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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1943-12-02, Page 6ENGLAND'S LEND-LEASE FOOD FOR YANKS • In case you've been wondering, here's some of the .return the Americans are getting for their lend-lease b Great Britain. All these foods—including the familiar shredded wheat—are grown or pro- cessed in England and are turned over to U. S. forces, along with British -made clothing, as payment for some of the goods sent to Britain on a lend-lease basis. I -HE WAR - WEEK — Commentary on Current Events Will Non -Belligerent Turkey Throw In Its Lot With Allies? Under fascism the historic Dodecanese Islands — seized by Italy from Turkey in 1912 — becarne strongholds from which Mussolini hoped to control the 'Eastern „Mediterranean. Strate- gically the most important of the group is tiny, rugged Leros with one of the best harbors in tha Aegean. There Italians built a naval and air base which threat- ened two vital waterways, the Dardanelles 250 miles to the north and the Suez Canal 450 miles to the southeast. The fall of Italy made Leros and adjae- ant islands prizes of a race be- 'tween Nazis and British. For the former they were outposts of Fortress Europe; for the lat- fer they were springboards for a Balkan invasion. British units were rushed from the Near East t.. hold them against Germans from near -by Greek islands. Battle off Turkey Much of the ensuing fight was obscured by censorship but last week the outcome became clear. British headquarters in Cairo, which had previously admitted the loss of two islands, announced the fall of Leros. Outnumbered on the ground and blasted by a virtually unopposed Luftwaffe, 8,000 British and 5,000 Italian troops surrendere after five days of fierce battle. Germans promptly launched an air attack on the sole remaining British gar- risoIc in the Aegean archipelago, on the Greek island of Samos, 4 miles north of Leros and with- in sight of the Turkish coast. A Costly Nazi Effort The Nazi et. -ort — first real Wehrmacht victory in more than ss year—was generally viewed as a desperate and costly attempt to bolster the German position in Southeastern Europe, aimed chiefly at impressing Turkey. In this it appeared to have missed fire. Recent Turkish conferences with the Allies in Cairo, after the Moscow Conference, were fol- lowed last week by a Cabinet meeting in Ankara. From the Turkish capital came various eigns that Turkey might end • its neutrality. The question of whether Tur- key will throw in its lot with the Allies is one of the vital ques- NEW CHAPLAIN honorary Brigadier C. G. Hap - hare, PMC., E.D. who has been prornoted from the rank of Honor, cry Lieut. -Colonel and named grin- eepal Protestant Chaplain of the Qanadian Army. He is rector of .M1 Salute .Anglican Church, Ot- latt. tions in the war situation today. Turkey would toss substantial weight on the military scales, already tilting sharply against Ihitler, if it would join the Allies either pa ..sively with land and harbors for bases or actively with its well-trained Army and vig- orous Air Force. Immediate gain for the Allies would be availability of air bases from which Axis key points in the Balkans could be intensively bombarded, possibly by shuttle raids to fields in Southern Italy. Ploesti with its oil treasures is only about 300 miles from Is- tanbul, while Bucharest and So- fia are even less. Turkey's Air Strength More than three years ago Turkey began rebuilding' its Air Force, which then numbered only about 300 first-line planes. Now it almost certainly is several times that and many could be funneled in swift' by British and Americans to excellent mil- itary airfields. The largest and hest of the air- dromes is Ekhiseher, about 200 miles southwest of Istanbul, but others •are well placed all over the western part of the nation, ireluding Istanbul, Ankara, Iz- mir, Adana and Diyarbakir. Turkey's Army Turkey's peacetime Army strength is about 200,000 which could be swiftly raised to 500,000 by general mobilization, with 1,500,000 more trained or parti- ally trained mer. in reserve. The Turkish sold` is reputa- tion for toughness and courage is well established and after near- ly two years of intensive Lend - Lease aid fro�.1 the United States and Britain he is believed by far the best -equipped of all Balkan fighting men. The Army is rich in anti-tank and antiaircraft artillery and in coastal defence guns as well as lighter weapons. Tanks are avail- able in shall numbers, but due to the terrain and lack of roads in Tur':ey—and in the near -by Balkans where they might fight OTTAWA REPORTS That The .Contribution of Our Farms In The War Effort, is Of Ever Growing Importance. Remarkable agricultural•develgp- ments have taken place in Canada during the four ivar years. To pro- vide food for Canada's . armed forces and to meet the increased reciuireinents of the peopleof the United. Kingdom has been a major job which has been recognized as an invaluable achievement, * * * Canada's accomplishment has been summarized by Hon. J. G. Gardiner, Minister of Agriculture, as follows: "Wo have armed de- fensive and offensive for<ces rapid- ly approaching a million men. More than 7,000,000 of •our people over 16 years of age aro producing to maintain and save the lives of as many as possible of the million who will defend our way of life. About one-third of this 7,000,000 are engaged in producing food on our farms. They are part of that great body of the men and women who are necessary to maintain the fighting force which is doing the most important job of the mo- ment." There are many other accom- plishments, however, not so well known, although nonetheless vital to the well-being and offensive power of sailors, soldiers and air- men in every theatre of war. As the areas of battle have been ex- tended, the dependence of the armed forces on . the farm home front has increased, and this de- pendence extends from clothing and personal equipment to the weapons of war. * * * The war, too, has demonstrated the necessity of a close bond be- tween agriculture and industry. In- dustrial production is closely de- pendent on agricultural output and the mechanized agriculture of to- day needs industry as an outlet for its surplus production. The de- mands of war have taxed the in- genuity of Canada's scientists— plant breeders, botanists, entom- ologists, ppthologists and others, in developing new crops and in combating the insects and diseases that might destroy them in the fields or in storage. From farm to battlefront there is a continuous struggle to safeguard the high quality of the products. * * * The foundation for the multi- plicity of war contributions by Canada's farms is largely seed, therefore ft is important that good seed be used. During the progress of the war, many sources of seed have been cut off, but home pro- duction has been developed with the result that most seed formerly imported now is produced in Can- ada. It is equal in quality to that which was imported. Flax for fibre and flax tor oil are crops which have been out- standing in Canada for the great offensively—this is not regarded as a major handicap. Under the vigorous leadership of Kemal Ataturk and his suc- cessors the Army Staff has been kept at a high level of profici- ency and committed to aggressive tactics. Turkey's Harbors Turkey is weak in the naval category, with only one 22,000 - ton battle cruiser as a backbone of forces that include two an- cient 8,000 -ton cruisers, eight destroyers and a dozen subma- rines. Its harbors along the Aegean, including one at Izmir, could be an invaluable jumping-off point `owever, for naval blows against Greece and the Aegean Islands, Significantly, perhaps, British official sources declined informa- tion on Turkish naval installa- tions. PELANGIO LARDER Borders Chesterville to the east for approximately one and one-half miles. Diamond drilling now under way on the Pelangio. GEORGE CHAPM.A�N &CO. 200 BAY ST. -- --TORONTO. ROM: Sack by Germans or Liberation by Allies? Fate of Eternal City Remains Uncertain • ROME: At left is the Tiber, in background St. P'eter's and Vatican City. The Constantine Arch. Tho Colosseum. Victor. Emmanuel monument, increase in production for war pur- poses. GVhereas only about 8,000 acres were planted to fibre flax in 1939, there were close to 50,000 acres of it this year, chiefly in eastern Ontario and western Que- bec. The product of this flax fibre is linen which has many war uses. Flaxseed oil has industrial uses, such as in paints, linoleums and other products, but it is indispens- able in munitions manufacturing, for all shells and bombs are coat- ed oated in oil and the flaxseed oil which Canada has developed is equal to any in the world. This year close to 18,000,000 bushels of this seed are expected from about 2,798,000 acres. All Sorts Of Sports By Terence Morton A Walker Extraordinary All who are interested in the history of Durham cattle will re- call the name Barclay of Urie or MT House, near Stonehaven, but many are perhaps unaware that besides doing much to develop the Shorthorn, the family also pro- duced the greatest pedestrian of all times, in Captain Robert Bar- clay -Allardice. Of the Captain's many extra- ordinary feats of endurance, his walk of 1,000 miles in as many suc- cesive hours on Newmarket Heath in 1809 is best known. Now a thousand hours is 41 days, 16 hours, and to walk 24 miles a day for nearly six weeks, with only short snatches of rest, sounds al- most beyond human endurance, but the Captain made little of it, and the day after finishing the ordeal he was in perfect health, * * b To give a detailed' account of the Captain's performances would cover much paver. We there- fore list but a few of them at ramdoni. In 1806 he walked 100 miles over rough roads in 19 hours. Exclusive of stoppages the time taken was only 171/, hours, or an average of 5•4 M.P.H. A year later he ]eft his house at 2 a.m. and walked a considerable dis- tance at attend a cattle sale, where he remained on his feet for five, hours.' He then walked home, having covered 73 miles of hilly road in 14 hours. * * * Purely for amusement (he REG'LAR FELLERS—Rockabye, ,Pinhead AND THETI, IN .1630 7NE BRAVE PIL4R1145 RGP;CHETW OUP. S%"dRCS AND L.ANDEt' ON PL'(MOUTA ROCK! PLEASE-teAC%-1E2 L IVE= SEEN PLYMOUTH ROCK! ('SAWI IT ONCET WHEN \ VISITE.rf 4itAN' FATNER' _ V .4)".w I• backed himself heavily in many of his matches) he walked to the house of a friend in Allenmore in Aberdeenshire, where he dined and slept. He rose at 5 to To grouse shooting and tramped at Ieast thirty miles in the mountains. He dined with his host and in the evening set out for Ury, a distance of 60 miles, which he ac- • complished in 11 hours without stopping. The Captain was not one to go to bed in the morning, so he attended to his duties and that afternoon walked 16 miles to Laurencekirk, where he at- tended a ball and danced most of the night. Returning to Ury by 7 a.m., he spent the day partridge shooting. Supposing he walked only 8 miles when shooting at home, he must have covered at - least 130 miles all told, plus being out- of b ed for two nights and nearly three days, to make no men- tion of a night's dancing. * * * Much could be written of the Captain's powers, as a middle-dis- tance and distance runner; as a weight lifter, having once lifted 1155 lbs.; as a boxer and trainer of pugilists. He prepared Alex- ander Mackay to meet Simon Byrne for the championship, but alas the fight proved fatal for Mackay, and it is believed -but was never proven—that Barclay was so chagrined at the result that he challenged Byrne and thrashed him, 500,000 From India With Empire Forces Up to last June India's fighting forces had incurred 103,880 casu- alties, Maj. -Gen. G. N. Moesworth, Military Secretary, India Office, has disclosed. Killed were 5,618; wounded, 13,084; missing and prisoners, 86,178. He added that India's defence forces totalled nearly 2,000,000 men and that almost 500,000 troops had served overseas since the war started. Between 30 and 50 'gallons of gasoline are required in warm- ing -up the engines of a bomber. - LIFE'S LIKE THAT By Fred Neher ,glllh ,I,r, gilririi4I" flea�r 4111, Vr j/i;y1:;i ,, .1 iI r /rr I I to 41, 1 !`4 7raaga•Pel4c,id..4-,e 11-8 ConnatlA.toA Nenu Fleln,wi "Every time I call signals somebody up there yells, 'BINGO'1 1" v.15.1.1. Hold NICE- PiNNEW Suppose: ° YOU DRAW A PICTURE OF IT FOR THE CLASS AND U. PN 1ToN oTi�E� THE OULLETIN t,oARD! By GENE BYRNES k g. U, 3. Ira, Ortrk. All OW* ,Na+ritd brxipri*6:n1.r YN4Ainmlroc