Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 April 1943 — Page 21

FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 1943

Hoosier Vagabond

.SIDI- BEL-ABBES, ALGERIA —Here is the home of the renowned French foreign legion. Probably, over the years, the most famous fighting unit in the world. ‘The legion comprises the only true mercenaries left hig existence. They'll fight whoever their leaders tell

them to; on either side with the same emotions. A Legionnaire lives with but one high goal—death on the battlefield. On the walls of one of the barracks is inscribed this message from a former commander: “You, Legionnaires, are soldiers made to die. I send you where you die.” The message is looked upon with reverence, almost as holy. Like a good many things in i: this world, the legion isn’t as romantic when zou get close to it as it is from a distance. It does have a fine fighting history, no ques-

| tion of that. Ang life in the legion is much more

modern than most of us have thought. , And yet it is an empty life, by most standards. It Is a bleak life. Men with fine minds, who for obscure reasons go into the ranks of the legion, find that after a few years their minds have dwindled to a common denominator of mere existence,

10,000 Men in Ranks

THEY SAY THAT mest Americans who have Joined the legion can’t stick out their five-year enlistments. Before the war Americans and British could get out of the legion with a little diplomatic pressure. When a German enlisted he was stuck for five years, no matter how he hated it. But Germans don’t hate it the way Americans and Englishmen do. The legion consists of about 10,000 men. In this war it fought the Germans in France and in Norway. Its ‘record, as usual, was superb. After the fall of France it withdrew to Algeria, its life-long home. Last year it fought against the British in Syria—it

Inside Indianapolis By Lowel! Nussbaum

that it takes a lot of work, and at present there is

CHIEF BEEKER denies the grapevine rumor around town that he was “taken in” by a bogus “Polish countess” who appeared at a Shrine party .the other night. The way we get it, the FBI phoned the chief and said they heard a bogus countess was coming to town to appear at‘ the Shrine party, and they asked the chief if he would have some éops * present. “I'll be there myself and I'll keep an eye on her,” promised Chief Beeker. The boys say he was placed on the reception committee and escorted the “countess” from the ‘Claypool to the Murat temple. And they say he stood nearby, listening to every word while. she spoke, and that he was just as surprised as the rest of the spectators when the “countess” removed “her” wig and revealed “herself” as a female impersonator. Of course, that’s only the story the way we get it from the boys. The chief insists he knew there was “something funny about her all the time.” :

Writing to Soldiers

EVERY NOW and then we get a letter from someone who has read that service men like to get letters and who would like the names of some service men to whom they can write. Such letters are a bit difficult to answer. In general, the army discourages soldiers from answering letters from unknown correspondents because such correspondence affords an easy method of espionage. However, a small group of local women, dubbing themselves the Hoosier Moms, does correspond with soldiers who otherwise would receive little or no mail. The group, headed by Mrs. E. B. Worley of the Marion county defense council,

* got acquainted with some service men at picnics last

summer and found several homesick boys. When the boys left, the Hoosier Moms wrote them and developed

. a regular correspondence. In each letter, the Moms

inclose newspaper clippings they think might interest the boys. The only trouble with such a program is

Washington

WASHINGTON, April 2.—Word filters out that President Roosevelt hopes to bring the senate, and members of the house, into closer play regarding = preparations for after the war. We may see some rather marked changes in practice in that respect, as the united nations discussions become more frequent. It would not be surprising to’ see the president make it a habit to place members of the senate, or house, or ‘both, on American delegations to future united na“tions conferences. There will be many such conferences. Already in mind, as President Roosevelt has indicated, is the food conference—to be followed, he. hopes, by a conference “on relief, another on finances, and perhaps still an“other on minerals, metals and oil. He has discussed with his close friends the desira-

+ bility of finding senators and representatives who . would be willing to serve in such conferences, and who “would feel free to devote the time that would be. required by the complicated nature of these meetings.

F. D. R. Knows Why Wilson Failed

. + FIRST OF ALL, Mr. Roosevelt is sharply conscious

of the failure of Woodrow Wilson. He recognizes that the failure of President Wilson was primarily in his

rélations with the senate. Woodrow Wilson was an exceptionally astute stu-

‘dent of the American congressional system. He wrote

one of the standard works on it in his earlier days.

‘Yet as president he seemed to overlook completely the -

senate’s role in foreign relations. * Woodrow Wilson had sufficient popular support in the country to have sustained him through the League .of Nations controversy under normal conditions: Pub-

lic pressure in the beginning was preponderantly on the side of the league.

My Day

SEATTLE, Wash., Thursday.—We took the plane Py nigh$ from Minneapolis, Minn., and were relieved ‘to find that at no time along the way were all the . seats taken, If was a comfortable trip and when we “got out ab Billings, Mont., for our first whiff of £4 morning air, the whole sky was a brilliant red. I have a very soft spot.in my “heart for the view from the municipal airport there., I always ‘look at the statue of the horse with his scout rider, and think what this country must have been like when the scouts first rode over these wide plains. : I hope that a great many people are reading a summary, at least, of the the ‘report of the national resources planning board, “has i tted i Soupress. It

. “seven. votes short of the necessary two-thirds.

"now in the. services that they shall return to real

doesn’t make any difference to the legion whom it fights. Today the legion is scattered. Some of its units -are bottled up by the Japanese in French Indo-China. A few are fighting the Germans in Tunisia. The rest are. spotted over North Africa, preparing for future ‘battles. Fewer than 2000 men are here at headquarters. The morning the Americans landed in North Africa, the legion started north on the 50-mile run to Oran to join the fighting. But they never arrived. Allied airplanes bombed and machine-gunned them along the highways, and they had to turn back.

A ‘Shrine’ for Americans

THEIR BURNED-OUT trucks still lie slog the roadside. Fortunately, there were almost no casualties. The Legionnaires feel badly that they didn’t get: to Oran in time. Not because they dislike Americans, but simply because they missed a fight. ; Now, the legion is hand-in-glove with the Americans, and readying itself to join in the great fight on our side. The soldiers are impatient and itching to get going. Sidi-bel-Abbes has become practically a shrine for Americans over here. More than 400 American officers go through the legion’s home quarters every week. The legion puts on parades for visiting American gen-

erals.. American doughboys and foreign legioft privates |

walk the streets together and sit in cafes, trying their best to talk to each other. Discipline in the legion is probably the strictest in the world. It isn’t just brutal discipline; it is what professional soldiers point to admiringly as the absolute ideal in military precision of conduct. There is no sloppiness of dress, no relaxing of respect. Soldiers salute an officer clear across the street. They salute officers sitting at tables 50 yards away. Neglect to salute costs a Legionnaire eight days in jail. “They salute me, too. They would even if they knew I was only a correspondent, for I'm in uniform and it’s the uniform they salute.

a shortage of help. Some women who volunteer to assist soon lose heart when they learn their identity must remain anonymous. The boys just reply in care of Hoosier Moms, at the defense counsel offices. P. S. Mrs. Worley could use a few more Moms, You can get her at Ir. 7691.

A Letter From Kentucky

HEINY MUELLER, Center township trustee, sent a letter to the judge of the circuit court of Simpson county, Ky., the other day, asking authorization, to return an indigent family seeking relief here. Back came 3 letter signed by the judge: “We do not know the family. In fact, never heard of them. We did not send them away and I am not saying for them to return for it makes no difference to us. In Kentucky we have no rules and regulations as to the coming or going from the state. We are not having anything to do with it.” . . . You can look for more feminine street railway operators soon. Six feminine bus operators and one streetcar operator are in the final stages of their training. The two women operators employed several months ago have done very well, street railway officials say, with no accidents charged against them and with the public accepting them readily.

Around the Town

PERRY MEEK, the insurance agent, is back from Florida where he spent several weeks recuperating from a recent illness. He’s looking fit as a fiddle again. . . . Lieut. John Barnett of the naval public relations office leaves Monday for sea indoctrination training at Dartmouth. . , . Larry Sogard, assistant public relations director of the gas company, has

resigned, effective April 15, to take a position with] :

Keeling & Co., Inc., advertising agency. Eddie Demlow, assistant sales manager of the gas company, will assume the public relations job for the duration. . .« John Trefz, assistant secretary-treasurer of “the Indiana railroad, devotes every Sunday afternoon to writing letters to his four nephews in the service. John says the boys get a big kick out of hearing even the most trivial news from home.

By Raymond Clapper:

But Wilson ignored the senate. He forgot to take any senators to Paris with him. He had recognized the Republicans only by placing one diplomat on the delegation, Henry White, who had only a faint Republican party tradition behind him. That deadly opposition of a frustrated and offended senate, and nothing else, beat Woodrow Wilson. After a year’s battle, the treaty lost. by only

All of that President Roosevelt has thought about a great deal. It has been so much in his mind that it may have deterred him from moving as directly as he otherwise might have moved. He has wished to use extreme care to avoid any misstep that might bring similar disaster from the senate. He was nervous about the Ball resolution chiefly because of the damage that would result if the senate failed to cast a two-thirds vote for it or for some strong substitute.

Senate Backing Absolutely Essential

IN OTHER WORDS, it is recognized around the White House that America’s future place inthe world will be determined, not only by what this government and other governments can agree upon, but by what two-thirds of the American senate will agree to. In practical terms, that means that the administration must have a program that will have the support of senators: like George of Georgia, Tydings of Maryland and Vandenberg of Michigan—to suggest types that I have heard mentioned by some friends of the administration. You have to find something that will carry them along. The great value of the Ball- Burton-Hatch-Hill resolution is that it brings that fundamental question to a head. We had been getting the cart somewhat before the horse. What will two-thirds of the senate vote for, in the way of recommendations now? That is the important thing for everybody to know, both here .and abroad.

By Ernie Pyle k

Jap Blockade Slowly Draining

Chungking Doesn't Get Enough War Equipment To Launch Offensive

This is the fourt

just returned from the Far East. -

of & sirlurial utiles by A. 7% Steele who has

By A. T. STEELE Copyright, 1943, by The-Indianapolis Times and The Chicago Daily News, Ine.

WE CANNOT close our eyes to the fact that the Japanese blockade is slowly draining China’s military and economic strength and that real relief is not yet in sight. Though the flow of airborne supplies to China has nearly doubled in volume during the past few months, the Chinese are not receiving sufficient materials to maintain

even the status quo. It would take a fleet of airplanes much bigger than is now flying the Himalayas to enable China just to hold her own. Under the circumstances, there is little reason to hope that China

can take the offensive on anything like an important scale until the

. allies have reopened a satisfactory

overland line of supply. That is still some time off. The best that can be done, in the meantime, is to nourish China to the maximum degree possible with the largest number of transport and combat planes that can be spared for that theater, An air offensive ‘is possible even from a blockaded China. The materials which the Chinese army is receiving from us by air consist chiefly of raw materials for Chinese arsenals and specialized equipment like radio sets and instruments. In the line of finished war materials, like firearms, ammunition and armament, the Chinese are getting considerably more from the Japanese than they are from their allies.

Every so often, puppet Chinese

forces surrender en masse to the .

Chungking government, bringing

* their Japanese equipment with

them.

Their Equipment Poor

SINCE PEARL HARBOR, the Japanese have withdrawn several divisions of troops from China, though their garrisons in that country still total well over 600,000 men. Against this, the Chinese have disposed an | army of -more than 4,000,000 soldiers, with others in reserve.In view of this disparity, some persons ask why the Chinese do not take the offensive. They do not remember that the Chinese are equipped only with rifles, machine guns, hand grenades and very limited quantities of artillery. The Chinese are practically without tanks or big guns. They are woefully short of motor transport and are lacking parts and fuel to maintain properly what they have. Their air fdrce is small—much too small for sustained offensive action on ga large scale.

These Chinese aces have given a good account of themselves against the invader, but their airforce is small=much too small for sustained offensive action on a large scale.

Times

-— S i : D EN a Mh

ime’s Vitalit

China’s vast army Is equipped only with rifles, machine guns, hand grenades and very limited quantities

of artillery.

Another distressing aspect of the Chinese military picture is that undernourishment is slowly undermining the vitality of many of China's best divisions. An army cannot march and fight with full efficiency on a diet of rice. And yet that, with an in- . adequate addition of vegetables, is about all that most Chinese soldiers ever see. Meat, for the soldier, is a great rarity. Nutritional ailments and diseases like malaria are endemic. ; Such deficiencies as these Have - never been uncommon in China, but they have been seriously aggravated by the blockade. 2 8 f

Must Save Strength

OF COURSE, it is impossible to . generalize about the Chinese army. There are among China's divisions a number of crack units which are fully equipped and well fed. They are in the minority. It is doubtless true, too, that China, with reasonable foresight, ‘has laid away certain reserves of war materials and fuel as an insurance against possible emergencies in the future. This is a precaution which any country,

~ would take under the circum-.

stances. The Chinese are willing to draw on these reserves for an offensive action that will get them somewhere, such, for instance, as a drive on Burma in collaboration with the allies. But they see no

"point in dissipating their precious -

—and very limited — stocks on operations of an indecisive nature. It would be easy for them -to shoot away in a few days as much as they are receiving from us in a month. Something, they point out, has to be held back with which to defend the country against further Japanese invasions, should they come. The most important offensive action which the Chinese have

' attempted since Pearl Harbor was

the drive against the mid-Yangtze port of Ichang. In the process, they paid a terrible price. Nothing could better illustrate the difficulties that blockade has imposed * on the Chinese army. Ichang is a key point straddling the main supply line between central and west China. If the Chinese could gain permanent possession of Ichang, their food problem would be

considerably improved, for it would then be possible to ship ‘rice and other products from central China, where there is sometimes a surplus, to west China, where there is sometimes a shortage. Present connections between the two areas are roundabout and tenuous. : ” » » Taste of Victory

DISPLAYING GREAT gallant- * ry, the Chinese captured Ichang from an ehemy force inferior in numbers but vastly superior in equipment. This victory gave a momentary thrill of inspiration to the whole country, for China had waited long for victories. But it did not last long. The Japanese, favored by excellent lines of communication and unlimited reserves of armament, brought up reinforcements. They deluged the Chinese defenders with aerial bombs. They bombarded them with gas shells. They brought up tanks and gunboats. y The Chinese, after a brief but tenacious resistance against this mechanized onslaught, to which they could offer no barrier but flesh and blood, were obliged to withdraw. But not all of them came back. Most had died. A Chinese general told me afterward that this brief and bloody offensive effort had cost: “We used .two divisions (between 10 and 15,000 men) in that action. All officers above the rank of regimental commander were killed. Sixty per cent of all battalion commanders were killed. “All that was left of those two divisions were 2000 men. Our losses were more than 10 to one in relation to Japanese losses. “Do you wonder, after that, why we hesitate to take the offensive against such ferrific odds.” Human life is cheap in China, but not so cheap that Chinese commanders afe anxious to risk their underarmed manpower in suicidal maneuvers against a foe armed to the teeth with everything that modern, science can

produce.

” » ”

Arsenals Are at Work HIDDEN AWAY in the fast-

nessess of west China are a num- |

ber of small but excellently

But more than 4,000,000 soldiers, like those pictured here, are eager to fight,

equipped arsenals. American mil= itary men who have visited them speak highly -of the efficiency with which they are run. These. plants are producing rifles, machine guns, ammunition, trench mortars, bombs, grenades ° and an small artillery piece. They: are ‘able to provide

a considerable part of China's

needs in the line: of small arms—= but by no means all of it.

The sho of raw materials is so. acute, that not all of even these plants are working at full capacity. Much of the lend-lease stuff which is being flown into China consists of materials for these arsenals. Generally speaking, the military situation in China has been stage nant since Pearl Harbor. 5 The Japanese have laynched several fierce offensives of a limited nature, but generally for the purpose of breaking up cons centrations of Chinese troops rather than to acquire new terrie

tory. The Japs have alsd vigo: pushed “mopping-up” opera in the guerrilla regions behind their lines, with only indifferent results. 5 While the danger is ever present, there is .yet no indication - the enemy is preparing for An attempt at a knockout offensit in China. He has too much business elsewhere. $2 There are who cri the Chungking generals they have deployed a part of their crack forces along the frontier of the. territory controlled by the Chinese red army. Whether the strength "so ime mobilized would materially alter the strategic pictute in Asia if it were stationed elsewhere is, how= ever, very doubtful. | ‘ There are others who ask why Chinese guerrillas are not more active, The Chinese reply that problems of supply and co-ordinae tion are excruciatingly difficult. Moreover, they come back with the question: “What is the record of allied guerrillas in Burma and in Africa? Is it any better than ours?” Maybe they have something there.

TOMORROW:

. How | . ' China fight? gis. ne a :

OLD FREIGHTER BLASTS A SUB

But Didn’t Stick Around to

See If U-Boat Went

Down. WASHINGTON, April 2 (U. P.).

—The navy told today how a naval

gun crew aboard a 30-year-old U. S. merchantman fought a point-blank gun duel in mid-Atlantic with a German submarine and left the Uboat “dead in the water.”

The merchantman Columbian

didn’t stick around to find out whether the submarine was going to sink, but the gun crew knew: it had caused serious damage. One

shot scored a direct hit just below

the sub’s conning tower and caused a violent explosion.

So intense was the blast that the

radio operator of the Columbian

thought his craft had ‘been torpe-

The administration will have difficulty in talking] sed and sent out a hurried distress

turkey with foreign governments unless it can show that senate sentiment supports its general position.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

summary should be familiar to every Gtizen of our democracy. The report is divided in two parts. One develops our social security program, so that there will be a real economic level of security, below which no human being in our nation shall ever be allowed to live. The other part is the really exciting part, because it deals specifically with new: economic factors that will have to be considered if the promise made to the boys

jobs, is to become a reality. > It gives you glimpses of the’ possibilities of world planning and it seems to accept for us all the very obvious fact that this future planning must: be for the good. of all people and not just for the good of the United States, or for: any group of people in any country, . Xi is obvious that there will be many opponents BO a oe i resi Dupin iol]

months ago. The submarine spotted on the surface in the late afternoon. As the sub moved at top speed to close range, the Columbian maneuvered to present a minimum target.

message, Which Subsspuently was cancelled.

Opened Fire First The engagement occurred some

Before the submarine’s crew could

make effective use of deck guns, the opened fire with machine guns that] swept the U-boat’s deck. Then the merchantman’s deck gun opened fire. A blinding column of orange flame flared skyward.

Columbian’s armed guard

“The submarine was in a crippled

condition @s the Columbian sped away to safety,” the navy said.

One navy gunner suffered a blis-

tered arm when a tracer shell grazed him, and the safety jacket

gn sholber Sunner was Suh

Hoosier Finds

"You Grow Up

Fast’ Manning Ship's Guns

By NAT A. BARROWS

A UNITED KINGDOM PORT, April 2—Above the clatter of welldeck winches winging cargo into freight cars, the bluejacket from Indiana gazed reflectively overside at the dock wallopers stowing bluish gray objects, row, upon row, in one of those tiny railroad boxcars the English call goods wagons. “Makes you feel kinda important in this war to see those cookies going ashore safe and knowing that you helped get ’em here,” said he. “you freeze your ears off out there

in the North Atlantic and you wonder sometimes about it all as you sit on the edge of eternity wondering if your number is about ready to come up. You know that if a Heinie torpedo gets anywhere near your old hooker of a freighter you're going to get blown higher than high —what with that kinda cargo under you.” The cargo was nothing less than high ' explosive bombs made in

was| America. By now, some if not all

of that particular cargo already has turned Nazi targets into rubbish.

‘Get Plenty Practical’

“Yeah, you get plenty p about life when you are sitting top of stich a load of bundles for Germany,” said the bluejacket from

you'fe just a kid when you sign up in the navy and maybe you've never been away from home before. ‘But trips such as we make and

overnight. Eo i fot

you sure enough grown falistic

are actually, theyre that serious about this job.” - In their own quarters below, separated from the freighter’s complement of merchant seamen, other members of this armed-guard unit commanded by Ensign Benjamin Wardlow of Arabi, Ga. lounged about exchangifg scuttle butt gossip, such as the heavy bonuses and extra pay due their merchant marine shipmates. They speculate about their chances - for ‘really getting a crack at a German sub on their next trip and they talk about home and about sweethearts and about .things men talk about when they have faced death together. Today they are back at sea again, back standing those bleak watches fore and’ aft, manning guns every second against the steel Wolves prowling Atlantic supply lines between America and Britain. They are good lads, these fighting men of Ensign Wardlow and the navy is getting an excellent return on the time and money it has spent training ' them. Included in this particular armedguard crew are ‘Seamen William Stevenson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Stevenson, Camby, Ind, and Charles Rupe, Winshester, Ind.

Your Blood Is Needed

‘April quota for Red Cross Blood Plasma Center — 5400 donors. | Donors so far this month— 113. Yesterday's quota—200, Yesterday's donors—113. ~~ You can help meet the quota by calling LI-1441 for an ap-| pointment or going to the

ARMY SEEKING MALARIA CURE

Great Push Is on to Find Chemical Answer to Disease.

By Science Service NEW YORK, April 2.—A great push to find a chemical remedy for malaria “which will not have the deficiencies of quinine, plasmochin

Paul F. Russell of the medical department of the Army of the United States reported in the Hermann M. Biggs memorial lecture at the New York Academy of Medicine here last night. : “The need is apparent,” he said, “when it is recalled that not one of this trio will eure with certainty, not one is a true prophylactic drug, and not one is of much value in

It seems reasonable to hope that a more effective antimalarial will- be developed in the not too distant future. ” Spraying Effective

in 1942 proved that the chain of malaria infection can be broken by this ‘method in typical smail villages at a per capita cost of about five cents a year, which is econom-

persons. throughout the world “each

sell stated. In such areas as Burma,

and atabrine” is going forward, Col. | .

the control of community malaria. |

Experiments in rural South-India|

| year and there are at least 300,000, | 000 cases of malarial fever, Ol. Rus-

New Guinea and the Solomons, ma-| laria is by all odds the greatest dis- |.

. Claims Sherman tS * A ‘Conservative’ ALBANY, N. Y., April 2 (U. P), —Clark Gaylord Judd., 24, a dise tant cousin of President Roosevelt, said yesterday that Gen. Shere ‘man was too conservative. “War is worse than hell,” declared Judd, a pharmacist’s mate,

first class, on detached duty with the marines.

his’ cousin, Daniel Delano, put in two. months at the marine aviae tion base hospital, Henderson field, Guadalcanal. After suffering four attacks of malaria and one of fever, he was sent back to the Unfteg States: w recuperate.

NEW OCS 1S OPENED

WASHINGTON, April 2 (U, P.).~ Secretary.of War Henry L. Stimson today anhounced the establishment of an officers candidate school for the judge advocate general's departe ment at the University of Michigan,

HOLD EVERYTHING

ease hazard to our troops and is in| CERRE

Judd, in Albany for a visit with.