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THIS WEEK: A Roundup r

The War

Allies Continue Gains

On almost every war front this week Allied forces were

registering steady

gains against the Axis.

One of the important phases of the conflict, the anti-submarine

campaign, showed significant 1m-
provement. During the month of
May the increasingly deadly Al-
lied convoy escort services sank
more submarines than any othe”
month of the war. Even the Nazis
have been forced to admit that
their toll of sinkings has been
sharply cut down. Credit for this
aceomplishment, which will fur-
ther strengthen Allied preparations
‘for an invasion of the continent,
goes to a greatly improved convoy
system, now centralized under
Ganadian command, with greater
numbers of corvettes and the new
frigates im use, combined with the
recent addition of small airplane

cariers which accompany Mmany
convoys.
The HEastern Front, with the

exception of the Kuban, is still in
a state of uneasy calm. Soviet
planes continue to maintain air

superiority after their recent feat
of knocking down or destroying
on the ground some 2,000 Nazi
aircraft in little better than a
month. Red Air Force pilots con-
tinue their heavy attacks on Ger-
man supply centers and concentra-
tion points, and nowhere have
they been seriously challenged by
the Luftwaffe. In the Kuban the
Red Army continues to draw
closer its ring around Novyorrosisk.

Some observers believe it pos-
sible that Hitler will delay his
threatened offensive against the
Red Army until he can determine
what the Allies will do in Western
Burope. But Red Army spokesmen
express their belief that the Nazis
will attempt a big offensive against
Soviet positions in an attempt te
weaken the Red Army, hoping
then to be able to transfer troops
back to France and threatened
Balkan points.

New Threat to China

One of the gravest threats to the United Nations lay in the
Japanese big three-pronged drive against the Chinese armies,
with the probable destination Chungking. Even here, however,

a magnificent stand’ by the poorly-
equipped Chinese troops this week
inflicted a sharp setback to the
Japanese and lessened for a time,
at least, the danger to China's
provisional capital.

Wevertheless, the Japanese push
had surged westward along the
Yangtze River, clearing the great
waterway between Hankow and
Tchang, and attempting to seize
control of the western outlet of
the 120-mile stretch of Yangtze
gorges through which Chinese sup-
plies are fed to the central front.

Two factors weigh in favor of
the Japanese. One is the fact that
up to now supplies from United
States, Canada and Great Britain
have been woefully small, with the
result that the Chinese armies are

not only ill-equipped, but out-
numbered because lack of arma-
ments. makes it impossible for
China to make full use of its man-
power. The second factor is the
regrettable position taken by
Chiang Kai-shek in respect to the
Communist Highth Army, a posi-
tion which has robbed China of
the services of its most potent
fighting force.

The first factor may be over-
come soon as a result of decisions
made at the recent Churchill-
Roosevelt talks in Washington,
Where more material aid was
promised embattled China. The
scond factor is still to be tackled,
but until it is, China will continue
to fight with only part of its po-
tential strength.

Exploding the “Fortress” Myth

The more sober among the military experts took time off
this week to examine closely the Nazi claims to have erected
an impregnable wall around Europe’s Atlantic seaboard. Berlin

claims the fortress of Europe is
impregnable. And there are many
people in Canada and United States

seemingly only too ready to ac-
cept the Goebbels’ statement, since
to accept his conclusion is to ac-

>
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These are the remains of Ying-tan, China, after a Japanese

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army of revenge had all but wiped it off the map. Jap-
anese infantry burned, looted, raped and slaughtered in
a frenzy of fascist beastliness and hate against Chinese
civilians accused of aiding American fliers who participated
in the bombing of Tokyo in 1942.

cept also the theory that the Allies
are not yet prepared to tackle the
job of cracking that wall; there-
fore, no second front in Europe
this year.

Any clear analysis of the Ger-
man claims to having built an im-
pregnable “Atlantic Wall” reveals
the falseness of that boast. On
April 10 the Nazi miltary commen-
tator General Dietmar asserted in
a broadcast that ‘In many respects
the new Atlantic Wall resembles
the old one, but in every respect
is a far more gignatic edifice.”
By the “old one” he meant the
famous Siegfried Line built in
1937-39 to surpass the Maginot
Line. A little calculation on this
will reveal some absurdities.

The Siegfried Line stretches
about 360 miles. Its construction
required about 6,000,000 tons of
cement — one-third of Germany's
annual producttion—and 7000,000
cubic yards of timber. Protective
obstacles alone required 3,000,000
rolls of barbed wire, while every
mile of the Line absorbed 16,000
tons of cement and 2,500,000
man-hours.

With these figures in mind, an
examination of General Dietmar’s
claims prove all the more unbe-
lievable. He would have us be-
lieve that the Germans have built
an Atlantic Wall far more gigantic
than the Siegfried Line, stretch-

ing some 3,000 miles along the
Atlantic seaboard of Europe. This
is telling us that in a year the Ger-
mans have laid 150,000,000 cubic
yards of concrete, some 50,000,600
tons, though German pre-war pro-
duction amounted to only 12,000,-
000 tons. Even the output of the
occupied countries could not fill
the gap. In addition, the work
reported by Dietmar would have
involved 7,500,000,000 man-hours,
or the uninterrupted work of 750,-
000 men during a whole year.
Again, if the fact that the actual
length of the European coast coast
from Narvik to Salonika, 8,000
miles, is considered, Dietmars’
arithmetical calculations become
astronomie and completely absurd.
The truth is, any talk of solidly
fortifying the European coast is
the wildest kind of nonsense. What
has been done is to fortify the most
likely points from an invasion
viewpoint. This of course leaves
the unlikely ones to be attacked,

which is what will be done. The
mein attack could be launched
from England to France, with
holding operations against the

southern wall and a mighty blow
by the Red Army against the cen-
ter. By such a move, victory in the
main will be won before the sec-
ond world war becomes longer than
the first—before the turn of the
year.

US Labor

The Machinists’ Withdrawal

Withdrawal of the International Association of Machinists
with its 565,000 members from the American Federation of Labor
has thrown further-light on the dispute within the American

Jabor movement — both AFL and
CIO—between those who support
the people's war against fascism
and those who follow the isolation-
ist, pro-fascist policies of the
Hoovers, the Wheelers and the
John L. Lewis crowd.

The vote to leave the AFL, after
43 years, was four to one. The
TAM, in theory a craft union, has
recently organized on an indus-
trial basis taking in all workers
in aircraft and machine-building
plants. Under this policy, it has
more than doubled its member-
ship, with strong industrial locals
in aircraft plants on the Pacific
Coast and across Canada.

The IAM’s organizing policy im-
mediately brought it into conflict
with jurisdictional claims of other
AFL unions, most important being
the United Brotherhood of Carpen-
ters headed by William Hutcheson,
first vice-president of the AFL and
head of its Construction Trades
Department. The dispute be-
tween the Machinists and the
Carpenters simmered for many
years, coming into the open in
heated fights which were often the
only matters of contention at an-
nual AFL conventions. The Ma-
chinists were consistently outvoted.
Whenever the Machinists’ position
was upheld by the AFL executive
council, Hutcheson ignored the de-
eision. At the last AFI convention
Hutcheson threatened to withdraw
600,000 carpenters if the convention
voted for the Machinists. Although,
as a result, the Machinists’ claims
were voted down, the majority of
delegates significantly refrained
from voting.

The jurisdictional dispute, suffi-
cinetly sharp in itself, was further
embittered by basic differences in
policy. On the AFL executive coun-
ceil, Harvey Brown fought along-
side AFL President William Green
and Daniel Tobin, president of the
International Brotherhood of
Teamsters, to uphold the win-the-

war position of President Roose-
velt. On the other hand, Hutcheson
and Matthew Woll, second AFL
vice-president, who are both lead-
ing figures in the Republican Par-
ty, conducted a running campaign
against Roosevelt, against unity
with the GIO or international labor
unity, against labor participation
in government agencies and
against labor’s no-strike decisions.
Well for many years was president
of the National Civic Federation,
an anti-Soviet strike-breaking or-
ganization backed by reactionary
industrialists. Hutcheson was in-
fluential in the America First
Committee, and in the last three
campaigns was head of the Labor
Division of the Republican Party.
In’ matters at present decided by
small groups of officials—such as
international labor unity—Hutche-
son and Woll carried the majority.
In larger political matters, on
which the feelings of the AFL rank
and file were brought to bear—
such as the AFL's stand in presi-
dential elections — Green, Tobin
and Brown determined policy.

Hutcheson’s proposal two weeks
ago to readmit John L. Lewis and
the United Mine Workers threat-
ened to risrupt this delecate bal-
ance, The aid of Lewis—whose fol-
lowers in CIO unions provoked the
disastrous strikes in auto and rub-
ber plants — would enormously
strengthen the opposition of Woll
and Hutcheson to America’s alli-
ances, to Roosevelt, and to meas-
ures designed to win the war.

Lewis’s application, however,
which at first met with little op-
position, is now regarded more so-
berly. Opposition to the move has
risen among AFI. unions and
among the coal miners themselves.
A three-man committee to consid-
er Lewis’s application—consistinge
of Woll, Hutchson and George
Harrison, president of the (Rail-
way Clerks and» a supporter of
Roosevelt—was sharply revised af-
ter a violent scene, between Tobin

and Green in the corr
Washington office build
then replaced Hutchesor

Meanwhile, an editoria’
ficial organ of the In |
Ladies’ Garment Wor
week bid welcome to Le
dent of the ILGWU, Da
sky, who helped form th
was known as a Rooseye
er, later returned to the
recently has encourage:
strike movement by 4 ger

s =s
Will Mannin

“What next for A
ability of the Alberta
activities of the Soa
anti-Semetic propagande
nomic confusion is fing
government funds and |
by the late Premier
chosen few loyal apostli
called ‘‘specialists.” To
that they are able tc
these activities, to that
they be able to ove
monetary reform, 4i
misleadership threatenin
gress and expansion of
progressive movement |

Hon. E. C. Manning,
aide, is the new Premiel
he has sufficient bius
into the pattern cut ou
hart remains to be seen.
was unfortunately a go
the “man of the hour’
in the adulation accord
premier. :

Gonfusion had long
guiding principle Of
policy and recent utt
some of his “advisors
the fore the inherent f
acter of the propagan
out from the legislatiy
in Edmonton.

While at the incept
social credit movement
political pronouncement
pulpit of his Prophetic ,
tute in Calgary were é
many sincere followers
est expression of a desi
the lot of the have-5
apparent to the more
astute was the under
labor, anti-Jewish char
speeches and writings
together of ‘Nazism, Sa
fascism” as ‘one and
thing” as late as Decer
year did nothing to b
berta people understan
issues confronting our
tempts to unify the pe!
collective security mi
pre-war years, and 1s
all-out war effort, we
upon by Aberhart and”
the faithful few who SI

Le

Humphrey -

No one has ever
of being a diplomat,
labor. He proved h
occasion was his aD
that the federal depat
bor was considering T
hiring of seamen from
tion of the Manning
placing the responsibil
lective Service.

Such an important ¢
bor policy affecting se
overdue. It has been
organized seamen on
Logically the announce
have come either dire!
his department or rele