The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-10-28
"ENDLEss" EAST,
BY D. ,. DALLIN Written for NEA Service

Written for NEA Servlce
 New York, Oct. 28-A natural bomb proof shelter" sprawling endlessly behind the stormy peaks of the Ural mountains, gives hard pressed Russia 8 vast indudStrtal war base to serve as an ace-in-the- hole for the death battle with Ger many.
 Tens of thousands of square miles, protected from enemy bombers and land forces by the "blitz-p proof mountains, roll ever eastward over country now producing oil, wheat, coal, lumber, meat, limestone, fabrics and much-needed metals. Alert to the day when her vest ern frontiers might crumble under the crash of an invasion, Russians craftily started ten years ago upon a giant program to develop and exploit the land.
 Tremendous capital investments, estimated in billions of rubles, were ordered after painstaking surveys. And today, on, land that once was uninhahited-or even desert-great industrial plants with smoking chimneyS stand as monuments to the achievement.
 From this hideaway, Russia plans to ship an amending flow of tanks, guns and battleplanes to the men fighting at the front.
 Already the government has left Moscow and set up operations 500 miles eastward in Kuibyshev, which lies on the banks of the Volga River at its easternmoSt point.
 If the Germans should press on beyond Moscow, observers be- lieve, the river will form the next No. line for defense. If, in time, the armies line here should be preached, too, the Ural Mountains extending 1900 miles from the Parents Sea in the North to the Caspian Sea in the South - will form the next natural line for de- fenSe.
 5,7OO.OOO SO. MI.
 "HIDEAWAY"
 Provided that the Soviet gov- ernment succeeds in preserving a powerful and well-equipped army, which will cary out its withdrawal in good order, this plan of contin- uing the war may open some inter- eSting and rather promising pros- poets. The German army, in order to reach its new defense lines, would have to cover tremendous distances. It would have to occupy a country six times the size of all the coun- tries 1t has thus far occupied put together.
 The endless Russian plains which begin east of Moscow are sparsely populated, had been economically undeveloped and the means of com nunication were very poor.
 To go farther east, beyond the Volga, is to enter territory which could hold dozens of countries, but which is almost devoid of rail- roads and modern paved automo- bile roads. To receive its war sup plies, in case of its occupation of this territory, the German army WOulu 1lhVC IO uAdu1UaAtA uuA44IC4~ . rupted and efficient conlmunica- ton with It's base in Germany, 1600 to 200O miles away.
 One can state with complete confidence that if 1t is possible to lure the victorious German arn- ies so far, they would be destroyed in the endless expanse of Russia.
 To visualize the vastnesS of these distances and territories one should examine these figures. With Hitler occupying the entire vest ern part of Russia, including not only Coscow and the Ukraine, but also the whole region down to the Volga, the remaining Russian territory would still measure B. TOO, 900 square miles. (Contkental U. s. A. comprises 3,O26,789 square niles)
 At the same time, the eastern