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The Alamance Gleaner VoL LXVn GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 1941 ' No. 8 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne New Violence in Nazi Aerial Blitz Aimed to Cripple British Shipping; Destroyer 'Lanes' Across Atlantic Urged to Replace Hard-Hit Convoys (TOITOB'S NOTE?Wk? ?pl&liu ?r? izprami In Ihtit ??lama*, thw ar? tk?M ?( ta* a*w* kiulyit and net noeeeearlly of this newspaper.) (Released by Western Newspaper Union. I Halted by some experts as one of the really great military exploits of all time has been the sweep of the British forces against the Italians hi Africa. Shown here with two of hla aides la the British commanding gen eral, Sir Archibald Wavell, (center). General O'Connor of the British forces Is shown at left and Australia's General Maekay at right. Real test of Wayell's military genius would come If his troops should clash with HHIap'r In thdk Rallrunu AERIAL: Blitz Grows Nazi Germany brought out its heaviest air blitzkrieg, perhaps as a "workup" of an invasion at tempt, and the results were not too happy, as far as the British defense was concerned. The first three days of the main attack were directed at London, Liv erpool and Bristol, and while the damage was heavy, and casualties correspondingly high, British aerial leaders were jubilant over the fact that 30 German attackers were shot down, and gave the credit to the night-fighting air arm, the anti aircraft batteries, and "a "new weapon." This latter, it was later explained, consisted of some sort of anti-air craft shell which contained coils of wire, which unwound when the shell exploded with lethal effect on ene my planes. However, later news was not so favorable. The opening attack was followed by another tefrific blast at Bristol, one at Glasgow and a third at Hull. The flrit two cities, in a single night, reported around 1,000 casual ties, and the blast at Hull was re ported to have been even more se vere. The British apparently figured that they might as well abandon any attempt to disguise the towns attacked, at least in news dis patches. At first they would simply desig nate the town as "a northeast town" or a "town in the Midlands" or a "southeast town," and then, with in minutes, the German releases would be out with the name of the city, and what observers reported from there. This British reticence continued up to and including all the attacks except that fn Hull. In this case, the morning dispatches said "a southeastern port town," tout the aft ernoon papers were able to carry the story under a direct Hull date line. It was apparent that Hitler's air men were not trying day attacks, being satisfied with heavy night bombings in large force. One after another they were try ing to knock various British provin cial cities out of the picture. Charts were being printed showing it was costing Hitler an estimated $43,000 to kill each civilian slain in air bombing. Britain published her losses since the start of the war at 25,000. The ominous character of the raids on Bristol, Glasgow and Hull were that although the German raid ers came over in large numbers, judging by the weight of bombs dropped, in two nights the total Brit ish claims of bombers shot down was exactly two. Prior to this attack, British com mentators had been proudly saying an estimated 3 per cent of the bomb ers were, being shot down, and that if this figure could be raised to 10, then the German air force could not' stand the strain. Those observers who saw in the heavy blitx from the air a prelude to an invasion attempt, while they were numerous, ranged all the way from "any day" advocates to one bigh Japanese official, who, at 10,000 mile distance, blandly announced that the "Germans would land on British soil in a matter of hours." CONVOY: Or Lanes? Britain was sticking to the convoy system, while American shipping ex perts suggested abandoning it, and substituting the "lane protection" system, which seemed full of typi cal Yankee ingenuity. The Great Circle route, about 2,000 miles long, according to this proj ect, was to be patrolled with at least 50 destroyers, each of them given 50 miles to patrol 10 times a day. That would mean that every 2.4 hours a destroyer would pass any given spot in the lane, and with a constant lookout, should be able to spot enemy submarines. The plan would be putting 40 de stroyers on the lane, with 10 allowed to be in port refueling and getting supplies. Advantages were these?not only a better lookout and more warship strength.for protection purposes, but a much more efficient use of ships. For under the convoy system, if 40 ships are gathered together, the speed of the fastest is the speed of the slowest. The proposed Traffic Lane Plan would permit the faster vessels to move at top speed from one side of the Atlantic to the other, permitting them to take many more loads, in the long run. They would sail from destroyer to destroyer, and It would be the letter's duty to keep the lane clear of enemy raiders. And the present great hazard, of lumping 40 or 50 slow-moving ves sels together for a mass target, would be removed. Plan Debated As an interesting background for this very question of convoys, and how they ought to be conducted, Washington debated the statement of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, chief advo cate of the lease-lend bill, urging that the U. S. provide guards for convoys. The President, conferring with the press, dismissed the question, say ing there had been some reports to that effect, but that he had paid no attention to them. However, in view of the Commit tee's action, it was believed that the President was more interested than he was willing to admit. British au thorities, also, it was learned, were expecting the United States to do something along this line. It was recalled that the British naval leaders had said that they had mea enough on hand to man the entire U. S. navy, if necessary, and this was taken to mean that Britain was prepared for a "lease-lend" of more naval vessels. There were two possiDie plans Do ing discussed: 1. The transfer of more destroyers and possibly cruisers to Britain so they could be assigned to convoy service. 2. An extension of the neutrality zone further into the North Atlantic to keep the Nazi warships away fur ther, and/or to permit U. S. naval vessels to patrol those areas and release the British ships for the more distant patrol duty. The navy department transmitted to ship operators the news, sent to the U. S. by Churchill, that Nazi raiders and submarines were oper ating inside the forty-second meridi an at longitude, some of which is within the present neutrality zone. STRIKES: Hold Attention ) ? flirt are soma of A< pickets which sur rounded Iho Harvill Aircraft Die Casting corporation plant early in lha labor dis pute there. R.IM Two strikes, one big in volume and the other involving only 423 men, but holding a vast menace to plane building, held the attention of those in charge of production man agement. The big strike was at the $5,900,000 construction project at Wright field, Dayton, Ohio, huge testing ground for army airplanes. The strikers were refusing to negotiate, saying "we'll go back to work as soon as they chase those other fellows, (non union members) off." This was a strike of the A. F. of L. building trades unions of Dayton. It seemed, to the public, a picayune matter. The work of thousands was being held up by 400 A. F. of L. men, who objected because an elec trical subcontractor put 4 C.I.O. men to work. The contract of the electrical sub contractor was held up, surd the men went back to work. The contract finally was reinstated, and out went the men again. There was talk at this point of the government taking over. The other strike was that of Jhe Harvill manufacturing company, an organization headed by a 42-year-old former soda jerker who invented a process for casting airplane parts from aluminum and magnesium, light metals. Harvill's plant, employing only 423, makes parts for practically ev ery big plane manufacturer on the Pacific coast, including such giants as Boeing and Lockheed, Douglas and Vultee, Vega and North Amer ican. The men were asking raises from 50 to 75 cents an hour, and the strike, according to Harvill himself, was threatening plane factory shut downs that would throw 60,000 out of work and would jeopardize the I construction of thousands of war planes. This the workers denied, saying that the factory was well ahead of the needs of the other plants. Here, too, the government and the defense administration were looking with an anxious eye, wondering how far to go to break the walkout. TUluLfc I: Green Light? The Bulgar-Greek front continued to teeter on the brink of war, and I observers were interested to hear through "grapevine" channels that Soviet Russia had given Turkey the "green light" to go ahead and defy Germany. Whether this was wishful think- j ing or flot, many of those on the scene considered it was sound poli tics and even sounder diplomacy. They harked back to the old state- i ment, which has been held to since the beginning of the war, that Rus- | sia's long-range policy .would be that | of a "fisher in troubled'waters," that | she would egg on the weaker party against the stronger, particularly | where this suited Russia's conven- I ience, and then step in for her own I personal grab. I They pointed to the Polish experi ence, and the Rumanian outcome as proof of this contention. Just as Jugoslavia was tottering and about to be forced to sign a Nazi pact after showing plainly that her sympathies were on the other side, aixj just as the British had landed 300,000 men in Macedonia and Thrace, and were said to have more on the way, and just as Tur key was debating whether or not to "toss in with England," came the dispatches about Russia's attitude. Russia was soundly placed in this position. The Soviet "is friendly with the Bulgars, also Vlth Jugoslavia, both by race and general sympathy, and especially with Bulgaria be cause of her location on the Black sea. Russia bad picked .up half of Po land, a huge slice of Rumania, and was sitting with her legions ready to grab off the Black sea coast of Ru mania if the slightest chance of fered. Protection From Sabotage Described as Inadequate Civil Service Asks for More Investigators; Defense Heads Act to Avert Shortage Of Farm Labor This Summer. By BAUKHAGE national f arm mm non WNTJ Service, ItH National Praaa Bide., Washington, D. 0. WASHINGTON. ? As tha Unitad States, under the lease-lend law, literally becomes the arsenal of democracy, officials lament their lack of facilities for protecting that" arsenal bom the enemy within our gates. II you art a flst-rat? saboteur or enemy agent you have pnly one chance out of three of being spotted by the Civil Service investigators be fore you are hired in a government plant or arsenal or navy yard. That in substance Is what Civil Service Commissioner Arthur Flam ming told a senate committee the other day when he asked for a supple mental $320,000 appropriation to in crease the number of investigators Who check the record of applicants for government defense Jobs. Even with the close co-operation of the Federal Bureau of Investiga tion and the army and navy Intelli gence the records of only one-third of applicants put on the govern ment payroll for these jobs can be properly examined, Commissioner Flemming revealed. Efforts are now being made to get congress to In crease the funds for carrying oh this important work. There is always a certain routine checking on every worker who ap plies for a government defense job. The police department records in the applicant's home community are ex amined; the Federal Bureau of In vestigation (the G-men, so-called) checks the fingerprints to see if they are Identified with those of an of fender. And finally the army and navy intelligence files are available to the Civil Service commission in vestigators in Washington. This procedure identifies the en emy agent or criminal or other per son with an unsavory record who has already run into trouble and been found out. But the previously unidentified and potential offenders have to be spotted by the under staffed 13 district offices or the headquarters of the Civil Service commission in Washington itself. Commissioner Flemming told the senators that since starting to re cruit civilian defense forces Civil Service investigators had disquali fied 16 per cent of the applicants examined "on the ground of disloy alty or weak character." Senator Lodge of Massachusetts questioned the commissioner on the type of person disqualified. Mr. Flemming gave an example: "One applicant for the position of gas welder in one of the navy yards, our investigation developed, was seen at communist meetings, at tended a communist school in Wis consin, was an active worker for the party, passed out communist litera ture and books." Others have been found to have had bad records as far back as in the previous war. The Civil Service commission says it needs more money to stop the saboteur before he begins his sabotage. ? ? ? Prepare to Aoort farm Labor Shortage How art the farmer* going to get Lhose 3,000,000 extra farm hand* they need in the summer month* to let in the crop*? While the national defense pro tram is snapping op a lot of farm lands and getting them )obe in fac tories it is also trying to provide a practical method by which the farm er will get what he wants in the say of extra labor when he wants it Of course what William Knudsan end Sydney Hillman need right now s men to make the wheels go round hat turn out armament. But the lefense heads point out that the nethod they have devised tor gat ing the workers they want will also lelp the farmer in the long run. [hat method is registration of all rurplui labor with the 1,500 full-time ind 3,000 part-time state-operated Employment offices. The managers of these offices rant all prospective farm hands to ?egister at these offices, too, and are irging the farmers who are going to teed help next summer to patronize hese state employment agencies, oo. Defense demands may result in a ihortage of farm labor later, but one if thebig helps for the farmer will m the employment agency. If you nquire at one agency for a farm land and that agen?y hasn't any registered it will consult, (n* of eharga, aoy or all th* other agen cies. Spy From Koroa I 'AdoortiooJ Hit Work I hava just bad lunch with ths only spy I svsr met who advertised his profession. "It Is most dark right under the lamp," ha said to me as ha scooped up a sheaf of highly intriguing doc uments which ha had spread on the table before me, slipped them into a worn portfolio and whisked the zipper. We were sitting at a corner table in one of Washington's sublimated chop suey restaurants. My spy was one of these plotters but he flaunted his plots before me quite openly. Some secrets may be hidden behind the smiling slits of eyes of Kilaoo Kenneth Haan, tor that is his name, but be has con vinced at least one senator that that information which he has turned in gratis to various secret agencies of the Government is very welcome. Bate* Japanese. Haan is 41,'short, engaging, an oriental cherub in glasses, with a cast at countenance that would make you think he waa a Japanese (which, he says, some Japanese do). But his calling card says that he is head of the Sino-Korean Peoples' league. And Koreans love the Jap anese as the Pole loves the Ger man. Briefly Haan's history, as he tells it, is this: He was 10 years old when the Japanese took over Korea and his first memory of that tragic event is the view he got from his hiding place under a chicken coop when the soldiers marched into his vil lage. Haan soon left for Hawaii. Then one day, Ave years ago, because he had been active among his fellow Koreans, he was approached by a member of the Japanese consulate in Honolulu who offered him a Job helping to organize all Orientals in a sort of pan-Asiatic movement un der the Japanese. The neat year, when a delegation of American con gressmen visited the islands to study the possibility of Hawaiian statehood, Haan told them all he knew in a public hearing. A part of the documents he showed me was a letter from a senator thanking him for his services at that time in exposing the grandiose Japanese scheme. That was Haan's first advertising of his chosen profes sion. He was soon to get more. The Japanese press attacked him. He was spat upon in the streets. His life was threatened. Cemcs to America. The next year he came to Amer ica with one chief objective, he says, and it was in describing his purpose that he quoted the proverb about the lamp. , It is well known that Koreans, some of whom can pass for Jap anese and many of whom live in Japan and In the occupied portions of China, maintain a voluntary spy ' ?ystem and grapevine telegraph. They still hope to win back their in- ? dependence ? Haan claims that he wants to se cure the financial and moral sup- v port of the United States govern- g ment to create a real co-operative Korean spy system against the Jap- " IMM. His method of advertising the " ability of a Korean to get informs- ? don from the Japanese Is to get it " limself. He told ma of his latest ad renture over the chicken chop suey p ind tea: From his Korean friends v n Japan Haan said that he had * earned that two Japanese reserve u >fflcers were on their way to the Jnited States to prepare Japanese Jj n this country for a war. They u rere bearing a notorious text book if propaganda and procedure, the A ranslated title of which is "Three >ower Alliance and Japan-America War." Haan set out to locate the officers a ind get the book, first notifying cer- " a in authorities in Washington of his ? n tent ion. The task seemed so im- u possible that one man, who needn't ; * ? named, bet $19 that the indefat- ? gable Korean couldn't succeed. The book, according to Haan, is B low in the hands of the proper au- * horities here and he has $38 in his * .ocket. How he got it is another P tory. " Britain Fights Food Hijacking Scotland Yard It Kept Busy Hunting Receiver* of 'Hot' Foodstuffs. LONDON?Scotland Yard reports Increasing activity by organized tangs of food "hijackers" and "boot baggers" and moved swiftly to hunt out receivers and distributors deal ing in "hot" foodstuffs. Detectives said the hijackers ap parently were well-organized. In many instances, stolen food trucks were found empty and abandoned within an hour after being seized in tactics reminiscent of the A1 Ca pons days in Chicago. Latest theft reported was that of a lorry laden with cases of eggs val ued at $1,400. The empty lorry was found shortly after it was reported missing. Scotland Yard's ace sleuths re ported that the hijackers shadowed their quarry to learn the movements and habits of the driver. As soon u the truck was left unattended for a moment, the hijackers raced away with it. They rushed the stolen goods to a i Hideaway where the cargo was | transferred to another truck, or to a ?ecret depot, or sometimes directly I to the food "fences." i Cat far Hijackers. Detectives said that the hijackers took a cut of SO per cent of the value >f the "hot" food. Hijacked beans, liscuits and bacon, they said, usual y were distributed by "fences," among hole-in-the-corner shops and .mail cafes, whose owners were silling to run the risk of dealing in llicit goods. One suspected restaurant, detec ives said, offered a menu of steaks, :hops, lamb, bacon, oxtail and eggs, arhile neighboring cafes could find >o legal supplies of such delicacies. One truck carrying $720 worth of ' [roceries was "snatched" from a ocked garage. A van loaded with ,400 pounds of vegetables was rhisked away while the driver was naking a call. Three such rob leries were reported within a week. Soldier Imprisoned. Even the army has been victim zed. Lance Corporal Harold 0*Sul ivan was imprisoned recently for tealing 107 pounds of sugar from he army supply depot at Aldershot It was estimated that $100,000 vorth of cigarettes and tobacco had wen stolen in recent months. At me place in the London area thieves nasquerading as A.R.P workers ised axes and crowbars to enter >remises. Other large hauls were made at light, indicating that "fingermen" ipot deliveries in advance of hijack ng. At Liverpool, during the trial of bur dock workers, the prosecution charged that since the start of the war 000 men had been arrested in >ne police division for stealing from locks. The thieves broke open :ases, removed the contents, re- I Uled them with rubbish and nailed hem up again. There has been looting of bomb lamaged premises, but Scotland fard said that was largely the vork of individuals rather than (angs. Sir Gerald Dodson, recorder if Old Bailey, said that looting ap >eared to be on the decrease. fuhmtla on Sale for Shelter Use in Britain LONDON.?London stores are fea uring yashmaks?yes, yashmaks. Yashmaks, as old as the reticence f Mohammedan women to show heir faces in public, have been eautifled and are being made in arious colors. Yellow, pink and reen have top billing. Alderman Charles Key, chairman f London shelters, said BO,000 of he veils now are ready for shelter se. They are primarily designed ] snuff sneezes and prevent infec n>. Fashion designers say they'll be opular. If a girl has nice eyes the t eils will add "allure," they said, nd, on the other hand, it her face i not so nice, a yashmak will help. The veils are designed to At over a le nose and are tied at the back of c he head. % lore British Women Are Half-Smoking Cigarettes LONDON.?Women of Great Brit in are smoking a lot more ciga ettea than formerly, but not enough f each cigarette, according to ondon manufacturer* Rarely doe* woman amoke a cigarette to the ad, and that waste* tobacco. More tan 60,000,000,000 were amoked in ritain in 1040. The ordinary ra srv* atocka each retailer held are me. Retailers can obtain only 90 tr cent of their usual require tanta. # ~ Design All-Plastic Planes for Canada New Craft Will Be Used for Training Purposes. OTTAWA.?Prospects arc food tor the production in Caned* soon of all plastic elementary and intermediate training planes. Announcement is expected mo mentarily at the establishment near Toronto at a plant for the manu facture at plastic "noses" for Atto Anaon bombing trainers, samples of which were successfully test-flown in Canada recently. The plant will be a Canadian branch at an Ameri can company which has made con siderable progress in experiments with plastic fuselages. A large or der for plastic Anson noses will be ready for this company, and the expectation is that production of en tire fuselages and wings will follow. Canadian aircraft manufacturers have a 90,000,000 order for twin-en gined Avro-Ansau bombers for urn in the empire sir-training plan Be cause of the necessity of redesign ing this aircraft, and for other ten sons, production has been long de layed, and the circumstances are re ported to be such that important re organization win be necessary in the procurement set-up. But the plastic experiments have been proceeding without delay and > number of manufacturers are ex perimenting, both in Canada and foe United States. Within a short time it is expected that a complete plastic Anson fuse lage will be ready for test flights, and it is planned to have two or more American-made pi astir ele mentary training planes among a group at IS trainers to be linww itrated here. 3 The advantages of using the plas tic material are that it ie light, dur able and much less expensive has metal. Rare Volume on Mane Is Restored to Old Home FARMINGTON, CONN?One of the two known copies of what is relieved to be the first iueUau Son book on harmony puMlshfd h the United States has been rterefi o the town of Fanniitotaa where Ik ess published in 1T7S. The book, titled "Select Har mony," was gieen to the funhf :on village library by (ha Cssali hit Historical society, humph of he only other known copy. Etched copper plates, it Is he ieved, were used to print the lijiasia ised by the deamns when hty ?lined" the music for singing to Am :hurch. It wae recalled that the 'lining," or setting of the pitch, wae irbitrarily decided by the deacon. 3ne deacon's pitching wan opposed ay some members of the congrega tion. One man, more i mn sgemu, or more musical than the others sang the way he wanted. He was arrest ed and conricted of disturbing the peace. Fog, Aviatioo'a Greatest Foe, Conquered at Last NEW YORK. ? Newest accom plishment in the Held of aviation is the conquest of fog. the pilot's greet ??t enemy. According to Dr. Seem Petterssen, professor at meteorology ?t Massachusetts Institute at Tech nology; two at his associates?Drs. 9. H. Houghton and W. H. Radford, ilso of M.I.T.?have experimented vith two successful methods at dis n pa ting fog. Since fog is known to be tha re tult at warm air passing over a cold urface, one at the methods triad ras to place heathig units beside be runways. The aystem was quits uccesaful in dissipating the lag. but he beating unit created a traffic iroblem on tha runway. The other method?spraying tha iir with a solution of sulphur cMo ide?was found to be entirely prwc ical. It left a space at deer air be pw the fog benk. ?e..Kiir.t the pt ota to see the runways* jcrmtnt Teach I Lanoa To Children of Brussels BRUSSELS ?Numerous chalk tn criptions "R.A.F." appeared re ently on walls, billboards, and aide rs Iks throughout Brussels. As a result school children were >y order of the burgomaster, com piled to write in their copybooks is foUoars: "The German authorities several imes have warned us they will not olerate repetition af certain chalk ascriptions, whose authors gensral y are the pupils of Etterbeeck chools. Those inscriptions were nade on school walls, private house rails and sidewalks. %e must de dare that the German authorities rill take serious measures against hiklren as well as parents if tha acts complained of continue to oc ?tir" - v * '
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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March 27, 1941, edition 1
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