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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS . Die-Hard Nazi Defense Pockets Shape As Allies Split Reich; U. S. Plans Huge Postwar Fleet Released by Western Newspaper Union. ,. f KOITOK'H NO'I'F: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of Weaiern Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) I I I ' . 1 r ' ' , ' -. -' f r ' : ' ' . - Deep in a salt mine near Merkers, Germany, G.I.s came upon this hidden hid-den cache of 100 million dollars of gold bullion packed in bags. Also discovered dis-covered was German and foreign currency, and crates of art treasures. EUROPE: Defense Pockets Their front shattered by Allied break-throughs, Nazi militarists envisioned en-visioned the formation of numerous strong pockets of resistance for a last-ditch stand against the massed weight of U. S., British and Russian Rus-sian forces. Discussed even as U. S. and British Brit-ish armies drove toward a link-up in the Berlin region, the object of the pockets would be to make the war so costly to the Allies as to induce in-duce a willingness to talk terms. Recognizing the possibilities of such warfare, Supreme Allied headquarters headquar-ters indicated that V-E Day might not be proclaimed until major nests of resistance were cleaned up to prevent a lowering of civilian and military morale because of losses sustained in continuing operations. opera-tions. With U. S. and British forces spearheading across the Reich, and the Russians moving in- from the east, most prominent German : pockets shaped up along the North 1 sea coasts and mountainous Bavaria. Nazi plans for a die-hard stand shaped up as the great Russian , drive surged on battered Berlin and U. S. forces moved" toward a juncture junc-ture with the Reds in Saxony. With the Russians throwing over 2,000,000 men into the battle, and the Germans concentrating the bulk of their forces against the onslaught, on-slaught, the fight for Berlin became one of the bloodiest encounters of the whole war. As Red forces edged through a network of strong fortifications fortifi-cations under rolling fire, the enemy threw in masses of tanks in an ef- CONGRESS: Tariff Battle Even as the Republicans' senatu steering committee called upon Pres. Harry S. Truman to wish hi administration well, a red hot legii-lative legii-lative battle loomed in congress over the new chief's reciprocal trade treaty program, with GOP leaders heading the fight to defeat the measure. meas-ure. First sponsored by Mr. Roosevelt, Roose-velt, then adopted as his own by President Truman, the program calls for a three-year extension of the reciprocal trade treaties, with permission to cut tariff rates 50 per cent under January, 1945, levels. Since the original trade treaties allowed al-lowed a 50 per cent reduction on duties imposed in the Smoot-Hawley Smoot-Hawley bill of 1930, and such cuts were made on some goods, another 90 per cent slash would amount to 75 per cent, in all. As former secretary of state and so-called "father" of the reciprocal trade program, Cordell Hull, called for passage of the act from the Bethesda, Md., naval hospital. Assistant As-sistant Secretary of State William Clayton led the administration fight for adoption of the bill. With the U. S. possibly exporting as much as 10 billion dollars worth of goods a year after the war, he said, it will be necessary to cut our own tariff barriers so that our foreign purchasers pur-chasers will be able to repay us in kind.. Otherwise, he said, we will lose this trade or billions of dollars extended in credits. Disputing the administration's contention that passage of the measure meas-ure was necessary to assist in the restoration of world prosperity and prevention of unsettled economic conditions leading to war, GOP congressmen, con-gressmen, led by Rep. Harold Knut-son Knut-son (Minn.), declared that the program pro-gram accomplished neither objective objec-tive prior to the present conflict. Army Strength at Peak With a population of 13,479,142, New York led all other states in the number of men and women in the army with 900,563 as U. S. military strength totalled 8,050,011 as of December Decem-ber 31, the war department revealed. re-vealed. To the original army strength of 513,410 in 1940, 9,444,283 have been added by induction, enlistment en-listment or appointment since then, with the normal release of 1,907,682 giving the net figure of 8,050,011, it was pointed out. With the draft equalizing state industions on the basis of population, popu-lation, Pennsylvania with 9,900,-180 9,900,-180 persons and Illinois with 7,-897,241 7,-897,241 ranked second and third in the number of men and women wom-en in the army, with 663,666 and 507,233 respectively. v 1 PLANE OUTPUT: Big Cut In line with the army air force's cut in aircraft production for the rest of 1945, the huge $100,000,000 Ford-operated factory at Willow Run outside Detroit, Mich., will wind up manufacture of B-24 bombers bomb-ers by next August. Decision to terminate production of the B-24s was predicated upon the collapse of the German luftwaffe and the need for -heavier, faster bombers like the B-29s for the Pacific war, it was said. The overall over-all cut in output of other planes also will permit concentration on manufacture manu-facture of aircraft more vitally needed against the Japs, including includ-ing the new jet-propelled ships. Capable of turning out 462 planes a month at the peak of its operations, opera-tions, the Willow Run factory is owned by the government's Defense Plant corporation. Henry Ford has eyed purchase of the property for production of tractors and other kinds of farm tools after the war. WATER TREATY: Neighborly Act In what President Truman haileci as a constructive, business-like proposal pro-posal undertaken in a neighborly spirit, the U. S. senate ratified the controversial treaty dividing waters of the Colorado and Rio Grande rivers riv-ers between, this country and Mexico. Under provisions of the treaty, the U. S. guarantees Mexico 1,500,-000 1,500,-000 acre feet of water annually from the Colorado river, except in times of extraordinary drouth when the supply may be cut, and also agrees to divide waters in the Rio Grande below Fort Quitman, Texas, about equally. . In addition, the two nations will make a study of problems prob-lems arising from the flow of the Tijuana river from Mexico into southern California, including flood control and conservation. Though California and Nevada congressmen attacked the treaty as harmful to domestic users of the Colorado river waters, other western west-ern senators acclaimed it as necessary neces-sary for orderly development ot both the Colorado and Rio Grande basins. SRIEFS... Of the nearly 150,000 persons who died of cancer in the United States last year, approximately 3,600 were between the ages of 20 and 29. It is true that cancer reaps its highest death toll in the age groups over 40, but it may afflict a person in any age group with equally tragio results re-sults even infants have been known to die from cancer. If treated in the early stages, however, how-ever, the disease is curable, authorities au-thorities point out. PACIFIC: U. S. Losses For the first time in the Pacific war, navy casualties in the Okinawa Okina-wa campaign ran ahead of the army's and marines', with bitter fighting threatening to make the operation as costly as at Iwo Jima. Numbered among the victims was famed War Correspondent Ernie Pyle, whose simplicity of reporting the war from Europe to Asia brought the realism of the conflict con-flict so much closer to the nation's folk. With the Ryukyu island chain, containing Okinawa, lying but 325 miles from Tokyo, the Japs put up a stiff fight, throwing in waves of airplanes in an attempt to impede supporting U. S. naval operations. Led by the silken-shrouded Kamikaze Kami-kaze (suicide) fliers, enemy airmen inflicted the greatest percentage of naval casualties. In ground fighting on Okinawa itself, it-self, chief opposition centered in the southern part of the island above the capital city of Naha, where 24th corps army troops bucked against the four-mile deep "Little Siegfried" line. While fighting raged about Okinawa, Okin-awa, General MacArthur's forces tightened their hold on the Philippines Philip-pines by edging into the enemy's mountain strongholds on northern Luzon, and establishing further footholds foot-holds on Mindanao, second biggest island in the archipelago. NAVY: Postivar Fleet Although final action depends upon the nation's future policy, tentative navy plans call for a huge postwar fleet of 5,830 vessels ves-sels and the scrapping of another an-other 6,094, according to testimony testi-mony released by the house appropriation ap-propriation committee. Of the 5,830 vessels, 1,191 would be combat ships, with the remaining 4,639 auxiliary craft. Plans calls for use of 482 of the combat vessels, ranging, from submarines to battleships, with the rest laid up for recall on short notice. Of the auxiliaries, 1,794 would be kept active and the remainder anchored for future fu-ture demands. Among the 6,094 vessels to be scrapped or used as targets are 337 obsolescent combat ships. The remainder are auxiliaries, including landing craft. In addition, ad-dition, it was disclosed, the navy will have some 66,000 other craft on its hands as demobilization proceeds, with some retained and others disposed of by the maritime commission. FARM LABOR: Draft Provisions Seeking to assure essential farm labor, congress moved to forbid local lo-cal draft boards from comparing the value of agriculture with that of any other occupation when considering consider-ing deferments of farm workers. Final passage of the bill depended de-pended upon house approval of senate sen-ate amendments, providing that appeals ap-peals boards could not make such comparisons, and deferment of farm workers shall not prevent vol-I vol-I untary enlistments for the services. The congressional measure was framed to forestall a directive of selective service ordering local boards to give first consideration to the manpower needs of the army and navy when considering deferments defer-ments for farm workers. Lieutenant General Simpson of !Hh armv lef t ) chats with British Field Marshal Montgomery on German front. fort to break up the advancing formations, for-mations, and swarms of planes clashed in the leaden skies above. Further to the south, other Russian Rus-sian forces breached the Nazis' Neisse and Spree river lines to smash westward in Saxony for a junction with the U. S. 1st and 3rd armies. While the 1st and 3rd fought toward to-ward a junction with the Russians, and the U. S. 9th built up strength along the Elbe for an eastward thrust to Berlin, the British and Canadian forces and the U. S. 7th army bore down on the potential German defensive pockets along the North sea and in Bavaria. The British and Canadian task was no snap, what with the enemy concentrating large bodies of troops in small areas behind stout defenses. de-fenses. Included in. the German holdout regions was the western portion por-tion of Holland below the Zuider Zee, and the great port areas of Emden, Wilhelmhaven, and Hamburg. Ham-burg. Having cleared the Nazi shrine city of Nuernberg, 7th army spearheads spear-heads pointed toward Munich and the Bavarian mountain reaches, where enemy die-hards are expected to put up their stiffest last stand. With Allied armies on the move in Germany itself, U. S. and British forces pushed forward in Italy also, threatening to spill into the Po valley. MODERN MINING Indicated output of 625.000,000 tons of coal in 1944 was attained with about 200.000 fewer workers than in 1918, largely because of extensive exten-sive mechanization of the mines man output per day in bituminous mines has been raised from an average av-erage of 34 tons during the last war to more than tons in 1944. This compares with slightly more than one ton per man per day in England, Eng-land, and a little over two tons per man in Canada, it is pointed out. |