no rubbing or (4) drying at moderate ture, avoiding both heat ; tense cold. Northwest Passage Only two expeditions in history have traveled the Northwest Pas-sage, or between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans along the northern coast of America, according to Collier's. The first was a west-ward voyage made from King Wil-liam Land to ,Herschel Island by Roald Amundsen and six compan-ions between 1903 and 1906. The second was an eastward voyage made from Vancouver to Sydney, Nova Scotia, by eight Ca-nadians between June, 1940, and October, 1942. Plant Walks Like Man The roots of the Cactus Andante, found on the Peru coast, are actu-ally feet and legs. The plant walks over the surface of the arid desert with the aid of the winds, gets water from the damp night air, and food from the saline surface. Necessary Coi "We speak of lib, thing, and of virtue, v edge, invention, rat: and national indeper,,: er things. But of all erty is the source, th, necessary conditio... George. Treatment of Animals In character building, which is our chief business in this world, very much depends upon our treat-ment of the animals committed to our care. Ruskin. Need of Med- ; It is as expedient t: man be punished as man be cured by a P all chastisement is a ': cine. Plato. B R I E F S . . . by Baukhage Suppose you lived in Hawaii (from a magazine by that name) "The first harrowing nights of blackout, when the whole family lived in the bath-room ..." Buy War Bonds Some members of the War Labor board are inclined to make deci-sions which they know the board can't enforce, with the easy explan-ationlet the President settle it Buy War Bonds The demands for feed to meet the next year's food for freedom pro-gram may cut deeply into what was supposed to be those inexhaustible wheat surpluses. Buy War Bonds In a secret report to Generalissimo Franco, one of his generals who had commanded a part of a fascist divi-sion of Spanish volunteers fighting against the Russians returned with a very pessimistic report. He said German troops were low in morale and hungry. Since then Franco has adhered to the neutral path. Educator are fighting to keep a few of the 200 colleges which the army and navy wants to take over for military training, for normal higher education. Buy War Bonds-Th- irty million people will make out income taxes this yearhun- dreds of thousands of farmers among a great many who have nev- er made out a tax return. Bny War Bonds-Secre- tary Wickard knows that the steps he is going to have to take if he fills the world's bread basket may make him at unpopular as OPA Ad-ministrator Henderson. Buy War Bonds The government called in Its of-ficial White Book with the explana- tion that a certain important state- ment had been omitted. Many pur- chasers of the original volume will buy the new one when and if it appears to make comparisons. Some say it won t appear. HIGHLIGHTS the week's news I WASHINGTON: Dependents of 1,294,852 enlisted men in the army are now receiving allotments, ac-cording to a war department an-nouncement. The announcement re-vealed that tip to January 1, a total of 1,519,055 ; applications for such payments had been 'received. Of these, 133,750 were disallowed tem-porarily, pending receipt of addition-al information. CAMDEN. N. J.: Fourth of a series of aircraft carriers to be launched in 20 weeks, the Cowpen slid down the ways of the New York Shipbuilding corporation yards here on the 162nd anniversary of the bat-tle of Cowpens in the Revolutionary war. The Cowpen's predecessors were the carriers Independence Princeton and Belleau Wood. The battle of Cowpens was fought in 1781 and resulted in an American victory The new vessel was christened by Mrs. Preston Lea Spruance of Greenville, Del., daughter of Adm William F. Halsey. 1 LONDON: An S Francisco sea captain, George E Bridgett, commanded a new Liberty ship in a convoy which recently brought relief to Malta, it was closed here. Captain Bridgett ieved to be the oldest active sea'cat tarn in the world, emerged from 15 year,' retirement to make the run on a .hip that had been built in 24 hour, at the Kaiser shipyard, ALBANY, N. Y.t jUeTVine tote"tionrSergt Capt Eddie RickenbackXe day ordeal in the Pacific, he had made plan, to announced minister .iter become the war. . th! haTn't08! rdeaV' h I church. After much about going to me out there, I've decidedTmg to become a minister. 8 I feei r ue believer." He addre "r workers here. The young soldiers making a tour of war plant, morale-boostin- g effort ' |