I _WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS U.S. Moves to Take Over Japan; See Early End to Rationing As Reconversion Pace Quickens Released by Western Newspaper Union .. iRPITOR'S note When opinions ore expressed In these columns, they ore those el Western Newspaper t oion's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) JAPAN: Work Out Occupation Its huge guns belching smoke and fire and bofnbarding the Nip ponese coastline just a few weeks ago, the huge 45,000 ton U. S. battle ship Missouri was to become the peace ship of World War II. with the Japanese formally signing surrender papers aboard the vessel in Tokyo bhy. Taking place several days after U. S. airborne troops were to de scend on the Ataugi airdrome south west of Tokyo to spearhead the Jap anese occupation along with ma rines landing simultaneously at the Yokasuka naval base 20 miles be low the Nipponese capital, the for mal surrender ceremony was to see General MacArthur signing for the Allies as a whole, with Ad miral Nimitz countersigning for the U. S. and Admiral Fraser for the British. In working out the initial occupa tion plans. General MacArthur and his staff left no stone unturned to assure the safe conduct of the U. S. forces. At the same time, the new Nipponese government headed by Prince Higashi • Kunl strove to prepare the population to accept the American landings peaceably and refrain from riotous outbreaks, imperiling the whole surrender. Under General MacArthur’s plans, the Japanese were ordered to ground all planes and disarm all ships at sea several days before the first U. S. landings Then, while sprawl ing Allied fleets moved In close to Nipponese shores, the Japanese were to immobilize all vessels in Tokyo bay and strip coastal guns and anti-aircraft batteHes. As a final precaution, the Japa nese were ordered to evacuate all armed forces out of the immediate landing area, to forestall possible at tack by fanatical troops. Guides and interpreters were to be furnished to facilitate General MacArthur’s con trol of the occupation territory. Jap Casualties In the first full admission of the intensity of Allied air attacks, the Japanese news agency Domei re ported that 44 of the nation’s 200 or more cities were almost completely wiped out by bombings, with a toll of 200.000 killed, 412.000 wounded and 0.200,000 left homeless. Of the total, the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki accounted for 90,000 killed and 180, 000 wounded, Domei said. Declaring the toll may be even greater, the I Japs revealed that many of the burned are not expected to survive because of the nature of the wounds, while persons only slightly touched by the fires later weaken and often die. Reporting that 2,210,00tf homes were completely demolished . or burnt down, and 90,000 partly dam aged, Domei said that in addition to the 44 cities almost completely wiped out, 37 others, including Tokyo, suffered loss of over 30 per cent of their built-up area. Of 47 provinces, only 9 escaped with rela tively minor damage, Domei re vealed. CHINA: Key Position Relieved from Japanese encroach ment. and pivotal point of the Orient, China has assumed a renewed importance in the far east, with Chiang Kai • shek and his Premier T. V. Soong playing their cards well in t h e complicated game of internation al politics. Backed by the U. S., Chiang’s gov ernment holds the upper hand in the vast, sprawling na tion with its 400, 000,000 people, with its position greatly strengthened in dealings with the Chinese commu nists, Russia and even Britain. Though the Reds have openly defied Chian* and T. V. Soon* Chiang, U. S. financial and material support of his regime, plus efforts of Ambassador Hurley to bring the two dissident factions together, have enhanced his standing. In his deal ings with Russia. U. S. and British pressure has resulted in recognition of China’s sovereignty over Inner Mongolia and Manchuria, though the Reds have obtained a 50 per cent interest in vital railways in the lat ter province, secured Port Arthur as a naval base and been allowed use of the ice-frec port of Dairen. By marching his armies into the crown colony of Hong Kong, which the British wish to retrieve, Chiang even struck up a bargaining position with London. RECONVERSION: Pace Quickens Breathless trying to keep up with relaxation of unending wartime con trols, the nation contemplated early removal of meat, tire and shoe ra tioning, even as the government re moved restrictions on Industry to permit full-steam ahead on recon version. Following • previous announce ment that the government had abolished packer set-asides on beef, veal and ham supplies for the army and other federal agencies, an early end of rationing was expected with OPA's revelation that it would re duce meat point values in view of military cutbacks in orders and a prospective heavy fall run of cattle With the announcement that tire production would be doubled to 4, 000.000 monthly during October, With industry given the go-ahead signal for civilian production, man ufacturers strove for speedy output for the pent-up postwar market. Here, body is being slung on chas sis of one of the first cars to roll off of postwar production line. November an-1 December, unoffi cial predictions that rationing of cords would be terminated within 90 days were strengthened. Forecasts that shoe rationing also may be ended shortly were sup ported by an announcement of the Tanners Council of America that production of civilian footwear may exceed 30,000,000 pair a month for the rest of the year, the highest level ever reached by the industry. By lopping off most controls and only retaining authority to assure military and other emergency pro duction, and break bottlenecks in scarce materials for civilian output, the government gave manufacturers the go-ahead signal on such a wide variety of items as refrigerators, radios, distilled spirits, trucks, oil furnaces, construction machinery, metal furniture, motorcycles, photo graphic films, storage batteries, waxed paper, sanitary napkins, ma chine tools, shipping containers, pulp wood and commercial chemi cals. Removal of all lumber controls except those necessary to fill prior ity orders assured a speedy re sumption of both industrial and home building construction. U. S. CREDIT: Supplants Lend-Lease Following termination of the 41 billion-dollar lend-lease program. Foreign Economic Administrator Leo Crowley revealed that the U. S. was prepared to advance six billion dollars in credits to other nations for procurement of material in this country to bolster sagging postwar economies. At the same time, Crowley said that negotiations might begin with in the next year for settlement of lend-lease accounts, which find U. S. contributions of 41 billions offset by only 54 billions in mutual as sistance. Under plans outlined by the FEA chieftain, the U S would furnish 3Vk billion dollars in long-term credit to nations wishing to purchase goods already contracted for to fill can celled lend-lease orders. An addi tional 2 billion 800 million dollars would be advanced for procuring in dustrial and other goods. Marines Tell Pacific’s No. 1 Fish Story Fish stories are generally tall stones, but two marines who landed on Iheya island in the Ryukyus recently have an unusual fish story to teU—and it’s true! Shortly after the unopposed landing on this mile-long island, dwin dling food supplies prompted marine officials to permit tlje island s fishermen to make a fishing Jaunt inside the reef which parallels the shoreline. Staff Sgt. Bob Hilburn reports. Once fairly out in the water, the group divided Into two parties. Each pair of craft rigged up a net between them and then the swimmers, ■tripped to loin cloths, went over the sides Then—and this is the fish story part—the swimmers, by their antics actually drove the fish into the nets. Chieftains Meet Here to discus* increased financial assistance for rehabilitating t rance, internationalization of the Rhineland and re-establishment of his country as a world power, Gen. Charles de Gaulle (left) arrived in Washing ton, D. C.f to be greeted by Presi dent Truman. Fighting back savagely, big, bulky Vidkun Quisling was hard pressed In defense of his collaboration with the Germans in Norway as the state presented an avalanche of evi dence purporting to show that he had co-operated closely with the Nazis in their heavy-handed occu pation of the country. Quisling was first taken back by state presentation of reportedly cap tured German documents stating that the Nazis had used information supplied by him in their invasion of Norway. The collaborationist also was shaken by charges that he had turned over to the Germans a com munist leader blocking his political program and also denied a reprieve to an official sentenced to death for refusal to force Norwegian girls to work for the Nazis. On Spot Throughout the trial, Quisling de fiantly asserted that he had played with Naziism in an effort to prevent British establishment of bases in Norway in 1940 and possible inva sion of the Scandinavian peninsula by Russia from the north and Ger many from the south to thwart the move. He also claimed to have worked fervently from 1918 for the creation of a German, British and Scandinavian bloc to arrest the de velopment of Communism in Eu rope. PACIFIC: Ask liases Taking a realistic view of the Pa cific situation, in which the U. S. looms as the greatest power, the house naval affairs committee de manded that this country be given control over both Allied and former Japanese bases for the construc tion of a powerful defensive system capable of resisting attack from any direction. Issued by Chairman Vinson (Dem., Ga.) the congressional proposal urged U. S. domination of the whole Pacific area stretching from the Hawaiians westward to the Philippines and Ryukus, and in cluding the Marshall, Caroline and Marianas islands. In addition, the house committee said, the U. S. should take over American devel oped bases in the Manus islands in the Australian Admiralties; Guadal canal in the British Solomons; Es piritu Santo in the British-French New Hebrides and Noumea in French New Caledonia. Justifying American control over Pacific bases, the house committee cited "the loss of American lives in taking these bases. The expendi ture of vast sums of American mon ey in establishing and equipping these bases. The great depend ence of the world upon the United States for maintaining peace in the Pacific and world. . . SALARIES: liar Lifted With President Harry S. Truman having set the pattern fitr removal of controls over wages and salaries under jurisdiction of the War Labor board, the treasury announced re laxation of restrictions on salaries of administrative, executive and professional personnel under its wartime supervision. In both cases, employers will be able to grant raises to workers pro vided they do not use the increase as a basis for requesting higher ceil ing prices. In instances where price changes are involved, government agencies will retain authority over proposed raises. At the same time, the WLB is empowered to grant wage increases where substandard rates are tn ef fect to bring them more evenly in line with living costs. SKIN TREATMENT: Establishment of eight centers specializing in the treatment of tropical skin disease was announced by Maj. Gen. Norman T Kirk, sur geon general of the army. At the same time the army said that there is no basis for fear of tropical skin infections spreading in this country because practically none of these diseases are conta gious and no patient with a trans missible skir. disease would be ' allowed out of an army hospital un | til he was noninfectious. Washington Digest; Stricken Europe Needs Large Imports of Food Never Able to Raise Enough Fare for Its Teeming Masses. Old World’s Demands Aggravated by Ravages of War. By BAUKHAGE IVnii .Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street, NW, Washington. D. C. I’ve Just come up from the barn yard of a Maryland farm. In the barn was a comfortable crop of hay and wheat, outside a herd of fat Guernseys of all ages from a two weeks’ old calf up. Most of the chickens were already cooling them selves in a locker. There was only one thing for the fartner to com plain about and the hogs got a break out of that—the oats. "Just too wet this year,” he said. For fear it would set the bam aftre, if he stored it in that condi tion, the farmer explained that he ‘‘had to dump it” and a batch of shoats were leaping around in the spoiled grain like jack-rabbits. Most of the farmers hereabouts lost their oats, too. All week in Washington, I'd been reading, talking and thinking about farm products along with our other reconversion problems We, in the United States, are going to get only about three-quarters of what we raise this year, according to unoffi cial estimates. Europe is going to need about 25 per cent more food and textiles than she normally needs. I hear the questions asked: Why should we be expected to send all this food to Europe? Why can’t she produce her own? Are the people too lazy, or inefficient or what? I put those two questions to a member of the department of agri culture who is just back from an in spection tour of Europe. "Europe has always imported food, in peace and in war, in fat years and lean,” he answered. “To send food to Europe is the natural thing. Not to send it would be un natural.” Food Production To Dip Further "In 1945, Europe’s production was 10 per cent under her normal pro duction. Next year, production will be 15 per cent under this year. That means the people of Europe will need 25 per cent more than in nor mal times. It does not necessarily mean that the United States will fur nish a total of 25 per cent more of everything. For instance, Canada will furnish more wheat than before so we won't have to increase our quota, but we shall probably be called upon for more of the protein foods, especially the milk products.” Before answering my second ques tion, my friend explained the para dox that peace has cut down Eu rope’s producing power. While the European nations were overrun with a conquering army, he elucidated, while part of the fields of the con tinent were being riddled with shells and later gutted with tanks, produc tion fell off only some 10 per cent from normal. This is the reason: The Germans had to maintain a working economy in the nations they occupied and also they did not wish to destroy the resources of territory which they hoped to ex ploit. When they knew they were beaten, they stole what they could eat or carry and tried to destroy what they couldn’t move: much breeding stock had already been slaughtered. Of course, we must not be led astray by this figure of 10 per cent —the decrease in the total produc tion in Europe in wartime. There was a sharp cut in certain products and an increase in others. The en tire pattern of the agriculture was altered. For example, the livestock raisers always imported feed. When it was cut off there had to be a shift from livestock to root crops. Potatoes and beets make for a very monotonous diet, but they were fill ing while they lasted. The Germans organized and regi mented farm labor in all countries including their own. They main tained transportation fairly well un til just before the invasion. Now transportation is utterly disrupted, there are millions of displaced per sons, farm machinery is broken down. But this doesn’t answer question number two: Why can't Europe feed herself in normal times* Are the people so much lazier or be hind-the-times that they can’t make things grow as we do’’ Before answering that question, my friend reminded me that it was true that nobody always works at maximum efficiency, that most peo ple can do more when they have to than when they don’t, especially when there is some ext ^ordinary urge such as war. Take our own case: with thousands of farm boys in the munitions factories and with the armed forces, what did America do? American farm production in 1944 was increased, despite its handicap. 36 per cent beyond the 1935 to 1939 level. Britain’s Farm Output High But what about England where the boys were in the army and the muni tions factories, too; where farmers had to farm in the blackout and around the shell-craters in their fields? The British increased their production 65 per cent — they were nearer to the front than we were. They had a greater incentive. For the same reason, the distribu tion was far better than in Ameri ca. Regimentation was more strin gent. The government in England bought all the food and distributed it itself. It cracked down hard on the black markets. In this country, popular opinion prevented such in terference with private enterprise. And so in America we permitted the processing and distribution in dustries to operate at a profit. In Britain, it was a non-profit, govern ment operation. Rationing was stricter, too. So much for Britain’s wartime ef fort. Now, what about the efficiency of her production in normal times? My informant gave me some im pressive figures. He pointed to America’s two typi cal farm states which taken together are just about equal to Britain in area: Iowa and Indiana. Believe it or not in normal times Britain pro duces more wheat, barley and oats than those two states combined. Britain also produces more cattle than Texas which is six times as large—more potatoes than all our chief potato states including Maine and Idaho, more dairy products than Wisconsin. “Then why on earth,” I inter rupted, ‘‘can’t they feed themselves over there?” Back came the answer: “For the same reason that New York state with its skilled farmers, its splen did soil, its up-to-date methods, can’t feed itself any more than the District of Columbia can. In Europe as in these more heavily populated areas in the United States, there are just too many people." if we want these Europeans to live and prosper and earn the money to buy our automobiles and type writers and other gadgets which keep our factories running, we’ll have to keep on sending food to Eu rope as we always have. Recently I was asked to make a recording which was to be deposited in the archives of George Washing ton university, as part of a series made for the use of the class of the year 2007. It is a somewhat fantastic idea to be sure, but it is seriously undertaken and I responded in as serious a vein as I could muster. I can’t repeat what I said as that is supposed to be held as a big sur prise for the class of 2007 However, the whole idea intrigues me so much that I have been thinking about it ever since. The fact that this year begins what some people call the "atomic age” makes the speculation all the more interesting. In 1939 when the first successful experiment in “split ting the atom,” and releasing the vast power which literally holds the world together was reported chiefly in scientific publications, as of great academic importance One writer said the experiment might have no results of interests beyond the labo ratory. Six years later continua tion of those experiments ended the Japanese war. The forces released, however, were largely uncontrolled and pure ly destructive. Will the class of 2007 have to look up the word "coal" because it has been forgotten’’ Will all our mod ern means of generating power be displaced by the atom's forces, care fully controlled and directed to the uses of peace and progress? BARBS . . . by Baukhage If the boys have to sell apples this time they may get them mixed with hand grenades. The surrender day vigil at the : White House spawned many epi grams. The secretary of state dis appeared at one time. The officials would tell us nothing, so: “The state department fiddles while Byrnes roams.” Reconversion query: Will rede ployment mean re-employment, or how soon will the redeployed become the re-employed? • » • Don’t say American business can’t come back fast — the day after surrender day a silk hose salesman called at my office. And I expect the re-tired auto salesman will be next. IketJlame loum (l&p&ite/i in WASHINGTON By Walter Shead WNU Cormpondtnl WNU Washington Bureau 621 Union Trust Building Congress Veering to Left WITH congress back in session and unusual activity evident : about the headquarters of both na tional political committees, politi cal leaders here are looking toward the 1946 elections, just about a year off, and scanning the political hori zons for the signs of the times. With these elections in the offing, congressional legislation on recon version will be tempered by politi cal expediency, and it is likely the Truman administration will take a gradual shift more to the “left.” While the results of the British elections served to bring into clear er focus the trend of mass thinking of the “common man,” we have only to recapitulate the results of the last national election in this country to note the power and growth of labor as a political force, and note the leftward trend. Despite this trend, however, there is little or no indication that labor in America will ever go so far to the left as to ad vocate state socialism, at least if the government of the United States remains a liberal govern ment. But whether politicans of either party will admit it or not, the fact remains that the Political Action committee of the CIO, John L. Lewis and his united mine workers, and various factions of the AFL did play an important role in the last elec tion. These labor organizations are now laying plans for the active part they are to play in the elections next year, both congressional and local. Some weeks ago, your Home Town Reporter wrote that a new line-up of contending forces would see the mass thinking of the large areas of population pitted against the individual thought of the small towns and rural sections. That is exactly what happened in England. In some few agricultural sections, however, the farmers voted with the Labor party in the British left-swing toward a Socialist government. England Won’t Go ‘Red’ According to the political dope sters here, the Socialist leanings of the Labor party in England do not mean that England will abandon the capitalistic system. Rather, as Sir Stafford Cripps put it, the Labor party seeks a greater degree of economic liberty for the common people "by a wise combination of state ownership and private enter prise with effective control and plan ning of our natural resources.” And then he cites our TVA sys tem in America as an example. He might well have cited our Federal Reserve system, the Re construction Finance corpora tion, the Federal Housing ad ministration, social security, the Commodity Credit corporation, the Agricultural Adjustment act, the Federal Deposit Insurance act, the Federal Land banks— for all these reflect the "wise combination of state ownership and private enterprise with ef fective control, etc.” These activ ities are now integral parts of our governmental system, and are here to stay. So, despite any left swing in this country, political leaders believe that so long as this wise combina tion exists, that is, a partnership ar rangement between government and people, there is little danger of either a Labor party, as such, or other than our traditional form of government in this country. As a matter of fact, neither England or Russia, both classed as democra cies. have any sovereign power or rights vested in the people. How Powerful Is Labor? Political leaders here are watch- j ing the power of the Labor lobby j here as reflected in two bills before the congress, one the Murray full employment bill, also sought by the administration, and the other the Hatch - Burton bill which pro vides a new approach to settlement of management - labor controver sies. Labor wants the Murray bill, but is against the Hatch measure. ] The action of President Truman in calling a labor-management confer ence under the genera) supervision ! of Secretary of Labor Schwellenbach j has also drawn some political com ment. Some leaders profess to see a move to block participation of Sec retary of Commerce Wallace, since labor had asked that the conference , be under the jdint supervision of i Wallace and Schwellenbach. Speaking before the senate com mittee, Sen. Wayne Morse (R., Ore.) said: “The British election shows a determination of the com mon man and woman to obtain eco nomic security. American democ racy rests on capitalism, and capi talism rests on democracy; both must work in order for the system to last.” Senator Murray