PT boats vs. battleship – and tiny warcraft wins
By William Tyree, United Press staff writer
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Yanks blast 3 ships in Burma
U.S. bombers also attack Jap airfield
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No way that is true.
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‘Public fury at bureaucracy’ mounts, Mrs. Luce warns
Congress delegated to express anger, Roosevelt told
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Background of news –
Chinese immigration
By editorial research reports
With certain spokesmen for China demanding a greater proportion of Lend-Lease supplies and complaining of too little hostile effort against Japan as compared with Germany, a Chinese newspaper has suggested, courteously, that the time has now come to reconsider the immigration policy of the United States excluding Orientals.
In recent years, China has refrained from following the example of Japan in protesting against flat exclusion of Oriental immigration. That was because China was too weak as a nation to protest with force. What Japan objected to, and China may now object to, is not so much restriction in numbers of immigrants as restriction based on racial discrimination.
The 1924 Immigration Act of the United States bases immigration, except for Orientals and for non-quota countries in the Western Hemisphere, on the proportion of those from each country resident in the United States in 1920. The total number admissible in any one year is 153,774, of which 150,501 are Europeans. The Japanese contention was that if their yardstick were applied to Japan, less than 1,000 Japanese would be allowed to enter annually. If this yardstick were now to be applied to China, it would allow the immigration of about 475 Chinese annually.
Control over immigration is purely a domestic prerogative, so long as the same basis of control is applied to all nations. If there is to be discrimination, however, the problem is held to require diplomatic negotiation.
Between 1850 and 1860, almost 50,000 Chinese emigrated to the Pacific Coast, after the discovery of gold. In the next decade, some 65,000 more entered, most of them for construction work on the transcontinental railroads. The state and cities of California tried to stem Chinese immigration by various restrictive measures. These were held unconstitutional, inasmuch as control over immigration is the province of the federal government.
In 1868, the Burlingame Treaty was signed with China. It barred entrance to Chinese laborers under contract or compulsion, but otherwise committed the United States to a policy of free immigration. In 1870, Chinese were brought into Massachusetts to break a strike, and both major political parties adopted platform declarations for restricting Chinese immigration.
The panic of 1873 and the ensuing depression caused widespread unemployment, and in 1879, Congress passed an act practically closing the gates to Asiatics. It met with a veto from President Hayes, as violating treaty obligations. In 1880, when about 16,000 Chinese were coming into the United States annually, China consented to a revision of the 1868 treaty. Thereby the immigration of Chinese laborers might be controlled if the welfare of the United States demanded.
In accord with the 1880 treaty, Congress passed, in 1882, an act prohibiting immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The act also withheld citizenship from the China-born, thus strengthening the earlier naturalization laws, which has restricted naturalization to “free white persons.”
In 1888, another treaty was concluded with China, but changes made by the Senate impelled the Chinese government not to ratify. A treaty ratified in 1894 gave the United States still further restrictive powers. The Exclusion Act of 1882 was regularly renewed, until Congress, by the Immigration Act of 1924, forbade the immigration of all ineligible to naturalization. This hit the Japanese, the immigration of whom had been limited since 1907 by the “gentlemen’s agreement” of that year.
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
The Tunisian front – (March 7, by wireless)
Little cameos of war:
Most of the preliminary battles between Axis and American troops in Tunisia during the past two months have been for possession of mountain passes leading to eastern Tunisia. In one of these battles, our men had worked their way up to the mouth of a pass on one side and the Italians had done the same on the other side. There they lay, well dug in, not more than 200 yards apart. They were separated by previously laid minefields over which neither dared to pass. So, they just stayed there, each side waiting for the other to act.
The Italians began sending over notes to the Americans. I’ve heard many stories of such happenings in the last war, but it is rare in this one. The Italians would send over a note telling the Americans they were badly outnumbered and didn’t have a chance and had better surrender right now. The Americans sent back a note saying:
Go to hell, you lousy spaghetti eaters. We’ll tear your ears off before this is over.
The reason I’m telling this story is that these notes, with perfect incongruousness, were carried back and forth through the mine fields by a small Arab boy who happened to wander past and took on the job for a few francs!
The other day we drove past a big bivouac of supply trucks on the desert a few minutes after some German planes had dive-bombed and strafed them. The soldiers all took to foxholes and nobody was hurt, but three trucks were set afire. The soldiers got two fires out immediately, but the third was hopeless, for it was a big truck loaded with scores of five-gallon tins of gasoline. These would explode and scatter flaming debris.
Tin can’s war journey
Then, suddenly, there was a bigger explosion and one lone gasoline tin went shooting straight up into the air. That can rose majestically to a height of about four hundred feet, gradually slowed down until it seemed to pause motionless for a moment in the sky, then came plunging straight down. Its explosive flight had been so straight up and down that when it fell it grazed the side of the truck not five feet from where it had started.
Some little thing like that – the uncanny straightness of a tin can’s war journey – often stays in your mind for ages after the memory of horror or bravery has dimmed and passed.
Another time, Don Coe of the United Press and I stayed all night at a forward command post a few miles back from a pass where fighting was going on.
We were in a big farmyard. Trucks and jeeps were parked around the edge of the lot under trees. We picked out a vacant spot and threw our bedrolls on the ground. We rolled our jeep in front of us to keep trucks from running over us in the blackout while we slept.
There is something good about sleeping outdoors. For a long time, we lay back, rolled tight in our blankets, looking straight up into the sky. There were millions of stars, and every few seconds one of them would fall. A couple of times stars went shooting horizontally across the heavens. The sky at night is a majestic and inspiring thing, yet we had to come to far-off Africa and sleep on the ground in order to see and feel it.
The general calls early
After a while, we went to sleep. The next thing I knew a gruff voice was saying:
What the hell is this jeep doing out here in the open like this?
I peeked one eye out and saw that it was just daylight, and the voice was no less than that of the general, out on an early-morning inspection prowl. Whereupon I shut my eye and let Don handle the situation.
The general made a few more choice remarks before Don got his sleepy head out of the blankets. Then, all of a sudden, the general said:
Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was you. Forget it. Everything’s all right.
I lay very still, pretending to be asleep, and chuckling to myself. Later in the day, the general apologized to me too, but I was sorry he did and told him so, for we had done something very thoughtless which endangered other people as well as ourselves. And the fact that we were correspondents instead of soldiers didn’t excuse us.
But at least we learned our lesson. We won’t leave jeeps showing after daylight again.
Wallace names three ways into third World War
If Allies double-cross Russia, if Soviets foment world revolution, and certain if we permit Germany to rearm
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Völkischer Beobachter (March 9, 1943)
Roosevelt präsentiert die Gegenrechnung –
Das britische Empire als USA.-Schutzgebiet
Die im Kriegsgeschäft investierten Milliarden sollen in Macht verwandelt werden
vb. Wien, 8. März –
„Als eine Straße mit wechselseitigem Vermehr,“ denkt sich der amerikanische Senator Millard Tydings die Pacht- und Leihhilfe der USA. Auf der einen Seite der Straße fahren die Amerikaner mit ihren Transporten, die nicht immer das Ziel erreichen, auf der anderen Seite fahren – auch die Amerikaner, nämlich zu den Stützpunkten des britischen Empire, von denen nach einer Erklärung des amerikanischen Marineministers Knox jetzt schon 225 in allen Teilen der Welt für Amerika ausgebaut werden sollen. Sie kommen ziemlich sicher an. Wenn also der Senator meint, das Pacht- und Leihverfahren solle keine „Einbahnstraße“ sein, auf der lediglich die USA. liefern, so wird man mittlerweile in England wohl verstanden haben, wie sich der zweigleisige Verkehr mit den Vereinigten Staaten abspielt.
Amerika liefert, wie Millard Tydings auseinandersetzt, Schiffe, Flugzeuge, Panzer, Geschütze, Munition, Kleidung und Lebensmittel „als Geschenk“ für seine Bundesgenossen. Als einzige „Gegengabe“ erwartet Washington von seinen Bundesgenossen in der alten Welt „eine Reihe von Leistungen für die USA.-Truppen auf ausländischem Boden.“ Weniger taktvoll ausgedrückt heißen diese Leistungen: Stützpunkte, Basen und Interessengebiete für die USA., wie etwa Britisch-Westindien, das, wie jetzt schon erklärt wird, nie wieder an Großbritannien zurückfallen wird, während die Stützpunkte in Südamerika nur für Kriegsdauer gedacht seien, weil die amerikanische Regierung selbstverständlich damit rechnet, nach dem Krieg „die beiden Amerika“ ohnehin zu beherrschen.
Geschenke und Gegengaben
In Zahlen gesprochen, handelt es sich um 63 Milliarden Dollar, die Roosevelt bisher in das Geschäft gesteckt hat. 9 Milliarden Dollar davon sind ausgegeben. Der Senator Tydings findet, daß die Vereinigten Staaten so viel Geld nicht flüssig hätten, sondern von den künftigen Generationen borgen müßten. Da gleichzeitig auch amerikanische Truppen kämpften, erhebe sich die Frage:
Was kann ein Bundesgenosse der USA., der all diese Geschenke erhält, ohne selbst ernsthaften Schaden zu leiden, als Gegengabe geben, um dadurch die Sicherheit der USA. zu erhöhen?
Die Antwort liegt auf der Hand. Stützpunkte, Einflußgebiete und noch einmal Stützpunkte, wie sie England für das Geschenk der 50 alten Zerstörer schon gegeben hat.
Der amerikanische Senator erspart sich nicht den bösartigen Scherz, den britischen Premierminister daran zu erinnern, daß er dieses Verfahren ja selbst als „den edelmütigsten Akt, der je von einer Regierung in der Geschichte der Welt unternommen wurde,“ bezeichnet habe.
Wenn das wahr ist – und es ist wahr – warum macht dann Großbritannien nicht die kleine Geste, den USA. als kleine Kompensation diese Basen zu überlassen, und zwar nicht als Pachtland auf 99 Jahre, sondern als eigenen. Grund und Boden der Vereinigten Staaten?
Also für Zeit und Ewigkeit. Man könne damit auch nicht bis nach dem Kriege warten: Weil Amerika jetzt schon Sicherheit gewährt, will es auch jetzt schon Sicherheiten haben.
Das Pacht- und Leihgesetz allein bedeutet eine Belastung von 1800 Dollar für jede Familie in den USA. Das ist in Anbetracht der sonstigen Schulden gewiß nicht wenig.
Ist diese Rechnung klar? Man sollte es meinen. Die Amerikaner wollen Sachwerte und verlangen deshalb den Ausverkauf des britischen Empire. Dagegen aber hat sich Churchill schon in seiner Rede bei der Einführung des Londoner Lordmajors gewehrt mit der brüsken Erklärung:
Wir behalten, was wir haben.
Außerdem hat erst in diesen Tagen der britische Kolonialminister Stanley der amerikanischen Auffassung über Basen und Stützpunkte und Kolonien die englische Meinung gegenübergestellt. Ihm sei es gleich, sagte er, wie die Amerikaner darüber dächten, wichtig sei allein, daß die Engländer ihre alten Auffassungen vom britischen Empire und seinem Besitz nicht preisgeben. Hier steht also Meinung gegen Meinung. Tydings, der zweifellos die Forderungen des Weißen Hauses zum Ausdruck bringt, sieht sich einstweilen noch durch eine breite und tiefe Kluft von den englischen Auffassungen getrennt. Das macht ihm aber wenig Kopfschmerzen, denn die Amerikaner haben ihre Danaergeschenke den Engländern schon längst überbracht.
Das trojanische Pferd steht riesengroß im britischen Empire, und die Bewaffneten, die es in seinem Leibe barg, haben eine große Anzahl der wichtigsten Punkte schon besetzt und rücken in allen Dominions und wichtigsten Kolonien weiter vor.
Wer wollte sie auch daran hindern? Sie sind ausgezogen zum Schutz der Engländer und schützen sich selbst, indem sie mehr und mehr das Empire zu einem amerikanischen Schutzgebiet machen.
U.S. Navy Department (March 9, 1943)
Communiqué No. 304
North Pacific.
On March 7, U.S. heavy and medium bombers attacked Japanese positions at Kiska. Anti-aircraft fire was encountered but no enemy planes intercepted. All U.S. planes returned.
South Pacific.
During the night of March 7‑8, Liberator heavy bombers carried out minor bombing attacks on Japanese installations at Kahili and Ballale in the Shortland Island area, and at Vila and Rekata Bay in the central Solomons. Results were not observed. All U.S. planes returned.
The Pittsburgh Press (March 9, 1943)
YANKS WIN AFRICAN AIR BATTLE
Score 19–0 in Tunisian plane crash
Rommel continues retreat from 8th Army after severe mauling
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
Allied HQ, North Africa –
Marshal Erwin Rommel is continuing his retreat after abandoning 50 tanks to the British 8th Army, and American pilots have won a big air battle over the Mediterranean in which the Axis lost 19 planes against none lost for U.S. forces.
The pressure of the 8th Army’s veterans at mobile warfare in the desert was pushing Rommel relentlessly back toward his Mareth Line positions. Over the weekend, he sallied out and attempted to throw the forthcoming offensive of the 8th Army off balance by quick thrusts – six on Saturday alone – at their lines.
Fight 50 Axis forces
Flying Fortresses and P-38 Lightnings ran into the air battle yesterday during a sea sweep between Tunis and Tripoli. Fifty Axis planes challenged the Americans and in the brisk battle that followed, 17 enemy planes were shot down. The Axis’ total loss in the engagement rose to 19 when two of their own planes collided during the fighting and crashed.
The Allies appeared to be winning mastery of the air all along the Tunisian front. A total of 21 enemy planes were destroyed yesterday against an Allied loss of only two.
In the battle over the Mediterranean, the Flying Fortresses accounted for 10 of the enemy planes shot down and the Lightnings got seven.
Nazis repulsed in north
On the northern front, the Axis made a jab yesterday at the Allied line near Tamera, seven miles west of Sedjenane, but the assault was repulsed and as the Germans retreated, they left 200 prisoners in Allied hands.
The German-controlled Radio Vichy said Axis forces occupied Cape Serrat in the north yesterday and, continuing their advance, seized an important chain of hills which control strategic roads.
French forces, moving alone the northwestern edge of Chott el Djerid (salt lake) in south-central Tunisia, captured the town of Tozeur.
Rommel’s strategy now appeared to be to try to get his army into the high ground around Hallouf at the southwest end of the Mareth Line before he loses any more of his dwindling armor to the 8th Army.
Among the 50 tanks seized by the British were eight new Mark III types carrying 75mm guns. The other tanks were three Mark IIs, two Mark IIIs of the old type, 19 Mark III specials and 18 Mark IV specials.
U.S. REPUDIATES ENVOY’S BLAST AT REDS
Recall of Standley hinted for saying Russia hides aid
Welles displeased, says Ambassador spokes for self
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
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War production endangered –
Secret joker in labor peace pact causing turmoil
CIO continues to raid AFL despite announcement of truce; output of Kaiser Shipyards is sharply cut
By Peter Edson
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Script plan of taxation up for vote
Withholding scheme takes from 1943 payrolls to pay 1942 levy
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Black market cases –
Meat dealers get jail terms
Seven New Yorkers fined total of $27,500
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I DARE SAY —
Listen, Dorothy!
By Florence Fisher Parry
Listen, Dorothy, I’ve just read your book, Listen, Hans. And I owe you an apology. Before I picked it up, I was under the impression – an impression deduced from several book reviews I’d read – that it was going to be a blueprint for a peace which, if followed, would save the skins of the Germans; and that it advanced the premise that the German people were sold down the river by Hitler and really have hearts of gold; and that they ought to be delivered and be allowed to pursue their history, a strong and productive nation again, an integral segment of the new brotherhood of man.
Yes, that’s what I was all set to read. So, when I picked up Listen, Hans, I was ready to pick a quarrel with it. Trust the German people indeed, after their slavish embracing of the Nazi ideology, and their hideous obedience to its bloody program! I had as life… Oh, rather!.. entrust the future to ferocious barbarians who at least would not posses the attribute of incipient slavishness.
No people is as dangerous as a people who can be made to perform atrocities against its “better nature.” And it seems to me that in direct ratio to the German’s congenial tendency to obey his leader is his threat to the peace of the world. For forever he is a potential instrument of destruction in the hands of the first false messiah who rises to mislead him.
Prophetic words
I remembered the words of Nietzsche, himself a kind of capsule of the fanatical psychosis of the German, and his words:
…The Germans are always so badly deceived because they try to find a deceiver. If only they have a heady wine they will put up with bad bread. Intoxication means more to them than nourishment. That is the book they will always bite on. They always obey and will do more than obey, provided they can get intoxicated in the process.
I wondered: Were you, Dorothy, on the path of advocating for them a breathing spell in which to gather renewed strength for another revel of excess?
So, imagine my great relief and delight to find, upon reading your book, that you were not only quoting these very words, but supporting them by as astute a diagnosis of the German makeup as can be found in recent writing!
You have succeeded in swinging right out of the confines of shrill warning into the serene blue of quiet logic. I must confess that I never knew, before I read this book, Dorothy, what a truly concise clear concept you had of the Germany – its history and its people – which absorbed your years before the outbreak of the present war.
The first hundred pages of Listen, Hans represent the best-distilled thinking along the lines of post-war reconstruction that I have come upon, with perhaps the exception of that other most excellent blueprint for tomorrow, Norman Angell’s Let the People Know.
No answer
Dorothy, your chapter on “The Passion for Peace” is magnificent. It clarifies what is meant by “The Century of the Common Man.” It is not, as is so commonly feared… that:
Inverted snobbery that attributes creative power exclusively to hand workers and brands every wealthy man a knave… or that seeks to elevate the mediocre into an international ideal… The “common people” are not to be catalogued by social or economic class. They are all those who recognize their kinship with the commonality of mankind… The cheap concept that an industrial worker necessarily, because of the grease on his hands, belongs to that commonality of mankind was never true. Today, it is less true than ever…
Norman Angell has a chapter in his book Let the People Know called “The Unity of the Peoples.” It offers fine collateral reading to your chapter on “The Passion for Peace.” Yet magnificent as are these two chapters in these two books, neither of you, Dorothy, has been able to provide an answer to the most vexatious question that is tormenting the minds of fair men all over the world: What shall be done with Germany and the German people?
For thinking mortals know that they are inseparable, and that to destroy the one dismembers the other; yet left intact, however prostrate, they constitute forever a threat to the peace of the world.
New York State Senate curbs easy divorce
Albany, New York (UP) –
The New York State Senate today passed a bill designed to curb out-of-state divorces by New Yorkers.
The measure permits a spouse to obtain an injunction preventing divorces in other states on grounds other than those recognized in New York.
The intent of the bill is not to liberalize New York’s divorce laws but to provide protection to the wife who is left in this state whole her husband goes to some other state to obtain a divorce. The Assembly is yet to act.
Housewives cautious in ration point use
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Housewives spent their ration points with great caution during the first week of rationing, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company said today after a survey of its 7,000 retail stores.
The company said buyers selected items of low points values and high food values, the system functioning with no more confusion than expected.
Items most in favor were soups, small units of canned peas and tomatoes, baby foods, catsup and chili sauce. Fresh fruits and vegetables were in good demand while items of high point values were somewhat neglected.