Syracuse-Wawasee Journal, Volume 37, Number 37, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 26 June 1942 — Page 3

Postal Censorship Ferrets Out i Messages From Enemy Agents

xperts in the office of censorship in New York city, where foreign mail is examined, leave no stone unturned to make sure that no messages to aid the enemy go out in the mails. All incoming foreign mail is carefully examined by a staff of expert workers. In the picture at the right an expert in the office of censorship uses a mirror to examine the inside of an envelope.

A general view in the office of postal censorship in New York ■city. The employees in this office are on to all the tricks of the , spies, and their bag of tricks is a pretty big one.

BBsI lk S Mk%,v, '• -—’"-jittL 9 % X. 9| Lt. Col. Harry O. Compton, district postal censor, and head of the office of postal censorship in New York, shoivn at his desk.

Ig- ” -1111111 g». jS ' lJ^^J> ■ ' r ' >jp|p«||ff> : > 'X-.^ ' '' ' It would take a smart spy to get his message past this assembly of expert spy busters in the scientific section. Suspect messages are given an especially careful going over to discover any hidden code or invisible writing meant to convey a message to the enemy. Here a worker is developing invisible writing discovered in a letter—and you can be sure the letter did not go through. iis '1 BEEh W|^B|?||| HI ~ Hard at work deciphering a code message found in a letter. Things like this give the experts lots of work to do.

s II ||| ' |l|| H l' > $ Wm •

m A girl worker uses a magnifying f glass to examine a letter written i in Dutch. She is searching for a possible code message.

SYRACUSE WAWASEE JOURNAL

WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Russians Cheered by U. S. War Pact Pledging Support of Second Front; Nation’s Scrap Rubber Pile Grows; U. S. Information Units Consolidated (EDITOR’S NOTE—When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) . Released by Western Newspaper Union. -

ALEUTIANS: Foggy Details When the Jap radio announced that Nipponese troops had made a landing on the Aleutian islands there was no immediate denial by the U. S. government For the navy had to wait for the fog to clear in that area to check these Claims. When the weather turned better it was found that enemy landings had been made on the island of Attu, at the extreme tip of the island group which stretches off Alaska in the Pacific ocean. Also Jap ships had put into Kiska harbor on an island nearer the North American mainland. Navy “operations” were called into play immediately to squelch any threat of a Jap drive for Alaska. It was believed that the landings took place at the time of the first raid on Dutch Harbor and about the same time as the beginning of the Midway island battle. Rear Admiral John H. Towers, U. S. navy chief of the bureau of aeronautics, classed the Jap thrust as of “no real importance” and figured that it could even become a liability to the enemy. WAR INFORMATION: Gets an Overhauling At long last there came word from Washington that all the information functions of the government agencies were being consolidated by the creation of an “Office of War Information” to be headed by Elmer Davis, well-known writer and radio commentator. All the duties and activities of the Office of Facts and Figures, the Office of Government Reports, the division of information for the Office of Emergency Management and the foreign information service of the co-ordinator of information, will be under the authority of the new office, according to a White House announcement. Further, Director Davis will have “full authority to eliminate all overlapping and duplication and to dis- | continue in any department any informational activity which is not -Tv I* o --' JIIB | I *9bL jf|§§ BYRON PRICE To collaborate with Davis. necessary or useful to the war effort . . .” Under policies laid down by the President this office will “issue directives to all departments and agencies of the government with respect to their informational services.” This means that while the various agencies and departments will still continue to operate, their activities must now conform to such direction as the Office of War Information may give them. The presidential order provided for close collaboration between Byron Price, director of censorship, and Davis to “facilitate the prompt and full dissemination of all-avail-able information which will not give aid to the enemy.” HOUSING: ‘Conversion Loans * With a term as long as seven years, a new type of “war conversion loan” up to $5,000 is available for converting an existing structure into additional living accommodations for war workers in war production areas. This new type loan was announced by Federal Housing Commissioner Ferguson at the same time it was revealed that during the first five months of 1942, 70,225 new dwellings were started in war housing areas. New home programs generally are from 35 to 45 per cent lower than a year ago.

HIGHLIGHTS • • • in the week ’ s news

COMMUNICATION: The house ways and means committee has approved an increase of at least 50 per cent ih the tax on telephone and telegraph charges of all kinds.", RESIGNATION: In order that a younger man might take his place, Sir Harry Luke, British governor of the Fiji islands.and high commissioner of the western Pacific since 1938, has resigned.

RUSSIA: Diplomacy and Death In Russia, even as the “citizens army” took up arms to defend to the death their city of Sevastopol, word came from Washington, Moscow and London that gave them cause for cheer although their immediate fate was darkened. It was the word that the Soviet Union and the United States had reached a “full-understanding” with regard to the urgent tasks of opening a second European front in 1942. After a conference between Russian Foreign Commissar Molotov and President Roosevelt in Washington, methods of speeding U. S. war aid to Russia were developed and the fundamental problems of post-war co-operation to safeguard “peace and security” were decided upon. The state department of the United States had further good news for VYACHESLAV MOLOTOV In full accord with F. D. R. the Russian people. It was that a lease-lend agreement similar to that signed betmeen the U. S. and Britain.as well as China, had been entered into with the Soviet. The good news from London was that Russia and Britain had signed a 20-year mutual assistance pact But in the Sevastopol area and around Kharkov the Nazis continued their pounding at Russian lines. Civilian morale was good, said Moscow reports. BOTTOMS UP: For Jap Navy Eight Japanese aircraft carriers —at least half of that country’s known carrier power—were sunk or so badly damaged in the Midway and Coral Sea battles that they will be unfit for early action, informed naval sources have estimated. Based on communiques issued by the U. S. army and navy and Allied headquarters, capital ship losses of Japan and the United States from December 7 up to and including the Midway battle are as follows: JAPAN 1 Battleship 1 Seaplane tender 4 Aircraft carriers 16 Cruisers UNITED STATES 1 Battleship 1 Seaplane tender 1 Aircraft carrier 1 Cruiser ' The official communiques concern only those ships whose loss is unquestioned. Unofficial reports include ships whose loss, though unverified, is fairly certain. TREASURE HUNT: This Time Rubber Although it was only one cent a pound, that fact didn’t stop Americans from stripping their homes, garages and factories of every available pound of idle and (to them) useless rubber. The rubber salvage program got underway upon President Roosevelt’s order. Collected by the nation’s . gasoline filling stations, the scrap rubber is being transported to central collection points by petroleum industry trucks and sold to the Rubber Recovery corporation. Undersecretary of War Patterson reported that army and navy crude rubber requirements during the 21 months after April 1, 1942, will be 800,000 tons, compared with the present U. S. reserve of 600,000 tons. He said he hoped the difference would be mr de by the sym thetic program. WPB Rubber Coordinator Newhall stated that the synthetic prograin will produce 30,000 tons in the rest of 1942 and 300,000 tons during 1943.

HEfROES: Visiting Washington on a tour of the nation in behalf of war bond sales 15 American and British war heroes paid their respects to President Roosevelt and congress. At the White House, President and Mrs. Roosevelt and British Ambassador Lord Halifax were on hand to greet them. On Capitol Hill they were greeted in the house chamber and by senate members.

VENGEANCE: Promised Czechs By President In a broadcast from London, Czechoslovakian President Eduard Benes promised that, following the war, military law, including the death penalty, will be imposed on all Nazis responsible for the “bestial destruction” in the Czech nation. Benes declared flatly that on the first day of victory the policy of

personal responsibility would be carried out mercilessly against all exponents of the Nazi party and the Reich government on Czech territory, beginning with the former protector, Baron von Neurath, all leaders of the Gestapo and SS formations, and all

Eduard Benes

Germans in the political and military administration of Bohemia and Moravia.” In Washington, Jan Masaryk, Czechoslovakian vice premier and foreign minister, urged destruction of “several” German villages by air bombardment in retaliation for the wiping out of the Czech town of Lidice. (Lidice was eradicated as a reprisal measure for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich, Reich protector for Bohemia and Moravia.) “To my mind,” said Masaryk, “it should be ten teeth for one and ten eyes for one.” CHINESE FRONT: Nancheng Falls On the Chinese front the Japanese drive in Kiangsi province had advanced 100 miles and forced the defenders to evacuate the town of Nancheng, bringing the Japanese within 125 miles of closing the gap between their eastern and western forces. Dispatches stated that the Chinese had recaptured the town of Tsungjen, approximately half way between Nanchang, Jap Kiangsi base, and- Nancheng. A Domei news agency report claimed that Japanese troops, advancing rapidly, have occupied Kwangfeng, 18 miles southwest of Yushan. Japanese forces northeast of Wuning were reported to be under severe attack, and Anyi, west of the Jap base of Nanchang, was under seige. SYNTHETIC RUBBER: And ‘Cracking’ U. S. chemists have perfected a new petroleum “cracking” process for making high-grade aviation gasoline that should also help break the bottleneck in synthetic rubber production, according to the War Production board. The same refining plant turning out aviation gas would be able also to turn out butadiene, a vital ingredient in making synthetic rubber, according to this announcement. Although both these products come from the same petroleum base, up to now they have been produced in separate operations. Plants which can handle the production of 120,000 tons of synthetic rubber from butadiene will be in use before January 1, 1943, but until this new process was discovered, there were grave doujpts as to whether or not a Sufficient supply of butadiene to keep them going could be supplied. It is believed that the new process will permit just that. LIBYA: Tanks at Tobruk Bir Hacheim in Libya had fallen and the British thought this might slow somewhat the desert thrust of the Nazi forces aimed at Tobruk but on came the tank army of Col. Gen. Erwin Rommel. Forgotten was the fact that last year the British had held that city .throughout the Libyan campaign and had made history during its siege. There were mine fields and strong barbed wire defenses stretching almost 15 miles around the city and at its back door was the Mediterranean sea. But it was at the center of the land front that Rommel threw his heaviest tanks. These were met by British soldiers at the controls of American-made “General Grant” tanks, most successful weapons yet found to harass the mechanized units of the enemy. There was some speculation at first as to whether *r not Rommel might try a flank thrust to reach the sea to the east or west of the city but from the start of the battle the fate of Tobruk hinged on a frontal drive itself. This fact stood out, experts said, because Rommel was intent on taking the city itself and thus avoid the risk of leaving it as a British “sore-spot” as it proved to be last year. MANPOWER: Industry and the armed forces must forget the “quest for the ‘ideal man’ for every job,” according to Selective Service Director Hersbey, who said the time was not far off when all men and women will be needed and Selective Service will touch the “fringe of men deferred . . . because of dependency.” Congress had acted to raise the base pay of army men to SSO per month and the plan for authorizing assistance to dependents of members of the armed forces cleared.

CLASSIFIED DEPARTMENT PLANTS FOR SALE Sample Vitamin B-l Plant Ball. Needs no soU—blooms In record time. Send 25c to Hiawatha Supply House, Newberry, Mich. II Yon Bake at Home ... We have prepared, and will send absolutely free to you a yeast recipe book full of such grand recipes as Oven Scones, Cheese Puffs, Honey Pecan Buns, Coffee Cakes and Rolls. Just drop a card with your name and address to Standard Brands Inc., 691 Washington St., New York City.—Adv.

amt Risking All No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his body, to risk his well-being, to risk his life, in a great cause.— Theodore Roosevelt. J. Fuller Pep By JERRY LINK // I been readin” about some of these divorces and it seems to me husbands are like automobiles. If you take good care of them, you don’t have to keep getting new ones all the time. And one way of takin’ good care of him Is to see he gets all his vitamins. And that’s where KELLOGG’S PEP conies in. ’Course it hasn’t got ’em all, but It’s extrarich in the two most likely to be short in ordinary meals—vitamins B, and D. What’s more, PEP'S one grand-tastin’ cereal, too! A delicious cereal that supplies per serving {1 ot.): the full minimum daily need of vitamin D; 114 the daily need of vitamin Bu ', . ' . % . . . - Acid Indigestion What many Doctors do lor it When excess stomach add causes eras, sour stomach or heartburn, doctor* prescribe the fastest - acting medicines known for symtomatic relief—medicines like those in Bell-ans Tablets. No laxative. If your very first trial doesn’t prove Bell-ans better, return bottle to us and got double your money back, 25c. FEET HURT?FI Stop suffering! For fast relief from I your foot troubles, go to your W / M dealer THIS WEEK. He has the f ~\X ■ Dr. Scholl Remedy or Arch Sup-| l ■ port you need. The cost is ■ Painfully Gooff Some people are so painfully good that they would rather be right than be pleasant.—-L. C. Ball. /To Relieve distress from MONTHLY\ FEMALE WEAKNESS Try Lydia E. Plnkham’s Vegetable Compound to help relieve monthly pain, backache, headache, with its weak, nervous feelings — due to monthly functional disturbances. Taken regularly thruout the month — Plnkham’s Compound helps build up resistance against such distress of "difficult days.” Thousands .upon thousands of girls and women have reported gratifying benefits. Follow label directions. And Your Strength and Energy Is Below Par It may be caused by disorder of kidney function that permits poisonous waste to accumulate. For truly many people feel tired, weak and miserable when the kidneys fall to remove excess acids and other waste matter from the blood. ..... You may suffer nagging backache, rheumatic pains, headaches, dizziness, getting up nights, leg pains, swelling. Sometimes frequent and scanty urination with smarting and burning Is another sign that something fa wrong with the kidneys or bladder. There should be no doubt that prompt treatment is wiser than neglect. Use Doan’s Pills. It is better to rely on a medicine tbat baa won countrywide approval than on something less favorably known. Doan's have been tried and tested many years. Are at all drug stores. Get Doan r s today. WNfcf —J • V 25—42 mODERIIIZE Whether you’re planning a party B or remodeling a room you should ■ follow the advertisements... to learn what’s new... and cheaper... and better. And the place to find out ■ about new things is right here in I this newspaper. Its columns are I filled with important messages I which you should read regularly.