Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 December 1942 — Page 13

8 reason.

Hoosier Vagabond

‘WITH THE AMERICAN FORCES in ALGERIA (by wireless).—Our troops are finding the African climate a welcome change, most of the time, from the wet bitterness of England. The North African winter at this time of year is rather spotty. It has been nice most of the time since we came, but when it isn’t nice it sure is terrible. ; We are now in the first month of their winter season. From now till late March there are few mosquitos, and there isn't much danger of malaria.

On the average the nights are

quite chilly. -It starts getting cold as soon as the sun gets low, around 4 o'clock. By dark it is usually cold enough for an overcoat. You sleep under all the blankets that you can get. In the morning the sun isn't well up until after 6. Usually the sky is a clear blue before noon. It seems to be a larger sky than ours back home, Maybe that’s because we are out where we can see more sky than ordinarily.

Our Troops Are Getting Tough

THE TROOPS GO AROUND most.days stripped to ne waist, and practically everybody is getting a sun n. Once a week or so comes a bad spell. The last one was thoroughly miserable. For two days it poured rain, and there was a cold and bitter wind. Our troops are living mostly in fields. I felt sure that halt of them would be sick, but there was no

Inside Indianapolis By Lowel! Nussbaum

IF YOU HAPPEN to see Pleas Greenlee going ground pinching himself, think nothing of it. There's He just wants to see if he’s still alive. Pleas, who is executive secretary of the Indiana Licensed Beer Wholesalers’ association, was opening his mail, in parlor F of the Claypool, yesterday when he came across a letter from the local social security . office. Signed by P. J. VanGeyt, the board manager, the letter asked information on wages paid Pleas - Emory Greenlee (that's Pleas’ full name) and said: “A claim for insurance payment under the social security act, based upon wages paid to the above named individual, has been presented to this office.” Slightly dazed, Pleas ; grabbed the phone and called Mr. VanGeyt. “I'm not dead,” he shouted. “Must be a mistake,” admitted Mr. VanGeyt. The latter explained he had received a letter from the Joplin (Mo.) social security office reporting that “Pleas Emory Greenlee died here Sept. 11.” ‘The letter listed a social security number identical with that on the card Pleas has in his wallet. The whole thing has him baffled. That's why he goes around pinching himself.

Just Like Superman

IT’S A CHANGING world. One day last week, an air officer stationed at Stout field phoned a N. Meridian st. auto agency and made arrangements to send his car in the next day for some repairs, When another officer brought the car in the next morning, the service manager asked if .if was necessary to have the car ready by evening. “Well,” casually replied the officer who brought in the car, “I don’t know. Lieut.

X took off early this morning for California, He had

some business to take care of out there, and a luncheon date. He may be back tonight, and again he might stay over until tomorrow.” Just like it was Muncie, or Richmond. . .. James W. Carr Jr., who has had charge of issuing gas rationing books to some 4000 car owners at the RCA plant, arrived late at the plant Thursday morning. “What's the matter?” someone asked. “Aw, I ran out of gas on the way and had to catch a bus,” he explained. “I was so busy I

Washington

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15. — Anti-administration Democrats are at work trying to capture the party. They dream of a coalition of southern reactionary Democrats and western anti-labor Democrats out of which to make a conservative Democratic party. Jim Farley is out on a tour of the country to line up national convention delegates, and this time not-for Roosevelt, as was the case when he went out on the ‘road in 1931 to make a president. Farley is effective. He is bitter toward the administration, and with some reason. He also is aided by the decay of the Democratic national committee, and by the unhappiness of Democratic state leaders over the large number of Republican appointments that have been made, particularly in Leon Henderson's rationing organization. But all of this has an air of unreality because it doesn’t mean a thing unless President Roosevelt retires. That becomes less likely every day. There is growing acceptance of the logic that if he remains physically in shape, Mr. Roosevelt will be the best one

“to finish the war and initiate the peace.

Politics as Uncertain as the War

THE TIME TO HAVE changed was in 1940. You almost have to consider this as a first term, because what goes on in these four years is so closely linked with what must continue into the next four years, Mr. Roosevelt's intimate knowledge and his prestige abroad make him a far safer custodian of American interests in liquidating the war and setting up the

My Day

~~ NEW YORK CITY, Monday.—Tonight I am going to a concert given ir” Poughkeepsie, N. Y., by the Dutchess County Philharmonic orchestra. The soloists are to be Maj. John Warner of the New York state constabulary, who is a fine musician, and Mrs. Lytell Hull, also a good musician, though most people think of her primarily as a patron and cease. less worker in the interests of music and musicians. I feel that small orchestras, like this one, mean a growth in the appreciation of music, which 1s valuable to the nation as a whole. While I was in Boston the other day, I heard a great deal of the terrible fire which cost so : many lives there. A great: many precautions are now being taken. No inflammable Secarations are allowed in public places, however, the only r

* therefore, are not eligible to whatever community services may be open to residents.

outdoors, even in bad weather, is healthier than living inside. Also, our troops are getting pretty tough now. The men live pretty primitively in their scattered camps. Theyre on American rations now and the food is really wonderful. But there is very little water. At some camps a man ordinarily gets a gallon a day for drinking, -shaving and washing his clothes. But at many camps it’s as little as a quart. During a cold spell the men fill their mattress covers with straw, put down one blanket to lie on, and have five spread over them.

Get Most News From America

THERE IS NO ROOM for little niceties and homey|

touches as in the bigger tents in England. And there are no lights. But two boys did rig up an Eskimo lamp. They bought some liquid paraffin in a nearby town, poured it into an empty can, then cut a few inches off one man’s waist belt (which was too big for him) and shoved this through the top of the can for a wick. It really made a serviceable light. . We Americans actually know less about what is happening throughout North Africa than you do at home. We get the communiques here daily in. the French papers, but there aren't many details, and anyway most of us can’t read French well enough to get the fine points. Some listen to the 9 o'clock news from BBC in London, and a few camps have short-wave radios and get hourly news from America. It seems ironic that what happens 200 miles from us must be flashed to America and then back here again before we can hear it. But that’s the way things are in this crazy world,

didn’t bother to fix myself up with an A-card; thought I had enough gas to last another day or two.” And not having a book, he couldn’t buy a drop on the way; had to leave his car right where it was.

The Early Bird

THOMAS J. WHITE, 625 N. Gladstone, underwent an emergency appendectomy at Methodist hospital a week ago Saturday. Mr. White, who is production

manager at the International Harvester plant, told callers last Saturday he would be going hbme Monday. That's what he thought. But in walked his wife Sunday morning. “You’d better get out of here and make room for me and the stork,” she told him, The stork hadn’t been expected for another month. Mr. White was taken home in the afternoon. The next morning, shortly after 1:30 a. m., he got a phone call from the hospital: “You're the father of a new baby boy—8 pounds 10 ounces; don’t you want to come .out and see him?” Replied he: “Heck, I can’t; I just got out of there.” The youngster, fourth in the family, was named Michael.

Around the Town

OUR FAVORITE waitress, Alice Longworth, thinks it’s all right for men to keep their seats when there are women standing in busses and streetcars. But she thinks that when a woman has her arms full of bundles, he might at least offer to hold her bundles. « « « By the way, the n@v crop of street railway passengers still needs educating along the lines of moving “back in the bus, please.” People still pack the front end of busses like sardines, while there often is room to swing a cat in the back of the bus. ... And we've been getting kicks recently about inconsiderate people smoking in busses and streetcars. Anyone who can’t refrain from smoking while he’s riding in a packed streetcar or bus doesn’t have the cigaret habit. The habit has him. , . . An elderly man climbed on an E. Washington streetcar yesterday morning, carrying a basket of candy which he apparently was going somewhere to peddle. A man on the car saw the candy and asked to buy some. Another, and then another bought. Before he got off the car, the elderly man had done a pretty fair business. It might pay him to spend all day riding the cars. ®

By Raymond Clapper |

peace than a new man, however fine his intentions. The uncertainties of politics in the next two years are as great as the uncertainties of war. Today the war looks to be going well. But if Hitler should put on a blitz down through Spain it might change the looks of the North African show overnight. Just now the chief political fact is the irritation over rationing and labor policies of the administration. Just the stupid thing of giving farmers a complex rationing blank to fill out instead of a simple one becomes a political factor. Emotional factors have a scale of proportion all their own. A voter who votes with his glands instead of his head will vote out a congressman because he has to fill out forms to get fuel cil, although the congressman had nothing to do with it and may be exceptionally wise and able.

Much Political Ado About Little

IN WAR TIME PEOPLE vote with more explosive emotion than in normal times, and Republican politicians are cultivating those irritations now. The irritations of today are the anti-adimnistration votes of tomorrow.

But most political talk seems trivial and unreal now—much talking about very little. Because our welfare for many years to come, our standard of living, the amount of freedom we have, the status of free enterprise, are all to be deeply affected by the outcome of the war and the use that is made of the victory if we win it. The Midwest Democrats and the grassroots Republicans will be affected just as they are being affected now by the war. No place can be isolated any more and our political affairs may be shaped more by those events than by anything else.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

If the doors had been opened and people had gone out quietly, nothing like the tragedy which occurred, could possibly have happened. It is panic which always leads to these disasters, and I wonder if one should not train a certain number of people and dot them around crowded public places to keep people quiet. I was interested the other day to see a report stating that approximately four hundred babies a day are now being born to the wives of our men in our military services. The report states: “Many of these young mothers are away from home with no resources other than the dependents allowance for the enlisted men. The American Red Cross is receiving more than 25,000 requests each month from soldiers’ wives, requesting assistance in maternity care,” When wives_join their husbands for a short time near army camps they are not legal residents and,

By Ernie Pyle

‘such reaction at all. Doctors say the constant living

Sunday, Aug. 3:

lion miles: away.

Out there with Gen. Simmons we went up on a hill to watch the 15-inch guns. Out to sea a dstroyer began plowing along, and the flash of its signals could be easily seen. The destroyer was towing the target, a series of floats the length of a destroyer. The general said: “Stronghold is passing EEE the range)” whatever that Cecil Brown meant. The flash of the 15-inch

I coastal gun is a huge belch of

orange, doubly vivid against the green of palms and rubber trees. All the treetops and foliage where the cannon is hidden thrash about in agony and out of them emerges lazy, dirty-gray smoke. » ” ”

Feels Like : Death

THE WIND fiowing past our faces feels like a brush of expected death, not gentle, but not harsh either. Oddly, too, the backwash of the 15-incher is noticeable around the legs, for the wind bends over the thick, knee-high lalang grass, and its sharp edges scrape roughly at our legs. Even Maj. Gen. Simmons, his eyes glued to his binoculars and still peering through them into the distance, bends down to brush away the sharp, prickly sensation of the grass on his bare knees. “That one,” the major general says, “was Singapore Sal. And it looks like she got a direct hit.” The splash rises like a geyser, even higher than the destroyer towing the target. The target is flat and a shell which passes 60

VIII—'Singapore Sal’ -

I had dinner tonight in the beautiful palm-lined courtyard of Raffles hotel, in Singapore. Each table, set on the grass, had a pink-shaded lamp and a vase of orchids. The Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders band played for the smartly dressed officials and women in gay print dresses. The members of the band wore plaid hats and white coats and kilts, and the war seemed a mil-

Wednesday, Aug. 20: I was picked up this morning by a brigadier general, a major and Lieut. Geoffrey Hallowes, the aid of Maj. Gen. F. Keith Simmons, and we drove for a half hour to Changi to the firing area.

feet over or 40 feet this side of it counts as a direct hit. A plane is swooping around the target area, worrying over it like a hen with her chick. The major general wants to know what the pilot is doing out there. “Is he dive-bombing the target?” he demands with a chuckle at no one in particular, The brigadier, the colonel and the two majors with us laugh heartily. Fourteen times Singapore Sal shrieks in her harpy voice at the potential enemy coming down the China sea. All the guns on Singapore island point out to sea.

# ”

Fortress Reveals Power

t STANDING in the deep grass on the tip of Singapore island, on this hill at Changi, we are looking at all that makes Singapore the “impregnable” fortress of the Far East. The British way of showing great pride is a calm asumption of superiority wrapped up in matterof fact statements, The major general is aided by his swagger stick. He points and jabs in all directions. “This”—20 feet from us is the largest range finder in the world, 100 feet of it, covered with green canvas to blend with the grass so high it nestles up to the underside. “Over there”—a mile to our left, the Straits of Johore. The entrance to the Singapore naval base, a great naval base without a navy. “That thing”—stretching across the entrance of Johore straits is the boom defense. It is a series of steel floats, six feet square, connected by two strips of} chain. It is supposed to prevent enemy ships and submarines from pene-

YANKS IN INDIA GET U. S. CHOW

Crew Works Long Hours To Provide Soldiers Dishes They Like.

By WALTER BRIGGS United Press Staff Correspondent

U. S. AIR BASE, Northern India, (Delayed). —A can of second-grade American pears cost $1.25 at: this out-of-the-way base from which U, S. airmen are operating against the Japanese in Burma and China. I also paid $1 a pound for sausages and $1 a pound for peanut butter imported from the United States. These prices give an idea of the cost of imported foods, which often cost 500 per cent more than at home. Even at this Indian base, American fighters want their “chow” prepared American-style.

Reporter Heads Crew

The problem of food supply for Uncle Sam’s airmen scattered over many airfields in the tea-raising country is being handled by a young lieutenant who used to be a newspaper reporter, and a crew of hardworking enlisted men. Lieut, John E, Uhler Jr., Baton Rouge, La., and his men sometimes work around the clock keeping the Americans fed. Theirs is the job of finding and delivering ' ‘“‘quality grub” from the markets of Calcutta, the vegetable gardens of rural India, and from the long lines of supply that dodge here and there from America. American mess officers and cooks furnish the culinary touch that turns the food into the dishes the men learned to relish in the camps of Mississippi, Oklahoma or New ‘York. To obtain fresh foods for daily use—known by the army as “A” rations—Lieut. Uhler dispatches a truck over an 1800-mile route twice weekly. The drivers buy all the fresh and canned goods they can find. A bargeful of food is purchased monthly at Calcutta, but sometimes it’s necessary to bring in food by twin-engined transport planes from Calcutta. Most of the army canned rations arriving from the United States are held to build up a reserve supply. The quartermaster draws some foods from the British army but this is unsatisfactory because the men say that British ‘ foodstuffs “taste different.” : ——————————————————— : SERVAAS TO SPEAK “Magic From Many Nations” will be the topic of an address by Bert SerVaas tomorrow noon before the

One of the big guns that the British believed made Singapore But all the big guns pointed out to sea.

“impregnable” fortress.

trating the base. “That island there”—a few miles off the entrance to the straits, is Tekong Besar, a bulbous blob of green on the water. “We have quite a few guns out there, too, you know,” says the major general. . #

Malay Has Legend

THE SWAGGER stick traces a circle in the air. “All around us” —among the trees are some of the 15-inch shore batteries. “You see that tree over there,” the general waved toward a towering branchless tree with just a ‘tuft of greenery at the top. “If war comes,” he said, “the .first thing that happens is that tree

2 8

gels chopped down. It’s too good 7

a landmark. I don't know what kind of a tree it is. It is just called the Changi tree, the favorite of everyone in Singapore. The

Malays say if that tree is ever cut down, British rule in this country comes to an end. It is a Malay legend, Nonsense, of course.” The major general's swagger stick jabs toward another island, five or six miles to the right. “That one belong to the Dutch. You see those oil tanks on the island? They were painted silver but we persuaded the Dutch to paint them a darker color. They did but claimed the fuel evaporates more quickly. I told them better to lose a little by evapora--tign than all of it hy bombing.” ‘He chuckles softly. “Almost like

a motto, that, isn’t it? A motto for this 20th century of wars.” ~ Maj. Gen. Simmons is a short, dark, husky, quiet-talking soldier with a close-clipped mustache and eyes that suddenly harden and just as quickly become bland and boyish.

SH Re

Goes to All Wars

. "HE TYPIFIES, too, that strange mission the British seem to have of going to all sorts of places in the world to protect the heritage given them by their grandfathers. He was in the Scottish infantry in the last war, twice decorated in France, in Archangel fighting against the Bolsheviks, in+Ireland during the Black and Tan trouble, in Palestine during the riots, then in Egypt, a military attache in Spain, then in Shanghai when this war broke out. The captain comes clambering up the hill, salutes sharply and hands the major-general a slip of paper. « “Ha,” he says. “Jolly good. Nine hits out of 14 for Singapore Sal.” “And that,” I ask, “is what would happen to the Japs?” , “Quite. Approximately that. But. more difficult, you know, with bombings, going on. But we'll deal with the Japs if they come down here. You know, theyre such funny little devils. They make a plan, all kinds of frightful details to it. Then if something happens not according to plan, they get extraordinarily worked up. Besides, they're most unscrupulous blokes.” The plotting room, where the . firing we've just seen is charted, is down the knoll away from the sea in an artificial hill 40 feet high topped by 20 inches of reinforced concrete and covered with grass. Even-a tree grows out of the top. As we go through the bombproof entrance to this concrete brain of Singapore Sal and her shrill-voiced sisters, the majorgeneral says: “A year ago these guns were just about all we had here. The Japs could have marched right down to Singapore with almost no opposition at all. Ah, yes, there’s no doubt of it at all. Japan certained missed the bus.” (Copyright, 1942, by Random House, Inc.; distributed by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.) TOMORROW: I Into the dark, deadly Malayan jungle where confident British forces stand ready to stop the Japanese.

A Frenchman Gets His Third Cross: This Time in an Egyptian Cemetery

By RICHARD MOWRER

CAIRO, Dec. 15. —Two military cemeteries are being laid out on the dismal, windswept desert battlefield of Bir Hacheim as the final resting place of those Free French soldiers who died there in action against the axis. Bir Hacheim? I have a friend at Bir Hacheim. His name is Joseph Depeser, of Dunkirk. I met him last April, one month before Gen. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel launched his big offensive which brought the axis to within

N70 miles of Alexandria. He was a

little guy, but stocky and strong. His pals called his Jose. I was visiting the Free French at Bir Hacheim. A sandstorm came up suddenly, blotting everything from sight before I had a chance to get back to the place where I was staying. Gropingly, for two hours, I followed telephone wires on the ground which led me to Jose’s battery. It was night. But Jose didn’t mind coming out of his dug-in tent and walking along the right telephone line with me for a mile-and-a-half to where I had my place, to make sure I wouldn’t get lost again. Joseph Depeser, corporal in the Free French artillery, would be 25 now. He was killed on June 4, the

ninth day of the 16 days of Bir Hacheim which have become an epic in the desert war. His 75 was in action against the enemy. It heated up from ceaseless firing and blew up. A piece of the gun smashed into the chest of Joseph Depeser and killed him. Before the.-war Jose was bicycle racing champion of northern France. He was also a featherweight boxer. When the war started he was in a French tank regiment. It so happened that he retreated through his home town, Dunkirk. ‘

“Jose,” his friends told me, “couldn’t find anything of his own house in Dunkirk—there wasn’t even a wall that he could recognize. Even now it hasn’t been found out what became of his family.” A great hate welled up in Jose. He got to England and joined the Free French forces there. He was sent to fight the Italians in Eritrea, then to the Libyan desert. Until the moment he died, he fought the big fight of the Free French at Bir Hacheim, : For it’s just six months ago that one of the most magnificent epics of the bitter war in the parched desert came to a close, when, under command of Gen. Koenig, the remnants of the Bir Hacheim garrison fought their way through the en-

Now You'te Going to Wear Raincoats From Movie Film

By Science Service WASHINGTON, Dec. 15—Thousands of miles of movie film will soon be worn by Americans in the guise of raincoats and other py-

roxylin-coated fabrics, because ofa recent WPB restriction on the use of vinyl resin and pyroxylin for civilian products, reports Wells. Martin, head commercial specialist in

CARL VESTAL HEADS CENTRAL LABOR UNION

Carl Vecsal, president of the Building Trades council, was named president of the Indianapolis Central Labor union last night. He succeeds Louis C. Schwartz. Other new officers are Lou Barth, vice president; D. R. Barneclo, recording secretary; George R. Smith, financial sécretary-treasurer; Arthur Huhn, Frank Hockett and Beri Persell, trustees; Mrs. Mable Lowe, statistician; Clyde McCormack, organizer; James Leach, sergeant-at-arms; Louis E. Decker and Mr. Mc-

Cormack, delegates to the Indiana at, Co-(8t tion of Labor cons

1 the protective coating section of the

WPB chemical branch. Rubber in civilian fabrics was replaced by vinyl resin synthetics. When this became ‘a critical war material, production again ‘shifted, this time to pyroxylin-coated fabrics, a nitro-cellulose product. But as America goes into action on an increasingly wide front, more nitrocellulose is needed to make ex-

plosives’ and civilian use of prime nitro-cellulose has been cut by half. * All movie film scrap is now avail-

‘able to fill the gap. Old movies, cut-

tings, retakes—all are being re~ claimed, for chemically it is the same nitro-cellulose, a compound of cotton and nitric acid. Under present ‘conditions, WPB officials here expect that film scrap will be sufficient to tide us over. Later it will be necessary for the ingenuity of laboratory workers to

‘produce other substitutes. Practical

ly every laboratory in this field is now working on the problem, it is reported. An oil combined with some resin will probably be next in the parade. ot Products for waterprot

circling enemy and rejoined ' the British 8th army. For 16 days the Free French had held out at Bir Hacheim, the south-ern-most bastion of the British El Gazala line, and by holding out they had thrown Rommel’s offensive to Tobruk out of gear. One-third of the Fighting French brigade did not get out. Corp. Joseph Depeser of Dunkirk is one of those. A few weeks ago while the 8th army was driving the axis back to El Agheila, some of the Bir Hacheim veterans returned to the place which is now to be the shrine of those who died there. Ninety-three of the dead were still unburied, withered corpses’ on that scorched rise of ground that is littered with burnt out carcasses of trucks and tanks, sprinkl with Jagged splinters of shell sand bombs, dotted with craters. Of these corpses, 32 couldn't be identified. The others were identi-

‘fiable only by the initials on the guns: by their sides.

‘So now they are being buried decently with crosses to mark their resting places. : For my friend, Joseph Depeser, it will be his third cross: He was decorated with the Croix de Guerre and posthumously awarded the Croix de Ia Liberation.

FOUNDER LAUDS WAR ACTIVITIES OF LIONS

“Our clubs are doing an outstanding job toward helping win the war and building a new world for the future,” Melvin Jones of Chicago, founder and secretary general of ‘he Lions Club, told the international board of clirectors of the organization in session yesiorday at the Claypool hotel. In his repott .to the board; Mr. Jones enumerated war activities of the Lions as selling war bonds, providing necessities: for the armed forces, honoring service men’s families, providing ambulances and other safety equipment, conducting salvage campaigns and establishing blood plasma banks. ;

WAACS. TO. PERFORM SPECIALIST TASKS

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (U. P.).}|

—Members of the women's army auxiliary corps will replace enlisted men needed for combat duty by doing such air force specialist jobs as parachute rigging, bombsight re-

pairing and glider instructing, the, war department announced yester-] {

day.

DARLAN USEFUL IN EMERGENCY

British Are Satisfied His Power Is Limited and

Role Temporary. By VICTOR GORDON LENNOX

and The Chicago Daily News, Imc.

ing public opinion since last Thurs= day’s secret debate, it is evident that parliament is now satisfied that the employment of Adm. Jean Darlan

States is fully determined that he

shall not be allowed to retain or take advantage of the much inflated status he has assumed recently. Political opinion is now more con=cerned with practical questions con= cerning the future administration of the vast territories of French North Africa. Even France when fully powerful never attempted to run these as a single unit. What the Paris government under peaceful conditions could not achieve, Darlan is not likely to be able to do singlehanded. Constructive thought here is proceeding along the lines indicated by your correspondent in his Dec. 10 dispatch, namely, that it would be

| most useful for the United States

and Britain to relieve Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lieut. Gen. Mark W. Clark of all political preoccupations by appointing senior diplomats, or eminent politicians, to posts similar to that of the British minister of state to Cairo. They would be responsible’ for insuring that the administrations of all these vast territories were conducted efficiently by Frenchmen with the fullest regard for the security considerations imposed by the military’ situation.

HOLD EVERYTHING

The WAAC sie wheuléd ta re} oon.»

. LONDON, Dec. 15.—From observe

was inevitable and that the United