HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1943-06-24, Page 6CLARK GABLE, MOVIE, PRODUCER
Capt. Clark Gable, U.S,A.A.F., is pictured above, seated at the
waist gun of a Flying Fortt'ees, chatting with a couple of soldiers,
"somewhere its England." An aerial gunnery specialist, the former
film star has flown on one combat mission, and now is engaged in
making an army training film. on air gunnery.
O `TAWP. REPORTS
That the General Safety of
the Canadian Nation the Been
We11 Served by Parliament
There probably never has been
a session of Parliament during
which the institution which has
been constituted the democratic
machinery for eontrol of national
administration has not been sub-
jected to criticism for tardiness
and verbosity. The present ses-
sion of Parliament, opening Janu-
ary 'dS last, and just recently
dealing with its War Appropri-
ation measure, is no exception.
And yet, impatiently as we
may hear or read lengthy dis-
eus.rons on this or that item of
administration — some of them
admittedly of no general import-
ance—it will be well for members
of a democratic society to remem-
ber that all of the advantages of
the British Parliamentary system
are not wrapped up. in its legis-
lative deliveries—the number of
new laws that are passed or old
laws amended; or even in the
degree of detailed attention given
to items of past and proposed
expenditure.
For Parliament's biggest single
advantage to the people of Can-
ada at large lies in its fulfilment
of the function of a safety valve
against simmering discontents,
anise onceptions and misunder-
standings, as well as political
aberrations of one kind and an-
other --some of which, after all,
may be accepted as orthodox in
the tomorrow. In other words,
even when Parliament is not tick-
ing off actual legislative accom-
plishments, it Is providing to
every element or group which
feels itself at odds with things
as they exist the means of let-
ting off "steam."
* a w
A. few members may be charg-
ed with talking tee much, and
undoubtedly there are those who
take up a relatively Iarge portion
of Parliament's time; some par-
ticular item or measure may be
debated and discussed at a length
that a majority of Canadians will
regard as totally unjustified by its
general importance; some atti-
tudes may be adjudged to be dic-
tated by "polities." And yet it
seems to this observer, after
looking at Parliament for a good
many years, that it all comes out
right in the "wash" of debate
and in the ultimate exercise of
the keen judgment of the elec-
tors who are required to pass en
the personnel of their national
assembly. And it has seemed
ever a long distance that the gen-
eral safety and well being of the
Canadian nation has been pretty
well served in all the processes
that have gone to fill the pages
ef Hansard.
*
This column does not for a
moment submit the view that the
electorate in the Canadian dem-
ocracy can safely sit back and
fail to scan and study the doings
and the sayings of its members
and the Ministry which happens
to be in power; indeed its urge is
in the opposite direction. Only
as an electorate understands
things can a democratic society
function well. Instead •of accept-
ing dogmatic' denunciations of the
institution which is his safeguard
eganist tyranny the democratic
elector t hould be prepared to do
his own thinking and arrive at
Itis own conclusions.
*
Every one of the 245 members
who constitute the House of Com -
Mons is sent theta by a majoritty
vote of the people in the cott-
sialtuene r whim he repce,eente.
The member cannot help but have
intimate knowledge of the inter-
ests and the wishes of the par-
ticular group of people for whom
he speaks. The degree of inde-
pendence of party which he should
or should not exhibit in the House
of Commons is.. another subject
altogether, and worth oonsider-
ing, but from the standpoint of
time taken to discuss local mat-
ters in Parliament, if easterners
are to beeome impatient and in-
tolerant of time taken by west-
erners, or urban dwellers critical
of time taken to discuss items of
peculiarly rural interest, or in-
deed if there is any considerable
intolerance by the majority
against time taken by minorities,
then an extremely important
function of Parliament may suf-
fer.
THE BOOK SHELF
CAPRICORNIA
By Xavier Herbert
This novel of life In Northern
Australia won the Commonwealth
Literary Prize Competition on the
oceseiou of Australia's 150th An-
niversary. The author must now
be counted amongst the great na-
tural story -tellers of our time.
The story is built around the
efforts of a italfeaste, the son ot
a white man and a bush woman,
to win a place for himself. It Is
intensely interesting, bursting with
life, tough, full of humor and vio-
lcitce, and provides as authentic
a picture of Australian frontier
life as has ever been made avail-
able,
Of his book Mr. Herbert writes:
"My `Capricornia' is a hymn book
written. in adoration of Australia,
. . . The Land of the Unshackled
Southern Cross, the Australian
earth itself, out of a passionate
love of which alone can a true
Australian Nation grow."
Capricornia . . - By Xavier Her-
bert - . . The Ryerson Press - . .
Price $3.75.
Token Of Gratitude
To Gen. Montgomery
In "one world," Wendell Winkle
reports that General Montgomery's
library, the collection of a life-
time, was destroyed as tate re.
cult of a German raid over Eng-
land.
A. movement has been began in
New York, relates Tito Toronto
Telegram, to replace the library
as a token of tate gratitude and
admiration of the American peo-
ple. In addition to finding dupli-
cates of the volumes destroyed, it
Is planned to • inelude a collection
of Americana, with the hooka
autographed by the authors, the
selection of these books to rest
with a committee of representa-
tive intellectual minds.
Great Britain's
Forestry Plans
2,500,000 Acres To Se Added
To Forestry Resources
British timber imports before
tho war cost over $300,000,000 a
year, home consumption only cote-
trlbuting four per cent of the do-
mestic requirements, states the
St. Thomas Times -Journal. Sir
William, 7owii't has announced in
Ile House of Ominous that the
Government will embark upon a
vigorous forestry policy, which
will one day supply one-third of
national requirements,
..The Forestry Comnt.isions pro-
poses, with tate assistance of a
committee which will. Investigate
and co-operate with private wood-
lands, to add 2,500,000 acres to
the national forestry resources.
This will take a long time, the plan
being to bring to production
1,000,000 acres during the first
decade after the, war, at a cost
of $200,000,000, and 1,500,000 acres
during the next ten years, tate
State bearing one-fourth of the cost
of planting and maintenance until
the areas become self-supporting.
At the present moment the Com-
mission has some 300,000,000 young
trees in various stage of growth.
Tree Seeds Collected
To cope with a vastly increased
planting campaign, preparations
are being made for a large increase
of nursery stocks. The Contmision
during the winter organized a
collection throughout the country
of last year's tree seeds. It now
holds adequate stocks of Norway
spruce. Scots pine and hard-
wood seeds, as well as considerable
quantities of larch. Supplies of
Sitka spruce and Douglas fir seeds
have been obtained from the Un-
ited States.
Britain will' still need, in spite
ot that vast program, to import
two-thirds of her lumber require-
ments, and we trust the Dominion
and provinces will put themselves
In a position to secure the bulk
of that market.
V O ! C %i
OFF T H E
PRESS
VICTORY GARDEN
ETIQUETTE
Assuming that some of our
Victory Gardeners may not be
familiar with the dictates of eti-
quette in certain eventualities, we
pass this along from a correspon-
dent of The Kaneas City Start
"Our neighbor's rooster was over
this morning for a lettuce break-
fast, and we're having him stay
this evening for a chicken din-
nee."—Ottawa Citizen.
POST-WAR PROBLEM
Sir Gerald Campbell, British
Minister in Washington, recently
spoke thus on the prospects in the
post-war world; "Disagreements
may arise front time to time.
There is, nothing so terrifying in
that—provided we learn how to
disagree without being disagree-
able."—St. Thomas Times -Jour-
nal.
. "KAMERAD" IN ITALIAN
Rome reports have Mussolini
trying to figure out a formula
for peace. No use struggling,
Benito. The only way is tr cone
in like all other gangsters do-
wtih your hands up.
—Stratford Beacon -Herald.
EXPLOSIVE VEGETABLES
Asparagus left in the oven ton
long in a, Kansas City home ex-
ploded and blew out the kitchen
windows. Boy! Think . what
might have happened if it had
been spinach!—Windsor Star.
HE'S EARNED IT
Coal .miners in the United
States are again on strike, and
almost any day new John Lewis
should be receiving his Iron Cross
from—Hitler,—Hamilton Specta-
tor.
WEEK OF SUNDAYS
Housing conditions are so bad
that people at'e sleeping in the
churches on week days, too.
--Winnipeg Tribune,
Dutch bulb growers have given
the name "Spitfire" to a new
tulip, and bhe Nazi authorities are
incensed.
THE WAR - WEEK --- Commentary on Current Events
Anything Short Of All -(Out Victory
Will tring Another War Upon Us
l linitid site Lose this war ,Tapan
will begin to plan for another Con-
flict, Hallett Abend, ,tai' Eastern
correspondent and observer of t'a-
pan's rise to military might, sato
in a recent address.
"The eral't.y calculations of tate
leafier in Tokyo," declared Mr.
Abend, "are to tate effect that after
Lite United Nations have finally
brought Hitler to unconditional
surrender, the American people
and their allies will be so war
weary that they will • insist upon
a compromise "peace in the Far
elasi—.a compromise leaving Japan
in possession of at least half of
her present gains."
An inconclusive peace of this
kind, Mr. Abend added, would ac-
tually be a victory for Japan.
"She would prepare and wait for
a new opportunity and attack us
again at some period when, in
slack times of peace, we seemed
to have lost most of our present
allies," he went on.
"Anything short of an all-out
victory in this war will bring an-
other upon us—probably within
less than twenty years.
"If we permit the Japanese, to
keep half of what they have won,
If we permit them to remain the
rulers of part of East Asia and
to brutalize 200,000,000 subject
human beings, they will contrive
to use the resources of that area,
and that brutalized manpower, in
a war of revenge against us.
There will be no security for the
Four Freedoms until the Jack -theme
Rippers among nations are dis-
armed and punished."
Turn In The Pacific
Until a month ago Australian
leaders and spokesmen at General
Douglas MacArthur's headquarters
were expressing alarm at the pros-
pect of an imminent invasion of
Australia by the Japanese. Official
reports spoke of the establshment
of Nipponese airfields capable of
basing 1,500 airplanes in the is-
lands curving north of the con-
tinent. As if to point up the threat,
Port Darwin suffered an air raid
by at least fifty Japanese planes
early in May, not long after sev-
enty to 100 planes struck hard
at the Allied base at Milne Bay,
New Guinea.
Last week, by contrast, the of-
ficial tone in Austtralla was one
of utmost confidence. Prime Min
aster Curtin said in Canberra:
The pressure on this country is
to .be thrown back on tate enemy.
The holding war that was imposed
on us under circumstances of
great difficulty • has been an ob-
'llg'atioii under global strategy
which has been discharged,
Australia as a Base
The Prime Minister went on to
say not only that he' did not think
the Japanese could now invade
the country but also that Austra-
lia could be 'used as a base from
which to launch "both limited and
major offensives" against Japan.
In Washington Secretary of the
Navy Frauk Knox spoke of steady
additions to the American sea •
strength in the Pacific—a strength
which already comtnauds the sea,
according to Prime Minister Cur-
tu. The Army announced that new
forces of American troops had ar-
rived in New Zealand, and in Aus-
tralia it was announced that the
R. A. A. F. had been built up to
a point where it exceeds American
air strength quantitatively though
not qualitatively.
Action Impending
To these factors great weight
was given by observers who have
for some thu.e expected an Allied
shove to break the long period
of quiet in the South-west Pacif-
ic. Only in the air has action been
pushed recently. Americans are
established in Northeast New
Guinea and on Guadalcanal and
the Russell Islands in the So1-
omons and from their air bases
they have been pounding steadily
at Japanese intsallations. Last
week their big planes rained forty
tons of bombs on Rabaul, ou the
northern tip of New Britain, key
base of the whole Japanese stra-
tegical structure north of Austra-
lia•. The first such heavy attack
since March 23, this, too, seemed
a possible portent of imminent ac-
tion.
In Russian Skies
The war in Russia last week
was predominantly a war In the
air. Both the Luftwaffe and 'the.
Red Air Force traded heavy blows
by day and by night.
Nazi fliers staged .two massed
raids ou Gorki, upper Volga oily
noted for Its automotive acid muni-
tions plants. A fleet of 500 Soviet
bombers smashed .back at rail
junctions behind the enemy lines
in the vicinity of Orel, Nazi strong -
point linking the central and
sonthern fronts. Germans retali-
ated by raiding Yaroslav, 150 miles
north-east of Moscow. Russian pi-
lots countered with a series' of
mighty blows at Nazi airdromes
and communications. One of these,
on Thursday night, employed 700
Soviet planes in what was called
the greatest Russian aerial attack
of the war. It resulted in the de-
struction of 150 German planes
and numerous ground installations.
The scope and ferocity of the air
battles were indicated by a Mos-
cow summary covering the first
weak in June. This claimed a bag
of 752 Nazi planes to a loss of
only 212 Soviet aircraft.
The Edge in Battle
To foreign correspondents in the
Russian capital It seemed clear
that the Soviet air force held the
edge over the once mighty Luft-
waffe. In a recent dispatch, The
New York 'Dimes correspondent
C. L. Sulzberger thus summed up
his impression of the waning pow-
er of the Nazis in the air:
The eve of what is expected to
be Germany's third effort at a
crushing offensive against the Sov-
iet Union finds Reich Marshal Her-
man Goering's vaunted Luftwaffe
gradually changing from an of-
fensive to a defensive force in its
essentials. Thus, although the ma-
jor part •of the German air strength
is still concentrated on Adolf Hit-
ler's most vital front—that is to
the east—it would appear to be a
virtual certainty that unless the
Reiehsfuehrer has a trick left in
his bag that no one has beard
about, his aerial striking power
will be relatively weaker than in
either 1942 or 1941.
New Soviet Planes
This is what the same corres-
pondent had to say in a later dis-
patch about the Soviet a I r
strength:
The Red Air Force ... is prob-
ably more dynamic than in 1941,
when it was eat:led, or in 1942,
when it was outnumbered and the
partly evacuated Soviet aircraft in-
dustry was not yet in full produc-
tion
roduction and Allied supplies were not
yet important. Already this Spring
the Russians have 'unveiled two
brand new models and thrown
them into action , . This in itself
may be somewhat significant, since
until the present moment not a
single new Getman type has ap-
peared here in 1942.
Problem of Caring
For War Captives
Must Be Fed, Clothed, Houe,
ed and Carefully Guarded
Ti 1uk what It means -175,00G
German and Italian soldiers talkers
- prisotue)'$ leu •days or so, for
the remainderin of the war to' b•
dependent upon the United Na-
Hoes .for .food,, clothing, quarters,
says tate Ottawa Journal,
Here is a captive arty of teen
equal in numbers to the combined
population of Hull and. Ottawa,
men, women and children. ft its
equal perhaps to the total able-
bodied male population of Toron-
to.
Hero are 175,000 husky, hungry
men to • be fed, to be glothed, to
get medical service when they are
ill, to be provided with decent liv-
ing accommodation above all, to
be guarded. They cannot bo left
in a military zone, where an es-
caped prisoner might do, great
harm. Ships are needed to supply
them with the necessities, and a
considerable military force for
guard duty. These new captives
augment enormously the problems
of the vast numbers or the hue,
deeds of thousands previously tak-
en in. Africa because most of,
them are Germans.
Shipping Problem
The disposition of these enorrne
ous masses of men must be the
cause of concern to Allied author.
ities. Many prisoners of war have ,
been sent to prison camps in
South Africa, but there must be
limits to this movement. The sug-
gestion
uggestion has been made that this
latest batch be brought to Canada
and the United States, but hero
the problem of shipping comes up
again. Already in this country we
have camps of prisoners of war,,
and the occasional one escapes.
When that happens we all declare
angrily that these men should be ..
kept more securely. Are we sore
we could manage perhaps another
100,000 of them? Same would have
then. 'work on Canadian farms.
That might do with Italians, hut
perhaps not so satisfactorily in the
case of Hitler's fanatics.
Soviet Optimism
Thus it appeared that In the
great battles expected on the Rus-
sian front this Summer Hitler will
lack .at least one of the liotesr
weapons that brought the fall of
France in 1940 and enabled his
armies to sweep deep into the
Russian homeland in 1941. Ittt di-
visions the Wehrmacht is atilt
mighty. It is believed'stiil capable
of massing powerful tank forces.
But without control of the air, at
least locally, military experts give
•it but an outside chance to repeat
past victories on the eastern front„
In such evaluation of the pros -
pecks is believed to Ile one of the
chief reasons for the present So-
viet optimism as the hour of de-
cision draws near.
FUNNY BUSINESS
COPR. 1940 av NCA SERVICE,:INC.
"I've got a husband that whistles, a dog that barks and a
parrot that screeches—now I want something. that
stomps l"
BEG'LAR FELLERS—Seeing Double
WHAT KIND OF A
CAT IS THAT MISTER?
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>R_ ADX
THAT'S A
SIAMESE
car!
By GENE BYRNES
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GVJAN ! DON'T
KID ME! I KNOW
WHAT A SIAMESE
CAT LOOKS LIKE!
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