SUNDAY, JULY 12, 1942
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
PAGE
TH . MIC IG AN BA.v y V A (11
a SB N-A la 1 1 a 1
The
Week
In
Review
Domestic -
Foreign
They taunted the Nazis about the
spring offensive that didn't come.
They laughed at Hitler's boasts about
his still intact striking power.
After two weeks of a summer of-
fensive every bit as severe, every bit
as savage and merciless as any spring
campaign the Nazis ever conducted,
no one was laughing.
Instead they watched with increas-
ing fear a reckless German assault
that grew in fury day by day, an
assault that smashed across the Riv-
er Don in two places, an assault that
led the Russian Army's official news-
paper Red Star to describe the whole
situation as 'most tense.'
And indeed the situation is most
tense. Sevastopol has fallen, and
the troops held there so long are
ready to launch a full-scale attack
across the narrow neck of water
which separates Kerch from the Cau-
casus. That's one danger point.
The second is the area west of Ros-
tov where not much pressure is at
present being exerted, but where the
Nazis once swept almost within
shouting distance of that land of
heart's desire for Hitler's henchmen,
the Caucasus. They might well use
the same route again.
The third and present point of
bitter dispute, and one of the war's
vital battlefields is the area in and
around Rossosh, a town which the
Nazis have finally entered after days
of terrific tank and infantry action.
However, the battle still rages out-
side the city and the Soviet position
is not yet hopeless in this sector. The
fall of Rossosh is dangerous for two
reasons. Rossosh is on the Moscow-
Rostov railway and it means that
the Germans have now snapped that
vital supply link. It also means that
they can strike ahead towards the
Volga and if successful entirely iso-
late the Caucasus-a move which
would eliminate much of the chance
for a successful defense of that long-
time German goal.
Battle Of The Don
Still farther north a struggle which
will probably be written into history
books as the Battle of the Don looks
like it will be labelled a German vic-
tory in those same books. For here
the Nazis have thrown hundreds of
tanks and hundreds of thousands of
men into an action which equals in
size the titanic struggle around Smo-
lensk last fall.
In the face of tremendous losses
the Hitler armies have established
two bridgeheads across, the Don -
unfortunately a river which is nei-
ther broad nor deep-and driven in-
to the suburbs of Voronezh, another
key point on the Moscow-Rostov rail-
way line. This successful assault, if
continued, also promises dire strate-
gic results. With control over Vor-
onezh and Rossosh a Nazi drive to-
ward the Volga would not only cut
off the Caucasus but would trap part
of the Soviet armies-which are hold-
ing firm far west of the Don-in the
center.
Such is the 'most tense' situation
in Southern Russia. True, Timoshen-
ko, a well-tried and capable general,
has attempted counter-attacks to re-
lieve the pressure, but such has been
the size of the German reserve that
none of the waves of Nazi attackers
had to be shifted. As a consequence
the usually successful tactic failed.
Perhaps principahy responible is
that under newly restored Field Mar-
shal von Brautsitch the Nazis are once
again united under a real military
leader, and the lack of consistency
which marked Hitler's reign as actu-
al commander-in-chief has come to
an end.
There is still another more than
ordinarily active sector on the Rus-
sian front and again the Germans
were on the offensive. The Nazis
opened an important attack near
Kalinin north of Moscow which may
be the beginning of another fierce
drive on the capital. Here, however,
they made little progress, and their
huge fatality list heartened the Rus-
sians.
The Soviets were on the offensive
only once during the week as they
struck from northern bases at the
Nazi raiders which continually har-
ass the huge Anglo-American con-
voys bound for Murmansk. One sub
claimed extensive damage to the Tir-
pitz, that proud remaining leviathan
of the Nazi fleet. Planes also took
their toll at German raiding bases.
Soviet officials saw a Russian hour
of destiny approaching. They were
pretty certain that when the hour
came they would make Russia mis-
tress of her own destiny, but they
wished fervently for a second front
which would make it certain.
Yugoslavian Front
So far the only second front was
in Yugoslavia where a desperately
skillful band of guerillas-that had
become in fact an army-drove divi-
sions of first class Nazi troops almost
Russian Situation 'Most Tense'
Squabble Over Spies
joined the Nazis in the futile chase
of the old fox who like the famous
Willie Keeler 'hits 'em where they
ain't.' At week's end he was still
where they weren't, and doing plenty
of damage.
Egyptian Interlude
Big news last week was Rommel's
race towards Alexandria, and its fi-
nal halt because of tenuously thin
supply lines, terrifically exhausted
munitions headed for other Near
East and Middle East posts and thus
were well reinforced. While resting
the RAF went after German truck
and tank depots with considerable
success. They left the long distance
bombing of supply centers and trans-
ports to American four-motored
bombers which grew' more active as
the week wore on.
Now it appears that Rommel and
Auchinleck are coming to grips again
as a huge air battles rages, as the
agent Otto Abetz. The French con-
trolled positions to be given up in-
clude Toulon, base of an almost com-
plete French navy. What might hap-
pen if the French navy is forced into
action in the Mediterranean is not
problematical. Alexandria would be
about as safe as the proverbial hor-
net's nest.
England after her brief reaction
against the fall of Tobruk half set-
tled down again this week, and as
usual was the source of news only
because the RAF continued its raids,
men and stiffened Allied resistance. Nazis advance on the south, and as
Why U.S. Must Hold Aleutians
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THE ALEUTIANS--TSrPP/NG S TONES -
One Army general as good as told
the Attorney General of the United
States, the director of the Office of
War Information and a Presidential
secretary to go to hell this week-
and he got away with it.
The trouble started when Elmer
Davis-to whom the executive order
of June 13 gave complete charge of
all war information-objected to the
high-handed manner in which the
Army was treating both the press and
the public as it steadfastly refused to
give out even a hint of what was tak-
ing place at the trial of eight Nazi
saboteurs who were landed on the
Atlantic coast by German U-boats
last month.
Davis, backed by Attorney General
Francis Biddle and Presidential sec-
retary Stephen Early, felt-and still
feels-that the public is entitled to
any and all of the facts of the case
which would not disclose necessarily
confidential military matters. Tough
and tight-lipped Maj.-Gen. Frank R.
McCoy, president of the commission
hearing the case, seemingly does not
give a damn about the public, nor
about Davis, Biddle and Early. He
says no one shall know anything-
and he is making it stick.
Open And Closed
The official statements concern-
ing the proceedings contain little
more than a bare, "The commission
opened the third day's hearings . ..
and, "The commission closed the
third day's hearings.. ." For a news-
hungry American public, these are
far from satisfactory.
General McCoy's nose-thumbing
reached a peak on Tuesday when
he flatly refused to even see Davis's
personal representative and com-
pletely ignored a written plea from
Biddle. A second plea brought the
cryptic information that "the gentle-
man needn't wait." The gentleman-
Henry Paynter, one of Davis' assis-
tants in the OWI-is still waiting,
however, and is beginning to feel
something like the original Forgotten
Man.
Elmer Davis is nominally director
of all war information; but right
now an Army general is doing the
directing. Although the outcome of
the squabble is uncertain, round one
must be chalked up to the Army.
FBI Hits At Bund
While the trial of the eight sabo-
teurs continued throughout the week
despite the prestige-and-power bat-
tle ranging around it, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation struck hard
at an equally dangerous and more
abundant type of Nazi-members of
the German-American Bund and
other pro-Axis organizations.
Readers of the daily papers saw
headline after headline announcing
the capture of 29, 84 or 158 bundists
and aliens in widespread raids by the
FBI. Loyal Americans were amazed
and worried at the astounding num-
ber of arrests being made--the total
early in the week was officially put
at 8,844. In addition to this the FBI
listed as seized: 3,000 guns, 200,000
rounds of ammunition, 1,652 sticks
of dynamite, 1,645 short-wave radios
and 956 swords, bayonets and knives.
As a result of the drive to cleanse
this country of any elements which
might endanger its war effort, a
Federal grand jury at New York
brought in indictments against 29
national and sectional bund leaders,
charging them with conspiring to
defeat the purposes of the Selective
Service Act and to violate the Alien
Registration Act.
One of those named in the in-
dictment was Gerhard Wilhelm
Kunze, former national head of the
German-American Bund. He was
nabbed by the FBI in a small Mexi-
can fishing village just in time to
keep him from escaping inta small
boat in which he intended to brave
the Caribbean.
Although the American public was
surprised and rudely awakened by
the ever-growing number of arrested
Saboteur
GEORGE JOHN DASCHI
* r * t
In A rgument
The map above was drawn by Prof. Charles M. Davis of the botany
department, who has long studied Far Eastern problems. It is a demon-
stration of the importance of the Aleutian chain, and shows the relative
positions of the three powers concerned. Russia has a stake in the fog-
bound battle of the Aleutians as it may suffer from a lack of contact
with the United States if the Japanese should strengthen their foothold
and then invade Siberia. The stake of the United States is obvious.
Protection of Alaska and prevention of a possible invasion through Can-
ada are the principal defensive reasons for holding the Aleutians. The
offensiye reasons involve helping Russia and maintaining bases for a
fleet that could sweep down on Japan from the north.
This on the contrary has been a week
of rest for those armies, but it is a
week which neither side has wasted.
Rommel has made desperate at-
temptsto gain reinforcements both
through the air and on the sea. More
numerousand larger air raids on
Malta indicated-as it always has-
that Nazi supply ships were racing
across the narrower reaches of the
Mediterranean. American bombers
claimed some of the transports had
been sunk through air action and
the British fleet may have accounted
for some. Others no doubt got
through. In the air the Germans
were less lucky. A fleet of plane
transports was discovered by Amer-
ican planes and 12 loads of Nazi sol-
diers hurtled seaward before the oth-
ers made their escape.
The Allies rerouted troops and
the British gain on the north.
El Alamein is the battlefield and
it is there that the fate of Alexandria
is being decided as this is written.
Bargainer Laval
Something that may well affect
the Egyptian front has just been re-
ported happening in France. Reli-
able Bern sources claim that French
Premier Laval has bargained with
the Nazis so that as usual only his
friends from across the border were
lbenefited. He has-the report reads
-given the Germans carte blanche
in all military and strategic estab-
lishments in unoccupied France in
exchange for the dubious privilege of
moving the French government to
Paris. There it will no doubt be fur-
ther dominated by Hitler and his'
the principal one being on Bremer -
shaven.
Japs Get Belted
Halfway across the world things
looked much better. The American
Air Forces under Brig.-Gen. Chen-
nault took the offensive in the air
over China and bombed hell out of
Jap bases on the Chinese mainland,
at the same time promising similar
treatment to Jap cities in the near
future. The Chinese recaptured two
towns and thus pushed the Japs back
in their drive on the Kiangsi-Hunan
railroad. Brighter indeed was China's
picture as she entered her sixth year
of war against the 'incident invad-
ers.'
Infernal Cea.-,orship
In the Aleutians the infernal wea-
ther or else the infernal censorship
held up most information. But we
were told that either four or five
hitherto bothersome Jap destroyers
are now rusting in Davy Jones' lock-
er. Another and more ominous ru-
mor told of a large convoy reaching
Jap positions on Attu and Kiska.
It all adds up at least to this:
If the Navy doesn't tell more of
what's happening in the Aleutians,
the American people are going to get
sore.
-Hale Champion
labeled a "selfish and power-hungry"
farm bloc in the House of Repre-
sentatives - continued during the
week to throw obstacles in the way
of the government's attempt "to use
its feed resources to produce food for
the wartime effort."
A Senate-House conference com-
mittee which has been struggling un-
successfully since May 25 to iron out
differences in the Agriculture De-
partment appropriation bills of the
two bodies, remained in disagree-
ment although meetings were sched-
uled for next week and new develop-
ments gave some hope that the Sen-
ate would finally win out.
Administration Backed
The Senate bill, which has received
the strong backing of the adminis-
tration, would allow the government
to sell its surplus stocks of wheat at
sub-parity prices with the idea in
mind that this would encourage more
abundant production of vitally need-
ed meat, poultry and dairy products.
The House, on the other hand-
guided by the ever-selfish farm group
-has thus far refused to heed the
pleas of that section of the nation
which is more interested in winning
the war than in maintaining an in-
flationary price level for farm pro-
ducts.
The stand of the House is made
more ridiculous by the fact that a
majority of small farmers agree with
the President and the Senate and
also that the proposed sub-parity
sales by the government will actually
have no effect on sales by farmers.
The danger that the Agriculture
Department would not be able to
meet its payroll because of the lack
of funds was postponed by a stop-
gap measure providing money for the
month of July, but this action was
far from meeting the basic problem.
May Break House Stand
Strong administration pressure and
a new Senate bill directing govern-
ment loans to farmers at full parity
for six major farm crops caused some
sources to believe that a break in
the House stand was at last appar-
ent.
Senator Russell, chairman of the
conference committee, said that when
the group met again next week he
would ask the House members to call
for another vote on the floor of the
lower branch of Congress. He de-
clared that he thought there was a
possibility the House would alter its
stand. The American public-inter-
ested in stopping this petty bickering
and in getting on with the war effort
-sincerely hoped he was right.
OPA Takes It Again
The Office of Price Administra-
tion-which has taken more body
blows in the past few months than
any other governmental department
-spent another busy week in which
it was lambasted first by the fire-
spouting landlords of the nation and
then by the equally fiery tenants.
Although the hottest spot in the
rent control controversy appeared to
be Detroit-where landlords are de-
manding everything from a five to 10
and even 15 per cent increase in the
rent ceiling and the CIO is threat-
ening a "rent strike" if any increase
is made-trouble was breaking out
all over the nation.
Seattle Protest
Property owners in Seattle be-
gan to talk of a nation-wide protest
meeting; New Haven, Conn., sent out
reports of attempted wholesale evic-
tions; and in Mobile, Ala., the con-
stitutionality of the entire price con-
trol act was being challenged by a
property owner who demanded that
the Federal Court stop enforcement
of the act.
The only indication of how the
OPA itself-which was spending most
of its time trying to prevent evictions
-stood was contained in a telegram
to the CIO in Detroit. It said that
no action was being contemplated
at this time in changing the rent
ceiling. This was interpreted as a
decided set-back to property inter-
ests which had previously thought
they were well on the way to success.
Housing Plans Changed
Closely allied with the rent con-
troversy in the Detroit area is the
long dragged-out squabble over
'bomber city' plans, which this week
received a thorough going-over by
U.S. Housing officials.
With Henry Ford, Washtenaw
County Republicans and property in-
terests anxiously waiting to see if
they have been successful in blud-
geoning the government into com-
pletely abandoning the greatly need-
ed housing project, John Blandford,
administrator of the National Ilous-
ing Agency, said his recommenda-
tions for Detroit would be announced
in the next few days.
He declared that several things
had made a new plan necessary, but
most important was a changed esti-
ELMER DAVIS
enemy aliens, it was even more sur-
prised that so many aliens with such
large stores of destructive weapons
had as yet been unable to success-
fully accomplish one major job of
sabotage.
After eight months of war Hitler's
fifth-column had not destroyed one
bridge, one railroad terminal, one
power plant or one war factory. The
nation kept its fingers crossed and
hoped that the good luck would con-
tinue.
Saboteurs In Congress
Still another type of saboteur-
members of what President Roosevelt
TJ~iREE.:.; M?'lrN rLAWY kIIiNP I t
V--
IN AXIS eyes Egypt offers prizes worth the most desperate gambble.-
Alexandria is the key to British naval power in the eastern Mediter-
ranean. Cairo is Britain's Middle Eastern headquarters, is the capital
of the Arab world and is the U. S. supply terminus for the front. The
Suez Canal is known as the "jugular vein" of the British Empire. And BALTIM
beyond Suez lie Iraq, Iran and India! -
'rot
MATRUH_ _ ROSETTA DAMIETTA RTSAID'
MIed iterranean ,Sea. "'::._".- -..;; : =Lae
ALE YANDRIA::1_miteake B ay of
,,, ,' M n aa Pelusium
EL DABA Arabs; DAMANHUR "--u-
EL AMIRI
Gulf -MANSURA '
tEL A AN-
a EL ALMEIN'- -
_ "TANTA-QANTARA
a ~SALHIY
-ZAGAZIG ISMIAILIA CANAL
t POSSIBLE AN
' INVASION ROUTE -'
Rommel might try avoid i-
' 'Delta. Canals, levees, ;BE AFAY Bitter
y F " ' marshlands, particularly - Lakes
e .. , " -, in north, offer difficult - CANAL'S
. . , .terrain for armed col- -- VULNERABILITY
umns. Canal has no locks,
.'C' ~ ~ATARADERESIO thus hard to crip-
DQATTARA 6EPRESSIO ,""CAIRO pe permanently,
NILE RISING though sunken StEZ
Nile flood waters HELWAN ships have stopped
tit 'nit tr ,ir *mnrar~'ilu f
w!