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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne Nazis Claim 'Break Through' Attack Against Soviet Line Is on Schedule; Knox Denies Charge of 'Shooting War' As Debate Continues on U. S. Policy (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of tbis newspaper.) (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) I ..-: : I - j! SENATOR WHEELER SECRETARY KNOX From him a charge. From him a denial. (See Below: ICELAND end Bases.) ICELAND: And Bases The occupation of Iceland by U. S. troops and sailors still was an issue of highest import in Washington, and Secretary Knox found himself much in the center of investigation and censure, as well as the recipient of considerable approval, depending on what quarter one turned to. A hitherto almost silent cabinet member, Postmaster General Walker, Walk-er, journeyed all the way to Butte, Mont., right into Senator Wheeler's bailiwick to deliver a radio address sharply criticizing the stand of the noninterventionists, of which Wheeler Wheel-er was a forefront leader. Walker declared that Wheeler and his associates among the isolationists isolation-ists were "talking Hitler's language." lan-guage." Meantime Secretary Stimson was preparing to launch the congressional congression-al campaign in favor of the Reynolds Rey-nolds bill to amend the selective service provision restricting the service of the army to the WesteNi hemisphere, and there were indications indica-tions that the length of service change proposed also was going to meet a hard fight. Some of the selective service officials of-ficials themselves were being quoted quot-ed as saying that they felt a lengthening length-ening of the training period of draftees would be a "breach of faith." Then came Wheeler's charge that the navy already had done some "shooting" on the high seas, and following the session of Secretary Knox before the naval affairs committee com-mittee there were published, but unverified un-verified reports on both sides of the picture. Some senators, it was said, told friends that it had been admitted that some naval vessels had "dropped depth charges," while other oth-er senators said that Secretary Knox and Admiral Stark had made a categorical cate-gorical denial of the whole matter. Then Senator Taft stepped into the picture, saying that he had information in-formation from sources he considered consid-ered well informed that the United States was already creating bases in Northern Ireland and Scotland. There were denials and partial confirmation of this, one story purporting pur-porting to reveal that American citizens were being paid $90 a week and subsistence by the British for working on some sort of a base in Northern Ireland. This work, however, was not identified iden-tified positively as the creation of an air, army or naval base. The whole picture was further confused when Britain announced that instead of leaving Iceland now that Americans were on the ground, as the original plan had been, the British tommies would stay. This brought further repercussions repercus-sions in Washington, some holding that it would be a menace to our marines if they were on the same island with British soldiers, as the Nazis, bombing the British, might kill marines at the same time. NAZIS: Renew Drive The resistance of the Russians to the fiery Nazi invasion continued to claim chief interest in the news, with the issue still considerably in doubt from a long-range viewpoint, though the Germans, having renewed re-newed their blitz technique after a considerable lull, were making important im-portant gains. Competent observers still felt the final issue was whether the Reds could stand the loss of their prin cipal cities and most vital territories terri-tories on the fighting front and continue con-tinue to move backward, force the enemy to spread out and absorb his power in their country's vast-ness. vast-ness. Berlin claimed important breaches of the Stalin line at at least four points, one near Leningrad; two in the central portion of the line and one at the south. In addition, asserted as-serted the German communiques, which resumed something of the authoritative note that they had assumed as-sumed during the Greek and Cretan campaigns, the Russians' defense on the northern sector was generally broken, and the fall of Leningrad was deemed a certainty. As to Kiev, the Nazi forces were on the threshold of that important Ukrainian city, and while .Moscow was still far distant from the Nazi attack, the Germans claimed the capture of Vitebsk, also its occupation, occupa-tion, and this brought the invaders line close to Smolensk, generally regarded re-garded as the gateway to Moscow. What observers wondered chiefly was how much the recent stalling of the German attack had been caused by Russian resistance and how much by the difficulty of long advances ad-vances over the terrain and the roads the invaders were traversing. The Russian reports were filled with stories of immense German losses, and these had been partially, partial-ly, at least, verified from such points as Stockholm and Berne. If it was true that the stalling of the Blitzkrieg and the assumption of the offensive by the Russian forces had been caused by determined Red resistance, re-sistance, then there was reason to think that it might be accomplished again. The Russian reports spoke of reinforcements re-inforcements in astronomical figures, fig-ures, one stating that 8,000,000 men were "moving to the front." Few believed thatGermany was equipped to handle 8,000,000 prisoners, let alone defeat that number of soldiers but then there was considerable doubt whether the Reds actually had anything like that number of men in the field. But if even a considerable part of such an army was maneuvering into a position of resistance, observers felt it was still too early to predict a certain and smashing German victory. SYRIA: Points 4, 5, 6 It was almost coincidental with the halting of hostilities in Syria that the press received any intimation intima-tion what the British terms would be. There were some 10 points in the British demand, and of these Numbers 4, 5 and 6 were apparently most objectionable to Vichy. It was quite obvious what Britain was after in these points, which had to do with the handling of both native "and French residents who had borne arms in the campaign. Now these points specified, in one particular, that under the terms of the peace all such persons were to be given their choice of joining with the Free French or going back to France, in the case of French citizens, citi-zens, or, in case of natives, joining with the Free French or being disarmed. dis-armed. There was another point with regard re-gard to the French navy in Syrian waters, ordering that this be surrendered; sur-rendered; but the French "beat the gun" on this item, all the French naval vessels, 23 of them, fleeing to the harbor of Alexandretta, under the Turkish flag, where they were promptly interned. . i PERU: And Ecuador Despite the fact that the century-old century-old border dispute between Peru and Ecuador flared into shooting violence vi-olence again even as the countries were accepting mediation offers from the United States, Brazil and Argentina, it was generally believed that the squabble would finally be submitted to arbitration. Official dispatches from Quito seemed to show that the Ecuadorians Ecuadori-ans were willing to arbitrate the difference, which covers a considerable consider-able area of land, most of it wild and undeveloped by nationals of either nation. Word came from Buenos Aires that Peru also was willing to have the subject mediated, and Sumner Welles, acting secretary of state during an illness of Secretary Hull, suggested that in the interim both countries move their armed forces to a distance of 15 miles from the border, putting twice that distance between them. YOO-HOO: And Army Life This matter of soldiers "yoo-hoo-ing" at girls in shorts on a golf-course golf-course near Memphis, for which they had to march on foot 15 miles in punishment was becoming an army joke throughout the nation. Soldiers in one camp judged a fashion show, cheered the models to the echo, and selected their favorite fa-vorite daytime and evening gowns; and in another camp the soldiers challenged the punished troops to a 15-mile competitive hike just to show that they could "take it" too. Most amusing incident, however, occurred at Olympia, Wash., where a hiking outfit traveling past some admiring young women, tied "mash notes" to stones and tossed them among the girls. And one of them read: "Dear Miss: How lovely you are! Won't you write to this lonely soldier? sol-dier? Help the National Defense!" P. S. Don't tell General Lear." MURDER: Number One Bermuda was shocked by its first murder mystery in the history of the islands. The victim was a woman, member mem-ber of the board of censors of the city of Hamilton. Rewards totaling close to $5,000 were offered. The island government govern-ment asked the aid of the FBI. They wanted bloodhounds, lie detectors, de-tectors, other scientific crime-tracking data and material. The United States complied in one request, sending G-men there by plane to aid in the hunt for the slayer. R.A.F.: And Planes Perhaps the most serious controversy contro-versy in commons over the R.A.F. occurred when, at the height of the heaviest bombing campaign undertaken under-taken by the British, the question was raised as to whether all was well with the plane supply. The disappearance of Beaver-brook Beaver-brook from the scene of plane production pro-duction had been followed by serious se-rious criticism, and one critic declared de-clared that England had many warehouses full of crated American planes, unusable because somebody had omitted to purchase necessary accessories. The new chief of aircraft production produc-tion for Britain promised to remedy the "confusion" which had existed, but had little that he could answer to accusations from members of parliament, two of whom had actually actu-ally fought through the Greek and Cretan campaigns, that Britain had sadly bungled in getting airplanes into the proper spots where they could have been used, perhaps, to have turned defeat into victory. The new production head said that "steps were being perfected" to have all American bombers flown to England in fighting condition. |
