America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

Background of news –
Refugees and Palestine

By F. M. Brewer

The number of Jewish refugees in Europe is now estimated to exceed 1,500,000. Of this number, it is believed that not more than one-third will wish to return to their former homes – in countries where they suffered brutal persecution before and during the war. The vast majority look forward to permanent settlement in the Jewish homeland in Palestine.

James G. McDonald, chairman of the President’s Advisory Board on Political Refugees, has said:

Only in Palestine can the mass of Jewish refugees hope to be welcome and to be assisted to integrate themselves in the life of the community.

American Jewish organizations have plans for settlement of a million refugee Jews in Palestine within two years after the end of the war. But these plans cannot be carried out unless there is a change in the immigration policy for Palestine laid down by Great Britain as the mandatory power for that country under the League of Nations.

The present immigration policy was set forth in a British white paper issued in 1939, before the outbreak of the present war. It provided for the admission of 10,000 Jews to Palestine in each of the next five years, with an additional allowance of 25,000 to care for refugees. Thus, provision was made for the entry of 75,000 additional Jews, but Jewish immigration was to be cut off altogether at the end of March 1944 – “unless the Arabs are prepared to acquiesce in it.”

Quota not reached

War conditions made it impossible for the full 75,000 Jews to reach Palestine by last March, with the result that the time limit was given an indefinite extension. However, the number of entry permits at present outstanding is only about 10,000, while the number of Jews wanting to go to Palestine is perhaps a million.

The present immigration policy has been denounced by all Zionist organizations, but it does not result from any unfriendly attitude toward the Jews on the part of the British government.

The Balfour Declaration of 1917, which promised the establishment in Palestine of “a national home for the Jewish people” was a British state paper. Immediately after the announcement of the present policy in 1939, it was condemned by Winston Churchill as “plainly a breach and a repudiation of the Balfour Declaration.” But the policy has not been changed since Mr. Churchill became prime minister – in fact, all suggestions for liberalization have been strongly resisted by the London government.

No change could be made without grievously offending the Arabs and avoidance of such offense is a matter of prime importance to the Allied cause in the war.

An ‘Arab empire’?

Arab support was important also in the First World War. Negotiations with Arab leaders led to an agreement in January 1916, in which it was stated that “The British government agree to help in the formation of an Arab Empire completely independent in its internal and foreign affairs.” Palestine was not specifically mentioned, but the Arabs believed it was to be included in the proposed Arab Empire. The subsequent announcement of the Balfour Declaration created indignation throughout the Moslem world.

No steps have since been taken by the British government to promote “the formation of an Arab Empire,” but the Arab states have themselves arranged a meeting at Cairo, February 14, to set up an “Arab Union.” Resistance to further Jewish immigration to Palestine will be one of the principal purposes of the new confederation.

The need to propitiate the Arabs was the chief reason for War and State Department intervention last year when Congress was about to adopt a resolution calling for an immediate lifting of all restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine. However, the Republican and Democratic platforms of 1944 both endorsed “unrestricted immigration” and establishment in Palestine of a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth.

Way down south –
43 are killed, 500 injured in tornadoes

Mississippi, Alabama sections hit

AFL proposes local control for job plan

Minimum of federal regulation sought
By Ned Brooks, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Clear it with Sidney?
Hillman’s plea for world labor unit gets ovation in London

Wins backing of Russians, French, Latins – British cool – criticism heaped on AFL
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

‘King of Arctic’ dies at age of 82

POINT BARROW, Alaska (UP) – Natives and whites of this northern outpost planned a regal funeral today for Charles D. Brower, 82-year-old “King of the Arctic,” who died Sunday from a heart attack.

Brower circled the world seven times on schooners and for years commanded whaling ships. A native of New York, he found the Arctic friendly and, after retirement, remained here.

Brower accumulated a modest fortune from whaling and trading. In his active years, he caught three or more whales a year, realizing from $6,000 to $10,000 each, and he once controlled all the trading posts on the Arctic rim.


Nazi general’s kin in U.S. Army

FORT KNOX. Kentucky (UP) – Wolf von Otterstedt, nephew of a major general in the German Army, is a second lieutenant in the United States Army – a recent graduate of the Armored Officers Candidate School at Fort Knox.

Von Otterstedt tried to enlist in the U.S. Army in 1940 but had to wait until 1943 to be accepted after an investigation by the FBI, the Department of Justice and War Department G-2, according to Fort Knox authorities.

He has not heard from his father – a captain in the German Army – since 1942. His brother is a member of the British Eighth Army and his mother is a Red Cross nurse in London.

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

Ernie Pyle has left San Francisco on an assignment with the Navy in the Pacific. He will remain with the Navy for several months and then go ashore to join the infantry – which is so close to Ernie’s heart – in some phase of the great campaigns now developing in the Pacific.

The following column was written before Ernie left San Francisco. His first direct report on his new assignment is expected in a day or two.

SAN FRANCISCO, California – Some of you old-time readers who’ve hung on faithfully to this column for years, might like to know how some of my personal affairs are getting along, since I’ve always worn all the family intimacies on my sleeve.

Take our little dog for instance – “Cheetah.” When I got home, she was in the midst of a romantic spell, and had a lot of strange men-dogs whom I’ve never met hanging around outside the picket fence.

But the romantic business has passed, and now she’s as quiet and lazy as an old woman. She never barks, never makes any trouble, and is always full of that most gracious of all dog gifts – affection for her masters. The little Shepherd is earning her way too Dog Heaven by perpetual good conduct.

Or take “That Girl,” whom you used to read so much about before the war, and who for all those long years of peacetime traveling, rode beside me.

I haven’t written much about her in recent years, because I haven’t seen much of her. The war has done the same thing to us that it has to millions of others. In the last four years, we have been together only on these little excursion trips to America.

She has kept the hearth in Albuquerque – under difficulties. She is back there now, trying to cope with the prospect of another year alone.

Folks in Indiana

And my folks in Indiana – I visited them twice on this furlough in America, both visits all too short, but better than some.

My father and my Aunt Mary are still on the farm, three miles outside the little town of Dana. They have repapered the house and rearranged the furniture, and they are very comfortable.

My father still limps from his hip fracture of a year ago. And his eyes are very bad now, and he can’t see to read. But he gets around all right, and even drives the car to town now and then. We think he shouldn’t be driving, but every time Aunt Mary mentions that, he goes out and get in the car and drives it to town, so she’s stopped mentioning it.

Dad listens a lot to the radio, and helps with the dishes, and Aunt Mary reads to him at night, and last summer he even helped some with the harvesting when the neighbors were hard up for help. he raises a few chickens. Outside of that, life is without duties or energy for him.

Aunt Mary keeps busy

Aunt Mary is almost 79, and her spirit is boundless. She goes all day long, like a 16-year-old. She cooks the meals, cleans the house, works in the garden, does the washing for two or three families, goes to her club meetings and to church, does things for the neighbors, and never finds time to sit down.

I was amused at a letter that came from her the other day. One of our neighbors, Mrs. Howard Goforth, came down with a violent rheumatism. So, Aunt Mary drove over and put hot cloths on her for several hours, got noontime dinner for the farmhands, did the weekly washing, and then got supper ready for them before she came home for her own evening chores.

Next day a blizzard was on. The ice was so slick she didn’t dare take the car out of the garage. The snow on the roads was two feet deep and it was bitter cold.

So, what did Aunt Mary do? She just bundled up and walked three-quarters of a mile over to Goforths, worked all day, and then walked back in the evening through the snow. She sure doesn’t take after her nephew.

Stokes: For good or evil

By Thomas L. Stokes

Love: Wartime travel

By Gilbert Love

HIT the BEACH!

LSM crews learn their jobs in stiff sea, shore training
By Denis S. Sneigr

Gracie Allen Reporting

By Gracie Allen

Well, this is about the time of year that everyone in Hollywood starts to get excited about the nominations for the Motion Picture Academy Awards.

Speaking of awards, I’d like to hand out a few Oscars myself, for the best dialogue writing of the year: the American General who said “Nuts” at Bastogne; for the best sound effects: the roar of B-29s over Tokyo; for the best story of the year: MacArthur’s reconquest of the Philippines; for the best screamplay: Joseph Goebbels; for the best comedy writing: almost any communiqué from the Japanese Propaganda Office; for the best travelogue: “My Trip Through Poland,” by Gen. Zhukov.

Oh yes, and as a grand booby prize, for the worst supporting performance of the year – Benito Mussolini.

Millett: Wives retain brave spirit

Women would go overseas quickly
By Ruth Millett

Monahan: Being a report on a gab session with a trio of W. Victory lads

By Kaspar Monahan

Bill Bendix shuns booze

But in new film he plays a drunk

House to get George bill on Thursday

Democrats intensify drive for passage

Strike hits J&L, 1,400 men idle

Officials ‘amazed’ at wildcat walkout

No changes needed –
Officials should enforce basketball ‘hands off’ rules

Bitter fight expected over world bank

Some Republicans oppose agreement


Russian buyers seek engines, jeeps in U.S.

Post-war purchases depend on loans

Army to sponsor G.I. art contest

Pyle’s second book to become radio drama

Brave Men to be broadcast
By Si Steinhauser

Völkischer Beobachter (February 14, 1945)

Stalins Befehlsausgabe in Jalta

Berlin, 13. Februar (vb.) – Es liegt jetzt eine Reuters-Bekanntgabe über den Besuch Roosevelts und Churchills bei Stalin vor, die aus mehreren Teilstücken besteht und sich einerseits mit allgemeinen Erklärungen über die gegen Deutschland geführten militärischen Operationen befasst und anderseits eine Reihe von politischen Bemerkungen enthält.

Die angekündigte und von der Konferenz beabsichtigte große Erklärung an das deutsche Volk ist in den bisher veröffentlichten Verlautbarungen nicht enthalten. Es scheint, daß die drei Kriegsverbrecher sich über die Formulierung der dem deutschen Volk aufzuschwatzenden betrügerischen Phrasen noch nicht einig geworden sind. Die Konferenz dauerte, wie Reuters bekanntgibt, acht Tage.

Roosevelt und Churchill hatten sich sogar auf sowjetischem Boden nach Jalta auf der Krim begeben, um die Stalinschen Weisungen entgegenzunehmen. Neben Stalin waren auch Molotow, der Jude Maiski sowie der aus dem Baltikum bekannte Völkerschlächter und Massenmörder Wyschinski anwesend.

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Der äußere Rahmen dieser Konferenz war bezeichnend für ihren Inhalt und Verlauf: Roosevelt und Churchill hatten sich diesmal nach der Sowjetunion zu begeben, um in Jalta an der Südküste der Krim die Befehle Stalins entgegenzunehmen, während ihnen bei der Konferenz in Teheran doch noch erlaubt wurde, protokollarisch einigermaßen das Gesicht zu wahren, weil man sich am dritten Ort traf. Acht Tage waren erforderlich, um die lange Liste zu erledigen, die der Diktator im Kreml seinen Verbündeten vorlegte. Was dabei herausgekommen ist, hat der Londoner Daily Express durch die Floskel umschrieben: „Probleme wurden nicht gelöst, aber der Welt wurde ganz deutlich die Methode gezeigt, in der sie gelöst werden können.“

Diese Methode war längst bekannt: es ist die bolschewistische und sie besteht darin, alles so lange in der Schwebe zu lassen, bis eine „Lösung“ im Sinne der Sowjets erfolgt ist und ihren Spießgesellen nichts anderes übrigbleibt, als sich mit den vollzogenen Tatsachen abzufinden. So ist es auch zu verstehen, wenn Daily Herald bekniffen feststellt: „Sicher müssen noch viele Punkte im Einzelnen studiert und kritisiert werden.“

Dieses Herumreden um die laufenden Kapitulationen der Westmächte vor Moskau ist tatsächlich noch das einzige Recht, das ihnen verbleibt: In der Sache bestimmt der Kreml, was zu geschehen hat, und die Erfahrung zeigt, daß den Roosevelt und Churchill dann nur obliegt, mit geschlossenen Augen zu unterschreiben, was ihnen abverlangt wird.

Was vor der Konferenz über die englische und amerikanische Haltung zu den schwebenden Fragen verlautet, ließ erkennen, dass man sich von vornherein vorsorglich weitgehend den bolschewistischen Gesichtspunkten angepasst hatte. Wir haben die uferlosen Vernichtungspläne eingehend geschildert, die vor allem auf dem berüchtigten Morgenthau-Schema fußten, und wissen daher zu würdigen, wenn die drei Verschwörer gegen jeden wirklichen und dauerhaften Frieden in Jalta nochmals von der Atlantik-Charta redeten und wenn der Daily Telegraph psalmodiert, man habe den „Verzicht auf alle Gewalttätigkeiten“ erklärt. Es erhellt daraus die abgrundtiefe Heuchelei dieser drei Betrüger und Volksschlächter. Im Übrigen finden wir bestätigt, dass sie die meisten wichtigen Fragen erneut vertagt haben, das will heißen, alle Probleme, die Moskau in seinem Sinn noch nicht für reif hält, weil es sich vom weiteren Verlauf der Dinge noch manches versprechen zu können glaubt. So wird eine neue Konferenz angekündigt – unbeschadet der sonstigen Besprechungen, die Weiterläufen werden.

Auf die Einzelheiten dieser Beschlüsse werden wir noch zurückkommen, wenn sich das materielle Ergebnis genauer überblicken lässt. Zwei Punkte verdienen aber schon jetzt Hervorhebung: Erstens hat man den geplanten Aufruf an das deutsche Volk noch verschoben, und zweitens hat man es im Zusammenhang damit unterlassen, bereits die Bedingungen bekanntzugeben, die man Deutschland zudenkt. Wie das deutsche Volk über feindliche Einreden denkt, liegt klar auf der Hand. Einig mit seiner Führung, sieht es im unerbittlichen Kampf gegen die Todfeinde seines Lebens und seiner Freiheit das Gebot der Stunde und lässt sich nicht in dem Bewusstsein beirren, dass sein leidenschaftlicher Einsatz für die Zukunft des Reiches und der Nation die verdiente Frucht tragen wird.

Was aber die Feindpläne angeht, so kennen wir sie ohnedies, auch ohne dass sie uns erneut vorgetragen werden: namenloses Elend, Dauerkrieg, Versklavung und eine Entwürdigung, wie sie noch nie einem großen Volk widerfahren ist und einer Auslöschung des deutschen Namens gleichkäme.

Das allein ist für uns wesentlich. Alles andere, wie das Schicksal, das man den Polen und Serben bereitet und wie man die kleinen Nationen um ihr Eigenleben und ihr Mitbestimmungsrecht prellen will, ist uns nur als Bestätigung einer Skrupellosigkeit wertvoll, die über alle verkündeten Grundsätze kalt hinweggeht und im Betrug an den schwachen der Weisheit letzten Schluss sieht. Zu diesen Schwachen gehört aber das deutsche Volk nicht. Unbeugsam besteht es die Prüfungen, die ihm der Krieg gegen sein Dasein auferlegt, in der Gewissheit, dass es sich allen Gewalten zum Trotz durchsetzen und seine Zukunft aus eigener Kraft sichern wird. Es steht und kämpft damit für alle Völker, die Moskau heute unter sein erdrückendes Joch gebeugt hat oder die sich dem Diktat der Wall Street und ihrer Beauftragten in Washington fügen müssen.

Von Frieden wird erst dann zu sprechen sein, wenn Deutschland seine Stimme erheben wird und die Welt von dem Alpdruck erlöst ist, von den Stalin, Roosevelt und Churchill Dauerkrieg und schrankenlose Willkür verordnet zu erhalten.