THE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGE THREE The Week In Review - - -_ Second Front's Proving Grounds Domestic Jim Farley Makes Hay {.y Political drama was enacted in New York last week. The scene was the Democratic state convention to determine who would run for gover- nor of New York on the donkey's back. The actors were Governor Leh- man and genial, shrewd Jim Farley. The audience was a host of uncon- cerned newspaper reporters, photo- graphers with .flashlight bulbs in their pockets, delegates out for a good, boisterous time. In plain view of the newspapermen and barely out of hearing, Farley said no to Governor Lehman's request for a compromise candidate. Two min- utes later Senator Robert F. Wagner stepped to the platform and loudly nominated Senator James F. Mead for governor of New York. His speech would never have been given if Far- ley had answered yes. The play went on as the delegates watched. It was tense, exciting pol- itics handled by veterans who bluff- ed, clowned, frowned, worried. Re- porters told Farley that the Mead camp was circulating the story that Frank V. Kelly of Brooklyn had re- leased his key delegation-which would have spelled victory for Mead -and the bald-headed fighter walk- ed over to where Kelly was sitting. "Is it so?" Farley asked. "No," Kelly answered. The play went on. Kelly and Farley mugged seriously,, whispering into each other's ear. Their decision was to have each of the 1,016 delegates polled individu- ally instead of having the county lea- der announce the result for each county. Farley didn't want it this way, but he knew there were com- promises in politics. The ordersfor individual polling came from FDR. The decision to let it go through was good politics. The Mead forces were trying to force a break in the Kings County delegates. They thought the dele- gates from the New Deal districts in Brooklyn wouldn't dare stand up and be counted against the President of the United States. The pressure was on in big doses. Farley pulled up a chair and anchored it on the deck of a freight elevator. And he took the pressure without cracking. The final act came up and it was all up to Frank V. Kelly, Brooklyn leader. If he could hold his Kings County delegates, Farley would put one over on his old boss. Kelly did. Bennett was nominated by a vote of 623 to 393 over Mead. The victory was the greatest in Farley's political career. He had bucked the Chief-and had won. 'Cheesecake' Empress The Treasury hauled out the old "cheesecake" on the sly a few weeks ago. Quiet, dignified Treasury offi- cials looked at the war bond drive and thought it was getting dull. The public was beginning to find it irk- some. It was too methodical, merely emptied the wallet without any gla- mour. So Treasury officials blushed and called in Hollywood. This "cheesecake" game was right down Hollywood's alley. The publi- city gag-men went to work. They paraded soft-eyed bathing beauties before middle-aged men. They haul- ed out blonde dolls with graceful legs to trap the youthful romantics. Hol- lywood went out to get the public's pocketbooks with vengeance. Marlene Dietrich last week was crowned "best bond-seller of all" by enthusiastic Treasury officials. She made three cross-country trips. The result: she upped pulses and un- zipped the purses of thousands. She was terrific. If she couldn't get re- sults by lifting her skirts, she rolled her eyes. If her eyes got tired, she gave kisses. Best kiss of the week given by Miss Dietrich was to worker Edward LaCuoco of Cleveland's Gen- eral Electric plant. For La Dietrich's lipstick, LaCuoco signed away ten per cent of his pay "for the dura- tion." The Empress of Cheesecake stooped to bestow her kiss. Said La- Cuoco: "Whew." At French Lick Springs, Indiana, Tom Taggart, owner of the famous hotel which brings people running for its Pluto Water, invited 1,000 rich Indianans to spend a free week- end. Pluto Water was on the house. The only catch was: at least $1,000 in war bonds for each guest. Total sales in French Lick hit $2,250,000. The Treasury hit the jack-pot. Bahr To The Bar Herbert Karl Friedrich Bahr put his life in the hands of six men and six women, all businessmen and house- wives, last week. He is charged by the FBI of coming to the United States as a German spy. His defense is that "he meant to trick the Germans." Bahr claims he is an American ci- tizen because his German-born fa- ther was naturalized. He said he ba~r r n + fhiqrninv hPamis hp lights were still on and the glow they made lighted up the skyline for miles around. Local officials hooked thumbs in- side vests and beamed about the dim- out. "Pretty good," they said. But military authorities scowled. They were far from satisfied. They were thinking of the dangers to shipping which might result from the flagrant refusal by night-life promoters to1 obey orders. The Army has its ex- perts looking the situation over.; Something will pop-and should. What's In A Grin? Out of Washington last week came news that Wendell Willkie was pre- paring for another of his trips abroad. Where he would go this time, Willkie would not say. But obser- vers smiled when reporters asked: "Stalin?" Willkie made the announcement shortly after a luncheon date with President Roosevelt. Earlier he had conferred for two hours with Secre- tary Hull and Soviet Ambassador Maxim Litvinoff. Willkie said the trip was arranged on his own initiative because he de- sired to "get acquainted with the countries and the leaders with whom the United States would cooperate more and more both in the immedi- ate and long-range future." With a grin, Willkie admitted one thing that made reporters happy. He said that President Roosevelt had asked him to perform certain services for the government. The accent was on "ser- vices." -Robert Mantho Foreign Little smiles of victory--of small victories but hopeful--were justified for the Allies last week. Nazi troops watch the French beaches carefully for men with paint- ed faces and long knives who swarm out of shallow barges from across the Channel to kill their comrades without pity and to destroy their marvelous fortifications. The ever- present threat of invasion worried Hitler's diabolically clever generals so much that they put heavy armor on the captured coasts. For nine hours last week those fortifications felt the sting of a hea- vy lash - that of the Commandos- more of them than had ever landed before. They struck at Dieppe, show- ed their mettle, now well proven, as they destroyed a gun battery and an ammunition dump. American hearts pounded hard as the blackest of headlines announced that United States Rangers had gone along for their first. blow at the Germans. With them were the ac- tion-hungry Canadians who have been idling in Britain for months and the experienced, tough, Britishers. On land the Commandos struck fear into the enemy with their bru- tal killings, but overhead a real vic- tory was won. Shielding the troops from the Luftwaffe, more than a 1,000 Allied aircraft roared across the Channel as they had done before to strike at Rostock and Cologne. When their mission of protection was accomplished, the Nazis found themselves with 275 planes lost or out of commission. Immediately, the loss of those planes was the most important out- WINSTON CHURCHILL JOSEPH STALIN Senator James A. Mead, heavily backed by the President himself to win the Democratic nomination for governor of New York, couldn't beat the political razzle-dazzle of Jim Farley. Farley's man John Bennett won on the first ballot. Tut, Tut-Lights Southern California for a distance of 150 miles inland joined the rest of the Pacific coast in a dimout last week. It will last for the duration of the war. But trouble was ob- served immediately. The "hot spots" couldn't be bothered. Their bright, gaudy signs still blinked in the night, served immediately. The "hot spots" Conferences in Moscow brought Winston Churchill, Britain's Prime Minister, and Josef Stalin, Premier of the Soviet Union, together. The topic of discussion was the long-awaited second front. What decisions were reached are not yet known, but they may he among the most significant of the war. come of the terrific Commando raid. The Germans are now compelled to withdraw part of their air strength from either Africa where it is already none too secure with Americans oper- ating or from Russia. Every little bit counts to help Russia now. In the long run the vital necessi- ty of such Commando raids will be- come obvious. Those men who smashed German skulls in France are learning how to fight, how to GATEWAYS INTO THE CAUCASUS 1 land on rough beaches and how to use every trick in the business. When the Second Front is opened as it must be, they will be the operating nerve-center for the larger forces. Two days before the huge bush- whacking in France, the news broke that Britain's Prime Minister had been in Moscow from Aug. 12 to 15 to confer with Stalin and his gov- ernment about the Second Front. Gen. Sir Archibald Wavell and Maj. Gen, Russel P. Maxwell, cormander of the U. S. forces in the Middle East went along with him to uphold the nilitary side of the Second Front in the conferences with Molotov, Rus- sia's Peoples' Comimissar for Foreign Affairs, and, Marshal Clementi Voro- shilov. News men could only guess about the decisions; those affairs were kept secret as the Soviets know how to keep them. But in all the world, unimportant men sincerely hoped that the pipe-smoking dictator of the Soviets and the cheroot-puffing, pudgy Prime Minister had planned a follow-up to the huge raid that was due in the next week. Perhaps, the Soviets were told in advance about the coming stab at France. The Dieppe raid meant to Wash- ington observers that a Second Front was possible, to London observers the same thing. To the Russians it was like a drop of water on a feverish brow. But the wily Churchill kept his counsel next turned up in Cairo to look over his shuttling desert armies. Some military experts remembered that Italy might be a pushover for invasion. Presumably, Cairo danced. That Second Front must come quickly. It could be too late. The Nazi columns push further and further into the Caucasus like a spit in a barbeque. They squirm in through the mountains with their tanks and find themselves in the ruined, sabotaged oil' fields. The Rus- sians greet them with scorched earth and gunfire. Stalingrad still is in Soviet hands. The Nazis have not yet broken through the defenses at the great bend of the Don as the Soviets pick off each soldier who manages to cross the great river. But in the South the Nazis are still gaining, Not only are they pene- trating to the rich oil-fields where they will get, that strategic supply, but toward the Black Sea go columns split from the main body. The Allies will need three fronts or more if the Germans succeed in attacking by sea from Rumania. * * * Tulagi And Points East A beautiful, deep blue harbor has Tulagi. Tourists from the United States used to stop there on their round-the-world-all-expenses- paid trips and admire the palms. Tulagi has been having different visitors lately. The Japs took over the hotels and beaches first, and now the United States Marines are taking them over again. Through all the Solomons last week, U. S. planes have pounced Jap bases. And in Tulagi, Malaita and San Cristobal the tough Marines are now "mopping up." It is the first time that the American forces have regained lost land in the war. The fighting is still going on. Ma- rines are hitting hard, killing 600 Japs in one battle, Last week was the second week of battle in the Solo- mons; it was the first time in the war that it has been offensive battle. Now the third week begins with con- tinuing fighting and probable new victories. Full of meaning was this first vic- tory. The Japs are no longer in the nerfect nosition they once held for by Borneo, not far from Java. And commando work was not confined to Europe alone. Marines swept up to Makin Island, one of the Gilbert group, killed 80 Japs, ruined a sea plane base and left town. Only mo- derate losses were recorded. One of the raid's leaders was Ma- jor James Roosevelt, the President's son. He has been in the Marines on active duty since November, 1940. When Jimmy went on active duty after receiving a captain's commis- sion, there was a loud uproar from Congress-now he has proven nim- self. Thus the smashing Marines have taken on of the first steps toward a really large victory. But the Marines and the Navy men who won them proved to themselves that, they are the equals of the Japs--more than equal, are they not licking them? ,* * * Join Our Party "Piracy" is Brazil's technical term for ship-sinkings by Nazis. Already committed to a strong partisanship for the Allies, Brazil and her bene- volent despot, Getulio Vargas, was in no mood to play when her boats were sent woefully, piratically to the bot- tom by Nazi U-boats. Crowds roamed the streets of Rio de Janeiro, looking for German na- tionals. and their shops. When they found one or the other, violence oc- curred. The people of Brazil were de- manding war. Diplomatic relations have not been maintained with Germany or Italy since Jan. 29, the time of the Pan- American conference. The Axis could not stop its spy work. There was in- ternal trouble and the U-boats threatened Brazil's ships. In May, Brazilian plans sunk an Axis subma- rine. Nothing further happened until last week. Five ships were sunk along Brazil's coast line last week. One of them was an Army transport; gruesome, shark- scaned bodies floated ashore. No wonder the Brazilians wvhre sore. Vargas promised revenge. Brazil's planes were out over the Atlantic patrolling with the Americans. Ger- man nationals were taken into cus- tody as hostages and the Army and Navy exercised to put itself in shape. The Republic of Brazil declared war on Germany and Italy yesterday. She called it "a state of belligerency" with a South American flourish, but phone calls to Buenos Aires revealed that actual hostilities-no reserva- tions-would- be started. Brazil join- ed 28 other United Nations in the war against the Axis. India Seethes Revolution in India is not pro- ceeding at an unabated rate. The Viceroy of the Raj showed the Hin- dus a sample of real imperalsm by bringing out the police, first with tear gas, then with clubs and finally with guns. His motives were clear; the Japs were at India's back door. Mohandas Gandhi was still in pri- son, looking his mournful saintliness in a white loin cloth. He was joined by his son, Devadas, editor of the Hindustan Times, who was arrested under the provisions of the Defense of India' act. All India was not behind the wave of civil disobedience led by the aged holy man and his reflection polished slightly more in the ways of the modern British-Pandit Nehru. The All-Inda Congress Party had never the backing of the Moslem League. But from Congress' inner circle there came a plea for reconciliation by Sir Tej Bahadar Sapru, eminent Hindu liberal lawyer. Rumors were that Sir Tej was go- ing to visit Lord Linlithgow, the Vi- ceroy from Britain, the Raj, to try to bring about a settlement. Influen- tial Sir Tej, often a middle-man for Gandhi and the British urged at the famous All-India Congress that a parliamentary commission be sent from Britain to study the affair. Stubbornly sticking to its guns, the Moslem League, the old rival of the All-India Congress Party, reaffirmed its complete opposition to a govern- ment by the Congress. If Britain were to seek peace with the All-India Congress Party "it would be a betray- al of the Moslems," said shrewd Mo- hammed Ali Jinnah, president of the League. Then came what seemed a com- plete about face. A committee of the Moslem League was drafting a reso- lution to make peace with the All- India Congress if she would join a war government. For four days the committee bickered and shouted, de- bated and cross-examined. The result was a disappointment to the western world-only a minority wanted peace with the Congress. Spat Jinnah fresh from drafting a cutting resolution against the Congress: "Our attitude is unchanged." Unchanged also was the attitude FROM TURKEY come reports that the German high command may be satisfied to settle down for the well-known Russian win- ter north of the Caucasian Mountain Range. Winter is only a few weeks off in the upper passes of the rugged, snowcapped Caucasian peaks that barricade the isthmus for nearly 1,000 miles from the Black to Caspian Sea. Many horse passes, merely rough bridle paths open only to un- mechanized cavalry, and three military roads cross this barrier; railroads flank it on the two sea coasts as do the sea lanes. On these mountains and on the fighting Cossacks and the hardy guerrilla mountaineers Russia's strategic retreat to the mountains may well be based-on them and on the ability to plug the few pas- sageways through and around the mountains with troops and well- placed dynamite blasts. In 1832 an avalanche blocked the then new Georgian Military Road, most historic of the three invasion and caravan routes be- tween Europe and' Asia via the Caucasian Isthmus, And it took three years to clear that highway to traffic. * * * * MAN-MADE AVALANCHES may serve to keep German Alpine troops, apparently brought up for the mountain fighting, on the other side of the hills. Good tank and motorized warfare country ends abruptly north of the mountains. From there on the Nazis face an uphill climb such as they have not seen in three years of war. The Russians have been making a stand where the steppes give way to mountains on the southbound rail spur to Mikoyan Shakhar, northern apnroach to the Sukhum Military Road. From here a bush and are perfect set-ups for inspired avalanches. Both begin at or near Ordzhonikidze and cut across the center of the mountain picket fence. The Ossetian Highway is the longer of the two and goes over the top at 8,700 feet through the Mamison Pass. Its general direction is southwest, away from Baku, and its southern terminal is Kutaisi on the Rion River and the Trans-Caucasion railroad. The easternmost highway is the Georgian Military Road, 128 miles of winding, twisting, hairpin turns. The tourist bus used to make the trip in eight hours, averaging 16 miles an hour. From 2,000 feet above sea level at Ordzhonikidze the road winds up through wild Darial Gorge (or pass), weaves across racing moun- tain streams on narrow iron bridges, crossing the range at 7,000 feet. Hereabouts the mountains tower above 9,000 feet. From snow- covered peas the road falls away to Tiflis and the sub-tropical climate of Georgia. This road, known as the "Gates of the Caucasus," is subject to avalanches through its highest point, which the mountain people call the "Pass of the Cross." None of these military roads is particularly inviting to an invader accustomed to roll full tilt through low coun- tries along normal automobile highways, The alternatives are the seacoasts and here, too, the percentage is with the house, in this case the defenders. * * * * PERSONS familiar with railroads along the Black and Caspian Sea shores compare them to the railroad on the narrow ledge between the Palisades of the Hudson River and the river's edge-if the Pali- i