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Zurich Herald, 1942-10-29, Page 72 5 M a. o. o. In sh Is. 82 LA tli es 34, u - ns ox t:y '.he. lee DE OP Itis dy. leM ing rtti- TWJLIGHT OF ANOTHER RISING SUN The rising -sun emblem on the wing is about all that's left of this rap plane as it floats in the Pacific after being shot down in a dog- fight over the Solomons. Ge .a .y Drains Italy's Manpower As the Nazis drive toward Rus- aria'e oil, the toll of machines and materials is reflected in reports that Germany is moving Italy's industrial plants into the Reich and draining Italian manpower to staff factories in the Reich. An obvious weakness of the Ger- man -Italian alliance is Italy's lack of raw materials, says the Nation- al Geographic Society, Before the war Italy depended Capon Germany for coal. Normally she Iooked to Germany for about one-half at her requirements (about 7,000,000 tons a year) ; to Britain for a fourth. Much of the imported tonnage was water -borne. Bri- tain's blockade put a severe bur- den on Italian facilities for move- ment of German coal by rail. Coal deposits in the Apennines and at the base of the Alps yielded about 2,000,000 tons a year. With the out- break utbreak of war Germany became vir- tually Italy's sole source of supply. By subsidies Italy tried to be- come independent of foreign iron sources. This effort failed. Only one-fourth of the country's needs came from domestic mines, with the islands of Sardinia and Elba the chief sources. Imports of iron and steel from Germany have kept Italian industry going. German shipments of bars, rods, sheets and manufacturers of iron and steel n e representative year amounted to $1$,000,000. From Germany also came machine tools, agricultural and textile machinery, electric gen- erators, motors And other appar- atus to the amount of $25,000,000 In a year. Before bhe war Italy was second only to Japan in the buying of scrap iron and steel. s a Lady Baden-Powell, widow of the founder and late Chief Scout of British Empire Boy Scouts, has returned to London from Kenya, Africa, where she has been living for some time, and where Lord Baden-Powell died. Lady Baden- Powell, who is world Chief Girl Guide, said she had come home 'to urge the Girl Guides in this coun- try to do even more wonderful work than they are doing now." Lord Baden-Powell died. in Kenya on 'January 8th, 1941. * * * Boy Scouts all over Canada are going in for "Commando" Scout- ing, to toughen themselves for the time when their services may be required in the armed forces. Typ- ical of such training Is the task set for themselves by two New Toronto Boy Scouts, who made a weekend hike of 42 miles to the Blue Spring Camp reserve near Guelph. They carried full kit and cooked their meals en route. * * * In the recent "Baedeker" raid on Bath, England, a 18year-old Tenderfoot Boy Scout was named Cts personal guide to the O.C. of the military establishment, In writing to the lad's Scoutmaster afterwards the O.C. stated that the boy had an expert knowledge of every section of the city, and was able to direct him to any place he desired to, go. Despite the fact that Bath appeared to be among those places unlikely to be bomb- ed, Boy Snouts had trainee them- selves to be prepared for any emer- gency, and were ready when the raid did come. * * * Boy Scouts of Cambridge, Eng- land, have been organized into a water -carrying group. In the event of the water supply being inter - &rented due to an aim raid, these boys win ,know where to secure an auxiliary supply and will be prepared to take it to any pert of the city where it. may be required. * * * When a Scottish town was blitz- ed a neighboring village was asked to take Dare of 1,200 evacuees. The village Boy Scouts immediately turned their Scout hut into a rest centre and provided sleeping epace for 70 people, For ten days they rose at 4.80 a.m. to light canteen boilers, maintained a day and night messenger service, provided entertainment for their guest's in the evenings, , and generally. acted as off -job meth in the community. This work was all accomplished under the leadership of patrol leaders, the troop being without a, Scoutmaster. Gold Miners Move To W 1r Industries Labor Minister Mitchell said re- cently that Canada is working "in an evolutionary way toward the same goal" as the United States in transferring workers front gold mines to more essential war pro- duction. He forecast that "upwards of 10,000" gold miners will be trans- ferred to base metal mines and other war industries in a "planned, gradual movement" designed to dovetail with the decision of the United States War Production Board to halt all gold mining in the United States. Latest complete figures—for 1941 —show 32,551 employees in the gold mining industry. It is believed that the present figure is slightly below the 1941 total. Almost the entire $200,000,000 annual production of Canadian gold mines goes to the United States but reports have already been made of reduced tonnage because of man- power shortage. Clear the Decks! Two men worked side by side in a War Production Board office in Washington. They never spoke, but each watched the other. One man quit work daily at 4 o'clock. The other toiled on till 6 ar later. Some months passed. Then the harder working of the two ap- proached the other. "I beg your pardon," he said. "Do you mind telling me how you. clean up your work every day at 4 o'clock?" "Not at all," said the other man. "When I come to a tough piece of detail, I mark it, 'Refer to Com- mander Smith: I figure that In an outfit as large as this, there is sure to be a Commander Smith. And I must be right; none of those papers comes back to me." The harder worker started to re- move his coat. "Brother," he said, "prepare for action. I'm Commander Smith." Check On Address Of Soldier's Mail News From Home Biggest Thrill For, Fighting Men There are 1,100 Canadian Postal Corps men handling nothing but Canadian mail in Britain. The need for more handlers is growing more serious daily. Tons of mail for the armed ser- vieee arrive at distribution points foe tile big job of sorting that is necessary before the mail reaches field post offices. Mail from home is still the big- gest thrill Canadian fighting men get. Great ships carry thousands of mail bags on every trip. In ad- dition, there are the maile for points on other fronts. The sort- ing of the mails is a job that is never finished. Despite repeated warnings, some are still sending in the mails par- cels' which are incorrectly or in- completely addressed. The proced- ure with such mail is that it is simply set aside by sorters until snob. time as more attention can be given it. Often it takes days or even weeks to run it down. All this causes extra work, extra delay. Anxiety and disappointment follow. Letters are sent back home inquiring why mail was not received, thus adding more volume to the already overloaded mails. Hunreds of soldiers, sailors and airmen every day fail to receive mail because someone at home has been careless in preparing it for overseas. Make sure the address is com- .plete and easy to read. French authorities at Vichy have given notice that smuggling of let- ters In parcels sent by next-of-kin will result in the prisoner to whom the parcel is addressed being dis- ciplined accordingly. No registration or insurance can be placed upon parcels sent to prisoners of war, the postal cen- sore advise. Red Cross Aid Quarterly next-of-kin parcels sent to Canadian prisoners of war may include both khaki and blue shirts, also boiler -suits and overalls, ac- cording to advice received from the International Red Cross at Geneva, Switzerland. These supplies are in addition to types of underwear, knitted comforts and other articles next- ot-kin have always been able to send prisoners of war, Each parcel may also include chocolate bars not to exceed two pounds in weight. As part of its services to pris- oners of war in Europe the Can- adian Red Cross now is sending over 60,000 food parcels every week to British and Canadian pris- oners. Balmoral Castle, private resi- dence of British sovereigns in Scotland, means in Gaelic "the majestic building." VOICE OF THE PESS HOOVER IS RIGHT Titat was more than a wisecrack John Edgar Hoover handed Ameri- can police chiefs when he pointed out that if an Austrian paperhanger named Hitler had not been paroled nearly 20 years ago, millions of lives would have been saved. Hitler, then a relatively obscure agitator, was convicted of "violent and treasonable demonstrations against his 'government," and im- prisoned in Munich. Against the advice of the Bavarian police di- rector, he was paroled. What followed is history, still in the painful making. —Kitchener Record. GET IMPLEMENT PARTS NOW Mr, John A. Carroll, superintend- ent of Agricultural and Horticul- tural Societies foe Ontario, urges farmers to check over their farm machinery and order any necessary parts now, instead of waiting until spring. This is sound advice. In. the spring parts will be harder to get. And machinery will be needed more than ever, in view of the manpower shortage. —Brantford Expositor. HEADS WE WIN G. W. Spinney, director of the Victory Loan drive for all Canada, has this little poem to tell how Canada can win or lose the war: The Lord gave us two ends to use, One to think with, one to sit with; The war depends on which we choose— Heads we•win and tails we lose. —Windsor Star. THE LAST STRAW "I don't mind washing dishes for you," wailed the henpecked hus- band. "And I will even sweep the floors, but I ain't gonna run no ribbons through my nightshirt just to fool the baby." —Dunnville Chronicle. 12 -YEAR RECORD The City of Brantford, happily, is nearing the end of its 12th year without a solitary case of diph- theria. This is a definite and established world record for cities of more than 25,000 population. —Brantford Expositor. TAKING NO CHANCES Owner of 1939 Ford would like to correspond with widow who owns two tires. Object matrimony. Send pictures of tires. Marlboro Enterprise, Box C. B. —Hudson, Mass„ Sun. AWAY BACK WHEN Speaking of treason, we can re- member when dipping a wet spoon in a eugar bowl was only a social error. —Stratford Beacon -Herald, THE WAR WEEK — Commentary on Current Events New British Battleships Bring Royal N;;,,vy To Pre -War Stre" tgth Two important announcements were made by the British Admir- alty last week: (1) The new 35,0.00 ton battle- ships Anson and Howe, are now at sea with the Royal Navy. The ships were the last two of the King George class to be complet ed and their 14 -inch guns are said to have an effective range greater than the 15 -inch guns of earlier ships. Fifth ship of the class was the Prince of Wales, sunk in the China Sea Dec. 10 by Japanese planes. Four older capital ships have also been sunk, the battleships Royal Oak and Barham and the battle cruisers Hood and Repulse. With four of the Kmg George V. class now in service, Britain's battle fleet again numbers 15 cap- ital ships, as it did at the start of the war. The Admiralty disclosed that the Anson is the battleship for which the people of London paid with voluntary contributions. According to the authoritative Jane's Fight- ing Ships the King George V. type of battleships cost about $11,600,- 000 11,600;000 each. (2),. 530 Axis submarines have been` sunk or damaged since the start of the war. Even this figure does not represent a grand total; for it does not include losses in- flicted by Russia, by France before her armistice, or the complete damage done by our own Navy, says the New York Times. It would be foolish to jump to conclusions and assume that the submarine menace has been over- come. Admiral Land, 'who undoubt- edly knew these figures, warned us only the other day that it will never be wholly overcome. More- over, we do not know the Axis rate of replacement and so we cannot establish the comparative enemy loss. We do know that Ger- many especially has concentrated almost her entire shipbuilding cap- acity on submarines. Nevertheless, some comparisons are possible. In the First World War 199 German and twelve Austrian submarines were sunk. The Axis had more submarines than that when the present war began. Germany in 1939 acknowledged seventy-one completed and thirty building, but probably possessed others. Jane's Fighting Ships in 1940 credited Italy with 122 submarines, the largest undersea fleet in the world. It will be noted that the Ad- miralty figure is more than double the submarine fleet possessed ay Italy and Germany at the begin- ning of the war. But it does not separate submarines definitely sunk and those merely damaged. Nor is it clear whether the figure includes Japanese losses. Never- theless, the announced damage to the Axis submarine fleet is cer- tainly graver than most of us bad. guessed, Submarines are more easily replaced than their crews, as the last war proved. The tre- mendous hazard revealed seems. bound to affect the morale of Axis sub -surface sailors at an increas- ing rate. This announcement 48 the most encouraging report yet made from the Battle of the At- lantic, In the last week of September only five merchant ships were sunk in the Western Atlantic. For the moment, even if only for the moment, the submarine menttee has been checked, The present comparative lull may mean only that the U-boats are seeking new victims in other waters. It man mean that many are now operate ing directly against our supply lines to England and Russia. It may be that they have withdrawn only to refuel and rearm. But there is no doubt that cur defense against the submarine has improved. Our merchant shipping is now shielded by escort in con- voy, by watchers in the air and by swarms of swift, small draft which we simply did not have when the war started. The list of einkings stands at 479 since Pearl Harbor, a loss no group of nations could long sustain if such a rate were maintained. It has dropped off noticeably in recent weeks, with the lowest loss registered in the latest week. Two other factors in the situation are also hopeful. Our shipyards have managed for some time to replace all losses almost ship for ship and with greater tonnage. And virtually all cargo fleets of the United Nations now sail within the convoy sys- tem. There have been recent signs that Hitler has ordered his sub- marines to concentrate on naval. convoys. Berlin has repeatedly re- ported such attacks. But the haz- ard for the submarine is largest in that particular field. The enemy may strike heavy blows against us there, but he is bound to take hard blows in return. Nazis Evacuate Million Children The Basler Arl.eiter Zeitung said not long ago that more than 1,000,000 German children have been evacuated from areas sub- jected to intense bombing in an• ticipation of heavy attacks this Winter. About 1,000 special trains were needed to move the children out of the menaced reg- ions, particularly the Rhineland and coastal areas, the paper an- nounced.