The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1942-03-27
. New York
Listening Post
Nonned bV
ALBERT N. ltMAA
Life Line TO Soviet
Developed in persis
kippon-0ernsn Tieup OF
AXIS Unusually Effective
"seorehed Earth" Policy
Didn't Trouble Japanese

Oion lrouoie japanese
NEW NoRk-1f Hitlers pan
gers crawl like swsrms Of steel
beetles across Turkey or the
Ukraine to the Caucasian OIL
districts. they will be stamped
out by a Soviet army supplied
with materiel fresh from our
factories. AT last a life line is
operating from the Persian Gulf
to Russia and General r. A.
Wheeler, U.S.A., with a military
mission is keeping Pennsylvania
tanks. Michigan trucks, and
Maryland planes rolling. Iran
has signed treaty with London
and Moscow granting fun right
of way.
The Persisns haggled for
months until finally Prime
Minister Muhammed Ali For
ought told his hungry people that
the same road which brought
guns to the Muscovites also
would bring bread to the Iran.
That clinched the argument and
the papers were signed. Four
United States contractors, en-
ployins 5000 engineers and tech
nicians, have set up depot
where Grated aircraft are as
sembled and delivered to Red
pilots who ferry them to points
north.
The exposure IT the fifth COL
smnist activities of Teutonic
missionaries in New Guinea re-
emphasizes the close tie-up be-
tween the Nazis and Nipponese
30 frequently overlooked by us
To our sorrow. The clique that
now runs the formidable army
facing our boys in Australia and
Luzon represents the pro-Prus-
sian element in the Tokyo war
office. Ever since its members
were military school cadtes and
worshipped blood and IRON
Bismarck, they have been violent
Germanophiles.
Count Terauchi, supreme lead
er of the entire southwestern
Pacific theater, studied new blitz
strategy in the Reich shortly
before the war with the U. 6.
Prime Minister TOTO once was
Ambassador to Berlin and mar
red German wife. General
Tomoyuki Yamsshita, conqueror
of Singapore, who was sent to
the Philippines to succeed hari-
karied Homma and who will be
the commander directly opposing
both Generals Wainwright and
Macarthur. is the chief pro-axis
figure in Japan. On a recent
visit to the Rhinelend, he is said
to have piloted plane in a raid
over London.
He revamped the once ridi-
euled japanese air force into the
deadly instrument II is today.
He brought in from Germany
over 100 picked filters and 300
technical experts. Then he en-
couraged the navy to borrow
from Goering other specialists
as teachers. The pupils perfect
ed the torpedo-bombing tech
nioue so well that they destroyed
two of Britain's greatest dread
noughts.
Word that has trickled out from
refugees behind the enemy lines
in the Far East and has reached
New York gives cold comfort to
those who assumed the conquer
ers would gain little immediate
economic benefit from their
plumber. Japan was not even
singed by the A.B.C.D. "scorched
earth" policy. The invasion was
too swift to allow the defenders
to destroy completely anything
except wells. Moreover, the Nip
ponese generals were expert
enced in confronting wrecking
methods in China and hence
knew how to repair the damage
quickly.
The iron and bsuxite deposits
were left intact. Those in Ma
lava are inland, connected by
railroad lines which in peace
times were built by the Japan
csc. who also constructed the
loading facilities and supplied
the ore ships. They know every
inch of the ground and channel
depths. The shafts are quarries
with free drainage and not tun-
nels. hence the pits could not be
flooded or blocked.
The same condition applied IN
the bsuxite in the peninsula and
the Dutch islands. Washing ana
drying machinery was blown up
but these are easily replscssole.
Although the British tin oredges
In Malaga were sunk. nothing
could be done 10 ruin the open
cast mines formerly worked by
the Chinese with gravel pumps
Singapore and Penang smelters
were smashed but the fan OF
Thailsnd dropped its heaters into
the Mikado's hands. Elaborate
melting equipment is necessary
10 make the operation a CONNER
cisI success but, when production
and not cost is the aim. easily
built devices can fuse the ma
terisl.