Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in the siege of Sevastopol, the two converging armies, the Fourth Ukrainian Army and the Coastal Army under the command of General Andrei Yeremenko, tightened, with the aid of Russian Navy guns off the coast, their ring around the last German hold on the Crimea.

The fighting west of Stanislawow, 300 miles to the northwest of Sevastopol, also continued apace, with the Second Ukrainian Army dispatching yet another 1,500 Germans during the previous day’s fighting, plus capturing 68 tanks. The Germans were utilizing the flooded Prut and Dniester Rivers to guard their flanks.

A Berlin dispatch indicated that Field Marshal Fritz von Mannstein had been relieved of his command of the Germans holding the Carpathian Mountains, replaced by General Walter Modl.

The Fifteenth Air Force struck again at Bucharest in Rumania and at Turnu-Severin along the Yugoslav-Rumanian border. Seventeen of the planes, including eight heavy bombers, did not return from the mission.

A combined American and British raid, with British fighters covering American bombers, struck again the northern coast of France, while RAF Mosquitos the previous night dropped their two-ton blockbuster bombs on Cologne in Germany. The Ninth Air Force also hit targets in Belgium.

The official organ of the Nazi Party, Voelkischer Beobachter, warned Germans, as it would prove itself, honestly and with prophecy accurate for change, "This Summer may be the last bloody war Summer."

A radio broadcaster out of Stockholm meanwhile predicted that the Allied invasion from the West would come prior to the first of May, a prediction widely being circulated, he proclaimed, based on three factors: first, that the tides would be highest and thus would most favor the Allies during the ensuing ten days; second, that the lulls in ground fighting in Russia and on the Anzio beachhead in Italy had enabled each of the Allied forces to bring up massive reinforcements to these areas; and, third, that the massive Allied air attacks on German defenses in recent days portended imminent landings.

Most notable activity of the day on the Italian front was the erection of a sign by the Nazis before the British on the Adriatic lines, presumably in the vicinity of Ortona or Orsogna, saying, "Britons, salute our fuehrer." The British response was to fire a shell into the sign, destroying it.

In the Pacific, more Allied air strikes hit Satawan and Woleai in the Carolines, while other raids struck at Geelvink Bay in Western Dutch New Guinea, hitting Japanese airdromes on Noemfoor Island. Yet another raid struck at Hollandia along the northern coast of Eastern New Guinea, and ranging to the vicinity of the Japanese hold at Madang. Also hit were enemy positions at Rabaul on New Britain, routinely the object of bombing.

A delayed report from April 19 indicates that the only American pilot, Lt. (j.g.) Dale Christian Klahn, of Laramie, Wyo., shot down during the mission to bomb Lhonga and Sabang on Sumatra, had been daringly rescued by a British submarine ploughing the waters "[u]nder the smoking guns of Japanese coastal batteries".

"Twelve Hellcats meanwhile spread a star-bangled umbrella over the little yellow life raft and the rescuing submarine, nailing down the Japanese air force." The leader of the pack of Hellcats, Lt.-Commander Bob Dose of Coronado, California, directed his planes for 90 minutes as they stopped a Japanese destroyer bound for the plodding sub, dead in its tracks. All this activity to save but one lone pilot shot down in a raid.

Says the piece, the life-snubbing Japanese must have looked on with some degree of incredulity at the tenacity with which esprit de corps among the Allies had instilled in them concert to save their own from enemy shells, no matter the sacrifice.

Further reports on the raid of Wednesday on Sumatra told of its originating from both British and American carriers, with some French and Dutch naval involvement as well, as 80 percent of the planes flown in the attack were of American manufacture.

In London, the strike of some 1,300 bus drivers, regarding the spread of their hours being too extensive for the summer routes, was resolved. Also, 500 striking gas workers in Manchester returned to the job.

In Canada, a strike of 14,000 UAW members at the Ford plant in Windsor, Ontario, aggrieved over inadequate grievance procedures, was in the process of negotiation.

William Worden, in the "Reporter's Notebook" column, writes of the most notable concern of the men onboard the carrier he was riding to deliver the planes for the raids on Palau, that being chow. They dreamed of steaks and crab cocktails. But they got, via ships from New Zealand and Australia, only mutton, which they despised, and cocoanuts procured locally, served with tea. The cocoanuts, plundered from the closely watched preserves of the natives, were usually deemed, however, more troublesome to savor than they were worth in the struggle to crack. It was therefore food strictly on reserve for emergencies.

The native cuisine of choice consisted of fish and poi, the latter from taro root. Resemblant to a potato, poi was served in its final state, after hours of preparation, as a mush which reminded of library paste. Needless to say, the soldiers and sailors were not fond of it. While the fish was edible, there was insufficient time to make the catch.

Informs Mr. Worden, ships ate better than shore stations, having a good supply of vegetables and fruit onboard, plus a plethora of olives and beets, both of which were deemed sine qua non for victory. Apples and oranges were the typical fruit. (No mention was made of strawberries or any of the men stealing to the distress of Captain Queeg, with the steel ball bearings in his hand.)

In addition to dreams of steak and crab cocktails, the men drooled when they spoke of soft fruits, melons, and fresh ripe tomatoes.

Then, they would hear the call to chow and would rush to the lines--presumably, rushing past some of those bulkheads bearing pictures of naked women, of which Mr. Worden reported the previous day.

On the editorial page, "Disavowal" finds acceptable the notion that the War Department had not deliberately concealed the delayed report from August of the additional planes shot down by friendly fire, killing 483 men, at Catania in Sicily, three days after a similar friendly fire episode had resulted in the deaths of 410 men at Gela, also in Sicily. The Office of War Information had cleared the War Department of any such intentional concealment, faulting for the delay instead the fact that the incident had occurred in an area under British command, and that the slow report had come about because it had been buried in British channels.

The editorial, however, takes issue with the fact that the War Department did not admit the existence of the incident until it was dug up first by Drew Pearson and then confirmed, after intervening denial by the Air Force, by Stars & Stripes, the Army newspaper. It suggests that the War Department ought have better means for ferreting out information than via the press.

"Free Ports" takes up the issue raised twice by Samuel Grafton, most recently on April 17, advocating free ports for refugees, offering temporary asylum within areas cordoned off from the country generally, enabling refugees to have haven from Axis countries without having first to meet immigration quotas. It reports that the Grafton Plan, as it had come to be called, was receiving favor from the War Refugee Board.

The editorial backs the plan, deems it the only humane solution to the great problem of suffering in Europe, especially since Britain had recently announced the intended closure of Jewish immigration to Palestine.

"Double Beds" comes out again in favor of the twin bed side of the question of twin beds versus double beds for married couples, a recent survey having indicated that 40 percent of couples favored twin beds.

As pointed out in "Twin Beds", the column's editorial of April 7, Judge Frank Donahue of the Women's Court in Chicago had issued a decree by which double beds would be mandated, stating that twin beds were responsible for many of the marital woes the judge witnessed daily in his court.

But the editorial cites the advice from a female plaintiff in a divorce suit, age 39, who contended to the contrary, that her marriage had been happy when she and her spouse enjoyed the connubial bliss afforded by twin beds. Only afterward, when she and her husband switched to a double bed, did arguments ensue, resulting in her having been evicted from her bed on two occasions. Now, the formerly happy couple, when split in the bedroom, had wound up in Splitsville when too much togetherness informed the old contact hypothesis--that familiarity breeds contempt--with verity.

Concludes the piece, overcrowded conditions were inimical to exercise of individual rights to space.

We conclude that, more than likely, the divorced husband of the 39-year old woman left her his second-best bed as her sole devise from his last Will and testament, to insure freedom from application of the pretermitted heir statute, perhaps with a bit of last advice imparted from the frankly dear side: An hath, away, arunt, hokere.

Again, while not quite so remarkable for its relatively close proximity in time, our references backward from the note of yesterday should be footnoted with the advice that we did not first read ahead to today's pages.

Anyhow, Move Over, Little Darlin'.

"Casualties" indicates grimly that recent advices of the War and Navy Departments had informed that Americans reported as dead, missing, and wounded were precipitously on the rise, having reached, through the first week of April, 190,000, including 43,808 known dead. In the most recent report, there had been, without explanation, 10,450 casualties added to those of the report of two weeks earlier.

Official estimates of the coming losses with the invasion of Europe had it that no more than 150,000 American casualties would be suffered during the first month.

But in light of the increasing casualties even in time of reported lull on the fronts and relatively few reported losses during the massive air raids of recent months, the implication was that the armed services were, in an effort to bolster public morale, not providing enough warning of likely prospective losses.

The piece predicts that the losses yet to be suffered would be manifold those of the current figures.

Drew Pearson discusses the clash between the Army and Congress in the latter’s effort to delay permanent promotions of generals until after the war. The thinking had been generated from some of the bitterness engendered in the previous war from the appearance that political patronage had many times been the primary motivation for such promotions, as when General Pershing had been elevated from the rank of captain to brigadier general just after his marriage to the daughter of Senator Francis Warren.

Yet, with the Army's powerful lobby on Capitol Hill, the Senate Military Affairs Committee, headed by Robert Rice Reynolds, was taking up the issue of permanent promotions to be awarded Generals Somervell, Patton, and Jonathan Wainwright, the latter still imprisoned by the Japanese since the fall of Corregidor two years earlier. General Patton, for instance, was only a colonel at present by permanent rank, even if lieutenant general in his brevit rank.

It appeared, after all, that these generals might receive their permanent rank prior to war's end.

Mr. Pearson next turns to the slow start of Undersecretary of State Edward Stettinius, appointed to the position the previous August. He was not as schooled in foreign affairs as his predecessor, Sumner Welles. Yet, he was being invited increasingly into the confidence of the President, especially as Secretary Hull took greater time off because of health issues, utilizing therefore his Undersecretary as the liaison with the White House.

Dorothy Thompson writes of the implications to be gleaned from the unprecedented order issued by the British Government, in collaboration with the Americans and Russians, that all diplomatic communications of Allied and neutral nations' representatives in the British Isles henceforth be restricted to communications submitted only through the British foreign office and British embassies in neutral countries. Restricting these communications suggested strongly, as the Axis nations had taken from the announcement, that Allied invasion of the Continent was nearing, as no such action would long be suffered by diplomats of foreign countries without complaint, unless military action plainly made the restriction's purpose manifest.

Ms. Thompson asserts, however, that the smaller nations had not received adequate information as to the purpose of the restriction to settle fears, already afoot, that the Big Three powers were undertaking too much trilateral action, not taking into account the wishes and desires enough of the smaller Allied nations. Even if not specific, the British should couch the move in terms of military justification, to alleviate these continuing trepidations.

Samuel Grafton concerns himself with the lovey-doviness now becoming the country as a new trend in an election year, both in the Congress and even among some of the newspapers formerly bitter to the Administration. A recent Hearst newspaper editorial, he points out, had written of the President's amiable personality, one which had deeply endeared him to the nation over time, even if concluding that he was now due a long rest.

The Republicans running for Congress seemed suddenly very concerned about minority interests, many of them plumping for a Palestinian homeland for Jews, and also seeking the votes of blacks, coming out against the poll tax. Yet, they had voted nearly as a unanimous bloc in turning the soldier ballot issue back to the states, and thus appeared torn between desiring the political support of blacks while not being willing to have the Federal Government insure that blacks in the military had the opportunity, along with all others in service, to vote.

In general, the country was better behaved in an election year than just after an election.

Mr. Grafton concludes his piece with a loving kiss, saying he loved the democratic process to pieces.

Marquis Childs examines the various attacks on Eleanor Roosevelt in recent times, exacerbated by the Republicans' effort to saddle her unpopularity in pockets of the country with the political fortunes of her husband. Senator Truman recently had addressed a letter to the White House asking that the President specifically debunk rumors floating about that she owned four automobiles and consumed 2,000 gallons of gasoline per month.

In Oklahoma, during an event in which Governor Bricker appeared, a recited parody of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" had stolen the show. Apparently also in parody of another, earlier poem composed in honor of the First Lady, it was titled "The Lady, Eleanor", presumably with the punch line, "Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore.'"

Most disturbing to many in the South was the fact of the First Lady's determined effort to bring about the end of race discrimination. But that effort, points out Mr. Childs, would continue even if Mrs. Roosevelt were out of the White House.

And, of course, so it would, but not in January, 1945; rather, in April, when spring comes round. Mrs. Roosevelt would return to Hyde Park for the nonce following her husband's death, but not for long would remain out of the public eye or mind.

A news piece reports that Clare Boothe Luce, addressing in Columbus, Ohio, the Ohio Federation of Republican Women's Organizations, asked rhetorically whether Mrs. Roosevelt's statement, coming only after the Tehran and Cairo conferences in November-December, advocating peace-time military training for American youth, implied a concern for threatened safety of the country in the post-war world. She continued that, since Mrs. Roosevelt acted as a surrogate mouthpiece for the President and was privy to his concerns, the statement was freighted with serious implications for the future, given the great military build-up within China and the Soviet Union during the war.

She strongly suggested that Republicans bear it in mind in the coming fall election.

Of course, we would like, if she were still around, to ask Ms. Luce, whether she and her plotting husband did not help in great measure to insure the ground upon which her little prophecy, her hidden accompliced treasure, cloaked in quaint questions pregnant with their intended answer, would come true in the post-war environment through their hand-picked messengers' entrancing rue, whipping, whipping, in the Congress and in the Senate, the shrews of purblind necromancers to their howls of anti-Communist sentiment anew, stirring the passions of paranoia in the country, always quick in certain segments to latch on to the handiest bogey to which there may be convenient attachment of zeal for pre-existing xenophobic urges, always in need of vent through some inimical goat, freebooting burgesses, some bad person sent, about which to be concerned, some steady fear that the night was not free from peril, one to engender the snug feeling, safe, insular, at once in beddy-bye security, whether in double or twin, sterile, against the night-wolf, the howling from the misty gloom, perhaps the sound of the threatening rapist, the nigger's epistatic bloom, maybe the international banker Jew, certainly the war-threatening Commie's coup, nurturing as best he could the nigger and the Jew to satisfy their will as they would with impunity.

Yet for these little kooks, nurtured in part by Ms. Luce and her husband, never, it seemed, was troubling at all the Nazi, the anti-Semite, the racist, the Klansman.

Only, Mrs. Roosenveld and her disposition to insure social and political equality between the races.

Ms. Luce perhaps forgot to tell OFORWO the true author of the text of her speech, Josef Goebbels.

Anyway, Happy Easter. Hope you got your eggs, dyed in many colors.