| Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne President Sketches World Australia Is Periled by Japanese Army Invasion of Its Key Island Nelson Speeds Up U. S. War Production NOTE When opinions are expressed In these they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this by Western Sumner undersecretary of state and head of the U. S. delegation to the Fan-American conference at Rio de is cheered by spectators as he waves his hat from the scene of the historic Of World Battle While the nation girded Itself for victory production on a scale never hitherto dreamed and while American soldiers were arriving on foreign fields ready to do battle until while still others were filling the news with their heroic President Roosevelt gave newsmen a hint of the of The following the close of the Churchill and the safe return of the British premier to London by airplane from had told little to newsmen save that there was a complete accord among the united Now he had begun to give them the a portrait of battle carried on simultaneously in every part of the globe by the soldiers of all nationals working in concert with each Thus were found American aviators fighting in the Singapore with the Dutch in the East In the over the Seven and most lately arriving in Britain and other points for The President said one could look at the map of the world and assume that the anti-Axis group was doing something at almost every strategic He said that joint technical committees were covering the subjects of of transportation of produced supplies to every part of the also to the assignment of fighting men and machines to points where they were most While all of his information had been of a general the nearest he came to giving out details was when he said that excellent progress was being made in strengthening the Allied forces in the This latter statement was taken by the press to be an attempt by the President to allay Chinese fears that the Allies were not going to make a vigorous enough battle against the The President had finished a conference with Hubertus Van lieutenant governor general of the Netherlands Van Mook came out of the conference room Extend Fronts The far from being licked or even were constantly extending their and with reports of their continued advances spreading out with attacks on all came dispatches telling of two new These were the Invasion of New Guinea and the Solomon island and an invasion of Burma by the Siamese as a measure to aid Indicating a threat to Australia the New Guinea invasion was paced by air attacks and a movement of naval The Solomon Islands lie in a chain northeast of Australia and east of New The Burma invasion had started at on the Burma-Thai This lies at the northern end of the Burmese panhandle bordering the puppet It had not been and General Wavell's headquarters some time before had told of Chinese reinforcements to the Burmese apparently sent there for just such a The invaders also seized the port of which bisects the panhandle and gave the a good advantage opening the Jap fliers were reported to have occupied a flying field at and roared out to attack with bombs the important cities and ports of Moul-mein and k Finally Dies The over which William S. and Sidney Hillman had presided as twin genii for many hard-fighting months prior to American entry into the finally Production Chief Donald Nelson supplanting it entirely with his new War Production probably to be known as had in his new of divisions for most of the men in for it was not so much a junking of an old organization as a revamping of it on a streamlined The placing of one at the head of the war production also necessarily called for a change in This was undertaken fearlessly by who created five primary most of them utilizing as heads former members of the organization of and other Leon Henderson still was in charge of civilian Hillman still had the labor Stacy May was and so on down the Probably the first and most vital almost coincidental with the naming of Nelson went to The big motor man became a Lieutenant in direct charge of the speeding up of factory production in that as far as Army procurement was But the man who was to be most in the public eye for the next few weeks was Ernest a new figure in the who was named automobile production czar not of but of what the auto factories are going to MAC Resistance As if to prove that the defeat of his army had been prematurely General MacArthur sprang a distinct surprise on Washington and the country's newspapers when he reported that American-Filipino resistance was continuing on the Island of Mindanao in the vicinity of An all-out Japanese effort to turn the Luzon defenders' right flank had earlier been turned back with heaviest Jap and yet the danger was far from for the Japanese were reported returning to the attack again with It was reported that an entire Japanese army estimated by some as many as men had been thrown into the battle for Luzon and the whole Bataan peninsula front blazed Into action in a renewal of the Japanese attempt to crush the But the word from MacArthur's headquarters that fighting was continuing in Mindanao came long after official Washington had given up Mindanao for and simply showed how difficult communications were in the It was believed possible that Mac-Arthur himself had thought Mindanao gone until he received belated word from the southern island that the battle was still in A dual report on profiteering came before the legislative bodies of the the Truman report and the Vinson report named for their committee the former rushing into print and into the press a few days ahead of the That aware the huge character of the hurling of billions Into war production in two short and of what this might mean if profits were allowed to go beyond certain intended to clamp the lid down was SUB Intensified probably German were pressing their attacks along the East coast of the United but the Navy department had reported that strong counter measures were being The whereabouts of the navy's chief strength was being kept a closely guarded but all authorities from the President down continued to insist that the navy was extremely and was disposed in such a manner as best to j meet present The sinking of a Japanese cruiser by navy bombing planes was and there had been a number of of supply some of them close to Most dramatic had been the exploit of PT-boat division commander Lieutenant who shot his own boat at 80 miles an hour into the Bay of sent a Japanese vessel to the bottom and escaped Bulkeley's a carries heavy machine-guns and He was being hailed as a hero almost on a par with Colin The cruiser sinking lacked but the navy said it was sent to the bottom miles off the island of one of the nearly isles of the Philippine Where the American bombers which did this trick and achieved other victories were based was a closely guarded but there were many possible bases in territory within reach of the location where the sinking PRICE The price control sulking In the house and senate conference under the baleful displeasure of the continued to bog down as prices continued to The farm relief in the bill had met with not only from the White but from many leading agricultural and this remained the main point of controversy in the In the Secretary of Agriculture came out with a statement that there probably would be a shortage of just after all the refinery men had gone out on a limb the opposite Sugar hoarders and other purchasers of foodstuffs were continuing to storm grocery stores and cartoons were published under the caption little pig went to showing hoarders at their deadly work at the grocery Administration circles were at their gloomiest over the one source saying had hoped to get an improvement over the house bill when we got to the but the senate bill was worse than the house bill and now most of us would be calling it a victory if we could get the house bill I 1 |
