America at war! (1941– ) (Part 1)

4489

2 Jap mystery ships are probably ‘flattops’

Carriers believed created after being started as big liners
By H. O. Thompson, United Press staff writer

Washington –
Existence of two Japanese “mystery” ships, which probably have become full-fledged aircraft carriers, was disclosed today.

The two 27,000-ton vessels, the Kashiwara and the Izumo, have not been reported sunk or damaged or even present in any battle thus far and therefore may be assumed to be still a formidable part of Japan’s naval forces.

They are considered mystery ships because, while announced for the merchant trade, they were never completed as passenger liners. Their “conversion,” if there ever was actually any doubt as to what they were to be used for, occurred while they were still on the ways and before they were launched.

Not hastily converted

The Kashiwara and the Izumo, therefore, are as effective as any ships designed, planned and completed as carriers. They are better than the ordinary merchant ships converted hastily to naval use. There is nothing of a patchwork or makeshift nature of their construction.

The Kashiwara was built by the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Company at Nagasaki and the Izumo at the Kawasaki yards in Kobe. Both were scheduled for commissioning in the summer of 1941. Each has a speed upwards of 24 knots, is 720 feet long, 88 feet wide, 46 feet deep and is powered by turbines of 45,000 horsepower. Each has an airplane capacity of about 55 planes.

Started with 11

The carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku, of about 15,000 tons and 20,000 tons respectively, were sunk in the Coral Sea while the Akagi, the Kaga and two other Japanese carriers were sunk at Midway.

Japan started the war with 11 known carriers and several made over from merchant ships. 10 of them have been sunk or damaged. But disclosure of the existence of the Kashiwara and the Izumo shows that the carrier force of Japan has not been entirely robbed of striking power.

There may also be one or two other carriers which were built secretly.

4490

Two Protestant churches progress toward merger

Atlantic City, NJ (UP) –
Members of a unification committee representing the Protestant Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA) said today that progress was being made toward a merger.

The committee, in its third day of meeting, said agreement had been reached on matters of doctrine, worship, general church government, the ministry, sacraments, ruling eldership and the rights of local congregations.

4491

American car strike certified to WLB

Wilmington, Del. (UP) –
American Car & Foundry Co. workers remained on strike today in protest against delay in negotiating a new contract.

About 550 men were involved in the walkout, which started yesterday. Points protested were clauses on vacations with pay and the closed shop.

International Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers (CIO) representatives said the strike was not authorized.

At Washington, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins today certified the dispute to the War Labor Board. There has been no work stoppage.

4492

Plan advanced to block slash in tax measure

Rule suggested to permit House only to boost size of bill

Washington (UP) –
Ranking members of the House Rules Committee today considered sending the $5,929,000,000 tax bill to the floor under a rule that would permit the House to increase it but not reduce it.

Rep. Howard W. Smith (D-VA), second ranking member of the Rules Committee, said the bill was short of the Treasury’s goal by $3 billion and that the type of closed rule under which the House usually considers tax legislation would not permit the offering of amendments to swell the total.

Seeks showdown

Mr. Smith’s proposal, which is supported by a substantial Ways and Means Committee bloc, would result in a showdown on the House floor on proposals to:

  1. Impose a general war sales tax.

  2. President Roosevelt’s proposal to limit individual income to $25,000, $50,000 for a family – after taxes which the committee rejected.

  3. Require husbands and wives to file joint income tax returns.

  4. Adopt the Treasury’s proposal for a 55% normal and surtax rate on corporations instead of the 40% voted by the Ways and Means Committee.

  5. Adopt the Treasury-proposed individual income tax rates which are slightly higher in most brackets than the committee’s, which range from 12% to 81%.

Defeated by five votes

The general sales tax proposals were defeated in the Ways and Means Committee by only five votes. The mandatory joint return proposal was first adopted, then rejected by the committee just before the bill was turned over to the drafters.

Tax bills are usually sent to the House floor under a closed rule to prevent their destruction by the time-honored practice of legislative logrolling. Under an open rule, it would be possible to kill virtually any tax in a bill if members who opposed one tax combined with members who opposed another for the purposes of killing both of them.

Mr. Smith’s proposal would prevent the House from undoing any of the Ways and Means Committee’s work, but would not forestall adoption of additional taxes to increase the total of the bill.

4493

New sinking boosts total to 324 ships

Small cargo vessel lost; two naval patrol boats go down
By the United Press

Announcement by the Navy in Washington that another small United States merchant ship was torpedoed and sunk in the Gulf of Mexico in May, today brought to 324 the number of ships known to have been sunk by Axis submarines in the Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Gulf.

Five men were lost when the U.S. vessel sank within 12 minutes after the torpedo struck it, survivors related at an East Coast port where they were brought aboard another American merchantman.

Yesterday, the sinking of five ships was revealed.

The Navy announced that two of the small patrol craft sent out to combat the underseas raiders had been lost.

The Navy said the 840-ton seagoing tug Gannet and the YP-389, a 200-ton converted fishing vessel, had been sunk in the Atlantic during the current month with a combined loss of 20 lives. A few hours before, the Navy had revealed that a medium-sized Norwegian merchant ship had been torpedoed and sunk several hundred miles off the southeast U.S. coast June 10.

Total reaches 323

The Colombian government announced at Bogota that the Colombian schooner Resolute, first vessel of that nation to be sunk in the war, had been sent to the bottom 30 miles from the island of Providencia in the Caribbean Wednesday morning by an Axis submarine which killed six and wounded three of the 12-man crew with machine-gun fire.

The Colombian government also announced that a submarine sank the small-sized United States tanker Riaga – not listed in Lloyd’s – June 23 off Guajira Peninsula, west of the Gulf of Venezuela. 24 survivors were reported safe, and at least one man was killed.

The naval craft sent to the bottom were the 47th and 48th reported lost in the war to date, while the merchant ship sinkings total in the Atlantic now stand at 323, according to unofficial figures.

16 lost on Navy boat

The Gannet, commissioned in 1919 as a minesweeper but converted into a seaplane tender six years ago, was used to service patrol planes in the Atlantic. Its commander, Lt. Francis Edward Nuessle, 31, of Bismarck, ND, was among the survivors, but 16 lives were lost of an estimated crew of 59.

The Navy said the YP-389, a small fishing vessel taken over for anti-submarine patrol duty, was sunk by gunfire with a loss of four lives. A diesel-powered craft, it was taken over by the Navy Jan. 6. It was commanded by Lt. Roderick J. Phillips, 43, of New York City, who survived.

Colombian officials said that the schooner carried the Colombian flag prominently displayed, for while Colombia has severed relations with Axis nations, she is not a belligerent.

Machine guns kills 6

According to the message, six of the crew were killed aboard the schooner when it was machine-gunned, and the gunfire continued after the remaining six put off in a small lifeboat, wounding three more.

At an East Coast port, meanwhile, 31 survivors of the Norwegian ship said their vessel sank in 15 minutes after it was torpedoed.

The captain said the submarine surfaced after the sinking and its commander called to the Norwegians three times in German, but they refused to answer. When he addressed them in English, the captain said, he answered him.

He quoted the submarine commander as saying:

The next time, you’d better stay home, better for you and better for us.

4494

WAAC study course will be no picnic

Des Moines, Iowa (UP) –
Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps officer candidates learned today that it takes more than a snappy uniform to make an Army woman.

Col. Don C. Faith, commandant of the Fort Des Moines WAAC school which opens July 20, released an outline of a tough, full, classroom schedule that will teach the girls how to wear uniforms, how to manage Army cookin’, what to say to the sergeant major – and how to say it.

The first faculty for the eight-week program will be composed of Army men. As soon as capable women are trained, they will become instructors for other WAAC members. The study program will be based on a 39-hour training week composed of five seven-hour days and one four-hour day.

Here is what the WAACs will study:

Processing; Military customs and courtesies; punitive articles of war; wearing of the uniform, care of clothing and equipment, and inspection and display; military sanitation, first aid, and personal hygiene; defense against chemical attack; defense against air attack; map reading; methods of instructions; organization of the Army and the WAAC; leadership; mess management; property accountability; company administration; dismounted drill without arms; physical training; guard duty; inspections; ceremonies; graduation exercises; clearance and departure; and world and national events as they affect the WAAC.

Interim courses will be given in the duties of a recruiting officer, mess officer, supply officer, adjutant company commander, and WAAC officers and Army officers.

4496

Venezuelans likely to be in war soon

Declaration possible after officials return from U.S. this week
By Nat A. Barrows

Caracas, Venezuela –
The possibility that Venezuela will soon expand her foreign policy in a move toward fuller collaboration with the United Nations becomes more certain daily.

In fact, a declaration of war against the Axis appears to be the logical next step towards meeting the tremendous problems now confronting the homeland of Simón Bolívar.

Faced with a drastic curtailments of oil production and with serious import shortages resulting from shipping withdrawals, Venezuela finds herself in a position where she must soon make a decision about the war. The disadvantages of being on the outside, unable to demand priorities, are hitting Venezuela’s economy more sharply each day.

Return of officials awaited

Hence the return of Foreign Minister Caracciolo Parra Pérez and Minister of Agriculture Rodolfo Rojas from the United States is awaited with the greatest suspense. Both cabinet officers are due in Caracas this week and after Washington conferences that are certain to show vital reactions here.

Every indication points to an important announcement by President Isaías Medina Angarita sometime next week. It is likely that Venezuela is preparing to follow Mexico into the war on the side of the Allies.

The relationships between Venezuela and Colombia are especially important now in the light of their backing of Mexico at the Rio conference. There are many indications that each is consulting the other on the course to follow toward the war.

Turning point in history

It is clearly evident that Venezuela stands near the turning point in her history. It is fully as evident that she must make a decision about joining the United States and the United Nations if her entire economic framework is to survive wartime ravages, the highest cost of living in the world, an overbalanced import structure and reduced oil production.

As in Mexico, the lower masses remain apathetic to world affairs. Until recently, this apathy was not uncommon among the upper classes but now, turned into realists by the dismal prospects of import shortages, they desperately seek a solution.

A declaration of war here would remove Venezuela from a position where she has to beg for even basic supplies and enable her, as one of the United Nations, to demand adequate shipping facilities.

4497

Enough physicians seen for war duties

Chicago (UP) –
The armed services will be sufficiently provided with doctors by Dec. 1, the American Medical Association predicts. 26,000 will be in the Army and 10,000 in other branches.

Basis for the prediction is the increase of medical school enrollments by as much as 10% and the acceleration of these schools’ curricula by eliminating vacations and graduating students months ahead of their usual time.

The association quoted figures to show that the civilian population would not suffer by this large-scale induction of doctors into the services. This country, it was explained, now has seven doctors for every thousand civilians.

4498

Bing Crosby paid $300,000 in year for movie work

Crooner draws another $100,000 from records; radio earnings unreported; Bob Hope’s film salary hits $294,166 in Paramount Pictures list

Philadelphia (UP) –
Crooner Bing Crosby received $300,000 from Paramount Pictures, Inc., in 1941, which, with his previously reported $100,640 earnings from Decca Records, made him Hollywood’s highest paid actor last year, Securities and Exchange Commission reported today.

The singer’s radio earnings have not yet been reported.

Bob Hope, Crosby’s zany partner in Paramount’s Road to… etc. pictures earned $294,166, the reports showed, while Fred MacMurray, another of the company’s top-flight performers, received $299,333.

Bing No. 2 in filmdom

The reports, which deal only with the salaries of employees of companies listed on the stock exchanges, broad this Trail into the select first 10 group with Crosby top only by L. B. Mayer, managing director of Lowe’s, ink, who earned $704,426.

Paramount also listed payment of bonuses to three officers, they were George G. de Salva ($69,945), Martin J. Mullin ($32,412) and Samuel Pinanski ($32,412).

Through a stock purchasing plan, Juan T. Trippe, president and general manager of Pan American Airways Corp., bought 50,000 shares of the corporation’s capital stock at $12.50 per share. Market price of the stock at that time was $16.44 per share. Mr. Trippe was not listed as receiving a salary, but the stock preposition could have netted nearly $200,000.

Grant official gets $120,000

Pan American Airways Corp.’s report also showed that Evan E. Young, vice president of Pan American, Inc., a subsidiary, received a salary of $23,650, and $4,576 under the stock purchasing plan. Harold M. Bixby, another vice president of Pan American, Inc., received an identical salary with a $3,881 income from the stock purchase plan, while another vice president, George L. Rihl, got a salary of $21,000 and $4,852 through a stock plan.

Other high salaries include:

W. T. Grant Co.:

  • Raymond H. Fogler, president, $120,000;
  • Edward Staley, director of merchandising, $41,600.

Mr. Fogler’s salary included a bonus of $60,000.

Signal Oil and Gas Co.:
S. R. Mosher, president, $98,296. The figure includes a bonus of $43,721.

Bankers Securities Corp.:

  • Albert M. Greenfield, chairman, $89,290;
  • George H. Johnson, president of Lit Brothers store, $54,000;
  • Walter T. Grosseup, president of bankers, $43,420.

Rail heads well-paid

Central Ohio Steel Products, Inc.:
G. L. Stiefel, president, $78,799. The figure is double Mr. Stiefel’s 1940 earnings – $31,499.

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway:
G. F. Brooks, president, $77,940.

Meier and Frank Co., Inc.:
R. R. Adams, vice president, $85,000.

Interstate Department Stores, Inc.:
Reagan P. Connally, president, $75,882, which includes a bonus of $45,882.

G. Krueger Brewing Co.:

  • Harry Gitlin, sales representative, $81,687
  • William C. Krueger, president, $28,750.

Eagle-Picher Lead Co.:
George W. Potter, vice president, $67,833.

Pfeiffer Brewing Co.:
Alfred Epstein, president, $62,000. In 1940, the figure was $48,000.

Illinois Central Railroad:
J. L. Beven, president, $60,000.

National Bond and Investment Co.:
Harry Weiss, officer, $67,541, including a bonus of $50,000.

Northern Pacific Railway:
C. E. Denney, president, $60,220.

International Telephone and Telegraph Co.:
Sosthenes Behn, president, $59,960.

Follansbee head gets $35,000

H. L Green Co., Inc.:
H. D. Kittinger, vice president, $60,539.

Basic Refactories, Inc.:
H. P. Eells, Jr., president, $55,916. In 1940, the figure read $18,000.

Missouri Pacific Railroad:
L. W. Baldwin, chief executive officer, $53,140.

Bedding Hemingway Co.:
J. P. T. Armstrong, president, $51,908.

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad:
Ralph Budd, president, $50,000.

Scullin Steel Co.:

  • Harry Scullin, president, $47,541;
  • George L. L. Davis, vice president, $33,958;

In 1940, Mr. Scullin made $19,999 and Mr. Davis made $18,000.

Follansbee Steel Corp.:
W. T. Brownscombe, president, $35,000. In 1940, the earnings were $25,000.

4499

U.S. order dooms state, county fairs

By Stanley Baitz

Washington –
The shrill calliope, the ferris wheel, the cry of the barker, and the undulating veil dancer – all the essentials of the county fair – today appeared doomed for the duration – another sacrifice on the altar of war.

In another of the government’s efforts to conserve rubber, Defense Transportation Director Joseph B. Eastman asked all state and county fairs to suspend. He said their discontinuance will be a deprivation but not “an intolerable deprivation.”

In a statement to 2,200 state and county fair men throughout the country, he said that travel to and from fairs is not essential and should be postponed, with possibly a few exceptions, for the duration.

The fair men knew Mr. Eastman’s request was impending and had protested it would put them out of business.

Meanwhile, the government’s efforts to alleviate the rubber shortage and solve the gasoline supply problem went on.

Rubber Coordinator Arthur B. Newhall made it plain that WPB regulations forbid the burning of old or mutilated tires as a smudge to prevent frost damage to fruit or citrus crops.

WPB Chairman Donald M. Nelson offered slight discouragement when he told a Senate committee that thiokol, a chlorine-based synthetic rubber now in the planning stage, may provide retread material for tires of “essential civilians” until better material reaches full production.

Secretary of War Stimson disclosed the Army is preparing to give synthetic rubber tires a real workout test, but that they will not be shipped abroad in the near future.

Dr. William J. Hale, president of the Ehmurgy firm, told a House mining subcommittee that, given $100 million priorities on certain metals and “men to work,” he could provide in one year all the rubber the United States needs, using synthetic methods with farm products.

Petroleum Coordinator Harold L. Ickes urged the House Banking Committee to approve legislation to create a $500-million War Petroleum Corp. which would seek to forestall “unnecessarily stringent rationing” and avert actual shortages of oil for the war effort.

4500

Don’t forget Dutch Harbor!

The alert defenders of Dutch Harbor fought heroically against the Jap air raid of June 3. But apparently, they had very little to fight with. The press statements by Unalaska evacuees reaching Seattle make little or no mention of American planes – the chief or only defense seems to have been some rifles and anti-aircraft guns.

As summarized by the 13th Naval District spokesman:

Interviews with civilians and servicemen, who have arrived recently from Dutch Harbor have borne out early statements that the Naval Air Station and adjoining military installations were not surprised by the Japanese early-morning raid. All gun positions were married, both ashore and on ships anchored in the harbor and at docks, and all available guns opened fire on the Japanese attackers as soon as they go within range.

But that the equipment was far from adequate seems to be the only inference possible from the following facts reported by the Mayor of Unalaska and other evacuees:

At least three days before the attack, the authorities knew of a sizable Jap task force in the North Pacific, and the night before the raid they knew a Jap carrier was within 400 miles of Dutch Harbor. That seems to indicate brilliant American scouting and intelligent service, but inadequate forces to intercept the enemy despite long warning.

The accuracy of the enemy in bombing warehouses, barracks and installations, and in machine-gunning the streets from a 300-foot level – with an estimated loss of only three planes out of 19-21 raiders – also suggests that there could not have been many American fighters in the air.

But of course, the most tragic proof that pour commanders lack sufficient sea, land and air forces to defend the strategic Aleutians is that Attu and Kiska Islands had to be sacrifice – apparently even without a fight.

It is now three weeks or more since the enemy occupied those crossroads between the bases of Japan, Russia and the United States. That brought the enemy 2,000 miles nearer Seattle from Tokyo – near enough to shell Vancouver Island and the Oregon coast with submarines.

Tokyo claims that her army of occupation is moving in from Attu and Kiska to other Aleutian Islands – the same stepping-stone strategy by which she conquered Lower Asia and the Southwest Pacific islands.

The American public does not profess to know all about military tactics, but it is certainly entitled to be as much worried about the Jap advance across the Aleutians as the British are worried about the German victory in Libya. Our people could cheer the concentration of American forces in Africa and England much louder if there were more evidence of needed reinforcement of the Aleutian-Midway-Hawaiian line. The enemy already has his foot in our backdoor, and we had better not forget that for a second.

4501

Wanted – Glider pilots

Awakened, finally, to the importance of glider training in the war program, the government is now issuing a frantic call for glider pilot candidates.

The job of recruiting – 20,000 men to start – for the Army has been handed the Civil Aeronautics Administration, which has already done a good job of training pilots under the Civilian Pilot Training Program.

Harold D. Stevens, Civilian Pilot Training supervisor here, says the U.S. is 10 years behind the Nazis in the glider field – but that’s beside the point, except that now it is essential to make up for lost time.

A quota of 100 has been set for this district – to be filled by tomorrow night. The Navy will supply an additional 100 men from recruits already signed up. These men will be out through an eight-week course in 10 neighboring colleges.

The Army Air Forces will accept men between 18 and 37, except that men under 27 must have been rejected by the Aviation Cadet Board.

Here is an opportunity for young men to break into a new and exciting branch of the air service.

4502

Suppress news and criticism, colonel urges

Officer tells Americans to put ‘blind faith’ in their leaders

Portland, Oregon (UP) –
Col. Donald Leehey of the U.S. Army Engineers advocates suppression of “hot news” and criticism in newspapers and believes Americans should place “blind faith” in their political and military leaders.

Col. Leehey, one of four speakers at the Northwest Institute of International Relations Forum last night, contended that it was unnecessary for news to be presented “while it is hot” and that all opinion should be eliminated from newspapers and radio:

…except when it is in the interest of building up the national faith.

Others oppose him

His views were opposed by Palmer Hoyt, publisher of the Portland Oregonian; Donald B. Sterling, managing editor of the Oregon Journal, and H. F. Peters, member of the Reed College staff and a former employee of the BBC.

Col. Leehey said he believed the United States “might be in danger of losing the war” unless criticism of the government ceases.

He said the confidence of the American soldiers on Bataan in Gen. Douglas MacArthur was:

…the sort of faith Americans should have in their leaders.

Criticism defended

Mr. Hoyt argued that only “improper criticism” should be prohibited and defined such criticism as that which questioned the wisdom of waging the war. He credited newspaper and radio critics with obtaining beneficial changes in prosecution of the war.

In reply to Mr. Hoyt’s statement that Donald Nelson’s appointment as war production chief resulted from “public criticism,” Col. Leehey said he believed:

These charges would have been made anyway and probably more efficiently.

Mr. Sterling expressed belief that there was “no studied plot” to withhold news from the American public, but criticized the timing of official releases. He said “manipulation” of news was second only to falsification as a crime against truth.

4503

Soldier ends life

Port Allegany, Pa. –
Home on furlough, Pvt. Clyde Morris Lawton, 30, of East Smethport, committed suicide by taking poison last night in a local taproom, Coroner Thomas R. Clark announced. His wife, who was with him at the time, could give no explanation of Lawton’s action. Lawton was a Selective Serviceman.

4504

Jap sub torpedoes ship off West Coast

A West Coast Canadian port (UP) –
A Canadian-built freighter of United Nations registry was torpedoed and damaged by a Japanese submarine off the West Coast, the Canadian Navy disclosed today.

The entire crew and two kittens were rescued after spending 12 hours in lifeboats.

The torpedo was believed fired by one of the Japanese submarines which shelled Vancouver Island and the coast of Oregon last weekend.

4505

Cable messages ready

Transmission of the new Expeditionary Force messages to members of the U.S. Armed Forces stationed in foreign countries started today. The special “EFM” blanks, listing the 103 fixed-text phrases provided for the service, are available at telegraph offices. The phrases relate to correspondence, greetings, health, promotion, money, congratulations and other subjects.

4506

Enemy broadcast –
12 U.S. bombers down in Aleutians, foe says

Dispatches from enemy countries are based on broadcasts over controlled radio stations and frequently contain false information. Bear this in mind.

Berlin (UP) – (German broadcast recorded at New York)
A dispatch from Tokyo to the German Transocean News Agency said today that 12 American bombers had been brought down by the Japs in aerial operations over the Aleutian Islands June 24.

The Berlin propaganda dispatches from Tokyo, often erroneous, hinted that important operations had been in progress this week over the Aleutians, but were not supported by information from any other source. Tokyo had not made any similar claims.

The Japs have landed in Kiska and Attu Islands in the Aleutians, where they have been heavily bombed by American planes. Dispatches this week quoted Tokyo radio as saying that Jap activities in the Aleutian area were being expanded.

4507

Plane death investigated

Jackson, Miss. –
Military officers today investigated the death of Pvt. Harold F. Morelli, 23, Plymouth, Mass., who was killed when his plane crashed six miles west of Madison yesterday. He was a student at the Mississippi Institute of Aeronautics.

4508

Veterans ban parades

Hartford, Conn. –
The 22nd annual state encampment of the Veterans of Foreign Wars opened here today, stripped of parades and other public demonstrations because of war conditions.

4509

Optimistic propaganda leave U.S. public unprepared for losses

By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor

Washington –
The assertion of former Prime Minister William M. Hughes of Australia that the people are not always filly informed about the conduct of the war is widely supported here.

To that, more than to any other one thing, it is remarked, can be attributed the public tendency to be up in the clouds one day and groping in the depths the next.

The Australian was speaking specifically of Malaya and Libya when he deplored what he called “syrupy communiqués” and warned against living in a “fool’s paradise.” But it is observed here, all of the United Nations are guilty of the same grave fault if playing up the victories and playing down the setbacks.

While information emanating from Cairo was leading the public to expect Rommel and his men to be driven out of North Africa instead of what is now happening, Americans were being told much about the Coral Sea and Midway battles but almost nothing about the Aleutian Islands. What little we did hear was mostly soporific. What Charles Michelson, publicity director of the Democratic National Committee, sent out as late as June 21 was typical. Said he:

The yard of occupation of the Aleutians has our folks puzzled. So far as known at this writing, some Japs went ashore on one of the desert rocks in the remote, for-wreathed archipelago, that have few visitors except an occasional seal-hunter, but they might as well have landed on an iceberg with equal military effect.

But perhaps the most amazing example of all is provided by the official Soviet Information Bureau in Moscow. In a review of the situation at the end of the first year of the war – June 22 – it gave a box score of comparative losses of Germany and Russia, as follows:

Losses in men killed, wounded and taken prisoner:
Germany, about 10 million; Russia, 4.5 million. The figure of German dead is not less than 3.5 million.

Guns lost:
Germany, 30,500; Russia, 22,000.

Tanks:
Germany, 24,000; Russia, 15,000.

Planes:
Germany, 20,000; Russia, 9,000.

These figures puzzle observers here even more than Mr., Michelson’s “yarn of occupation of the Aleutians.” If they even remotely resemble the facts, it is remarked. Russia should now be forming a second front in Siberia to help the United States against Japan instead of asking the United States to form a second front in Europe to help her against Germany.

Fortunately, Washington and London unhesitatingly accept what Foreign Commissar Molotov, Ambassador Maxim Litvinov and other Soviet spokesmen are saying privately rather than what some of their propaganda agencies are giving out in Moscow.

Washington knows that Russia has been fighting magnificently for the past year; that she has suffered terrific losses; that she must have every plane, every tank and every gun the United States can give her, and that she sorely needs a second front in Europe to relieve her of some of the Nazi pressure. And she is going to get all these.

Nevertheless, as some officials here admit:

The folks are puzzled.

Capitol Hill is beginning to get letters from back home wanting to know why – if our allies overseas have so much – we don’t keep some of our weapons here at home.

Apparently, some of the stuff about which Mr. Hughes of Australia complains it put out for political or ideological purposes. There seems to be a mistaken notion, it is observed, that if everything in Libya is pictured in rosy colors it will somehow help the government in London.

If the Japs have been duped into capturing an “iceberg” in the North Pacific, the publicity man here thinks it will help the administration. And if Moscow can show that the Soviets are stronger after a year of struggle than they were at the start, it makes good propaganda abroad for communism. The trouble is, it leaves the public totally unprepared for bad news when it comes.