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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Chinese Army Steps Up Anti-Jap Drive; Pantelleria Victory Prepares Way for Allied Sweep of Entire Mediterranean; Farm Implement Output to Be Doubled (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) I Released by Western Newspaper Union. WAR PROFITS: 'Recapture' Scanned Whether the year-old renegotiation law by .which the government recaptures re-captures "excessive war profits from industry would be retained 01 eliminated was a matter that would be largely determined by the public hearings which the house naval committee had ordered. As the committee applied close scrutiny into the operations of the law, witnesses representing big and little industry described its effect on war production. Government officials of-ficials credit the contract renegotiation renego-tiation statute with saving the nation thus far in excess of three billion dollars. Decision to undertake the investigation inves-tigation came with two measures pending before the house ways and means committee. One was to repeal re-peal the statute altogether and the other was to limit its use to contracts con-tracts above $500,000 rather than the present $100,000 limitation. RUSSIA: Aerial Prelude Air forays had continued to be the prelude to general 1943 land offensives offen-sives on the Russian front as the lull that began with spring thaws still had persisted. From one end of the line to the other reports indicated increasingly vigorous air battles as Nazi and Soviet So-viet planes fought it out for supremacy. suprem-acy. Activity was reported especially especial-ly pronounced in the Don river valley val-ley and northward in the vicinity of Leningrad. Russian communiques indicated that the vicinity of Rostov had become a cemetery for downed Nazi Heinkel and Junkers planes. The Reds reported likewise that in a German raid on the Volkhov front 60 miles southeast of Leningrad, 24 planes were shot down. Meanwhile the Russians continued their attacks on eastern German airdromes. air-dromes. In one foray the Reds reported re-ported destroying 160 German planes compared to a loss of 26 Russian Rus-sian aircraft. i " T ' k t ' I- - France officially repaid some of its debt to America when Gen. Henri Giraud (right) invested United Nations Commander-in-Chief Dwight Eisenhower with the grand cross of the Legion of Honor at a ceremony fa Algiers. ANTI-STRIKE: Penalties Promised As the house had undertaken consideration con-sideration of the compromise anti-strike anti-strike bill, its sponsors declared that it would keep war plants and mines running uninterrupted by walkouts "if anything can." Composing differences in bills previously pre-viously passed by both house and senate, the revised measure was aimed particularly at the coal wage dispute. It authorized the government govern-ment to seize strike-bound mines or plants, outlawed strikes in these facilities and imposed a 30-day "cooling off" period before walkouts could be called in privately operated . war industries. Penalties ranging from civil damage dam-age suits to a year's imprisonment and $5,000 fine could be imposed on those who fail to carry out the measure's meas-ure's regulations in labor disputes or who instigate or conspire with others to aid a strike in a government-operated plant. WHEAT: Crop Prospects Dim Smallest U. S. wheat production since 1936 was indicated by the Department De-partment of Agriculture in its report re-port on June crop conditions. The department estimated winter wheat output at 501,702,000 bushels and spring wheat at 228,822,000, or a total of 730,524,000 compared with 981,327,000 bushels harvested last year. The crop reporting bureau pointed out that winter wheat has been hurt by drouth In the Great Plains area and by wet weather in the Eastern Belt Spring wheat, including a considerable con-siderable acreage sown where winter win-ter wheat was killed, is now favored by generally good moisture, the bureau bu-reau reported. A 730,000,000 bushel wheat crop in 1943 would be about the same as the average for the 1932-41 decade which includes the drouth years of the mid '30's. It would, however, be about 150,000,000 bushels below the average of the last five years. COAL: j Promise Fulfilled Noted as a man who keeps his-promises, his-promises, Secretary Ickes fulfilled this reputation when he imposed a fine of $1 a day on the 530,000 mine workers who participated in the June 1-5 walkout from government-operated pits. Mr. Ickes declared that before the walkout he had told the miners "we were going to fine them if they went out again." Mr. Ickes acted in his role of federal fed-eral fuel director in accordance with the miners' contracts which provide penalties if a miner fails to work without good reason. Terming Ickes' action as "a brutal application of economic sanctions," John L. Lewis contended that tha contract had expired at the time of the work stoppage, and "the United Mine Workers cannot understand how fines can be levied under the provisions of an expired contract." CHINA: More Gains Reported China carried the Allied attack for further impressive gains in the middle mid-dle Yangtze front, supported by strong American air action. The tempo of the newly born offensive of-fensive was indicated by a destructive destruc-tive air raid on the enemy's rear positions in which the Jap base of Hongay, largest enemy coal-mining and shipping center on the southern Asiatic coast, in Indo-China, was bombed and docks, warehouses, railroad yards and power facilities heavily damaged.. On the ground the Chinese army was reported by communiques to have inflicted additional heavy casualties casu-alties on Japanese remnants fleeing from Itu, south of the main enemy base of Ichang. Field dispatches likewise disclosed that the Chinese had broken the Jap defense line southwest of Hwajung, their next major objective in the Lake Tunting area. Trying desperately to hold their few remaining strong points, the Japs attempted counterattacks near Owchihkou, but ran into strong Chinese Chi-nese resistance. MEDITERRANEAN: Pantelleria First Step The Allied assault to reduce Italy's Island buffer defenses preparatory to mainland operations had continued contin-ued to give the Mediterranean area star billing over other theaters of war. The capture of the island fortress of Pantelleria was significant not only because it was the first effective effec-tive Allied milestone since the African Afri-can victory, but it consolidated United Unit-ed Nations' control over east-west shipping in the Mediterranean as well. Moreover, by breaking through Italy's outer wall it paved the way for a cleanup of the more important Islands of Sicily and Sardinia and for operations on the continent. The steady and methodically violent vio-lent destruction of Pantelleria' s defenses de-fenses was regarded as a forerunner forerun-ner of what other Axis Mediterranean Mediterrane-an bases would have to suffer. Day after day Allied bombers had plummeted plum-meted disaster on beleaguered Pantelleria Pan-telleria while naval units had blasted blast-ed its forts with deadly big guns in softening up operations. In the meantime British dispatches dis-patches crediting Spanish sources reported that Marshal Erwin Rommel Rom-mel was speeding the completion of defenses along the French Mediterranean Mediter-ranean coast. These reports set forth that Rommel had been named commander of the so-called Mittel-meer Mittel-meer wall. IMPLEMENTS: Output Doubled Relief for farmers harassed by a shortage of machinery will be forthcoming forth-coming as a result of WPB Chairman Chair-man Donald M. Nelson's announcement announce-ment that the production of farm implements for the year beginning July 1 will be doubled and the entire en-tire "concentration" program imposed im-posed on the industry last year will , be scrapped. Mr. Nelson's announcement said that allotments of steel and other materials will be sufficient to boost farm equipment production to 80 per cent of the 1940 level, compared with a current rate of 40 per cent and a quota of only 20 per cent that was in effect early this year. Meanwhile farm equipment manufacturers man-ufacturers were authorized by the War Production board to place orders or-ders for materials for the new program. pro-gram. ARGENTINA: Axis Radio Curbed Action of the new Argentine government gov-ernment in cancelling radio facilities facili-ties which enabled Axis embassies or nationals to transmit code messages mes-sages to their capitals was regarded as a step in the direction of bettering better-ing Argentina's relations with its South American neighbors as well as the United States. The government said it took this step in compliance with the resolution resolu-tion .adopted at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by American foreign ministers minis-ters against Axis espionage in January, Janu-ary, 1942. While the order cancelled radio code facilities for all nations, it struck at the Axis powers since they have no cable connections with Argentina, whereas the Allies are linked directly to Argentina by cable. RIGHT HAND: Baruch for Byrnes Official and unofficial Washington was cheered by the news that James F. Byrnes, war mobilization director, had drafted Bernard L. Baruch to serve as his right-hand man. Mr. Baruch, chairman of the War Industries board in the first World war and long an informal consultant of President Roosevelt, will serve Mr. Byrnes in an advisory capacity and will have a "more formal connection con-nection with the government" than when he headed the President's special spe-cial rubber-investigating committee. The key role which Baruch's mobilization mo-bilization of national resources played in winning the last war, plus his respect and popularity among members of congress were cited by observers as reasons for his choice by Mr. Byrnes. The fact that the two will ' be working together was viewed as a harbinger of closer cooperation co-operation between the government's legislative and executive branches and more thorough-going efficiency in the home front effort. FOOD: U. S. to Ship 25 At least 25 per cent of American food production this year will have to be shipped abroad, Roy F.'Hen-drickson, F.'Hen-drickson, food distribution director of the War Food administration, disclosed, dis-closed, adding that the proportion may have to be still greater. Hendrickson told the war council of the American Retail federation that "as we moire into Italy and Greece, France, Norway and the rest of Europe we must give those half-starved people the strength to be actively on our side." The food distribution chief declared de-clared that the personnel of America's Amer-ica's military forces eats an average aver-age af. about 5Vt pounds of food daily, whereas civilians average between be-tween three and four pounds. WHEAT LOANS: WFA Grants $1.22 Loans to eligible farmers on 1943-grown 1943-grown wheat at rates averaging nationally na-tionally $1.22 per bushel at the farm were announced by the War Food administration. Under a similar loan program in 1942, loans averaged $1.14 at the farm. Eligible for loans will be farmers who complied with the 1943 AAA farm program relating to wheat and war crops. Loan rates vary according to grade, quality and location of storage. I i |