Saturday, November 10, 1945

The Charlotte News

Saturday, November 10, 1945

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that for the first time, artillery fire was being exchanged between the Chinese Government troops and the Red Chinese in the undeclared civil war. The fighting centered around Shanhaikwan, with clashes also along the main railroad from Chinwangtao to Peiping. U.S. Marines were standing guard at key points along the railroad. Fighting continued also in the northern provinces of Shansi and Suiyuan. Paotow, a Nationalist stronghold in Inner Mongolia and western terminus of the Peiping-Suiyuan railroad, was also under siege by the Communists.

In Java, British Indian troops began an attack on Soerabaja to disarm the Indonesian Nationalists after they did not heed the ultimatum provided by the British to lay down arms by 6:00 a.m. British planes supported the attack. According to Indonesian Foreign Minister Soebardjo, the natives were fleeing the city, employing scorched earth tactics in the process. Resistance was growing as Nationalist youths, yelling "fight for freedom", proceeded from Jogjakarta to Soerabaja to assist their fellows. The object of the revolt was to rid the East Indies of Dutch control.

The American chief of counter-intelligence, Brig. General Elliot Thorpe, stated from Tokyo that the current strife in Java was being caused by Javanese who had been specially trained in Tokyo in a Pan-Asiatic propaganda school during the war. The school left behind "intellectual landmines" which would be exploding into the future, said General Thorpe. Pupils at the school included Koreans, Chinese, Manchurians, Burmese, and Filipinos. The purpose of the school was to train native populations to revolt against colonial rule, on the belief that the resulting revolts would draw sympathy from some Allied nations and thus split the Allies.

Prime Ministers Clement Attlee and Mackenzie King arrived in Washington to begin talks anent the atomic bomb and the British loan status with President Truman. The heads of state would board the presidential yacht Sequoia on Armistice Day and take a cruise on the Potomac.

It was announced in London that British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin would, the following week, make a policy statement on the question of Zionism, the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. It was believed that Prime Minister Attlee would first consult with President Truman to form a cohesive U.S.-British policy.

In Bruschal, Germany, five German civilians were hanged for the brutal murders of six American fliers on August 26, 1944. They wore white skull caps to the gallows. One of their number, Joseph Hargen, proclaimed his innocence, said that he fired pistol shots into one of the Americans because he had stuck his tongue out at him. Three others were sentenced to prison terms, and two women, originally sentenced to hang, had their sentences commuted to 30 years each. Echoing the words of Jesus, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do," Herr Hargen stepped onto the gallows to meet his fate.

In the 30th installment in the series of articles by General Jonathan Wainwright, he tells of his arrival at Karenko Prison on Formosa on August 16, 1942. The prisoners were lined up on the parade ground and made to stand for half an hour before roll call each morning. Once, they had to stand at attention for two full hours before roll call commenced.

They continued to be fed only rice and watery soup, leaving them as hungry afterward as when they began eating. The strain of gradual starvation was setting in as the first sign of physical deterioration occurred with the swelling of their feet and ankles, aggravated by clogs issued by the Japanese after they took away their shoes.

On September 28, Maj. General Sharp and other officers and enlisted men from the Visayan-Mindanao command were led into the camp. Numerous officials from the Philippines, Sumatra, Malaya, and the Dutch East Indies were also among the prisoners. The addition caused severe overcrowding of the only barracks at the compound.

A photograph on the page shows General Nathan Bedford Twining, resident of Charlotte and future chairman of the Joint Chiefs under President Eisenhower, being decorated by British Ambassador Lord Halifax in Washington on behalf of King George as Honorary Knight Commander of the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

We hope that the one from yesterday's edition, depicting the little girl in Atlanta bathing in the inverted war-surplus Bell bubble canopy, does not wind up with the baby being thrown out with the bath water.

The City Planning Board in Charlotte recommended to the City Council a bond measure in an amount in excess of five million dollars, 4.3 million of which would be for improved water and sewer facilities, the remainder devoted to a new library, improvement of the airport, and purchase of land for an auditorium. The bond, if approved by the Council, would have to be approved by the electorate.

In Canon City, Colorado, Charles Silliman, convicted of killing his wife and four-year old daughter with poisoned brandy, was executed. The execution was delayed two hours, until after an unconnected chamber of commerce banquet held at the prison where 550 guests gathered, sang and ate turkey. Mr. Silliman was not aware of the affaire d'honneur. He had enjoyed a steak dinner before he was led to the gas chamber. At trial, he had claimed that he and his wife had entered a suicide pact, hence the brandy, but he had lost his nerve.

Frank C. Alymer, veteran of the Indian wars and claimant to having narrowly escaped the massacre at the Little Big Horn, died at 91 in Syracuse. He claimed to have been with the Seventh Cavalry of General Custer until the night before the massacre on June 25, 1876, but was sent to Fort Lincoln that night to deliver a message to send up support.

On the editorial page, "Mr. Truman Grows Taller" assesses President Truman's stand to prevent inflation by keeping prices under control while permitting wages to be bargained: even though unpopular with industry, he was nevertheless taking the side of the consumer, to prevent runaway inflation and thereby showing the first signs of being a statesman.

"Isolation of the Military" addresses the complaint from December, 1944 of General MacArthur that the American system was flawed in the Founders' conception with regard to civilian control of a separate military, that to remedy this gap, the chiefs of each branch should be included as ex-officio members of the Cabinet, able thereby to have a voice in policy even if not voting. He contended that the President was always a slave to politics and that the civilian secretaries were not qualified to instruct the military on the results of Cabinet meetings.

The piece suggests that the scorn which General MacArthur possessed for politics presented, in itself, the strongest case that the military needed civilian interpreters. For he did not understand that the political pressure on the President was a virtue of the Republic, a constant pressure from the people impacting policy. It was Q.E.D., by the General's failure to appreciate or respect the will of the people, that he formed the prime exemplar of that against which the Founders felt the need to guard.

"Comic Strip Diplomacy" finds the ban on comic books for children of Europe and Asia, on the notion that they could convey that the United States was a nation of gangsters, to have blinked the reality that these children had first seen great numbers of Americans only in the form of soldiers shooting their way into the countries, and so nothing in these comic books could possibly come as a shock. Moreover, the heroes of the comics always spilled blood only in the cause of justice while remaining aloof from the amorous temptations of their shapely female assistants.

The piece thinks it would serve well the State Department to supply the comics in these foreign lands, to give the impression at the next draft call that the likes of Superman, Li'l Abner, Flash Gordon, and Dick Tracy would report to duty.

In hindsight, the Treasure Chest Committee, which implemented the ban based on the "rootin' tootin' qualities" of Americans displayed in the comic books, might have had the better of the argument after all.

A piece from the Louisville Courier-Journal, titled "Prejudice and the Voice", looks at the recent talk by Frank Sinatra to the Froebel High School students in Gary, Indiana, who had gone on strike because of the bi-racial admission policies of the high school's principal. The piece concludes from the singer's failure to achieve rapprochement that the strikers were primarily male, as most of the girls listening to his appeal had reportedly screamed, stamped their feet, whistled, while some even sobbed.

The piece accepts Mr. Sinatra's sincere social consciousness in making the appearance. The strike by 800 students had gone on for weeks in protest of admission of large numbers of blacks to the school, not unusual for Gary, and alleged preferential treatment of the black students by the principal. Apparently, the leaders of the strike were persons having nothing to do with it at its inception and, to the editorial, this fact appeared explanatory of why so many students had involved themselves in this dubious activity.

It wonders why the parents and citizenry, unless they approved of the demonstration, had not taken action to restore order at the school weeks earlier.

"In this case, there is indeed reason to be concerned, no less than for a source of physical contagion."

Drew Pearson first reports that the two ships named for columnists Heywood Broun, who had died of pneumonia in December, 1939, and Ernie Pyle who had died from Japanese sniper fire on Ie Jima April 18, 1945, were not being permitted to carry troops home, or, in the case of the Broun, not being permitted to carry anywhere near its complement. He notes that during the war, men were crowded onto ships, even dangerously crowded with ammunition, in at least two instances, resulting in explosions killing 2,000 men. But now, the War Department was loathe to allow ships to carry even their full loads, let alone permit any overcrowding, to bring the men home.

He next lists the many benefits bestowed on the average person by avoiding inflation, the course to which OPA head Chester Bowles was steadfastly adhering, despite heavy pressures from farmers and industry alike to raise prices. Mr. Pearson counsels that the citizen take heed of these benefits and demand that their Congressman also take up the gauntlet and wage the fight along with Mr. Bowles, left so far to wage it alone.

The technician for General MacArthur's radio broadcasts during the war had returned home to tell friends that the General had overplayed his part badly in most such broadcasts, able, for instance, to turn on and off emotion at will whenever he uttered the word "Filipinos". But at the time of the formal surrender of the Japanese in September aboard the Missouri, he had played it just right, understating the matter and not becoming overly dramatic.

Mr. Pearson next reports that the former aide to the Dies Committee, a private in the Army assigned to military police duty in San Antonio, was not going to be saved by the new HUAC from going to Japan as part of the occupation forces, despite the efforts of Congressmen John "Rootin' Tootin'" Rankin of Mississippi and Edward "Goober" Cox of Georgia to obtain his services for the committee. The committee voted 4 to 4, and the chair, Congressman John Wood of Georgia, refused to break the tie.

Finally, he reports that the railroads were attempting to obtain permission from the Federal Government for 60,000 Mexican workers to remain in the country. They had been imported during the war to fill the low-paying jobs of maintaining railroad right-of-ways. The pay was so low that few Americans wanted the work. In the South, convicts and vagrants were being used for the task.

Marquis Childs addresses the sporadic acts of racism aimed at Japanese-Americans returning home along the West Coast from inland relocation centers to which they had been transferred during the war, only to find in some cases their homes burned or victimization by violence. Many of the victims had either fought in the war with distinction or were family members of same. While some action was being undertaken to show sympathy for the victims, with funds being raised for their benefit, not enough was being done to prevent the show of racist violence.

One West Coast editor, Frank Clarvoe of the San Francisco News, was doing more than just writing about it, was touring the state giving talks against such racist activity. Look Magazine had recently featured a story by Wallace Stegner, titled "One Nation", showing how primitive prejudices worked against religious and ethnic minorities. As a single nation, attempts to "unravel the skein of many-colored strands will destroy the whole".

As Mr. Childs had discussed on May 25, two brothers had been acquitted in California for dynamiting the fruit stand of a Japanese-American, after their attorney claimed as a defense that it was a "white man's country". They were subsequently tried in Federal Court in Sacramento for violation of Federal laws in connection with possession of explosives, but were acquitted yet again.

Extant Federal law offered little protection to minorities and many believed that such laws ought be created. Education as an answer was slow to effect a remedy.

Dorothy Thompson comments that the speech given by V.M. Molotov on the occasion of the 28th anniversary of the Revolution had reaffirmed the basic Marxian dogma, enunciated by Stalin in 1938, that the Soviet Union could not long stand side by side imperialist states, that a series of conflicts with them was inevitable. Imperialist states were regarded as any which were not true democracies, as the Soviets prided themselves on being, unlike the parliamentary democracies with only indirect representation. These states could not be trusted not to engage in aggression.

Mr. Molotov had stated that safe-guarding peace did not require an arms race, as preached by the advocates of imperialism. He claimed that the Soviet Union had never joined blocs of powers directed against peace-loving states, as in the West. It had been the West, he asserted, which had encouraged Germany's aggression.

Ms. Thompson finds the rhetoric hard to square with the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop mutual non-aggression pact between Russia and Germany, pursuant to which Russia attacked Finland after Germany had vanquished Poland. Nor did the claim of Western loans to rearm Germany in the thirties greatly distinguish the West from Russia, which had supported rearmament of the Reich, had cooperated with the Reichswehr in training German troops on Russian soil.

Mr. Molotov had supported at the September London Conference the idea of rearming Axis states which became "true democracies" under the Soviet definition. He cited Bulgaria and Rumania as such prospects.

The attitude advocated toward the vanquished was not vengeance but rather prevention of any future aggression and isolation of any new aggressors.

The Soviet policy was that all Soviet-controlled zones in Eastern Europe and the Far East were settled, to be within the Soviet sphere, while fluid areas not yet settled and, being threatened by the imperialist states, should be subject to Soviet participation.

Ms. Thompson finds Mr. Molotov's speech to have been the most challenging of any made by one Ally against the others, clear in its evocation of principles, something sorely lacking, she finds, in American policy.

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