Budget head’s pay raised
Washington –
The Senate late yesterday approved a salary raise for Budget Director Harold D. Smith, from $10,000 to $12,000 a year.
‘Price police’ force watches for violations
OPA plans ‘professional’ shoppers to work with rationing boards
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Alarm sounds in Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii –
Kauai, the northernmost of the Hawaiian Islands, had a 20-minute air-raid alarm yesterday, it was announced today. The all-clear was sounded after approaching elements were identified as friendly, the Army announced.
Sailor saying reversed
Oakland, California –
Tables were turned on the traditional sailor who “has a sweetheart in every port,” when two of them turned up here and found they were both married to the same girl, who, in addition, was also married to a shipyard worker. Each sailor had been sending her $100 monthly.
U.S. planes smash 53 enemy aircraft in Australian area
American bombers wreck 30 on ground, set huge fires at Jap base as foe raids Allied isles; both sides set for major blow
By Brydon C. Taves, United Press staff writer
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Jap diplomats try to be pals with Russians
Nothing’s too good for boys in Kuybyshev, Tokyo attitude
By A. T. Steele
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U.S. to recover over $1 billion in war contracts
Re-negotiation of arms orders by government net $150 million
By Marshall McNeil, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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McNutt aide may steer new manpower unit
New Deal ‘consultant’ in line for position on war commission
By Daniel M. Kidney, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Background of news –
Globe-trotters wanted
By Editorial Research Reports
Only a little while ago, the principal return of an American who had just visited Timbuctoo or the inner reaches of Tibet was his welcome as a travel lecturer at women’s clubs. Aside from the fact that journeys to remote places gave the voyager an exotic background, nobody really cared very much about the life and habits of the folks who made their homes in the heart of Asia or Africa.
Global war has changed all that. The federal government suddenly has become interested in getting acquainted with persons who know a thing or two about out-of-the-way places. No island, however tiny, can be eliminated as a possible scene of military action. War strategy may make it necessary at any time for Allied troops to be sent to some distant spot that suddenly becomes important in the conflict.
American societies of scholars are now compiling long lists of persons to whom the government can turn for help. Chief purpose of the rosters is to have them ready when and if the government needs them. Most of the persons whose names are included probably will never be consulted. The Army and Navy already know a good deal about some places and won’t find it necessary to gather further data from private travelers.
The federal government cares nothing about getting the names of persons who have visited such countries as Germany, Italy, France or any of the other places to which American tourists once flocked. Uncle Sam knows almost as much as the Nazis about the geography of Germany.
Suppose, however, that the grand strategy of the Allied campaign suddenly revolves around a chain of islands about which few persons have ever heard before. The War or Navy Department can appeal to the group that has gathered the names of persons acquainted with that part of the world. It can skim down the list until it finds the names and addresses of sailors, missionaries, scientists and ordinary globe-trotters who have, at some time, come into contact with the islands in question.
From such persons, the service departments can learn many things they need to know – the general topography of the islands, the nature of the coastline, the best sites to establish beachheads, the climate, the vegetation. They can find out what language the natives speak and what sort of reception visitors with a grim military purpose are likely to be accorded. The Navy might want to know about channels and hidden reefs and the location of protecting covers. The Air Corps might be interested in finding out whether any of the islands lend themselves to the establishment of air bases.
Neither the War Department nor the Navy Department is directly compiling lists of globe-trotters. Persons qualified to have their names on such lists are urged not to send communications to federal departments but, instead, to get in touch with the proper agency. The American Council of Learned Societies, at 1219 Sixteenth St., N.W., in Washington, while not itself engaged in compiling any lists, is in position to direct communications to the proper agency.
Most valuable, of course, are the names of persons who have more than a surface knowledge of far-off places – persons who have spent some time in such places and have learned something of the geography and the customs of the natives. Especially valuable, in this respect, are mariners and former missionaries, as well as those who have been members of scientific expeditions.