Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 July 1942 — Page 7

FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1942

SECOND SECTION

Washington

A U..S, ARMY PORT OF EMBARKATION, July 3. —From two previous dispatches some idea may be gathered of the enormous detail job which must be - carried on by the army’s services of supply in equipping troops for movement overseas. The job begins with the rail-

‘roads bringing in materials from

the factories. This problem became so acute in the last world war that the government was compelled to take over the railroads. Congestion had paralyzed many of our ports. Trainloads of freight would be moved up to the port of embarkation and then could not be unloaded because no storage facilities were available. The result was that railroad sid7 ings were packed with dead freight for hundreds of miles. Profiting by that experience the railroads are co-operating with the army in a way that leads some high officers in the services of supply to believe it will not be necessary in this war for the government to take over the railroads. : The Association of American Railroads is operating in conjunction with the army in moving trafic. The government determines what should move and when, and the railroads through their own centralized operation provides the transportation.

How Well Planned Things Are

THERE HAVE BEEN some instances of congestion. On one occasion the government suddenly decided to - speed up Russian lend-lease material, and this began moving into the ports without regard to the capacity of ships to carry it away. Most lend-lease material is now maved under schedules worked out in co-opera-tion with the army services of supply so that con-

By Raymond Clapper

gestion has been fairly well eliminated at the ports. Another factor which has relieved the situation has been the creation of enormous reserve storage

facilities, located usually about an overnight train

run back from the port. When there ‘seems danger of port congestion, shipments are flagged and laid up in these reserve stations. This keeps the port area clear, and also releases rolling stock at once. dition, the army 8S. O. S. usually operates its daily schedule of cars into a given port of embarkation somewhat under track capacity, so as to leave a safety margin. That is necessary in these days when [submarine activity or other war conditions

unexpectedly delay the arrival or departure of ships. |

The Key to All the Fighting

S. O. 8. OFFICERS said they had no complaint about dock labor and found on the whole that it was working efficiently. The army has been conducting its o campaign to reduce the turn-around time, and thereby increase the capacity of available shipping. | We hear usually about the fighting branches of the service. But the services of supply control what the fighting services can do. For example, the transportation service of the S. O. S. stands between the training camps and the overseas destination of the troops, It stands between the war factory and the battle line. Only as it moves men and material through can the fighting go ahead. In a war of this size scattered all over the world this requires an enormous organization which’ serves no other purpose than that of transportation. When you read of American troops in action in some far place you know that they got there and got their weapons and supplies only because the S. O. S. was functioning all along the line.

Ernie 2 Pyle has gone to Ireland. His stories from our army camps there. should start in a few days.

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

MAYBE YOU'VE heard about Wimpy, too. Wimpy is a magnificent spitz, now 10. Wimpy has wonderful manners. Affectionate, too. Loves children. And follows them to all ends. trouble. We heard about ,it from a friend of ours who lives at 57th and Carrollton. Wimpy wandered up one night recently ahd laid down on the porch, friendly as all get-out. Our friend looked at the tag, discovered that Wimpy belonged over at 56th and Central and called over. Sure enough, in a few minutes, Wimpy’s owner drove over, thanked our friend and started to leave. Then he stopped.

And then the story came out. -

Wimpy tags along after children, gets lost and winds up in all sorts of odd places in town. The dog ‘actually belongs to the gentleman’s aging father, who is awfully fond of Wimpy. Taxi. drivers who know Wimpy by sight and when they spot him, say in Fountain Square, they always pick him up and take him home. It’s good for a fare, they know. " And so it’s gone all these years. If Wimpy lives toa ripe old age he may be the $10 dog who €ost $1000.

« We Mean What We Say!

OUR ACCURACY HAS been challenged. We said Charles Hediey had hay fever,” We got phone calls saying he conldn’t have. Not the hay fever ‘season. So we called Mrs. Hedley. “Hay fever,” she said emphitically. “I'll make an affidavit on it.” So there. «+. You can tell this is vacation time. Our women’s ¥ department got a call from a weary-voiced male the

Empire's End

WASHINGTON, July 3.—Theodore Roosevelt warned Britain about Egypt 32 years ago. In fact, he gave Britain a formula for running her empire. Ignoring his advice, Britain is now losing her empire piece-meal. “T. R.” uttered his warning.in his famous Guildhall speech in London, in 1910. Having just returned from. Africa, where he had observed the results of British colonization and co-opera-tion, was enthusiastic. He was especially keen about what he had seen in Egypt and the Sudan. He said, in effect, that the British in Africa, were a blessing; that. they were doing things there that would never get done without them; that their administration was efficient and free from corruption; that . there was order and progress

everywhere, But, he intimated, he had heard that since the

departure of Lord Cromer (Britain's great proconsul on the: Nile) her purpose in Egypt and the Sudan was faltering and her grasp relaxing. Then he said: “Get on with the good work. But if you, are not going to get on with it, then get out.” = The speech aroused a good deal of briticism.

That's what makes all the-

other morning. “How,” he asked, “do you defrost a refrigerator? I've never defrosted one of the things. What do you do? Leave the door open” Our best advice is to get the family back home quick! . . . Wallace O. Lee is around town with dark glasses and a patch over one eye. A pine needle.

Just Among Us Boys

THIS CONCERNS a couple of journalistic col-|

leagues. A photographer and a reporter went down to Southport to take a photo of a giant tomato plant, asked the president of the town board to pose. The gentleman, Fred H. Kissling, hemmed and hawed, consented reluctantly. Pictures taken, he cleared his throat and said mildly: “My wife’s brother’s sort of connected with the newspaper business.” “That so?” said one of the boys casually. “Yep,” said Mr. Kissling. “Name's Kent Cooper.” The photographer darned near dropped his box. His jaw fell, anyway. Mrs. Kisslingis brother is merely general manager of the Associated Press. Small fry. eh?

Just Say It Fast

NICE TOUCH ON the Circle yesterday just after the Fox troupe got through performing atop the flagpole. The loudspeaker system broke into the national anthem. And the hundreds upon hundreds of people thronging around the Circle came to a respectful stop. Good! -. se Ft. Harrison publicity has taken on a new lease, on life with the arrival of Lieut. Elmer (Doc) Sherwood as boss of public relations. . And last call of the day is from a chap. wanting to know how to pronounce the name of Joe Btfsplk, the hoodoo character in Li'l Abner the last few days. Big bet up, he said. We couldn’t help, ’cause we don’t know either. Btfsplk, we suppose.

By Wm. Philip Simms

a protectorate during the first world war and recognized her independence in 1922. But she retained certain prerogatives, including the right to maintain military and naval bases there and to fight there in case of war, Today, for some reason or other, Egypt is a “neutral” in the decisive struggle now being fought out on her soil. She has a population of 16,000,000. She might easily have a first-line army of 300,000 men and double that number in reserve. But so far as is known, the Egyptians have not lifted a finger to help stop the axis invasion. ‘Burma, with 15,000,000 population, was lost to the British because, unlike the Filipinos, the Burmans did not help defend their own country. It is said there were never more than 50,000- Japanese troops in Burma at any one time. And next door, in India, there were .390,000,000 people who might have sent help. Instead they stood, and still stand, with folded arms, under the British flag, and watch with Indifference the Japanese advance.

Force Is [the Only Way

TO THOSE WHO are now busy on blueprints for a post-war world, all this forms a pattern. The Roman empire was a success as long as Rome held

South

A

Defense Weak and wil

To Fight Is

Sapped |

‘Sixth. Column’

By ALLEN HADEN . Copyright, 1942, by The Indianapolis Times and The Chicago Daily News, Inc.

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 27 (By Clipper) .—If Hitler should attack South America, its conquest will he the easiest he has ever undertaken for there is here no will to

fight.

What will to resist that does exist is sarped at every turn by the “sixth column.”:

South Americ’, under

attack would fall like a ripe persimmon when % t: 1e tree

is shaken. The first purpose of the

axis in bringing war ito this

continent would be to create another “front” for Al nerican

troops. The second purpose Atlantic ocean, making all allied shipping around either Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope run a German blockade.

Hitler would probably only risk the loss of German economic interests and breakup of axis colonies in South America as a desperate, convulsive “all or nothing” gamble when he sees defeat cornering him in Europe. Experts believe the reason he has not moved onl South America yet is that South America can never. be the conclusive theater of war. Even if South Mr. Haden America were totally conquered, the war’s decision would still be made in Europe. South America’s frontiers

are therefore on the River Don.

a & =

Defenses Are Weak

~ SHOULD HITLER, however, decide to risk the South American gamble, his first use of immense, ldng - range, Diesgl- powered air transports, long rumored abuilding in Germany, may well be to come roaring down to Rio. South - America is undefended except for such British and American naval vessels as patrol the Atlantic. This huge lob of land is probably undefendable by ordinary means. The population is scattered too sparsely, military equipment of

South America’s 10 countries is. .

too small, besides being obsolete compared to the weapons used by the big nations now at war. Yet the weak spot is not inability but unwillingness to fight. That unwillingness is doublerooted in Germany's . propaganda during the past decade and a disbelief in the war objectives stated by the allies, Could Germany reach ‘South America? The question is often asked this way: If the Nazis couldn’t cross the channel, how can they cross the Atlantic. “The answer is simply that England is

a fortress and South America an -

cpen field.

s 2 ”

Landings Ey

TRANSPORT to South America from Europe or Africa is either by sea or air. By sea, transports would have to run the blockade of American and British fleets stationed in the South Atlantic. Approaching ships can be spotted by airplane patrols. Sea landings, however, are not impossible. In Chile, military experts told me they considered a

WLB TO RULE ON TEST OF POWER

would be to flank thi South

Japanese rg of Valparaiso or South of Puerto Montt perfectly feasible. Private advices from Chile indicate that the recent Japanese submarine attacks on Sydney, Australia, have confirmed these hypoth: ses. In Argentina, naval men are quick to admit that a vole German division would be :wallowed up undetected in the vistness of Patagonia if it once 1 landing. b Sea-borne attack, hoi be ruled out almost because it is too slow.

but carries few men. ” »

Fear Air Attack !

BUT IF rumors are true, of huge transport planes--the kind Maj. Alexander P. de Seversky writes about—being built in Germany, powered with light Diesel motors, carrying 200 to 300 fully armed men each, Ger:iany’s attack will come by air. It will fly the Atlantic ocean, ski pi the British-American |

member Laval’s. cillaborating Vichy. Besides, there iis an utter lack of information concerning the trans-Saharan rzi way being built to connect Mgciocco with Dakar. Where to land? Where it will do the most good. I: Brazil. Brazil’s northeast bul ‘ge is closeest American soil to £ frica. And as the Rio de Janeiro weekly, directrizes, says: “If Br.zil is conquered, all South Am rica would also be conquered, wnereas the reverse is probably. not: true.” 7 The Nazis “could 1: nd on the Llanos, the flat lands ‘eported by travelers between the

tural landing fields. 5 isn’t near anything much in the llanos—except the Panama canal, 1000 miles away. That is striking distance if one has gasoline.

” 2 2

Could Seize Airfields

OR THE NAZIS ian fulfill a joke current in Brazi: That the Nazis are waiting fc: the string of airfields on Brazil: northeastern coast to be finished before launching an attack i Seizing one airfield vi huld produce enough gasoline to pioceed to the next—or even. perhe,. 's to Rio de Janeiro. The shortest flight from Africa would be to Natal, uearly at the tip of the South American land mass. But at Natal there are Brazilian troops and undisclosed - military and aerial defenses. An easier spot woiild be Maceio, a tiny town reached :n 60 minutes

Egypt's Prime

“Sixth columnists” in South Amerjca are the end of German propaganda, Here a German Dornier flying 5 boat docks at Rio de Janeiro after a record flight across the Atlantic

Last year President Roosevelt revealed a map which he said showed how Germany planned to carve up South.America into five vassal states.

\

more flying time than to Natal. A broad, sluggish river provides a haven for seaplanes at Maceio and there’s a flying field with gasoline, guarded at last report by five soldiers and a sergeant.

Every observer and student of -

South America, including Vice President Henry A. Wallace, is convinced that simultaneously with an armed attack on South America there would be risings of the axis populations resident here. There is some doubt about the Italian populations here. There is some doubt about the Italians in general. ” ” 8

Many Axis Colonies

WITH THREE exceptions, axis colonies cluster around the heart of South America—on the ParanaUruguay river system. There are no really dependable figures on the size of these communities. It is estimated that there are in Southern Brazil 103,000 Germans, 400,000 Italians and 160,000 Japanese. In Southern Paraguay are

17,000 Japanese and Germans and in Argentina’s province of Misiones the number of Germans has not been stated recently. The three exceptions are the Germans in Patagonia, Germans in Southern Chile and the Japs in Peru. The Peruvian embassy in Washington estimates the number of Japanese in Peru to be 17,-. 000. Others place the number much higher. The Italians are all over the place and cannot be counted. These foreign colonies would be small fry compared to the real danger—what President Roosevelt calls “the sixth column.” These are pro-Nazi nationals of each country. In France they counseled appeasement and collaboration and now operate the Paris press and Vichy’s government. In Russia, they were shot. In Great Britain they were rounded up for board and lodging at government expense on the Isle of Man. In Uruguay they are known, discredited and watched. In the United

Fifth Column’ Endangers British; Minister Unable to Curb Activities

States, some. have gone to cover and others are still active, 2 3 ”

Continue Operations IN ARGENTINA, Chile, Paras guay and Brazil they are operate ing as before. Less open in some countries than .in others, they

‘still are in the government, in the

army and havy, in radio and telephone communication com=

‘panies, editing newspapers.

These “sixth columnists” are

‘the end product of 10 years of + German propaganda, of endless ,money spent on parties, decora=

tions, subsidies, bribes. These are the Quislings with Latin names who. would conquer South America for Hitler. They ‘would be the powder keg blowing up when a small force of the wehrmacht lands at a single aire port in Brazil to touch off the fuse. While the Quislings are active

- and alert, our. friends, liberal,

democratic people are asleep or confused. They have not been strengthened by us. I have traveled in South America, friends of the allies and- liberal people have asked: “Where do we come in after the war?” Both United States and British propaganda has failed miserably in telling South Americans where they come in. British propaganda concentrated on war news and left the job to the United States. We haven’t done the job.

2 2 2

‘Must Act Quickly

PHYSICALLY, we can help = |

Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Ven= ezuela in case of need, for these countries are within swift bomber reach of the Panama canal. As for Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia and Paraguay, there’s not much we can do about it. American or British or other allied nation troops can lend little help against a German invasion. It would be over too soon.. 3 There isn’t time now to furnish mortars, field and machine guns, swift armored planes to loyal Bra= zilians, Uruguayans, Argentines, Paraguayans and Chileans. The local Quislings are known and, if they are removed, the hundreds or even thousands of elite shock-troops the Nazis can land by air in South America can be eliminated. Unless the South American: Quislings are eliminated in time— and that means soon—they may take over for themselves and their German friends. As they did in France. For if action is taken

_against them after the Germans

have landed somewhere on this continent, it will be too late.

ESSENTIAL JOBS LISTED BY WME

Everywhere |

By PAUL MANING Americans. They spread rumors, of

which such a blitzkrieg followed Rommel’s break-through into Egypt that Nahas Pasha had to issue an official warning of drastic punishment for rumor-mongers. Almost the first indication of a chink in the facade of purported complete Egyptian friendship which Britain has erected appeared when the story of British battle plans being found in Italian hands at the capture of Tobruk duririg the desert campaign last winter was released to the press only recently. Egypt’s former prime minister had asked General Wavell for his plans for the coming battle. Wavell

proved correct when copies of these phony plans were found in the possession of captured Italian officers. Typical of the ease with which vital naval information can be obtained is the fact that natives gain admission to the docks of Alexandria with virtually no restrictions. They wander in and out of dock areas, observing the ships which arrive and depart. They can see which cruisers, battleships and submarines

have been damaged and have put into the harbor for repairs. ‘In much-bombed Alexandria, the anti-British : feeling of many natives is understandable. To them, the Europeans in Alexandria merely draw down on the natives bonibs of other ‘foreigners from across: the | Mediterranean. On this basis alone, | they. say there is reason Tor dislike,

Many felt that the ex-president of the United States had no right to lecture the British, in London, on how to run their empire. Others, including Foreign Minister Sir Edward Grey, defended it. He said it ‘was wholesome and went “to the very root of the British position in Africa and Asia.”

The Same Old Story

BRITAIN WAS IN ‘those parts of the world, he said, because she could do certain things better than they would be done without her. “Let us be sure that we are doing those things and that we mean to keep on doing them. If we do not mean ‘to go on doing them we had better come out.” Britain has neither stayed in nor come ott of Egypt, the Sudan or anywhere else. She made Egypt

WASHINGTON, Thursday—Our plane was a little

late yesterday afternoon. I reached the Red Cross ceremony, where the six nurses who escaped from

its colonies with a mailed fist. Today Britain is|: : . Times Special | iVriter too enlightened and too democratic to emulate the| Board’s Authority Under LONDON, July 3 (B: Cable) - Romans, and as a result her empire is breaking up. ro Egypt's fifth column i are danToday the cry of peoples everywhere is for Challenge by Little ger to British-Egyptian frterests in “freedom.” In some cases they are utterly incapable s the Middle East, oficial quarters of self-government. Steel Companies. here admit. And with the advance Even in India, independence is stalled because the : of Marshal Rommei's forces dee WASHINGTON, July 3 (U. P.).— B The war labor board meets in executive session today ta consider

natives can not agree among themselves. Yet they Li ; fl resent the kind of aid Theodore Roosevelt praised the rn Egvphi- the efits. 18 intens) a steel industry challenge of its guthority to rule on workers’ de-

British for giving. IK Undersecretary of State Welles said Nahas, Pasha, B yptian prime imperialism is ended.” And so it is. Tinister, Was AT 19 this rear. It is ended because the only way to run an empire| mands for a $1 a day wage increase |8uard threat, and Biss taken sn is by force, and force. is out. and union security. active part in checl ing subversive The British and Americans won’t resort to it, and|{ The challenge was made in a I 2 oy 4 Souye 3 wen the aim of the war against the axis is to keep|formal brief filed by Youngstown De oan al ng Hesgon ridGermany and Japan from doing so. Sheet & Tube Co.—one of the four dled with active ard passive axis “ ” ee Stee Companies INVOIVed—| gym pathizers that little more than handed them over, but they were a the conclusion of public hearings routine gestures car. be made. heavily doctored. British suspicions on demands of the United Steell six months ago Ivahas Pasha did|——— p. Workers (C. I. 0.) and on a favor- close the Vichy legation and order HOLD EVERYTHING able panel report. the French minister back to France. ) Back of the challenge was the threat of a court battle possibly affecting the existence of the war-

With British collab:ration, he also - {time emergency labor board sét up

McNutt Urges Exemptions For Many Classes of Skilled Labor.

NEW YORK, July 3 (U. P)~. Paul V. McNutt, chairman of the war manpower commission, revealed in the American Magazine today that the WMC employment service is setting up definite ratings in aske ing selective service boards to exempt skilled workers in essential industries. ; Asserting that the rating will be. changed “to suit conditions” and will be extended to include othe occupations and industries, McNt said the service is Baking « exempt

“the age of

By Eleanor Roosevelt

where you have to do something every minute, than the weeks in concentration camps with the uncertainty of how you will be treated, which must be

closed the embassie: of the Balkan nations at war wiin Britain, and

Coiregidor were being decorated, just as their citations were being read. It was to me a very moving ceremony, not only because of the knowledge of what these particular nurses had gone through, but because of the thought of all the others who are serving on ships and on shore throughout the world. ‘I think my sympathy and admiration goes out most warmly to those who, with their patients, are today prisoners of war. It must

take a tremendous amount of

courage to stay on your job, not wine whether you “will be allowed to go on' work- , or whether you will be forced to stand idly by see your patients neglected. ' The story describing what one nurse told, of "the first bombing on Dec. 7 does not seem so extraor-

very difficult to face.

I felt a [great desire to express to these nurses, and through them to all the other nurses in the services, the appreciation of “the women of this country for the, work which they are doing. As a waman, I feel proud and very humble before them. TI am sure that they must inspire many young women to enter this service that offers such great opportunities for serving their country and humanity. I happened to notice a paragraph in a newspaper article which appeared some time ago and I.have thought of it often since. The subject was the united nations “failure to prepare against the war while at peace.” Then the question was raised as to whether we might be making the other mistake of not preparing for the peace while we are prosecuting the war, There is no question in my mind but that everything we do in a war is a preparation for future peace. One of the most important things we can do

is to realize that our actions today have a bearing

‘|Bethlehem Steel —

by President Roosevelt to maintain industrial peace and promote maximum war production. Attorneys for each of the other companies—Republic, Inland and joined during arguments before the board in questioning the powers of the board to order . settlement of a dispute against the will of either of the parties. The board accepted, after considerable discusison and executive deliberation, a brief relating to limitations of its powers. Steel attorneys argued that the president’s order specifically prohibited the board violating any act

of congress; that the Wagner act{far

prohibits an employer from firing a|tl

worker because of his.

chased out of Egypi: the small army of Hungarian and ;falian girl entertainers who dang’ od in the night clubs of Alexandric 3 His constant sury llance of court is also an importar# contribution to the present war of allied counter-

terranean theater of the world war: ‘But, beyond thei:, Nahas Pasha can do little. Egyn 's fifth column, with headquarters im Cairo, is the center of a movemichit that stretches up through Palestine to Syria into Turkey. In Egypt zlone, there are jan estimated 60,000 first and second generation Italians :

habitues who surroijnd King Farouk|.

espionage being waged in the Medi-|

FIRES TAKE: BIG TOLL IN WAR INDUSTRIES

BosTON, July. 3 (U. P) —Fire| the.