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Zurich Herald, 1942-05-28, Page 6VOICE OF '> H E PRESS SIMILAR SITUATION 'ERE "First the boy% from the count- eye come to the city, to work in factories. Then there isn't enough help to plant, cultivate and mar- ket food crops. So Uncle Saar VAS to the cities to find men to send back to the farms to do the work there." Those are the words of an American commen- tator. It sounds a bit daffy, But Canadians can't afford to laugh, because we have a similar situation here.—Kitchener Rec- ord. "SPOONING" DAYS A Washington official says mor tor cars mustn't be used for "petting parties"—it's a waste of gasoline. Perhaps the parlor and !front porch will coins into their own again, and there may be a revival of the old-fashioned ham- mock. And in the old days it was called "spooning", we are told.—Ottawa Journal. WOULDN'T STAY PUT Paper serviettes are among the items now brought under the l per -saving economy program of Wartime Prices and Trade Board. As a colleague used to Nay, the things were no good anyway, except to a diner with a wooden leg and a. thumbtack. •---Brantford Expositor. 'r REVISED VERSION A recent cartoon, depicting an exciting aquatic rescue in which the rescuer had a difficult choice 'do make, suggests that a popular song might now be rewritten to lead: "So I pulled her out on shore And she's mine for evermore." ,'Who, the lady, Mr. Gallagher?" °°No, the tire tube, Mr. SSheane' ---Stratford Beacon -Herald. IT'S HOPELESS Defence Minister Ralston (lite aastee the "women's army" niay Se used to operate searchlight batteries in home defence. It's bard enough to slip anything over a modern female in the dark, but when they have searchlights— wow!—Windsor Star THOSE WERE THE DAYS When we were youngsters, we lead to hide behind the barn to read the kind of blood-and-taun- der stuff that our children now get on the radio every day—Kit- chener Record. WAR TALK Strategy is something you plan to do to the other fellow, and tactics are what you' do in a hurry after you discover your 1rategy hasn't clicked.—London Free Press. THE TRUTH Summer clacks, and some are net slack enough,—St. Thomas `limes -Journal, Sailors Patronize Tattooing Artist CHILDREN—WAR'S 'VICTIMS THE ''WORLD 'ROUND Professor Decorates Hairy Chests of Canadian Seamen Favorite artist in the thronged port ed Halifax is Professor Fred - (nick A. Baldwin, despite the fact that he never so much as touches A palette or easel. His work is done with needles and garish dyes, with the hairy chests and muscular arms of the sailors in the Royal Canadian Navy and merchant marine as his eaanvasses. He is the seamen's artist by common appointment, and a man is still regarded as a landlubber until he has squirmed under the hands of this short, genial Englishman. Go to him and he will give you a fine arm etching whose reds and blues will never fade to let you forget a girl named Mamie or Mabel. Or he will pick out in sub- dued pastels and pinks a touching scene called. "sailors' memorial" showing, inside a laurel wreath, the Last of a ship being swallowed by angry eeas. Professor Baldwin claims that his customers, the majority of them seafarers, are sentimental lads who choose his chaste mem- orial etchings in preference to his nacre bawdy , offerings, Many of the mercbant mariners, he said, want to have tattooed on them the names of buddies lost et sea. Othere have the names of their entire families listed down their arms. The professor himself is a firm exponent of his art—he might be called a walking billboard, From tris ankles to his neck oavert disking girls, , snakes, bleeding hearts and names of Otherwise forgotten ronmanees. Following the ruthless pattern set in Europe, children of the Orient, too young to understand the terror which has conte upon them, are driven from their homelands by the relentless forces of war. Evacuated from Sumatra when the Jap invader spread his terror, these Javanese and Chinese young- sters pose= willingly at the Port Melbourne, Australia, hospital which has become their refuge. THE WAR • WEEK — Commentary on Current Events German and Massed F o r The massed armies of Russia and Germany have moved into sudden action. The German at- tack in the Crimea appeared to be the first step in Hitler's long - heralded spring drive aimed at the oil and mineral wealth of the Caucasus. (It was reported re- cently that German tanks and trucks were using olive oil as a lubricant) . While the Russians were being forced to retire slowly in the Crimea Marshal Timoshenko's divisions launched a counter move —in fact it might be calledean offensive move — and broke through the Nazi lines at Khar- kov, the great industrial city of the Ukraine. So begins the third phase of the Russo -German war. First Phase of War The first phase began almost a year ago when the German armies, marching eastward, niet and overwhelmed the Russian forces from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The Russian armies were push- ed back, fighting stubbornly, and in their retreat leaving behind a "ezorched earth." Depth of Rus- sian defense and lengthening Ger- man lines of communication slow- ed up the Nazi advance. Second Phase •of War Russian Armies Mighty Conflict With the announcement on Nov. 29, 1941, that the German armies had been hurled back at Rostov, gateway city to the Cau- easus, the second phase of the war began. Throughout the win- ter Russian counterdrives forced the retreating Germans westward. When spring cane the Red Army had recaptured about 100,000 equare miles of the 500,000 overrun by the Nazis in the war's first phase. Battle of Production Throughout the winter, too, the battle of production was waged behind the fronts. German fac- tories were speeded up to capa- city -production of guns, tanks, trucks and planes. Fresh troops, youths of 17 and 18 years, were mobilized. Workers were called in frown occupied countries to man the war plants, releasing more Germans for the fighting front. It is stated that Hitler has moved 100 divisions, a total of more than a million men, through Poland. During last winter he maintained about one million men on the Russian front. He gar- risoned in the Baltic states about one million nen. These last moved the inhabitants out of their, homes and took possession. They 'wintered well and aro now well placed for active fighting. The food situation in Germany itself, as well as in the occupied countries, is considered bad and leg getting worse. The losses in mechanical war equipment have been very heavy and it is doubt- ful if production of ground wen - pons over the winter has fully compensated for losses at the front. Russian Preparations In Russia, throughout the win- ter, preparations were being made to meet the expected all- out Nazi drive in the spring. Huge factories were successfully moved from the front to safety far be- hind the Iines where hugeF quan- tities of iron ore and coal are accessible; also 'great deposits of bauxite, the raw material for aluminum. The Russian losses of war ma- chinery- in the first few weeks of Hitler's attack last June were very heavy. The Russian situa- tion was desperate until the win- ter immobilized, to a great ex- tent, the German mechanized equipment. Now the Red Army position is different. With the ever-increasing flow of supplies from Britain and the United States the Russians are not infer= for in equipment, except for tanks, end even that situation may be remedied. Russia's Strength Because Russia is a united. nation — Hitler's attack brought the whole population to the sup- port of the Stalin regime—the Russian morale is extraordinarily good. Consequently there is no sabotage behind the Russian lines, whereas it is a menace almost everywhere behind the German lines. Much of Russia's strength lies in the mechanization of agricul- ture, It was possible to move a great part of the motorized equip- ment in advance of the German penetration. Populations skilled in the use of the equipment were also transported. As a result, great areas heretofore unculti- vated have been seeded—an ex- ample of socialized farming on a vast scale. There is no doubt that another winter of war would strain the food supplies of both Russia and Germany but the Rus- sians would probably be the better fed. - It would appear that the spring finds Russia stronger and Hitler weaker than a year ago and also that the strength of Russia con- tinues to increase while, accord- ing to some authoritative sources, that of Germany tends to wane. Hitler Must Gamble It is not surprising, therefore, to hear that some of the military leaders in Germany are opposed to an offensive against Russia this year. A. policy is advocated of organizing the territory al- ready taken and that Russia be encouraged to destroy herself by assuming the offensive and wear ing herself out by attacks on im- pregnable positions. High Allied opinion, however, considers that Hitler is decidedly opposed to such defensive strate- gy and holds that he must try for a decisive victory in Russia and gamble everything in the effort. • It is considered a political neces- sity for Hitler to show new vic- tories. If he loses his reputation for invincibility he Ioses every- thing. Viscount Gort New Governor of Malta Viscount Gort, Commander in Chief of British Gibraltar, has been named Governor and Com- mander in Chief of the bomb - battered Island of Malta, it is officially announced. He succeeds Lieut. Gen. Sir William George Sheddon Debbie, under whose heroic leadership the island stood up under the greatest single concentration of Axis air attacks—more than 2,000 air-raid alarms—which has been felt in this war. "Tiger" Gort, former: chief of the Imperial Staff, commanded the British Expeditionary Force in France at the beginning of the war. He has been at Gibraltar since April, 1941. . When Lord Gort goes to Malta, he will take the George Cross which King George awarded col- lectively to the' islanders last month for their heroism under continued Axis bombings. General nobble has been at Malta since 1940, first as tempor- ary Lieutenant -General but since May, 1941, as Governor and Corn-. minder in Chief. He is return- ing to London for a rest. Poles Escaped To Fight The .Enemy Said Poland's gallant General Sikorski to Canadian newspaper- men recently: "I am sure you do not realize it, but the Polish air force is al- most as big as the Canadian air force. Yes, I mean the Polish air force in action." What a people! Crushed and crucified by the first onslaught of Hitler's Luftwaffe and panzer plunderers,' their cities laid In waste, the Poles never struck their flag, says the Ottawa Jour- nal. Instead their little navy es- caped to go on fighting the Axis andetheir soldiers reached France and their airmen took to British skies to help defend Britain. Their heroism became a byword. Today all over England one meets those blue-eyed, fair-haired Polish soldiers, proud, erect, un- conquerable. Poland's story is one of the great epics of human courage, Not the least noble chapter in it is that which she has written dur- ing the past three years. Beach -Combing Profitable Trade Beach -combing is becoming a profitable business on the shores of Great Britain, according to The Port Arthur News Chronicle. The Minstry of War Transport has .reminded the public that awards are offered for cargo or equip- ment recovered from the sea or washed upon beaches, while fail- ure to give notice of a chance for salvage may result in loss of the awards plus fines as high as 43100. A group of Essex resi- dents in recent mouths has earned 4800 by salvaging turpentine pine oil and rubber from the Thames Estuary'. NUIYIOU it .AN HAt!NICE D LRW N A Weekly. Column About This and That in The Canadian Army Well, we got -it at last! A touch ed total war in our front yard! 1nre44:ter torpedoed In the St, Lawrence! I know the news is stale, hut since 'I know that broad estuary as well as most of us. know Main Street .or Broadway you might be Interested in a few remarks on the subject. Naturally, since the question of security enters into it, I shall not attempt to speculate as to `where the attacks took place although, judging by the hour at which the attacks were made . and the re- ported times of the landings of survivors at various' little ports it is not too hard for an ex -ship - news reported to figure out with- in fifty milers or so. Wlhat is most important, now that the sneaking underwater 'hounds have at last gathered their courage to the polut of risking their lives in confined waters, Is the steps to be taken by members of the Individual Citizen's Army. There is no need to worry about the steps that are being taken by the Canadian Navy — it was Immediately announced that long - prepared plans were at once put into effect. Remember a few days after the little yellow apes attacked Pearl Harbour? They shelled the Cali- fornia coast. That was done from a submarine. It can happen here! Not beyond the bounds of pose` risibility are landings at obscure apote in. the dead of night for water and food or diesel oil. That is why a recruiting cam- paign is going on for the Reserve Arany. Married men in the ac- ceptable age group and married and single men whose categories unfit them for overseas service are needed to form a "Home Guard." There may be work for a home guard much sooner than we complacently anticipate. There are long miles of shore- line on both sides of the estuary in which scattered farm houses are the only signs of habitation. But the men and women who live in these picturesque white houses are of a sturdy stock that stems back to • the hardy Freneh- men who wrested Canada from the defences of nature and who ably defended their territory against savages who - would be appalled at the savagery display- ed today by the "kultured" Nazis. Even if there are submarines in the St. Lawrence we cannot all play the role of Madeleine de Vereheres, we cannot all join the Reserve Army, but we can all play oiu' parts by doing every- thing possible in our daily lives to conserve every resource for wartime production, From the little port that har- bours the pilot tender to its mouth the mighty St. Lawrence River 471 takes on almost the proportlons of au inland sea.. Heavily wooded country abounding with, wild lite baeks the 'settled fringe aloe;g the shores, 11 is tempting country to brutalized men who have been cooped, up for weeks in the feted at uosphere of a submarine, Wild life, moose, deer, 'Mailer game, are very tempting to men who have been living on German naval rations. They may be terript- ed to try a little' hnnting, And it may be too bad for theist. Reve you ever faced a +eenscien.tieus Game Warden? The farmers of the lower. i?t. Lawrence a r e an amphibious people equally at home between the handles of a plough or ;a eair of oars, in a gasoline tractor,. or " fishing launch capable of riding; the heavy seas for which the great river is noted. They will give a good account of tliemeeeves if they get the chance. They are used to making a. lie- ing the hard way in a year round contest with the elements end will be just as equal to protecting that living when the occss1on arises, But they won't be able to flo it alone! They will need, and must have, every other .Canadian standing behind them. They will need the Royal Canadian Nary — which so many of, their sons have `joined. And that Navy needs heavy 'clothes, warm . food, rubber boots, depth charges, ammunition You've guessed it! That's wirers the Individual Citizen's Army en- ters the picture again. To give the Navy its woollen sweaters, its heavy socks to wear under sea -boots, it's hot cocoa- sweeteued for energy -e its depth charges, we have to do without a great many things. Every order of the Wartime Prices -and Trade Board, the hoard of economic strategy, is designed to make .some important commod- ity or ingredient available to one of the fighting servicer. Metal kegs are banned alepth charges are metal kegs; stigma Le rationed — sugar makes alcohol, alcohol makes explosives; rubber is restricteel — rubber makes sea: boots; we carry parcels to save wrapping paper — wrapping pa• per helps, make shells; acid we shouldn't •need to be _ordered, We should cheerfully 'volunteer to make even more savings th.aa ere planned for us. That torpedo in the St. Lawr- ence was a bugle call. Let's "fall Ma! The Statute of Freedom au..r- eaounting the dome of the Capitol at Washington is made entirely of bronze and weighs 14,9S5 lbs. LIFE'S LIKE THAT By Fred Neher "You know, Butch Accordin' to. this book, we're guilty. 1REG'LA R FELLERS—The Thinker p1 YJEOH, LWKN�OTHOLEt IM THE ASEBALL PARK FENCE aes Z GOTTA PER ECT rt SOMEHOW OR SOME BIQQiiEllL NID WILL GRAS IT WHEN THE SEASON OPENSA By GENE BYRNES- l'r'3 IDEAS LIKE THIS WHAT MAKE ME i-IlNK L'hi A gmilu$ OR SUldr-IN 1 1#10 BILLS BILLS .. w:mr.x+mi..u...xw.urwi cg. . Pati,' ONati, Al($ w. .f �% , i au