The Charlotte News

Tuesday, June 23, 1942

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports of the loss of a merchant ship with 88 aboard. The unidentified ship was the Cherokee, sunk June 15, which had a crew of 65 and carried 20 passengers and two members of the Armed Guard who served to protect merchant ships, thus 87. It was the largest loss of life in a ship sinking in the Atlantic or Caribbean since the Reuben James sunk off Iceland on October 31, claiming 112 lives. A troop transport, the Coamo, would claim the lives of 186 December 9, 1942 in the Caribbean. Otherwise, the Cherokee resulted in the second largest loss of life among U.S. merchant ships and troop transports in 1942.

Of the 574 U.S. merchant ships sunk in 1942, 83 went down in June and 75 in May, accounting for over a quarter of the total. The number steadily diminished thereafter: 63 in July, 24 in August, 39 in September, 32 in October, 37 in November, and 14 in December. About 95% of the ships sunk were in the Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico or on the approach to Murmansk in Russia.

Another report indicates that Senator Bob Reynolds had asked a Federal judge to order the dissolution of his Vindicator organization on the basis that "the war had made it undesirable and impractical" for it to continue. Hooray for Bob. All of the Vindicator boys and girls across the world were no doubt shedding tears by the bucketful.

"Waiting Game" on the editorial page tells of Lord Mountbatten's view that the opening of a second front in Europe was a long way in the future, that the difficulties of coalescing men and materiel for such an operation were too enormous to be undertaken soon. The editorial expresses doubt of the premise, suggests that the problem was not so much men and materiel but British resolve to undertake the task, that fighting a defensive war was a sure path to eventual loss. The lessons of Dunkirk, of course, were only two years in the past and that debacle was not something the British wished to relive. All in good time, a second front would be established, and with adequate men and equipment to make it a success.

"Yea, Wade" applauds the volunteering by Wallace Wade, Duke's football coach, for active combat duty in the Army. And it was laudable, of course. He was 50 at the time. He served throughout the war, giving up his coaching duties for the duration.

But the piece reminds us of something we recently read about new editorial writer, Burke Davis. Before attending and graduating from the University at Chapel Hill, he had spent some time at both Guilford College in Greensboro and at Duke. In sports, it is said, he favored Duke. We shall try to excuse the fault and remain unbiased as we read his commentary of the day.

Dorothy Thompson tells of the importance of preventing the Axis from taking Alexandria and Port Said and gaining thereby control of the Suez Canal. It would have enabled physical joinder potentially with Japan's forces in the Indian Ocean had the Japanese been able to mount a sufficient offensive to take India and thus obtain control of the Near and Far East. And, of course, it would have enabled Hitler to have control of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf and thus control of the Middle East and from it all the oil he needed to finish his campaign in Russia and thereafter attack Britain.

Raymond Clapper gives praise to Herbert Hoover for the apparent attitude exhibited in his new book, The Problems of Lasting Peace, co-authored with a former Republican diplomat, Hugh Gibson. Mr. Clapper had not yet read the book but had read that Mr. Hoover came out about where Vice-President Wallace had in his May speech--favoring a post-war world in which the United States would join with the other United Nations to insure adherence to democratic ideals throughout the world, to avoid the pitfalls which led to World War II.

In March, former President Hoover had predicted the fall of China and India to the Japanese and consequently a war lasting five to ten more years. Dr. Hoover's sense of the world was more wrong than right most of the time; fortunately he was wrong on this account as well.

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