Battle for Myitkyina rages 5th straight day
Storms and fierce Jap resistance prevent Yanks, Chinese from extending grip on city
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Browder seeks to extend basis of Communism
Communists, by dissolving their political party and reorganizing under the name of the Communist Political Association, hope to gain collaboration with “broader circles” of American life, Earl Browder, general secretary of the Communist Party of America since 1930 and president of the newly-formed association, said at the close of the Communist convention yesterday in the Riverside Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.
Browder, elected to head the new association by acclamation, explained that the political party has been an obstacle to such collaboration. He added that other obstacles remain such as “the Red scare and anti-Communist ideology fostered by Hitler’s propaganda organization.”
In placing Browder’s name in nomination, William Z. Foster, veteran lender, described the first president of the new association as “one of the finest agitators and educators” America has produced.
Commenting on German criticism of the Communists’ reorganization, Browder said he was happy the Communists had “displeased Berlin.”
“It was as I expected and predicted,” he said, referring to a Nazi DNB broadcast that assailed the new setup as a move to stop criticism of United States and Russian collaboration.
The broadcast stated that Berlin political circles viewed dissolution of the party as a “technical maneuver” to stifle attacks by President Roosevelt’s enemies against the “Roosevelt-Bolshevist coalition.”
‘Comrades’ no longer
In his closing address to the convention, Browder addressed his audience as “Ladies and Gentlemen,” dispensing with the customary Communist greeting “Comrades.”
A national committee of 40 members and 20 alternates will govern the new association. Among those elected as members of the committee, which includes all 27 members of the governing body of the dissolved party, were City Councilmen Peter V. Cacchione and Benjamin J. Davis Jr.
Corby: Bette Davis will be seen in new film, Mrs. Skeffington, at Hollywood, Thursday
By Jane Corby
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Editorial: Success of Wallace’s mission would enhance his prestige
The circumstances attending Vice President Wallace’s departure on his mission to China and Siberia make it possible to speculate with somewhat more certainty upon prospects for his renomination in July. When the announcement was first made some weeks ago that the Vice President would be out of the country at a significant time there was a hasty disposition to see in it a portent of political doom. President Roosevelt, it was assumed, had reached the decision that Mr. Wallace was not a political asset and that the cause of a fourth term would be served best by looking around for another running mate, one who would placate the conservative South, where there have been disturbing rumblings of discontent.
The possibility of Mr. Wallace’s retirement has brought a number of potential candidates for the vice-presidential nomination to the forefront but today Mr. Wallace looms somewhat larger upon the political scene than in the past and there is in consequence diminishing probabilities of his being replaced.
As the President’s personal representative to an Allied nation which has been waging a war for freedom for the last seven years and which has earned the right to a strong voice in the peace and in the future of Asia, Mr. Wallace undertakes a mission whose success will enhance his stature. It is unquestionably true, as the President said in his announcement, that “Eastern Asia will play a very important part in the future history of the world’” and that “forces are being unleashed there which are of the utmost importance to our peace and prosperity.”
This is not a junket nor is it a scheme cunningly designed to eliminate Mr. Wallace from the political scene at a time when his fortunes will hang in the balance. It is a mission planned to meet a definite need which is essential to the winning of the war and to the establishment of a satisfactory peace.
The Allied leaders have been charged frequently with thoughtlessness with respect to China’s interests and there is some justification for the charge. Preoccupation with the more pressing challenges of the Pacific and of Hitler’s Europe has operated to the neglect of China, whose needs have been great and whose sacrifices and sufferings cannot even be comprehended by their Allies.
It is important that we know more about China and that we bring to her plight a more practical and sympathetic concern. “The Vice President.” Mr. Roosevelt has said, “because of his present position and his training in economics and agriculture, is unusually well fitted to bring both to me and to the people of the United States a valuable first-hand report.”
The personnel of a carefully selected staff must be recognized as a further indication that the mission is one which is intended to accomplish purposes vital to a nation which has endured much in the struggle for a peaceful world.
Mr. Wallace’s opponents will not find it easy to make political capital of his trip to Siberia and China, particularly when there is the probability that he will return in time for the Democratic National Convention in mid-July. The developments are in his favor.
The Pittsburgh Press (May 23, 1944)
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
A B-26 base, England –
Lt. Bill Collins, who goes by the name of Chief, is what is known as a “hot pilot.”
He used to be a fighter pilot, and he handles his Marauder bomber as though it were a fighter. He is daring, and everybody calls him a “character,” but his crew has a fanatical faith in him.
Chief is addicted to violent evasive action when they’re in flak, and the boys like that because it makes them harder to hit.
They’ve had flak through the plane and within a foot of them, but none of them has been wounded.
When they finished their allotted number of missions – which used to give them an automatic trip to America, but doesn’t anymore – Chief buzzed the home field in celebration of their achievement.
He got that old B-26 wound up in a steep glide, came booming down the runway, leveled off a foot above the ground and went screaming across the field at 250 miles an hour – only a foot above the ground all the way. And at the same time, he had to shoot out all the red flares he had in the plane. They say it looked like a Christmas tree flying down the runway.
Chief used to be a clerk with the Aetna Life Insurance Company back in his hometown of Hartford, Connecticut. He is 25 now and doesn’t know whether he will go back to the insurance job or not after the war. He says it depends on how much they offer him.
Lt. Jack Arnold is the one they call Red Dog. He is only 22, although he seems older to me. He enlisted in the Army almost four years ago, when he was just out of high school. He was an infantryman for a year and a half before he finally went to bombardier school and got wings for his chest and bars for his shoulders.
He figures that as a bombardier he has killed thousands of Germans, and he thinks it is an excellent profession. He says the finest bombing experience he has ever had was when they missed the target one day and quite accidentally hit a barracks full of German troops and killed many of them.
Red Dog is friendly and gay and yet he is fundamentally serious man who takes the war to heart. The enlisted men of the crew say that he isn’t afraid of anything, and that the same is true of Chief Collins. They are a cool pair, yet both are as hospitable and friendly as you could imagine.
The plane’s engineer-gunner is Sgt. Eugene Gaines of New Orleans. He is distinct from the rest because he married a British girl last December.
They have a little apartment in a town eight miles from the field. Every evening Gaines rides his bicycle home, stays till about midnight, then rides back to the airdrome. For you never know when you may be routed out at 2:00 a.m. on an early mission, and you must be on hand.
It takes him about 45 minutes to ride the eight miles, and he has made the roundtrip nightly all winter, in the blackout and through indescribable storms. Such is the course of love.
Gaines is a quiet and sincere young man of 24. He was a carpenter before the war, and he figures that will be a pretty good trade to stick to after the war. But if a depression does come, he has an ace in the hole. He has a farm at Pearl River, Louisiana, and he figures that with a farm in the background you can always be safe and independent.
Gaines wears a plain wedding ring on his left hand. I’ve noticed that a lot of the married soldiers over here wear wedding rings.
In flight, it is Gaines’ job to watch the engine temperatures and pressures and to help with the gadgets during landings and takeoffs. As soon as they reach the other side of the Channel he goes back and takes over the top turret gun. He has shot at a few planes but never knocked one down.
The radio gunner is Sgt. John Siebert of Charlestown, Massachusetts. He learned to fly before the war, although he is only 23 now. He had about 800 hours in the air as pilot. Yet because of one defective eye, he couldn’t get into cadet school.
He had two years at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he hopes to go back and finish when the war is over.
Siebert too is quiet and sincere. His closest escape was when his waist gun was shot right out of his hand. The thing just suddenly wasn’t there. Yet he didn’t get a scratch.
Völkischer Beobachter (May 24, 1944)
Aufschlussreiche Mitteilungen eines US-Generals –
Neuer Beweis für Roosevelts Kriegsschuld
Schon im Sommer 1941 zum Kriege gegen Deutschland entschlossen
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U.S. Navy Department (May 24, 1944)
CINCPAC Press Release No. 413
For Immediate Release
May 24, 1944
Paramushiru and Shimushu in the Kuril Islands were bombed by Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Four before dawn on May 21 (West Longitude Date). Moderate anti-aircraft fire was encountered. All of our aircraft returned.
A single Ventura search plane of Fleet Air Wing Four bombed Shimushu Island before dawn on May 23. No opposition was encountered.
Ponape Island was bombed during daylight on May 22 by Liberator and Mitchell bombers of the 7th Army Air Force. Airfields, gun positions, and buildings were hit and fires started. Meager anti-aircraft fire was encountered.
The Brooklyn Eagle (May 24, 1944)
YANKS SEVER APPIAN WAY IN BATTLE NEAR CISTERNA
Help French capture two key towns
Allies slash through defenses in threat to trap Nazi forces
By Reynolds Packard
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Three groomed for Twomey’s seat in Senate
Assemblymen Rudd, Smolenski, Gittleson considered by party
By Joseph H. Schmalacker
Three Democratic legislators were being considered today for their party’s nomination to succeed Senator Jeremiah F. Twomey of Greenpoint, who has announced that, after nearly 30 years of service at Albany, he does not intend to run for another term. The three are Assemblymen John Smolenski, who now represents Greenpoint in the lower branch of the Legislature; Roy H. Rudd of the Bushwick section and Harry Gittleson of Williamsburg.
According to word from Leader Frank V. Kelly’s office at Democratic headquarters, no immediate decision on the choice is expected. It may be deferred until a number of other pending Democratic designations are ironed out.
The chief one in the latter group is the designation for the $22,500 judgeship in the County Court. The judicial office must be filled at the November election lor a 14-year term because of the death of Judge Peter Brancato. Judge Nicholas Pinto, a Republican, is the temporary incumbent by virtue of appointment by Governor Dewey.
McGuinness for Smolenski
Assemblyman Smolenski’s name has been advanced for the Senatorship with the backing of Greenpoint leader Peter J. McGuinness. Greenpointers have also talked of booming Walter Carley, chairman of the Greenpoint district committee, but Carley has eliminated himself. He has been aide to Twomey for 14 years and is minority secretary of the Senate Finance Committee at Albany, of which Twomey was formerly chairman.
Democratic insiders said the seniority factor would be an important, though not necessarily controlling one, in deciding the race. From this standpoint Rudd, Smolenski and Gittleson are closely bunched. Rudd entered the Assembly in 1937. He was followed in 1938 by Smolenski. Gittleson served his first term in 1938 and, after an interruption of service, returned in 1941.
Greenpointers said Smolenski rates high consideration because he ranks as one of New York State’s outstanding Polish-Americans, whom the Democrats are anxious to keep in line for President Roosevelt. Estimates place the Polish-American vote in Greenpoint at 5,000.
Rudd strong in 20th
On the other hand, Rudd carries the 20th AD for the Democrats in his Assembly campaigns, although the Bushwick district is inclined to go Republican in presidential and gubernatorial election years. He has a strong following among taxpayer groups.
Gittleson, however, is rated as one of the Democratic Party’s most skillful debaters against the Republican majority in Albany. Republican majority members, although they follow the strict party line when votes are cast on the roll call, applaud Gittleson when he has finished a full-dress debate on civil rights issues.
Twomey’s old senatorial district has been revised under the state Reapportionment Act so that it now extends from the East River and Newtown Creek as far as the upper Bushwick section. The Democratic leader in Bushwick is the veteran James W. Tuomey. Gittleson’s leader is Dr. Joshua H. Friedman, whose district, according to pre-presidential straw polls, is one of the strongest New Deal areas in Brooklyn.
4th term splits Democrats in Texas session
Austin, Texas (UP) –
A split over the fourth term issue divided Texas Democrats into rival camps today and provided the party with what appeared to be its first convention fight.
The break occurred at the party’s state convention yesterday when the pro-Roosevelt faction, headed by A. J. Wirtz, former Under Secretary of the Interior, bolted from the meeting and held a rump session, naming a separate group of delegates to the national convention.
Under the usual convention procedure in disputes of this kind, the Credentials Committee will have to decide in advance of the balloting for nominations which delegation to seat. Texas has 48 votes at the convention.
Split over pledge
The split resulted from the question of pledging electors to support the Democratic national ticket, regardless of its composition.
A resolution which favored a return to the old party plan of nominating the candidates for President and Vice President by a two-thirds majority rule and declaring that states and parties had a right to fix their own election rules precipitated the break.
According to the terms of the resolution, if the national convention did not approve the proposals, the delegates would be free to cast the state’s 48 votes for any Democrats “holding views in accord with those here expressed.”
FDR group bolts parley
The pro-Roosevelt faction bolted the meeting and held a rival convention, naming a full slate of delegates.
Governor Coke R. Stevenson was invited to head the main convention’s delegation to Chicago and former Governor Dan Moody was named its chairman.
A resolution adopted by the pro-Roosevelt group declared that the original convention was an “usurpation and manipulation by enemies of the Democratic Party procured by delegates from Texas’ four largest counties, a large part of whom supported the Republican candidate for President in 1940.”