Ferguson: Courtesy pays
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
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Background of news –
Wallace’s trip to China
By Jay G. Harden
Washington –
Rarely have home politics and the war abroad been so tangled up as they are in speculations relating to the trip of vice President Henry A. Wallace to China, cryptically announced to occur “sometime in the late spring or early summer.”
The political implication, which diligent inquiry in Democratic Party circles so far has failed either to remove or amplify, is self-evident. It arises from the circumstance that the vice-presidential nomination has been boiling up as the chief point of contention in the Democratic National Convention July 19, and Mr. Wallace’s prospective tour would seem to synchronize exactly with the time when he should be making his bid for delegate support.
Proceeding from the assumption that Mr. Wallace must be going abroad at President Roosevelt’s request, two diametrically opposite theories as to the latter’s political purpose are advanced.
One of these is that Mr. Roosevelt, desiring to be rid of Mr. Wallace as a 1944 running mate, is providing him with a graceful exit. The counter-conjecture holds that the President, having decided in favor of Mr. Wallace’s renomination, is seeking to build him up as a second horse that, in interest of winning the war, it is imperative not to change in midstream.
Chinese attitude important
A serious feature of this political speculation is the foreign skepticism as to Mr. Wallace’s official standing which it has aroused. For example, a leading spokesman for the Chungking government commented that:
If Mr. Wallace is being sent to China merely to shunt him off, it is an insult to the Chinese people.
From the standpoint of foreign opinion alone, it would seem necessary that Mr. Wallace’s political status be clarified before he embarks on his mission.
There is plenty of reason, entirely unrelated to Democratic politics, why an outstanding American envoy just now should be sent to China. Due to rapidly mounting currency inflation, coupled with severe shortage of food, the domestic economy of that country has been reported very near the point of total breakdown.
Coincidentally, it is said, Soviet Russian encouragement of rebel elements has placed the Kuomintang government of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in serious danger of disruption and that there have long been serious differences between Allied military authorities in the Chinese-Indian theater is well known.
At a meeting of the Kuomintang Central Committee last September Generalissimo Chiang publicly recognized an existing state of armed revolution by calling on the “Chinese Communist Party” to:
…abandon its policy of forcefully occupying our national territory and give up their past tactics of assaulting national government troops in various sectors.
Prestige feared slipping
The subsequent meeting of Generalissimo Chiang with President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill at Cairo, coupled with the naming of Chinese at Moscow as one of the “Big Four,” helped the Chungking government greatly, but latterly its prestige again has been slipping away.
One cause for this decline, State Department authorities say, was the seeming Soviet support of the Chinese Communists, contained in the issuance from Moscow of a blast against the Chiang-sponsored government of the Chinese-Russian border province of Sinkiang.
The report that, after Chungking, Mr. Wallace may go to Moscow suggests that he is being sent to mediate between the Chinese and Russians.
The main American military dissatisfaction arises from the distaste which both British and Chinese have shown for fighting in Burma.
Millett: Sordid Hollywood stories build up phony idols
Miss Millett scores movie magazines for ‘junk’ and celebrity worship
By Ruth Millett
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Pirate-Tigers contest rained out
Briggs Stadium debut postponed; York’s two homers beat Roe
By Dick Fortune
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Yankees pound Davis to whip Dodgers, 7–5, in 10-inning struggle
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
With 5th Army beachhead forces, Italy – (by wireless)
The other day Wick Fowler, war correspondent of The Dallas News, and I were walking along the road in Nettuno. I saw a jeep coming with a one-star plate on the front bumper, indicating that the occupant was a brigadier general. I peered intently, trying to make out who the general was.
While I was absorbed in this endeavor, the jeep drew abreast and the general suddenly saluted us. I don’t know why he saluted – maybe he thought I was the Secretary of War. At any rate I was so startled, and so unaccustomed to being saluted by generals, that I fumbled a second and then returned the salute with my left hand.
Wick says he’ll be glad to appear at my court-martial and put in a plea of insanity for me. On the other hand, I did try, while Wick never raised an arm. So, I don’t think even a plea of insanity will save him. Wick was a nice fellow, too.
We still don’t know, incidentally, who the general was.
One in ten billion
You’ve read about the little Cub planes that fly slowly around over the frontlines, doing artillery spotting for us. They’re a wonderful little branch of the service, and the risks they take are tremendous.
The Germans try to shoot them down with ack-ack, and occasionally a German fighter will sneak in and take a pass at them. But the Cub is so slow that the fighters usually overshoot, and the Cub can drop down and land immediately.
The saddest story I’ve ever heard about a Cub happened here on the 5th Army beachhead. A “Long Tom” – or 155 rifle – was the unwitting villain in this case.
The certain gun fired only one shell that entire day – but that one shell, with all the sky to travel in, made a direct hit on one of our Cubs in the air and blew it to smithereens. It was one of those incredible one-in-ten-billion possibilities, but it happened.
Not nervous – much
In my column the other day about our experience when the war correspondents’ villa was bombed, I said that after it was over, I didn’t feel shaky or nervous.
Since then, little memories of the bombing have gradually come back into my consciousness. I recall now that I went to take my pocket comb out of my shirt pocket to comb my hair, but instead actually took my handkerchief out of my hip pocket and started combing my hair with the handkerchief.
And at noon I realized I had smoked a whole pack of cigarettes since 7:30 a.m.
Me nervous? Why, I should say not.
The day after the bombing, I got a little package of chewing gum and lifesavers and whatnot. I tore the return address off the package and put it on my table in order to write a note of thanks to the sender.
The package and address were both lost in the bombing. All I remember is that it was from Spencer, Iowa. So, will whoever sent it please accept my thanks?
Sergeant is mourned
I’ve spoken of soldiers’ wartime pets so many times that you’re probably bored with the subject. But here’s one more.
The headquarters of a certain tank regiment where I have many friends had a beautiful police dog named “Sergeant.” He belonged to everybody, was a lovable dog, liked to go through a whole repertoire of tricks, and was almost human in his sensitiveness.
He had even become plane-raid conscious, and when he heard planes in the sky would run and get in his own private foxhole – or any foxhole, if he were away from home.
“Sergeant” was dutifully in his foxhole yesterday when he died. Shrapnel from an airburst got him. He wasn’t killed instantly, and they had to destroy him.
The outfit lost two officers, four men and a dog in that raid. It is not belittling the men who died to say that “Sergeant’s” death shared a high place in the grief of those who were left.
OWI’ll tell the world –
Lucey: Propaganda flood reaches crest in Sweden with no paper shortage
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Völkischer Beobachter (April 16, 1944)
US-Gesandtschaften als Erpresser –
Drohungen mit der ‚Schwarzen Liste‘
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Mountbatten ist bedrückt –
Die britischen Truppen ‚so gut wie abgeschnitten‘
Von unserer Stockholmer Schrittleitung
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U.S. Navy Department (April 16, 1944)
CINCPAC Press Release No. 359
For Immediate Release
April 16, 1944
Liberators of the 11th Army Air Force raided Matsuwa in the Kurils on the night of April 14 (West Longitude Date).
Oroluk, Nauru, Pakin, and Ulul Islands were bombed by single search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two on April 14 (West Longitude Date).
Airfields on Ponape Island were bombed by 7th Army Air Force Mitchells on the same day. A small tanker and two escort vessels were bombed near Ant Island. The tanker was sunk and the escorts were beached on the island. Our planes pressed home their attack through heavy anti-aircraft fire.
Forty‑six tons of bombs were dropped on four objectives in the Marshalls by Liberators and Mitchells of the 7th Army Air Force, Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, and Navy Hellcat fighters. One of these objectives was severely strafed. Bomb hits were obtained on gun positions and barracks.
The Pittsburgh Press (April 16, 1944)
Two U.S. air fleets blast Bucharest, Ploești
U.S. fighters from Britain pound Nazi airfields, reach Berlin area
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer
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Capt. Gentile’s own story –
‘One-man air force’ tells how it feels to fly against Nazis
Ohio ace, who has bagged 30 enemy planes, says modern air warfare is simple
By Capt. Don S. Gentile (as told to Ira Wolfert)
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Pacific ace ‘disgusted’ –
Bong shies at publicity over 27 victories in air
By William B. Dickinson, United Press staff writer
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