Evening star., 1942-12-09
BY HELEN LOMBARD.


A new game "how to read official
communiques" is now the principal
pastime of high officials in Wash
ington.
Some political and general psy>
Geological information is coming
into Washington from underground
sources in Europe, but actual de-
velopments on certain war fronts are
as Immediately obscure to high off,
cials as to the average newspaper
reader.
In the last war, when the Allies
were fighting shoulder 10 shoulder
ever a restricted area, informa-
ton was pooled and observers freely
exchanged. Today, because of the
widely separated fronts and the
facility of intercepting confidential
dispatches, there is far less exchange
Of Allied information.
During the last war there also was
easier access to information from
the enemy fronts. The totalitarian
Gestapo systems make it difficult to
obtain smuggled information during
this war.
Analysed Here.
So both Allied and enemy commu-
niques are microscopically analyzed
in Washington.
The American official communi-
ques are the easiest to read. Occa-
slonally when military requirements
make it imperative, the truth will
be somewhat camouf1aged or told
only in part. The consensus in
Washington, however, is that the
services give the maximum of infor-
nation to the public compatible with
military necessities.
When the Army or Navy says that
"our casualties have been light" it
Is safe to believe that we have suf-
fered only minor losses. The same
thing holds true for American eval-
uations Of enemy losses. When a
communique from Guadalcanal says,
fer instance, that out of a detach-
ment OF 700 Japanese, 486 have been
killed, the figure is correct to the
last man. The marines have actu-
ally counted the dead before they
give out the figure.
When the Japanese are forced to
retreat in haste, the marines occupy
the enemy position and proceed
to bury the enemy, counting the
corpses.
Toxic News" Unreliable.
Tho japanese communicates are
prompt but unreliable. They fire.
quently give out war news before
the American communique is is
sued. The Japs, however grossly
exaggerate enemy losses while mini
mizing their own. The extreme
reluctance Of the Toxic high COM
mand to describe the recent reverses
as victories Is due, not to the fear
of Japanese reaction to casualty
lists, but to another psychological
factor.
The explanation here is that the
Japanese leaders. after having con-
quered vast territories with a mini
mum loss of life, had been selling to
their people the idea of the invinci-
bility of the Jap navy and army.
There Is extreme reluctance now,
therefore. to admit that both have
been stopped by relatively small
force of American marines and by
a Navy which is also occupied with
powerful enemies elsewhere.
Nazi communicates we're accurate
as long as Nazi arms were victorious,
except for the fact that the strength
of the opposing armies was greatly
exaggerated. The explanation given
here is that the Reichswehr did not
wish to admit that many of its
opponents were push-overs. In or
der to bring greater glory on Ger
man arms and to build up the legend
of invincibility which fastened the
collapse of each successive victim,
the German command purposely
exaggerated the resistance of each
successive opponent. Today, how
ever, Nazi communiques are CLOSING
over recent events in North Africa.
Peculiar Russian System.
Among the Allied communiques,
the Russian are the most difficult
TO analyze, particularly in respect to
enemy casualties As the Russians
have been for the most part on the
defensive or retreating since the
Eazis attacked them in 1941, they
have had little opportunity to count
the German dead. They issue COM
huniques, however, which give exact
numbers of Nazis killed in each
engagement.
Military men here are at loss to
know how the Russian figures are
bbtained. One theory is that Rus
sian commanders compute, some
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