The Alamance Gleaner
Vol LXIX GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1943 . No. 35
WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS
Allied Armies Launch Strong Offensive
Against German Strongholds in Italy;
Russ Score New Gains Along Dnieper;
Dairymen Get First Federal Subsidy
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Wkca opinions art expressed la these eolsmos, they are these ef
Wester a Newspaper Union's news analysts and net necessarily of this nswspaper.)
- Released by Western Newspaper Union.
TEIEFACT
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NAPLES:
Gutted City
By the time Allied forces had
opened their offensive against Na
ples, the Nazis had turned the big
port city into a mass of flames.
They wrecked and scuttled every
ship that had escaped Allied bombs
and destroyed every wharf.
The Fifth and Eighth armies were
bringing their full power to bear
against their objective. That the
Germans had early given up hope
of holding the city was proved by
the wholesale destruction of all usa
ble facilities. At least 30 ships lay
sunk or aground in the harbor as
the result of Nazi scuttling and Al
lied bombs. Bombers had also
wrecked railroad yards so thorough
ly that no traffic had come into them
for weeks.
Corsica
Even as the offensive against Na
ples began, French troops and Amer
ican Rangers were driving ahead in
Corsica, island of Napoleonic his
tory. They had closed in on Bastia,
northeastern port of the island, and
Allied naval and air forces had
clamped on a tight blockade against
German escape.
MILK PRODUCERS:
Get First Subsidy
History was made in the dairy in
dustry with the disclosure that the
government has paid its first sub
sidy to dairymen. The announce
ment was made as Fred M. Vinson,
? economic stabilization director, took
over the job of arbitrating a wide
spread milk price disagreement.
Senator Kenneth McKellar of Ten
nessee stated that Vinson told him
a subsidy had been given milk pro
ducers in the drouth-stricken area
near Memphis. Other official sources
said the subsidy would total 50 cents
a hundredweight, approximately
equal to one cent a quart.
LIFE INSURANCE:
On War Deaths
Deaths in the United States army,
navy and marine corps up to the end
of June, 1943, have resulted in life
insurance claim payments totaling
32 million dollars, the Institute of
Life Insurance has reported.
Of 23,700 policies on which pay
ments were made, $13,100,000 was
paid out under 11,100 policies in the
first six months of this year by
American life insurance companies.
"The number of deaths is prob
ably half the number of claims
paid," the institute said. The aver
age ownership of life insurance is
two policies per policy holder.
RUSSIA:
* Disengaged Nazis
German troops continued to "sys
tematically disengage themselves"
as the Red army smashed on toward
Smolensk, captured Poltava, the
last Nazi base in the southern
Ukraine, and engulfed German de
fenses along a 300-mile line just
short of the middle Dnieper river.
Continuing their drive on Smo
lensk, the great Nazi eastern front
stronghold that once was Hitler's
headquarters, the Russian army
elosed in from the southeast, over
running 883 villages and killing more
than 3,300 Germans.
A Berlin broadcast acknowledged
the peril to Smolensk, Kiev and other
eastern front bastions. But Berlin
was hesitant to paint the overall pic
b?e. For instance: The Germans
it one time held, approximately 300,
000 square miles of Russia proper.
It is estimated that they now hold
oily 100,000.
A j t
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC:
Spring Another Trap
Japanese troops manning the im
portant New Guinea base of Fin
schafen were hemmed in on three
sides by Allied forces following Gen.
Douglas MacArthur's master plan of
utilizing units to land in strength
behind the enemy's key points and
work to cut off his supply.
After the pattern of the conquest
of Lae farther to the south, big air
plane transports landed Allied troops
northwest of Finschafen. As these
troops pressed in against the Japs
from the west, other ground forces
moved in on the enemy from the
south. Then, the encirclement was
made complete when the U. S. navy
put troops ashore to the north.
Capture of Finschafen would place
the Allies a short distance from the
Jap air bases on New Britain is
land to the east and thus reduce the
efficiency of these bases as points for
attack on U. S. forces.
WORLD RELIEF:
Plan Proposed
America's participation in an in
ternational relief and rehabilitation
program to be ad
ministered along
the lines of the
League of Nations
was to come up
for congressional
approval.
Congressional
approval will be
needed for appro
priations with
which the govern
ment will take
part in the plan.
As shaped along
the pattern of a
proposal of Prime
Minister Winston
Churchill, 44 unit
ed nations will
form an advisory council, with a spe
cial central committee composed of
the U. S., Great Britain, Russia and
China.
Under the plan, the organization
established will be authorized to ac
quire, hold, and convey property;
make contracts; undertake obliga
tions; manage undertakings, and
perform any legal act appropriate
to its object and purposes. Unless
the senate ratified further forms of
participation by a two-thirds vote,
U. S. obligations would be confined
to appropriations of funds.
ARMED FORCES:
Ask for Fathers
October 1 was at hand and be
fore congress was the Wheeler reso
lution which would delay the draft
ing of pre-Pearl Harbor fathers
scheduled to begin on that date.
Before the house and senate mili
tary committees came the nation's
manpower experts. Also before these
legislators came the highest officials
of the army and navy. And then
they heard the voice of Bernard H.
Baruch, special presidential adviser.
Testimony from all these sources
arrived at the same essential fact:
Give the armed forces what they
want in the way of manpower.
Generally speaking the nation
seemed to agree with this viewpoint
but those who were opposing the
drafting of these pre-Pearl Harbor
fathers based their case on the as
sertion that the whole manpower
program was being mishandled and
that was why the drafting of fathers
"appeared necessary." Agriculture,
the armed forces themselves, gov
ernment agencies and industry were
all accused of hoarding manpower
while fathers were being asked to
get into uniform.
Winston Churchill
HESS:
Official Version
For two year* British government
sources kept their silence on the ob
ject of Nazi Rudolph Hess' flight to
Scotland. Then Anthony Eden stood
before parliament and told the of
ficial story:
Hess had made his historic and
fantastic flight "on a mission of hu
manity." He came to Great Britain
with specific peace terms because at
that time Hitler feared a long war
and didn't want to fight England.
Among the peace terms that proved
a stumbling block were these stipu
lations:
(1) Hitler would not deal with
Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
(2) Germany wanted a "free
hand" in Europe with the British
empire to remain unmolested.
HANOVER:
Hangover
In -one of the most destructive
bombing raids yet delivered on the
Reich, the Royal Air force demol
ished a large area of Hanover and
struck a crippling blow at an in
dustrial machine already staggering
from repeated onslaughts.
The Hanover raid was one of the
most destructive to be delivered on
Germany. Block busters and incen
diaries were poured into rubber
factories, railroad yards and supply
depots at the rate of approximately
133,000 pounds a minute. London
sources said the raid was one of
the greatest air blows of the war.
Equally heartening was the indi
cation that the RAF may have found
the answer to anti-aircraft defenses
and night fighters. Its losses were
only 26 aircraft, a remarkable rec
ord for such a large-scale attack.
ALLIED CHIEF:
Post to Marshall
To Gen. George C. Marshall was
to go the supreme command of all
Allied forces, it was reported, even
as congress loudly protested over the
general's rumored removal as chief
strategist of the Allied armies.
According to the rumors. General
hfcrshall's differences with British
leaders over war plans resulted in
pressure for his removal as U. S.
chief of staff, in which capacity he
mapped all U. S. military activity
and thus influenced British action.
Official Washington waited to see
whether General Marshall's report
ed appointment as supreme com
mander of all Allied forces carried
with it the responsibility of continued
planning, or whether it only involved
execution of somebody else's
strategy.
LEGION:
New Program
When the final gavel fell on this
year's American Legion convention
held in Omaha, Neb., delegates
could look back on these major de
velopments in the organization's pro
gram:
(1) Election of a new commander,
Warren H. Atherton of Stockton,
Calif.
kh rieagmg 01 a "miaoie roatr
conservative stand on the two im
portant issues of foreign relations
and domestic affairs.
(3) Expansion of the Legion's
Americanization program.
(4) A memorial to congress call
ing on that body to tighten up the
law on franking privileges to prevent
congressmen from using the mails
to promote the propaganda of an
"un-American" cause.
GLOOM:
From Jap Radio
In a gloomy forecast of new Allied
aerial blows, the Tokyo radio an
nounced that Japan is getting ready
to evacuate Tokyo and other impor
tant cities "in view of the decisive
phase upon which the war will enter
during the coming months."
Premier Tojo announced that the
Japanese government had decided
to prepare "for the moving of gov
ernment departments, industrial es
tablishments and the civilian popu
lation" from Japan's major cities.
The Tojo cabinet also called for
total mobilization of the civilian pop
ulation, abolishment of age limits to
make all persons liable for nation
al service and strengthening of gov
ernment control over industry.
MASS INVASION:
At 'Right Time'
Plans for a gigantic second front
in France and the Low Countries "at
what we and our American Allies ,
judge to be the right time" were
promised by Prime Minister Church
ill in his war report to Great Brit
ain's house of commons.
During his optimistic speech of
two hours and seven minutes,
Churchill defended the Italian cam
paign, terming it a "third front,"
and forecast a Stalin-Roosevelt
Churchill conference before the end
of the year. He sketched Allied
progress in air, sea and lend war
fare.
Washington, D. C.
QUEZON ON THE JOB
It's bad news (or the Japs that
'President Quezon of the Philippines
is back in Washington. They knew
?though it was not generally real
ized in Washington?that Quezon had
suffered a relapse of his old illness,
tuberculosis, which has plagued him
off and on for 20 years.
Quezon was a well man at the
time of Pearl Harbor. But confine
ment in the dampness of Corregidor,
during the Jap attack, brought the
illness back again. That was one
reason MacArthur urged him to re
turn to the U. S. in a submarine.
When he came to Washington, Que
zon was advised to take things
easy. Instead he rushed into the of
ficial activities of Philippine Com
monwealth affairs, not sparing him
self.
His physicians advised him not to
remain in Washington during the
summer of 1942, nor last winter.
But he remained nevertheless. Re
sult was that last spring he suffered
a further relapse.
Specialists were summoned, and
Quezon was given the stern advice
that he would have to get out of the
humid climate of Washington imme
diately, if he wanted to live. Yield
ing to pressure, he went to Saranac,
N. Y., and submitted himself to a
rigid discipline during- most of the
past summer.
Quezon led the life of an invalid,
sitting in the sunshine in a wheel
chair, listening to the radio, or to
his nurses as they read to him. Re
sult of this regime was that the tu
berculosis was arrested, and Quezon
gained 12 pounds.
When the Japs heard of his re
lapse, they were ready to say to the
people of the Philippines, where
Quezon is still highly popular:
"Look, this is the skeleton you pin
your hopes to."
But today Quezon is back on his
feet and back at his desk, still hoping
to realize his one great ambition, to
see U. S. and Philippine forces
march into Manila.'
? ? ?
SEVEN MINUTES TO WAS
Every day now, pictures are ar
riving in a little room in Washing
ton which seven minutes before
were in Algiers, 3,400 miles away.
One day, just after the landing in
Italy, 41 pictures came through the
air and landed safely on top of the
Pentagon building, in a little room
marked "Confidential?Keep Out."
Inside that room is a little ma
chine not as big as a typewriter,
with a little cylinder on it. The cyl
inder spins around, exposing a nega
tive to dots and dashes of light, and
after seven minutes, the exposure is
complete. From there on, it's mere
ly a matter of developing the nega
tive, and the U. S. public has a pic
ture of the landings in Italy, or the
surrender of the Italian fleet.
And ditto for the South Pacific. It
Is farther away, but the seven min
ute requirement still holds. From
an unmentionable post in Australia,
the dots of light flash into the little
room, and you have a picture of
General MacArthur flying In a
bomber over New Guinea.
The pictures may have been taken
by any one of the four photo syndi
cates?Acme, AP, INP, or Life?or
they may have been taken by the
Army Signal service. In any case,
they can be telephotoed only by the
official airwaves.
What would be a highly expensive
daily transmission cost for the photo
agencies is thus fully borne by the
war department. Officials justify the
cost in terms of keeping the public
abreast of the war?in fact, only sev
en minutes away from the war.
? ? ?
MERRY-GO-ROUND
Ex-Congressman Joe Casey of
Massachusetts, now doing various
inside jobs for the White House, re
cently made a political survey of
New England, reported that Maine
was so strong for Roosevelt's war
policies that the only Republican
who could beat him was Wendell
Willkie , . . Admiral Standley,
U. S. ambassador to Russia, has
cleared with the state department a
significant speech in which, after
praising Russian victories plus those
of England and the United States,
he says: "A victory for one is a
victory for all" . . . Highly inflam
matory remarks in Negro newspa
pers, some of them close to sedition,
are being studied by the army . . .
Lew Douglas, war shipping admin
istrator, was personally thanked by
the President for the job he did in
helping to smooth British and Amer
ican general staff'' feefiCigV dt
Quebec. There have been some
very vigorous differences between
them, and thanks partly to Dopglas,
things were smoothed out consid
erably at Quebec.
How America Treats Axis Prisoners of War
In Concentration Camps Throughout U. S.
Good Treatment
Pays Dividends
To Captor Nations
WHAT is our treatment of
prisoners of war? Are offi
cers overpaid? Do they have to
work? These and many other
questions are being asked as the
total of Axis prisoners mounts.
As a matter of fact, the pris
oner problem has become a real
one since the mass surrender of
Italians in Tunisia. After Sicily
capitulated. Gen. Eisenhower
had on his hands the staggering
total of 135,000 Axis prisoners.
Quite a job for any man's army.
While it is true that prisoners
are enemies of this country, and
many have been directly re
sponsible for the loss of Ameri
can lives, they cannot be treated
entirely as enemies, but must be
treated as soldiers rather than
as criminals, always with this
thought in the background?the
treatment we accord enemy
captives will, in some measure
at least, determine the kind of
treatment given American sol
diers who have been unfortunate
enough to fall into enemy hands.
There are at least two other
reasons for the good treatment
of prisoners, aside from human
itarian considerations, one
based upon a treaty made at
Geneva on July 27,1929, and the
other \a purely psychological
one, namely, that war-weary
and Vnderfed troops may be
tempted to lay down their arms
to an enemy who feeds them
generously and gives them safe
haven.
Geneva Conference.
At the Geneva Convention, which
was ratified by 37 countries (which,
by the way, did not include either
Japan or Russia) certain rules on
treatment and behavior were formu
lated. Under the provisions of the
Geneva Conference soldier prisoners
are required to work, but officers
are not. The amount of time a pris
oner must work is based on the
number of hours put in by free labor
in the adjoining territory, and one
day a week is to be a day of rest.
Food and clothing must be provided
by the detaining army.
occupational classification is de
termined by the prisoner's physical
makeup. For instance, the prisoner
who was formerly engaged as a
clerk or teacher should not be put
at hard labor. This provision, how
ever, has been largely ignored in
Axis countries, where many a schol
arly soldier grinds out a day that
taxes his strength sorely.
In every concentration camp
many different crafts and trades are
plied by the prisoners, but in no
case do they work on projects di
rectly connected with the war ef
fort, as a precaution against sabo
tage.
Payment for labor is at the rate
of 80 cents a day for the ordinary
soldier, here in the United States,
where we have some 70,000 Axis
prisoners scattered throughout the
country in 23 camps. The rate of
pay for officers ranges from $20 a
month to $40 a month. Officers who
have been assigned no work get paid
anyway, at the regular scale.
At some of the camps prisoners
are kept within by double barbed
wire enclosures. Armed guards pace
back and forth outside to make sure
that all is well.
Fed Army Fattens.
Prisoners in the U. 8. army
camps are fed the regular army field
rations. In this respect they fare
much better than General Wain
wright and his gallant band of de
fenders who laid down their arms
pa Corregidor only after food and
water supplies had been cut off. The
Japanese diet consists mainly of
rice, and there is reason to believe
that the heroes of Bataan and Cor
regidor have suffered considerably
from malnutrition since they fell into
jnemy hands. The Japs evidently
have nothing much better to offer,
for even the warriors of Guadal
canal and New Guinea have been
forced to rely upon rice ja their
mainstay. Klska and Attu furnished
mute evidfnegjd the Japs' utter, de
pendence" upon rice as a fighting
staple.
While the Japanese government
tentatively agreed to certain propos
als. from tills country with regard to
the treatment at ttfisonefs. their S&
? : .
titude has been far from satisfac
tory. A caae in point was the (hoot
ing of the U. & fliers who bombed
Tokyo with General Doolittle's
squadron which took off from 9ian
gri La (aircraft carrier. Hornet) and
who had the extreme misfortune of
either being shot out of the skies or
forced down for other reasons. These
prisoners, it was later announced by
the Japa, were shot, contrary to all
the rules of war, as a deterrent to
other American fliers who might en
gage in the bombing of Japan. This
violation of the international rules
of war has not, however, worked,
and Japan may well tremble in its
boots for the day of reckoning which
is drawing closer with each dawn.
Bombing perimeters are drawing
closer to the heart of the Japanese
empire day by day.
The bulk of the work done by Axis
captives in the United States is agri
cultural. This field, at course, (fi
lers the least opportunity for sabo
tage. When captives engage m tbts
work they do not in any sense coos
pete with native labor, but are am
ply supplementary to it. Farmers
arrange with their unity farm
agent for the employment of prison
ers. The number is usually small
and the prisoners are scattered over
wide areas, thus removing from this
practice all element at hazard.
Generally speaking. Axis pi iwa
ers, with the exception at the Jap.
at whom we have only a very small
number, are a contented lot. They
have better food, clothing and shel
ter than they hod under the San
banner; in a certain sense tbey have
more liberties, and for them die
war is over.
Pictured here arc come of the 2.MC Genua pi limn of war aha
are heaied at Camp Breckearidf e, By. They are miiiMap to the mrm
hall. Genua prlimn are eleeely inrM at al limn, to, adb the
Italian!, they refese to play hall aad are caaBdcatly arropaat. Meat
of them are (lad to wort to relieve the horedaai at hidMty.
More Gifts for Overseas Servicemen
Based on increasinf demand tor
gift items it is estimated that over
seas servicemen and women will re
ceive 20 per cent more Christmas
presents per capita this year than
last, and the home folks may ex
pect an even larger percentage at
reciprocal gifts, mostly of the luxury
and sentimental type. This forecast
was made by John C. Goodall, gen
eral manager of the Merchandise
Mart, Chicago, following a checkup
among gift item manufacturers and
distributors, including those who sell
to retailers and army and navy post
exchanges.
Reasons given for the expected in
crease in the number of gifts sent
this year overseas are:
1. The moved-up official mailing
date, September 13 to October 13,
extended to November 1, for those
in the navy, marine corps and coast
guard, will stimulate early shopping,
and the five pound limitation on gift
packages means more will be sent.
3. More stores have installed spe
cial gift counters or departments
which means more display, adver
tising, and sales.
I. The home folks are now better
advised on the gift preferences of
servicemen and women, and know
more specifically where they are sta
tioned, hence can make their selec
tions more intelligently. ,
4. The overseas forces, operating
on tnore fronts, and facing more
varied climatic and geographical
conditions, become elij^ble for a
wider variety of gifts.
The tendency to send more gifts
to those furthest from home also
favors increased sales. While short
ages at home are developing in such
items a< watches, leather noveltiee
and iewelrr. it Is thouahl heavier
purchases of mere available items
will more than offset these.
The number at gifts to come from
service personnel abroad to relatives
and friends at borne is expected to
be larger per capita because manu
facturers and distributors, who sell
to army and navy past exchanges,
particularly in the Mediterranean
area, already report rising sales to
servicemen and women. Mare post
exchanges, greater opportunity af
forded servicemen to buy direct
from the natives, who also sell to
PX. is a factor now boosting sales.
Other sales sttrrniants are that over
seas servicemen and women, to
high spirits themselves, are not so
sure about the morale at the home
folk and seek to bolster it by gifts.
Plusher with cash, and conscious at
accumulated favors from home, the
overseas contingent find themselves
in an ideal spot to reciprocate.
Among American made gift items
most popular at overseas post ex
changes are pins, dips, earrings,
vanity cases, many bearing the in
signia of the various branches of toe
service. Ornate pillow tops and
handkerchiefs, which embody deli
cately worded sentiments, come to
the aid at thousands at less articu
late servicemen. Such items are
prime favorites overseas as weQ as
at post exchanges at home.
Necklaces, embroideries, pipes.
laces, opal and topaz jewelry, met
al and leather handicraft at Lotto
and Oriental origin, is also to high
favor. Watches, one of the top pref
erences among all in the service,
are relatively easy to get a the Med
iterranean area, since many of them
come direct from Switzerland
The gifts servicemen xoty expect
from the home folks parallel some
what those sent last year, although
there will be a wider tohction to
choose from. Furlough bags, small
carry-all and searing kits, duffle
bags, wallets, religious medals, iden
tification bracelets, photo cases, pen
and pencil sets, shaving equipment.
insignia pieces, and of course ciga
rettes, are high on the preference
list at servicemen.
Money belts are not expected to
be as popular this year as last,
while watertight pocket-size holders
for miscellaneous personal things
ara in high vogue. Pocketsized
games such as checkers, cnbbage,
gin rummy, backgammon and acsx
ducey are similarly popular.
While these gift, items have gen
eral popularity among the forces
overseas as well as at home, a vari
ety of gift preferences is develop
ing. A large number on the Pacific
front, for instance, show partiality;
to such articles as knives, run
glasses and anti-sun and bug lotions.
The growing number of service
women is dictating the installation
of women departments to post ex
changes. Heavy orders for toilet
ries, apparel items, and the morn
esthetic true at rifts are reported.
Ernest J. Krewtfcn. Oktp past
master. (left) explains ts Geerje
McCarthy, foreman in tkup at
foreign mail, hew packages ahenld
be wrapped and addressed ta pet
favored delivery aarvice to man in
the armed fereea averseaa.