The Charlotte News

Monday, September 13, 1943

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that a communique released by General Eisenhower indicated that the battle being waged by the American Fifth Army against the Germans in the area around Salerno, within fifteen miles of Mount Vesuvius, had become the fiercest yet of the entire Mediterranean war, with heavy casualties being suffered by both sides.

The Eighth Army was moving northward to within fourteen miles of Salerno, after taking the harbor at Crotone, attempting thereby to trap fleeing Germans against the back wall of the Fifth Army. But the Germans were attempting to hold open at any cost an escape route for these fleeing troops; hence the especially tenacious fighting within the shadows of Mount Vesuvius.

Accompanied by noisy braggadocio emanating loudly from German radio, it was announced that Mussolini and his family had been successfully freed by the Nazis from their former internment at the direction of the King and Badoglio.

On the Russian front, the Red Army was surrounding Bryansk, bringing it within artillery range. The drive in the Ukraine continued from the mouth of the Dneiper River to Kiev.

In the Pacific, the Australians had finally overrun the airdrome at Salamaua as efforts were made to close the only Japanese escape route, to Lae.

A Japanese report, unconfirmed by the Allies, claimed an attack by the Allies on Japanese positions in the northern Kurile Islands.

The British Navy was said to be sending many of its heavy units to Southeast Asia in preparation for what appeared to be a major assault on Japanese positions in both Burma and the outlying islands under Japanese control. Speculation was that the prospective offensive would begin at the conclusion of the monsoon season, shortly after October 1.

Recapture of the Burma Road was a primary priority of the Southeast Asian command of Lord Louis Mountbatten. Heretofore, the inability to expel the estimated five divisions of Japanese holding Burma had been attributed to three factors: the lack of priority of supply to the Burma operations; the training of troops in India for deployment into desert warfare in the west rather than jungle warfare; and the brevity of the suitable season for combat operations between the monsoons.

Now, however, higher priority obviously had been assigned to the operations and recent combat had provided Mountbatten’s men jungle warfare experience.

Congress was about to return from summer recess. Uppermost on the agenda was the resolution introduced by freshman Congressman of Arkansas, William Fulbright, to have both the Senate and the House endorse the creation of a United Nations organization to preserve the peace after the war.

The other important pending legislation was whether to begin drafting fathers on October 1. Former isolationist Senator Burton Wheeler had introduced a competing bill to delay the induction of fathers until January 1, to afford time for additional manpower study to determine whether fathers were necessary to the mustering of the 10.5 million man Army slated to be in active service by the end of 1943.

Yet another rail accident occurred, the fourth in a week, this one in Michigan. No passengers were injured but the engineer and fireman were killed.

Apparently, according to Raymond Clapper’s assessment, the sudden spate of rail accidents was the result of a change in regulations to allow less than full crews for want of enough rail employees to operate the increased rail traffic demanded by war production.

On the editorial page, "Turning Tide" indicates that the Pacific war was quickly favoring the Allies. It reports, undoubtedly with accuracy, that the fear of the Japanese among Americans was far greater than of the Germans, that Japanese barbarity was more reviled than that of Germans, and that Japan was considered more deserving of destruction than Germany. Thus, the desire to launch an offensive against Japan was more anxiously anticipated than against the Nazis.

The piece predicts with confidence that the public would not have long to wait, that the Japanese were already losing the war of attrition, likely would shortly be forced to withdraw from their outer positions in order to effect preservation of the inner rings of the empire.

"Ho, Hum" criticizes Congressman May of Kentucky as naïve for advocating an end to the draft in light of the surrender of Italy. The piece reminds correctly that the surrender of Italy was not of great importance per se: much hard and deadly fighting lay ahead for the Allies before Italy could be rid of the German yoke. The piece suggests that the principal American fault was its tendency too quickly to become either overly pessimistic or excessively optimistic.

"An Old Story" laments the prospect that the great treasures of Rome might be destroyed by Hitler's occupation forces and the exertion of the offensive necessary to oust them. Should Rome's historical and religious treasures be annihilated as in the time of Nero, it would be yet another war crime to hang upon the Fuehrer.

"The Last Stand" finds Hitler's empire crumbling at his feet, expresses exasperation at the warning of the London Times that Hitler still could make things difficult for the Allies. Hitler’s recent speech, it offers, was defensive in its content, implicitly admitting the futile fight ahead for Germans, seeking in it only delay of the inevitable. Hitler was finished, concludes the piece. There would be no secret weapon to effect Nazi rescue from the overwhelming land and air power now being marshaled against them by the Allies. Why couldn’t all the press organs among the Allied countries understand the fact?

Unfortunately, the Times had the better of the argument in this instance. The News was being overly optimistic, even if understandably so.

Raymond Clapper stresses that bringing to bear force on Italy had prompted its surrender, not diplomacy, not the concept that inexorably good would always prevail over evil. Japan and Germany would only follow suit when the same demonstrated force of imminent annihilation was hurled against them.

And Drew Pearson writes an open letter explaining that a policy of non-comment had been imposed on him by his syndicate to prevent his responding to the White House criticism of his column the previous month in which he alleged that Cordell Hull had always been anti-Russian and favored policies therefore which were by design to foster mutual destruction of Germany and Soviet Russia.

There follows after this letter a list of Pearson comments about the war which were first denied by the White House, then within short periods after the denial, admitted as true.

His column for the day stresses Italy, that the President had reportedly indicated his willingness to accept a constitutional monarchy as a replacement government, similar to that of Britain. Yet many of the President’s advisers deemed it inadvisable, says Mr. Pearson, for the United States to appear to be interfering with the choice of government by and for Italians, that it was their own decision to make. Otherwise, trouble lay down the road which could lead to rejection of democracy as a false promise and acceptance of communism as a reasonnable panacea.

He concludes with an assessment of King Victor Emmanuel as a spineless sycophant who spent twenty years obeisant to the will of Mussolini. That Italians implicitly understood this unabashed role was beyond doubt. They would not be likely to forget or forgive His Jelliness.