The Charlotte News

Wednesday, August 25, 1943

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that fully thirty percent of the German day fighter production was destroyed August 17 in the air raid on Regensberg which destroyed a Messerschmitt factory. Maj.-General Harold George, chief of air transport command, predicted that if the destruction of German manufacturing capability continued at that pace, Germany would fail economically by the end of 1943, even if the prospect did not necessarily also entail the end of the war.

Meanwhile, another raid was conducted on Berlin, this time by RAF Mosquito bombers. The raid was conducted without a loss and no Luftwaffe fighters were spotted contesting the raid.

American Flying Fortresses attacked an aircraft production facility at Bordeaux in France the night before.

More Allied day and night raids took place on Southern Italy, some hitting near Naples.

A German underground radio station had reported, according to French sources, that 73,000 Berliners were homeless from the large raid on the city Monday night. A map on the inside page shows the areas of Berlin hit in the attack.

Seeming to echo the piece appearing the day before in The News, FDR, in his closing address at the Quebec Conference, assured that, though the Allies were told that the Japanese would never surrender, their retreat from Kiska was equally acceptable.

He also expressed the desire that Hitler might have attended the conference in spirit, not in person, to realize that it would behoove him and his generals to surrender immediately rather than later.

In the Pacific, American infantry were closing in on the Japanese holed up at Bairoko Harbor in the Solomons. On New Guinea, Australians made substantial gains, moving within two miles of the Japanese airdrome at Salamaua.

Tokyo radio announced that Emperor Hirohito was in distress over the lack of sufficient war production in Japan, indicating that the people must send more planes to the fighting fronts to “set the mind of the Emperor at ease”.

On the Russian front, the Red Army continued its push toward Poltava, 75 miles southwest of Kharkov as the German retreat from Kharkov turned into a rout. The ultimate target appeared now to be Kiev, capital of the Ukraine.

In Denmark, as many as 5,000 persons continued to demonstrate in general strike in the city of Odense. The Danish government had refused to provide authority to the Nazis to try saboteurs.

On the editorial page, "Guessing Game" advances theories on why Stalin called home Ambassador Maxim Litvinoff from the United States. Was it in protest of the lack of a second front on the Continent? Was it to consult with Litvinoff on how best to get to Berlin ahead of the Americans and British? Was it because Stalin believed Litvinoff’s talents were being wasted at present in the United States?

The piece offers little doubt that the race for Berlin was a subject of discussion at Quebec and so surmises that Stalin may have been preparing to defend himself against the Western Allies when the time came for entering the German capital.

Raymond Clapper examines the same issue in much the same way. He emphasizes that Russia was essential for the final peace with the Axis. And in that there would be a need to acquiesce to a degree with Russian demands, such as in the Baltic States.

The more problematic questions concerned whether Russia would actively participate in the war against Japan or would simply fall back to its own frontiers. Would Russia go through Iran to the Persian Gulf, demanding territorial rights? What would be the Russian demands with respect to Finland?

The world, he suggests, would not be exactly as the West wanted after the war. But it was essential to have the cooperation of the Russians, to which everyone, FDR, Churchill, and Stalin agreed, to formulate and maintain the peace.

Whatever the cause of the call home of Litvinoff, he did not return during the war as Russian Ambassador to the United States.

"Travel Item" notes the presence suddenly of Mrs. Mussolini in Spain, without fanfare. Was she a wife or a widow? That was the question poised on everyone's lips. There was no answer forthcoming.

"China Turns" remarks on the first raid by the Japanese on Chungking in two years, but having little impact thanks to the strong defenses now afforded by American planes and anti-aircraft weapons.

"Great Asset" predicts a great political show in the campaign between former Governor Clyde Hoey, the easy orator, and Senator Robert Rice Reynolds, the man who always sought the common touch, for the Democratic nomination for the North Carolina Senate seat in 1944.

Samuel Grafton reports of his two days of talks with Wendell Willkie in Rush County, Indiana--where the war was secondary to the corn-hog ratio in determining the future prosperity of the farmer. Meanwhile, Mr. Willkie worried from underneath his bucolic maple trees about U.S. relations with Russia.

Drew Pearson looks in brief, country by country, at occupied Europe and Germany itself. He finds Germany full of rumors and counter-rumors, all gravitating around the fear of occupation post-war, especially by the Russians. There persisted a belief that, while the war would almost certainly be lost, Germany might retain political victory by maintaining the land it had conquered and avoiding armies of occupation. Meanwhile, Himmler stationed machinegun nests on the streets of the cities to deter home revolt, a growing prospect throughout the occupied countries as well.

A letter writer follows the dog controversy in Charlotte, says that the only way to promote good dog behavior was to promote good human behavior toward dogs, prosecuting those who did not properly feed and care for their dogs. Lack of dog respect meant lack of human respect. So, throw those disrespecting dogs in jail.

Another letter writer thanks Burke Davis for his piece on August 19 anent Frank Sinatra, thinks the nationwide popularity of Mr. Sinatra was indicative of low I.Q.'s spread evenly throughout the country.

Whether stray dogs and the demonstration of proper human respect for those dogs has anything to do with the latter subject, we don't know.

Perhaps, Clement Freud once offered the answer.