The midland journal., January 01, 1943, Image 2

About The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947

Image provided by: University of Maryland, College Park, MD

                
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WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS
Break-Up of Rommel’s Desert Forces
Affects U. S.-British Drive in Tunisia;
French Fleet Will Join Allies: Darlan;
President Proclaims National Farm Day
Released by Western Newspaper Union. .....
PORT
Allied forces proceeded swiftly toward ousting the Japs completely
from the Papua territory of New Guinea following the capture of the
village of Buna. C. S. and Australian Jungle fighters took the Jap base.
Occupation of Buna followed closely the seizure of Gona. A communique
from Allied headquarters in Australia told of slowly increasing pressure
on the enemy. A captured Japanese artilleryman told intelligence officers
of Emperor Hirohito’s mandate that Jap forces hold the New Guinea
beachhead to the last man. The communique did not mention the Mam
bare area, on the northeast coast, where Allied planes lashed out at Jap
warships attempting to land more men.
AFRICA:
Dorian Speaks
“I have announced that my sole
purpose is to free France and then
retire to private life.”
With those words Adm. Jean Dar
lan, high commissioner of French
Africa, hoped to still the loud voice
of criticism which had been leveled
at him by the Fighting French, the
British and certain American
sources.
He did not wholly succeed. The
Fighting French wanted more than
words from Admiral Darlan to as
sure them. The British and a com
paratively few Americans remained
skeptical.
Darlan, in a statement of clarifi
cation, called for maximum mili
tary effort for the defeat of Ger
many and Italy and added that “this
will be accomplished by the unity of
all citizens, regardless of their po
litical or religious opinions, in an
orderly and cohesive fashion.”
Darlan also declared flatly that
strong French fleet units at Dakar,
Alexandria and North African ports
would join the British and U. S.
fleets. Those units included: three
battleships, more than seven cruis
ers, approximately a score of sub
marines and several destroyers.
Hit Tunis, Bizerte
Concentrating on docks and air
fields in Bizerte and Tunis, Ameri
can and British bombers continued
to carry out their day and night
raids with thunderous accuracy.
Tropical rains had brought land
action to a minimum, with action
limited largely to patrol sorties. It
was evident that the Allies were
willing to sacrifice forward positions
to reduce losses pending an all-out
offensive.
Allied attacks on Axis airfields
are damaging the efforts of the Luft
waffe ground staffs to maintain op
erations. It is reported that less
than two-thirds of the total force are
able to take to the air at any time.
PRICE CONTROL:
No Surprise
Washington dopesters had an
nounced it weeks before so there
was little surprise throughout the
nation when Leon Henderson re
signed as director of the Office of
Price Administration. Announce
ment of the resignation came from
President Roosevelt who, in accept
ing it* praised Henderson and de
clared that “You have not spared
yourself . . . and I appreciate
your patriotic service.”
Henderson said that he was quit
ting because of a recurrent physi
cal difficulty and a “rather bad”'
impairment of eyesight. The Presi
dent asked him to keep the White
House advised on his physical con
dition so that when he had recov
ered he could be recalled to govern
ment service in some other capac
ity-
Because of his firmness in han
dling rationing affairs and because
of his treatment of congress (with
out concern of political favor) Hen
derson has been under fire for'
months. Early in December many
Washington sources predicted he
was resigning and had suggested
(hat Sen. Prentiss M. Brown, Michi
gan Democrat, succeed him. Brown,
defeated for his senate post in the
last election, had previously piloted
the price stabilization bill through
congress.
HIGHLIGHTS • • • *“ the toeek’a news
BESTIAL: With the governments
of the other United Nations, the
United States joined in a condemna
tion of Germany’s "bestial policy of
. blooded extermination" of
Jewa. This action came after re
ports from* Europe indicated that
the Nazis were definitely proceeding
with Hitler’s oft-repeated intention
to exterminate every Jew on that
continent ' J
FARM DAY:
Vital Goals
Tuesday, January 12, has been
proclaimed by President Roosevelt
as Farm Mobilization day. On this
day meetings are to be held
throughout the nation to determine
ways and means “of ensuring for
the year 1943 the maximum produc
tion of vital foods.”
Farmers are being asked on that
day to gather with department of
agriculture officials, extension serv
ice agents, vocational teachers,
farm organizations and others con
cerned to discuss plans for meeting
the high food production goals for
the 1943 crop year.
President Roosevelt praised the
farmers for their production of rec
ord maximum harvests in the past
three years and declared that every
pound of food finds use in wartime.
“Food,” he said, “is no less a
weapon than tanks, guns and planes.
As the power of our enemies de
creases, the importance of the food
resources of the United Nations in
creases. With this thought in mind,
we must further mobilize our re
sources for the production of food.”
LIBYA:
Africa Corps Split
Long pounded by the British
eighth army, Field Marshal Rom
mel’s Africa corps took new and
heavy body blows when his fleeing
Axis forces were neatly divided by
Sir Bernard Montgomery’s pursuing
troops.
In a sudden flanking movement ad
vanced forces of the British army
reached Wadi Matratin, 55 miles
west of El Agheila on the Gulf of
Sirte. From there, units of the Mont
gomery army sliced off to the south,
cutting Rommel’s army in two, one
force continuing its westward flight,
the other caught between the British
main army and the British advanced
units.
Included in the enemy troops cut
off were armored forces which, in
desperate maneuvers to escape, suf
fered heavy casualties and “contin
ued to be severely mauled,” the
Middle Eastern command commu
nique stated. The main eighth army
was shoving ahead, forcing its way
through mine fields laid by the re
treating Germans, eager to get at
the trapped troops.
MEAT QUOTA:
Cut to 35 Ounces
Upon orders from government
food authorities, the per capita sup
ply of meat for civilians has been
reduced from the present limit of 40
ounces to 35 ounces a week during
the first three months of 1943.
The orders were issued by Price
Administrator Leon Henderson on
the recommendation of Secretary of
Agriculture Claude Wickard, the
new food chief.
Civilian supplies of pork, veal,
lamb and mutton were ordered cut
approximately 13 per cent. Beef
supplies will continue to be restrict
ed at the present level. Restric
tions are voluntary at present and
consumers are being asked to limit
themselves to 40 ounces a week un
til the first of the year, when the
voluntary ration will be reduced by
five ounces.
Slaughterers who kill more than
500,000 pounds a quarter have been
limited to 70 per cent of the 1941
level for beef, pork and veal, and to
75 per cent for lamb and mutton.
PREDICTION: Robert Taft, sen
ator from Ohio, has issued a predic
tion that a move to "break up” the
Reconstruction Finance corporation
is on the way with the opening (Jan
uary 4) of the new session of con
gress.
DISTINGUISHED: Wendell Will
kie has been awarded a plaque as
Indiana’s most distinguished son of
the year. *
MIDLAND JOURNAL, RISING SUN, MD.
RUSSIA:
See-Saw Battle
In the see-saw battle of Russia
the course of warfare appeared
to favor once more the Red army as
an official communique announced
the capture of five additional strong
points in the Rzhev sector on the
central front. It told, too, of the re
pulse of a heavy Nazi counterat
tack in the area southwest of Stalin
grad.
In their counterdrive at Kotel
nikovski, 90 miles southwest of Stal
ingrad, the Axis armies attempted
to throw back the flank of the Rus
sian forces south of the Don river
and break through the Russian trap.
The attacks were led by tanks, dive
bombers and motorized infantry.
Red Star, Soviet army newspaper,
said many Axis troops were slaugh
tered and the attacks were hurled
back decisively.
To the west of Stalingrad the Red
army was said to be widening the
broad barrier they had made be
tween the Nazis on the banks of
the Don and those trapped near
Stalingrad. During the Russian
drive on the central front, which
took seven more villages, two bat
talions of German infantry were re
ported wiped out. A communique
reported that near Vilikie Luki, Rus
sian troops beat off a German at
tempt to break through the lines to
help a surrounded Nazi garrison and
destroyed Nazi equipment.
SCHOOL BELLS:
In Wartime
America’s system of higher edu
cation is headed for some profound
and sweeping changes under plans
now released by the army and navy
to train youths between 17 and 22
for specialized military duties.
Scheduled to begin in February
the new setup for high school and
college youths would be put into
operation in several hundred col
leges and universities throughout the
nation. Students now in high school
and college would fit into the pro
gram at the time they were called
up for military training and virtual
ly every youth over 17 in school
would be affected. •
As outlined in joint army-navy
statement made in Chicago the plan
calls for these major developments:
1. Mobilization of a selected num
ber of colleges and universities for
training soldiers in military-directed
courses.
2. Enlisted soldiers now having
completed their basic training (or
about to complete) will be selected, if
qualified, for specialized training
when the plan is first set in motion.
3. A cadet system will be organ
ized for the selected colleges and
military training will thus be giv
en but it will be subordinated to
academic instruction.
4. When soldiers complete any
phase of the specialized training at
these schools they will do one of
four things: (a) be given further
training in officer’s candidate school
(b) returned to the troops; (c) rec
ommended for technical noncom
missioned officers or (d) detailed
for advanced technical training.
Meanwhile the navy will be select
ing high-school graduates or those
with equivalent qualifications for in
duction as apprentice seamen or ma
rine privates. Placed on active duty
with pay these youths will attend
designated schools.
China’s President
• 'Jt' ■ - ???
| .ij*i ’>
Wmmßk*. 'jJfl i-l
■ ■ ■
HB rl/M Eg
The above photo of Lin Sen, 78-
year-old president of China, is the
first photo ever sent from Chung
king, China, to Los Angeles, over a
new radiophoto service. The Chi
nese characters read: "To Presi
dent Roosevelt, from Lin Sen."
U. S. GOAL:
Double Axis Output
The War Production board’s goal
for 1943 calls for a production rate
by the end of the year estimated to
be twice as great as that of the
Axis nations. More than $90,000,-
000,000 worth of American weapons
will be manufactured in 1943. U. S.
war production in 1942 equals that
of all the Axis countries, the WPB
reported. The United Nations are
out-producing the Axis almost two
to one at present.
‘VICTORY’:
By the Government
“Victory,” a picture magazine de
signed for free distribution in for
eign countries, will be published by
the government, the Office of War
Information has announced.
The propaganda magazine will be
published every two months in sev
eral languages, but will not be dis
tributed within the United States.
Advertising revenue will go to de
fray the cost of publication, offi
cials said.
Definite Show-Down Likely
On Offensive Against Japan
Chinese Feel That Success of Madame Chiang
Kai-shek’s Mission to United States Will £..
Determine Future of Their Country. i’ ?
By BAUKHAGE
Newt Analyst and Commentator.
WNU Service, 1343 H Street, N.W.,
Washington, D. C.
In a hospital in an American city
one of tiie great women of the world
is lying under treatment for serious
but not critical trouble. The doc
tors have said assuringly that the
trouble is not dangerous, that
Madame Chiang Kai-shek will soon
be well.
Several million Chinese lire wait
ing anxiously for her recovery.
Although the matter has not been
formally discussed as yet, it can
safely be predicted that when
Madame Chiang Kai-shek recovers
and she takes the house she has
rented in Washington, her mission
will not be secret long. According
to hints dropped in reliable quar
ters, this mission is to obtain a def
inite showdown on immediate aid
to China in the form of an all-out
Allied offensive against Japan.
The offensive must be made up of
a shuddering and shattering air at
tack on the heart of the Nipponese
empire—on Tokyo, on Yokohama, on
harbors and cities, on factories and
templed hills. At the same time a
huge Chinese army, weU equipped
with supplies from America and
India, must be ready to advance for
invasion.
It is explained that Japan is pre
paring for a knockout blow against
China. Its objective is not to con
trol the whole of Chinese territory,
but to strike northward from Thai
land and Burma; to take Chungking
and isolate the Chinese armies
which are not destroyed; or perma
nently to cut these armies off from
all aid from the Allies by blocking
off the approach from the Indian bor
der, along the frontiers of Burma
and Thailand and the eastern coast,
which they already hold.
The Japanese would also encour
age and aid the formation of a large
communist state in China in order
to further add to the confusion of
the political situation which the in
vasion would serve to bring about.
This the Chinese believe Japan could
do unless aid from the Allies comes
first. Military observers here agree
that it would not be impossible for
Japan to accomplish this.
As nearly as I am able to gauge
opinion here, the course that the
United Nations strategy will prob
ably follow is this: A real offensive
against Japan by the spring at least;
the strong probability of another
front to be opened somewhere else
before then. The United States
has a million men in its armed
forces outside the borders of the
United States now. It will have
more before long.
• * •
Russia’a Role
In War and Peace
Recently I heard an American
who had spent a long time in Russia
and not long since returned to Amer
ica give a vest-pocket version of
Russia’s role in the war and her
possible role in the post-war settle
ments. It may be a picture colored
over-brightly with the tints of wish
ful thought, but I present it for what
it is worth.
% The Russians will not quit, until
the last dog (their version of the
invader) is hung. After the peace
they will co-operate in establishing
the kind of a peace which the United
States would like to see established.
Several reasons are offered as to
why many experts utterly mis
judged the power of the Red armies.
One explanation is that the offen
sive strength of the Germans was
over-estimated.
The next explanation is that the
Russian, traditionally, will fight an
invader with fatalistic fury, provid
ed he is armed.
Although both of these statements
are accepted as sound, another ex
planation is offered. It has to do
with the reason why the Russian
army Was able to put up its re
markable resistance and develop a
powerful striking power—how the
"traditional” fury was stimulated.
This is my informant’s interpreta
tion, a part of which is not new, but
which offers the basis of his predic
tion as to the future conduct of
Russia.
He says that under the present
regime, especially since the various
long-time plans under Stalin have
been inaugurated, the younger Rus
sian generation, deprived of the
church, has sought an outlet for a
human being’s natural desire for
BRIEFS ••• by Baukhage
Members of the United States
armed forces and persons sending
money to them received a 50 per cent
reduction in domestic telegraph
money order rates effective Decem
ber 1, 1942.
• • •
Average annual loss of eggs
through careless handling amounts
to 4 to 5 per cent of entire produc
tion.
-
NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
OF A COLUMNIST
COMMENTATOR
I will try to write and talk as
much like a human being as pos
sible.
I won’t use any words on paper
or on the air I don’t use on the
street car and I will be sure I
know what the words I do use
mean.
I will not talk or write down to
my audience or up tq my news
sources.
I will swallow my snorts and
coughs and wheezes until I can
signal the engineer to cut off the
mike.
I will try to keep personal
prejudices out of my manuscript
if I can’t always keep it out of
my voice.
I will not threaten to murder
the people who write in and ac
cuse me of saying the opposite
of what I did say.
I will read all my mail and
answer it in person if a stamp
is enclosed, or on the air, or, if
there is no other way, in spirit.
I will be grateful for the two
miraculous inventions, the print
ing press and the radio, which
permit me to have my say with
out being interrupted or talked
back to.
hope and faith. Stalin was able to
create a faith in his regime, not so
much in the theory of communism,
but in the government which had
shorn off considerable socialistic at
tributes and borrowed where it had
to from capitalism. And the various
plans had awakened a hope in the
people that this regime would give
them a lot of the things that they
began to find out other nations had.
They were, therefore, fighting to
realize the hope that they would get
the things which the regime, in
which they had faith, had promised
them and a part of which they had
already realized.
Now comes the next step. There
has grown up, with the blessing of
the Stalin regime, a great respect
for many things about America as a
country with whose help the Russian
can obtain the things which he hopes
for and which he knows the Ameri
cans possess.
Therefore, Russia’s aim is to help
the Allies win the war and also help
with the peace with the expectancy
that in return America will help
Russia to realize its hopes.
That is the way my informant
tells the story—and, I might add,
that is the way America "hopes”
history will one day record it.
• • •
Questionnaires
The other day I was sitting beside
a man who has a great deal to do
with whether.you and I will be run
ning our automobiles next year.
Somebody asked him what he
thought about these questionnaires
which farmers who want gasoline or
tires have to fill out.
This gentleman paused quite
awhile.
"I can’t tell you what I think of
them,” he replied sadly, “while
there are ladies present.”
I would like to tell you that man’s
name, but it was a strictly private
gathering. In any case, I hope it
will show you that all Washington
officials are not bureaticrats and
since this man is a man of action,
you can count on his help to carry
out some of the recommendations
of the Truman committee on gaso
line and fuel rationing.
“The farmer with a small truck
operating 12 hours a day,” says an
informal report of the committee,
•‘working 12 hours a day to keep
body and soul together and to con
tribute in some small measure
to the war effort finds himself sud
denly obliged to digest a 32-page
pamphlet of instructions and fill out
an elaborate questionnaire requiring
detailed data on activities long past
from entirely nonexistent records.”
This is the thing Washington is
now fighting against. All that is
needed is to get someone who is
“familiar with the problem of the
small farmer and truck operator”
to make up the questions. And that
is the prescription that will have to
be applied in the writing of all ques
tionnaires in the future. Perhaps it
will be.
Married nurses are now eligible
for active duty with the army. If
you are a graduate, registered
nurse, between 21 and 40, you can
enroll with the Red Cross today I
• * •
The first USO club in America for
the exclusive use of all servicewom
en of the United Nations has been
opened by the Metropolitan Detroit
USO at the Downtown YMCA.
CLASSIFIED
DEPARTMENT
RAZOR BLADES
KENT BLADES
| Wrong Nose
George Bernard Shaw once at
tended a sold-out performance of
"Caesar and Cleopatra,” and was
obliged to watch the performance
while standing at the back. A
stranger who was standing just
behind the world-famous play
wright persisted in poking his
head over Shaw’s shoulder. Tak
ing out his handkerchief, Shaw ap
plied it to the man’s nose. The
man, with an angry exclamation,
jerked back his head.
"I beg your pardon,” said
Shaw, with mock concern, "I
thought it was mine, you know.”
/GREATFOR relieving^
\ ACHES & SNIFFLES OF COMMON ]
) COLDi
\ When you set 'M ~ M i
1 cold, take Hum- #
I phrey* “77” right I
I away to help reliere that feeling of 1
a achiness, weakness and misery. %
/ Works intemaUa. Long advised by \
V Or. Humphreys. Try it/ Only SO#. /
pm
■ Hs~irui annnlliif ■
I xj nomtwpcnmc meaivinos ■
VSSSS Since 1854 J
Buy
U. S. SAVINGS
* * BONDS * *
SNAPPY FACTS
ABOUT
RUBBER*
Why wheel alignment It a "mvtf" In
rubber conservation. When a wheel it
only H-inch out of alignment the cor
It being dragged tideways 8 7 feet
In every mNe. That’s tire scuffing at
Its worst.
Transportation In prhrato auto
mobiles In 1941 totaled 901 bi
llon passenger miles, compared
with about 291$ billion In rail
roads, about 27l$billlon in electric
railways, 291$ billion In bases
and 1,970,000 passenger miles
on domestic airlines. Big num
bers, all, but they show motor
franspertat on to bo six times
greater than all other forms
combined.
!• kaa. gLa. *L_
■v nui avail wranmsw iiivva .vw
la —-J —— -
untrue oieios mntrery eurwicu win
require 229,000 long tons e# crude
robber In 1949.
Overloading a truck fire 10 per cent
will cause a decrease of 18 per cent in
the mileage) 50 per cent overload aits
mileage 60 per cent.
|KEGoodri^|
BUREAU OF
STANDARDS
• A BUSINESS 4
organization which wants
to get the most for the
money sets up standards
| by which to judge what
is offered to it, just as in
I Washington the govem
-1 ment maintains a Bureau
of Standards.
| eYou can have your own |
Bureau of Standards, too.
Just consult the advertis
ing columns of your news
paper. They safeguard
your purchasing power
every day of every year.
mm 4: