Wednesday, October 24, 1945

The Charlotte News

Wednesday, October 24, 1945

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the man whose name emerged from the war as synonymous with traitor, Vidkun Quisling, was executed by firing squad at 2:00 a.m. in Oslo pursuant to his conviction on October 13. He maintained until the end that he was a patriot, having sent a letter to King Haakon VII protesting his innocence to deaf ears. The execution was unscheduled, Quisling's defense lawyer and the prosecutor at his trial not having been informed of the plan to execute him this date. Quisling was awakened from a sound sleep and ushered out in the drizzling rain to meet his sounder sleep.

Secretary of State Byrnes registered objection to the use of Lend-Lease by both the British and Dutch in the Far East against the Nationalists in Java and in Indo-China. The United States had adopted a non-interventionist policy in both conflicts.

Two Republican Congressmen, including Karl Mundt of South Dakota, claimed to have witnessed Lend-Lease arms employed by the French in Lebanon and Syria. They called on President Truman to denounce such use.

It was estimated that under the President's proposed plan of mandatory military training for males between 18 and 20, about a million would undergo training each year.

It appeared that a minority of the Congress favored the plan as it was proposed, but a modified plan under which there would be no disruption of the high school graduate's desire to obtain further education received broader support. A minority also opposed any required military training. Many members stated that they wished the President had not raised the issue at the time.

In the ninth day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, October 24, 1962, as set forth in conjunction with The News of October 24, 1937, the United States quarantine, imposed to interdict weapons going to Cuba, began at 10:00 a.m. Washington time. The quarantine applied to all ships of any nation, to prevent the Soviets from using foreign ships to transport parts and weapons. The Gagarin and Kimovsk, 30 to 50 miles apart, both believed to be carrying offensive weapons, were first to approach the quarantine line, made more problematic by a submarine sailing in between them and ahead of the Kimovsk by 20 to 30 miles. The submarine was scheduled to reach the line by late afternoon or early evening.

Within less than a half hour of the start of the quarantine, however, reports came that the ships were turning around, later confirmed. Secretary of State Dean Rusk commented in satisfaction, "We were eyeball to eyeball and I believe the other fellow just blinked."

While the quarantine appeared to be working, the crisis was far from over.

G.M. and the UAW continued wage negotiation talks to try to avert a strike, scheduled for vote this date among 300,000 auto workers at G.M., with more to vote at Ford and Chrysler the following day and on November 7.

In the fifteenth article in the series by General Jonathan Wainwright on the fall of Bataan and Corregidor in April and May, 1942, he tells of General Marshall's message of encouragement received on Corregidor on April 18 having come at a particularly good time as they had witnessed that afternoon the flag pole from which the American flag had flown shot in half from enemy batteries on Bataan. It had been an ominous sign. Men, however, raced to save the flag from hitting the ground, then repaired the pole and raised it again. General Wainwright gave each the Silver Star for resurrecting morale.

The enemy batteries on Bataan were covered in jungle growth and the Japanese used smokeless guns, making it doubly difficult to spot their locations. There was also concern by General Wainwright of firing into American and Filipino prisoners, and so for a week he refused to allow return fire onto Bataan. After the week had passed, they later received reports that their firing had wounded some of their own men.

The enemy also had the advantage of air reconnaissance to direct their fire. Shelling was almost constant for the entire 27 days between the fall of Bataan and the fall of Corregidor. No place on the Rock presented a safe haven from the fire save Malinta Tunnel, from which the troops could not fight back and which was too small in any event to contain more than a fraction of the personnel on the small island fortress.

Four enemy artillery shells hit squarely at points on the island, each causing many casualties, the worst hitting Battery Geary.

General Wainwright was later informed that the Bataan Death March had begun April 15 toward Camp O'Donnell. The first leg was to San Fernando Pampanga, about 60 miles from the point of origin. At that point, the men were herded into boxcars and shipped 20 miles to Capas. From there, they were marched another seven miles to Camp O'Donnell.

Fresh water was not to be had at the camp, the only available water coming from the Bamban River, three miles from the camp. The men could not carry more than a canteen full at a time, and few had canteens left after the Japanese seized them for the aluminum. The only food provided was rice in small portions.

Between arrival at the camp in the third week of April and the end of July, 20,000 of the 45,000 Filipino troops and 1,400 Americans had perished from starvation, diseases, and torture.

In Ludlow, Mass., a theater owner added beneath the movie title displayed on his marquee, "It's terrible." The name of the movie was unfortunately not provided.

On the editorial page, "Red Feathers Go On Sale" tells of red feathers to be sold in support of the Community Chest drive, reminds that despite better times, it was still necessary to provide for the underprivileged of the community.

Just why red feathers and not some other color, we couldn't say.

"Move Over, Missourians" finds Democrats upset that President Truman was appointing too many people from his home state to posts in the Government. But, it says, North Carolina had no reason to complain as Theron Caudle had been appointed Assistant Attorney General, Judge John J. Parker as alternate U.S. member of the Nuremberg Tribunal, and Chief Justice Walter Stacy to preside over the labor-management conference. The day before, Kenneth Royall had been named Undersecretary of War. All of these North Carolinians, it opines, were examples of appointments based on merit.

"The Truce Shrinks" comments on the growing tendency in the country, as expressed in the President's address the previous day to Congress, to set aside the United Nations Organization as a hope for bringing peace to the world and, in its stead, to live by the conviction of force.

The victory in war appeared to assure, in the minds of most of the military establishment, no more than two decades of peace, the estimated time until the powers would recover from fighting World War II.

"And not even real peace, but an armed truce, a period of restless preparation for the next battle."

Even the truce was being eroded daily.

"The generals believe war is inevitable; so, apparently does President Truman. History has not taught us how to prevent wars. We can only hope that it has taught us how to win them."

The prophecy, self-fulfilling as it was, would come true, and prior to twenty years hence, even if world war, for its terrible and decisive results foreordained by the new technology unleashed the previous July and August, was and thus far has been averted.

"Coming Home" reports that the Army had just discharged its two millionth soldier since war's end, indicating that the process was running ahead of schedule, despite regular complaints being heard throughout the country of the sloth and inefficiency with which it was taking place. The Navy appeared not to be doing as well as the Army. But the recommendation by the President of mandatory military training should relieve concerns of the generals and admirals regarding liquidation of their forces and consequent reduction of their commands and rank.

The greatest indicator of rapid demobilization, however, had come from Winston Churchill, who had stated in Commons that Britain was threatened with loss of its world trade by falling behind in reconversion.

The excerpt from the Congressional Record has Representative Ben Jensen of Iowa reminding his colleagues that after taking back 52.5 billion dollars from the budget, there would remain 94 billion which could still be spent during the fiscal year.

Representative Clarence Cannon of Missouri suggests that if Mr. Jensen wanted to include that amount, then no one could get home from overseas.

Mr. Jensen responds that his point had been to alert the country that New Deal spenders still had 94 billion dollars to play with.

Mr. Cannon persists, asking again why not then take it way, adding that it was for demobilization and liquidation of war activities, that Mr. Jensen had voted for the appropriations.

Mr. Jensen counters that, while he had voted for war appropriations, he did not vote for the pork barrel provisions.

Mr. Cannon insists that there was no pork in the 94 billion, that all of it was for demobilization.

After inquiry, Mr. Jensen tells Mr. Cannon that he voted against the airport bill, to which Mr. Cannon expresses approval, saying that it represented deficit spending, that the Congress had also voted to decrease revenue by seven billion dollars with the tax reduction bill, making it more difficult to pay off the national debt.

Drew Pearson comments that since Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson had taken charge over General MacArthur, conditions in the Japanese occupation had dramatically improved, with the institutuion of women's suffrage and the installation of Baron Shidehara as Premier. Much of the credit belonged to Secretary of State Byrnes in his reorganization of the State Department's Far Eastern division, pushing out Eugene Doorman and Joseph Ballentine, who had placed faith in the Japanese aristocracy. They had been replaced by John Carter Vincent and others who had warned Secretary Hull against appeasement of Japan prior to Pearl Harbor.

Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy had also made a trip to the Far East to insure that the State Department policy was being implemented.

Mr. Pearson asserts that Prince Konoye, however, as a member of the Imperial family, was a bad choice to lead the re-writing of the Japanese constitution. He suggests that General MacArthur take a look at Baron Minove and his son, as well as labor leader Kanju Kato for important leadership roles. They had taken stands against the militarists and suffered for their convictions in ways Baron Shidehara had not.

The column next points out that men of the Army and Navy were especially incensed to see favoritism being displayed toward sons of prominent politicians or football players in being discharged early. An example had occurred with former counsel to the Dies Committee Robert Stripling, in service for nine months, lobbying for discharge alongside members of his military police unit who had been veterans for two years.

Lastly, Mr. Pearson tells of President Truman having given praise to General Marshall at a dinner in his honor, saying the General was his idea of a leader.

General Marshall would be appointed Secretary of State by President Truman at the beginning of 1947.

Marquis Childs discusses the prospect that Ed Pauley, former treasurer of the Democratic National Committee and instrumental in obtaining the vice-presidential nomination for Harry Truman in 1944, might be appointed Secretary of the Navy, as James Forrestal was rumored to want to resign after a year and a half in the post.

Mr. Pauley, a California oil man, would be of questionable political fitness for the position as it would give rise inevitably to questions regarding his decisions related to tideland oil reserves, whether they belonged to the Federal Government as the Justice Department had asserted and as President Truman advocated, or whether they could continue to be leased by the states to private oil companies in return for large royalties. Mr. Pauley received much of his income from such leased oil reserves.

Should the appointment be made, opines Mr. Childs, it would further the growing opinion that the Truman Administration resembled the Harding Administration insofar as its desire for "return to normalcy" and its tendency toward political appointments.

Dorothy Thompson comments on the Nuremberg trials, set to start in early November, wondering from whence the Tribunal had derived its authority. She questions whether it would not have been better for the United Nations to have set up a tribunal rather than limiting the judges and prosecutors to the Big Four nations, without any representation of the smaller nations or the neutral nations of the war.

Meanwhile, Tito's forces in Yugoslavia were massing near Greece under the banner "Union of all Macedonians". Reports came of violence erupting between Czechs and Poles. Many of the occupation governments were acting brutally toward the masses, under threat of violence, as in Rumania, for failure to obey orders.

Ms. Thompson therefore questions by what moral authority could the Allies act with such conditions ongoing, little better than the behavior of the Nazis.

She questions whether the trials would establish a precedent of international law by which nations might subsequently behave and gauge their conduct, or whether it would simply devolve to trial and execution of the vanquished by the victors, setting thereby the wrong precedent.

The only lasting value to civilization of the Tribunal would be for it to establish a body of precedent for the future and thereby both avenge and deter a repeat of the terrible atrocities committed against humanity by the Nazis during the war.

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