‘Airmail service’ provided prisoners
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U.S. to start war contract fraud inquiry
Juries to probe loss of ‘millions’ on supplies for Army, Navy
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In interest of ‘unity’ –
Earl Browder’s sentence commuted by Roosevelt
Communist Party president, convicted of passport fraud, to be freed at once; President says law ‘sufficiently vindicated’
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Raiders catch Japs napping
MacArthur’s fliers blast big island base
By Don Caswell, United Press staff writer
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Cholera helps Japs in China
Epidemic hits refugees as Chinese delay foe
By Robert P. Martin, United Press staff writer
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On the home front –
Draftee can win release if he gets Navy position
Servicemen who receive commission in other branches of service may win discharge
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Pushcart Tony buys war bond for Roosevelt
Polish-American shows gratitude for ‘rescue from slavery’
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French ask U.S. evacuees: ‘When will you be back?’
Grim-faced people at every station hail American diplomatic train from Italy
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer
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Background of news –
Enemy sympathizers
By Editorial Research Reports
On April 26, Lt. Gen. Hugh A. Drum, commander of the Eastern Defense Command and the First Army, announced that he was about to constitute the 16 eastern states and the District of Columbia a military area. Certain groups of enemy sympathizers, actual or potential, soon are to be excluded or evacuated from this “Eastern Military Area.”
Exclusion or evacuation of enemy sympathizers from the East probably has been held up because the evacuation of Japanese from the Pacific Coast is not yet completed. The total number of these is around 112,000 – 71,000 citizens (born in the United States) of Japanese descent, 41,000 aliens (born in Japan and hence ineligible for naturalization).
At the end of April, almost one-third of the evacuees actually had been transferred; by May 12, orders had been issued covering almost 70 percent. On May 13, the pay scale for Japanese in evacuation camps was set at from $8 to $16 a month. Nothing has been done about evacuating German, Austrian, and Italian aliens from the Pacific Coast, although all over the United States persons have been interned who were suspected of being actual or potential enemy agents.
At first only enemy aliens were to be evacuated from certain designated areas on the Pacific Coast. But complaints arose, especially from the West, that dire danger remained of sabotage and other aid to the enemy from citizens of Japanese descent. On February 19, President Roosevelt issued an order empowering the Secretary of War to designate military areas, from which any and all persons might be excluded. Court tests so far have upheld evacuation of citizens from such areas, on the ground that the Army, under law, has power to control the wartime movement of civilians.
However, anything like the procedure followed on the Pacific Coast as to Japanese would be impossible in the East as to Germans, Austrians, and Italians. No less than two million persons (2,083,736 in 1940) live in the Eastern Military Area who were born in Germany, Austria, or Italy. Most of these have become naturalized, and many have sons in the Army and Navy. Some were brought to this country when very young; some are Jews or non-Jewish liberals who are refugees from the Nazi and Fascist realms; some are doing essential war work. Unnaturalized aliens alone from Germany, Austria, and Italy number about three-quarters of a million in the East.
Gen. Drum announced on April 26 that “mass evacuation is not contemplated” in the East. Instead, “such evacuations as may be considered necessary will be by selective processes.” All enemy aliens in the United States are already living under certain restrictions promulgated December 7 and 8.
On May 13, the Tolan Committee of the House of Representatives on National Defense Migration issued a preliminary report urging that boards be set up throughout the country to determine who were loyal and who were disloyal among prospective evacuees. The committee was highly critical of the way in which Japanese on the Pacific Coast had been obliged to sell at unnecessary sacrifice property, both real and personal, which they would need to start life anew after the war.