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Show 1 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS . Report Germans Realign Forces; US. Seizes Tokyo Stepping-Stone; Curb Nig liter ies to S4ave Fuel ' Released by Western Newspaper Union. I (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions Are expressed In these tvjumns. they lire those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts mid not necessarily of this newspaper.) x,W , yff- yf; - vtw '&z& y y u ''"fj,J'" ' y' ..... ....... Arrow In aerial photo of Iwo Jlma, with smoke from bomb hits still curdling over Island, gives birds-eye view of latest locale of Allied assault as-sault in Pacific. EUROPE: Nazi Moves Long decried as the "forgotten front," Italy came back into the news again with reports that the Nazis were slowly pulling out of the northern part of the country to reinforce re-inforce their main eastern and western west-ern lines and take up shorter defenses de-fenses on the southern approaches to the Reich. Following Russian revelations of the appearance of German troops formerly stationed in Italy on the Nazis' sagging eastern front, neutral reports told of the movement of no less than four enemy divisions from the country through the Brenner Pass into Austria. Despite the reports re-ports of the weakening of their Italian defenses, however, the Germans Ger-mans fiercely contested the Eighth army's push along the Adriatic, using us-ing a new rocket, four feet long and holding 80 pounds of explosives. Amid the talk of German reinforcement re-inforcement of their eastern front, Nazi defenses perceptibly stiffened in this sector, though yet to be put to the supreme test as Marshal Konev's First Ukranian army drew up on a line to join Marshal Zhu-kov's Zhu-kov's First White Russian army for the grand assault on Berlin. As the Russians girded for the all-out smash on the German capital, capi-tal, cagey Zhukov and Konev, keeping an eye on their exposed flanks to the north and south, launched repeated attacks against Nazi forces in these sectors to prevent pre-vent a drive upon their rear. On the western front, Allied efforts ef-forts were divided between the British Brit-ish and Canadians' drive on the Ruhr valley at the northern end of the Siegfried line, and the U. S. Third army's steady drive on the Rhine below Aachen. Russ General Falls Latest of the prominent generals to be killed in highly mobile World War II, requiring the presence of ps'f commanders close ' , $ to the front lines to 'v -,, ' keep up with the $ tf&lfc ') battle, was 37-year- ' t h J M old Russian Ivan ' f Cherniakhovsky, f yy 'Xat who fell while di- y" Sj reeling the drive on I ,f t( y t East Prussia.! ' 41 Youngest ' Russian "' general and army General group commander, cherniakhovsky Cherniakhovsky, a tank expert, was considered one of the Soviet's outstanding military strategists. Diplomacy Only ruffle in the Allied conference confer-ence in the Crimean and Mediterranean Mediter-ranean regions was Gen. Charles de Gaulle's refusal to accept President Roosevelt's invitation for a meeting in Algiers, indicating French pique at FDR's inability to visit Paris and at reports that it was principally because be-cause of the U. S. that France was excluded from the Big Three talks. Despite the diplomatic unpleasan-tries, unpleasan-tries, however, the French were busy exchanging views with U. S., British and Russian officials on the Yalta decisions, and were also said to be preparing to participate in the United Nations pending postwar security se-curity conference at San Francisco in April. Considered a key to the stability of western Europe, once-humbled France, rising proudly under De Gaulle's aggressive leadership, was said to be angling for extensive occupational oc-cupational rights in postwar Germany, Ger-many, including Austria. PARALYSIS FUND Collecting $5,452,593 during its fiscal fis-cal year ending May 31, 1944, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis authorized grants and appropriations ap-propriations totaling $1,828,859 for the period for research, education and training of physical therapists, Basil O'Connor, president, said. During the year, the foundation also established a special fund of $2,000,000 for epidemics and other emergencies, and $739,860 was used during the country's second worst outbreak of polio last summer. PACIFIC: Bloody Battle To thousands of gallant Leathernecks Leather-necks storming Iwo Jima's beaches, it was Tarawa all over again, as Maj. Gen. Harry Schmidt's Fifth marine corps pushed up rocky cliffs inland in the face of bitter opposition opposi-tion to tighten their hold on this little stepping - stone to Tokyo and threat to the U. S. super-fortress base in the Marianas, 800 miles to the south. Losses were heavy on both sides as the Japs, first staggered. by the terrific bombardment of both U. S. naval and air units, recovered from the initial shock to fight back viciously from such natural hideouts hide-outs as caves as waves of marines hit the beaches on the southeast end of the island. Due to become another epic of the bloody Pacific war, the invasion of Iwo Jima followed hard upon the mighty U. S. aerial strike against Tokyo, in which the planes from a powerful carrier fleet destroyed over 500 Jap aircraft, sank over a dozen ships and battered vital war plants. HOME FRONT: Nighteries Curbed With the war taking critical turns In both Europe and the Pacific, and with the tight coal situation calling for its economical use. War Mobilization Director Byrnes ordered- midnight curfew on saloons, night clubs, dance halls, sports arenas and other places of entertainment to save on fuel generating gen-erating electricity. Although War Mobilizer Byrnes, himself, has no power to punish violators, he could bring pressure to bear against offenders by having the War Production board shut of? their electricity the War Manpower commission revoke their right to hire people; the Office of Defense Transportation prohibit deliveries of material to them, and the OPA recall their rationing privileges. The night club order was the latest in a series including freezing of civilian production at current levels lev-els on December 16; closing of race tracks and limitation on number num-ber of employees non-essential firms can hire on December 23; return of most meats and vegetables to rationing ra-tioning over the Christmas weekend; week-end; review of farm deferments for the 18 to 25 age group, January 3, and the forbidding of outdoor advertising ad-vertising and decorative lighting, February 1. CLOTHING: Price Roll-Back Implementing plans for rolling back clothing prices, which OPAd-ministrator OPAd-ministrator Bowles had called a dangerous dan-gerous Inflationary element, OPA established retail price ceilings on a list of cotton items for which manufacturers manu-facturers will receive fabric priorities. priori-ties. Under OPA ceilings to be tagged on garments, men's regular sized shorts would range from 49 cents to $1.30 each; men's business shorts, $1.80 to $3.70; women's regular regu-lar sized house dresses, $1.95 to $3.70; slips, 85 cents to $1.30; Infants' In-fants' and toddlers' pajamas, $1.05 to $2.70; rompers, $1.05 to $2.40; girls' school dresses, $1.65 to $3.40; boys' wash suits, $1.30 to $2.70, and boys' shirts and blouses, $1.05 to $1.35. Under the program, in which the output of cheaper clothes is expected ex-pected to account for a great portion por-tion of the reduction in the nation's apparel bill, the War Production board is to channel 75 per cent of all civilian, fabric to low and popularly popu-larly priced garments. Ready or Clean Sweep While ,the military services and industry geared to war could use sixty, million new brooms in 1945, America's broomcorn farmers j in 1944 greatly increased in-creased their planting and reaped their biggest crop in 20 years, says a National Geographic Geo-graphic Society bulletin. It handles han-dles can be turned to match the big broomcorn harvest. 1945 may see a broom boom to match years of the industry's heyday. LIVESTOCK: Numbers Drop Pointing up the tight meat situation situa-tion for civilians, the U. S. department depart-ment of agriculture's estimate of livestock on farms as of January 1, 1945, showed a sharp drop over the same date the preceding year. At the same time, the USDA's survey sur-vey revealed the largest supply of feed on hand per livestock unit in 20 years, with the amount per head 27 per cent over 1944. Down 22,000,000 to a total of 60,600.000, the number of hogs showed the largest drop, the USDA said, with a decrease of 3,824.000 head of sheep to a total of 47,945,000 recording the next biggest slip. Down only 604,000 to 81,760,000, the number of cattle showed the least decline, being but 1 per cent below the all-time 1944 peak. Meanwhile, the American Meat Institute, In-stitute, estimating that civilian meat supplies will be about 28 per cent less during the first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 1944, said there probably would be a still sharper drop from April to June. PRICE SUPPORT: Nciv Tack In a program which may establish a precedent for the future handling of the government's price-support for farm products, the War Food administration admin-istration announced that it would purchase dry edible peas during 1945 only on plantings from acreage acre-age allotted the individual operator. In the event of a general adoption of WFA's program, the government would bear a powerful weapon against overproduction resulting from surpassing goals, thus influencing influ-encing the restriction of output to reasonable levels. In the case of edible dry peas, it was said, WFA's program not only seeks to avoid an accumulation of excessively large stocks of peas, but also to encourage the shift of acreage acre-age formerly seeded to the plant to other crops. Frogs Wrestle IPhile goggle-eyed spectator looks on, Naturalist Marjorie Tcrhune's pet frogs, Jimmy and Joe, wrestle in indoor lily pond at Park Ridge, N. J., with each seeking to throw his opponent into the water. DRAFT: New Deferments Even while congress moved to investigate in-vestigate the farm draft to determine deter-mine whether local boards were not strictly adhering to the Tydings amendment in considering individual individu-al cases. Selective Service announced an-nounced that a substantial number of key men under 30 stood to be deferred de-ferred In essential industry. In making the announcement, Selective Se-lective Service revealed that responsibility re-sponsibility for deferring the under 30 group would be divided between government agency offices in the different regions and in Washington, Washing-ton, D. C, so that a closer check could be kept upon individual cases to assure retention of such key personnel per-sonnel as engineers, supervisors and foremen. Pushed by Representative Lemke (N. D.), the proposed congressional investigation would look into the alleged al-leged induction of essential farm workers for whom replacements cannot be found, thus rotating agricultural agri-cultural production and imposing additional ad-ditional hardships on already sorely pressed farm operators. PAN-AMERICA: Good Neighbors Meet Talk of a dramatic declaration of war by Argentina on Germany filled the air as delegates to the inter-American inter-American conference met In Mexico City for a discussion of economic and political relations of the western hemisphere in the postwar world. The possibility of an Argentine declaration of war followed Germany's Ger-many's threat to deny its diplomats safe passage home because of Britain's Brit-ain's refusal to afford similar privileges privi-leges to Nazi officials now in Lisbon, Lis-bon, Portugal, on the final leg of their Journey from the South American Amer-ican country. In discussing economic problems at Mexico City, South American nations na-tions sought to prevent a wholesale collapse of their prosperity built upon wartime exports to the U. S. after the cessation of hostilities. In political matters, the Latin nations sought an adequate voice in any postwar organization to preserve peace so as to prevent its complete dominance by the greater states. BRIEFS... According to the war department, the army In 1944 spent about three times the amount laid aside for G.I. sports equipment in 1943. The army also set up a special command to carry out the new sports programs. Cigarettes for U. S. Smokers last year were estimated at 220 billion as compared with 25ft billion bil-lion the year before hu 110 billion went to tin- - - '-tits |