Evening star., 1942-12-27
American Way of Life Faces
Fundamental Changes in 1913
Sacrifices, Efforts and Prvations of War Necessary
For Victory Are Just Now Being Brought
Home to People of L. S.
Bp Felix Morley.

The close of 1912 marks more than an
exchange of greetings and a wholesale
replacement of calendars and engage
ment books. In many ways the close
of the old year comedies with stern
evidence that 1943 will bring funda-
mental changes in the American way of
life. Those changes will come with less
social and mental dislocation, and WILL
therefore, cause less bewildered resent
ment, if their inevitabilIty is frankly
accepted in advance.
There is no certainty, in the first place,
that the year about to dawn will bring
decisive victory to the banners of the
United Nations.
1t is encouraging that recent months
have seen a fundamental improvement
whereby the military initiative in Rus
sia, in Africa and in the Far East has
everywhere been lost by the Axis This
would seem to portend eventual triumph.
But the quality of resistance encountered
does not justify vainglorious optimism.
1t should be remembered that in the last
war Germany alone fought desperately
the United Nations for four years after
the bltzkrieg was definitely checked in
France.
AS was the case a year ago. the Rus
sian counterattacks are heartening. The
Soviet regime continues to stir almost
incredulous enthusiasm by the ability of
the Communist system to produce and
organize under tremendous handicaps,
as we'll as by the epic heroiSm az self
sacrifice of it's people. But the extent
to which the Germans are being hurled
back and the extent to which, as last
winter, they are half deliberately short
ening their lines in order to hold more
easily the gains regarded by Berlin as
essential, remains uncertain.
The winter must pass and the spring
reveal a continuously sustained Russian
striking power before the heavy losses
inflicted on Germany in the East can
safely be regarded as decisive.
Picture in Far East.
In the Far East, the military picture
is even more indefinite The attack
launched on Guadalcanal last August has
not yet ousted the japanese from this
single outlying island, while in New
Guinea enemy resistance is scarcely less
| tenacious. The naval fighting, while re-
Gently in our favor, is still inconclusve.
And as time passes, Japan gains strength
| from exploitation of her enormous con-
| quests
| Little that is substantial can as vet be
claimed for the British re-occupation, so
| far virtually uncontested, of strip of
| Burmese territory adjacent to India
| Here, as in the Southwest Pacific, there
is indeed no evident intention of doing
more than harass and check Hitler's
japanese ally. The major military effort,
British and American as we'll as Russian,
is now focused against Germany
If that was not certain before Novem-
ber 7, it become so when, on that
| night, great Anglo American armada
| launched the invasion of North Africa
The excitement engendered by the ini-
tial success of that complicated opera
ton, coupled with the coincident defeat
of Rommel by the British 9th Army,
has obscured the strategical significance
OF the African campaign. 1t signalized
decision to concentrate the bulk of
American military strength in the Euro
pean rather than the Asiatic theater of
war. And, unless the shipping situation
improves more rapidly than Is antici-
pated, this in turn means no prospect of
defeating Japan in the immediate future.
The arrested tempo of military opera
tions in North Africa Strengthens the
abundant evidence that Germany still is
far from beaten. The Nazi grip on
Tunisia and with it control of the mar
row waist of the Mediterranean, is strong.
1t will be stronger if Marshal Rommel,
who must be given credit for extricating
much of his army from disaster, estab-
fishes himself safely behind the we'll
fortified Mareth Line. A successful attack
on Sicily might really isolate the Ger
man expeditionary force in Tunisia and
further disintegrate italian morale. But
even this development would leave the
outcome of the war in Europe, and even
more the Far Eastern struggle, far from
decided
| U. S. Efforts Intensified.
| The attack on North Africa Gid more
than reveal the major strategy of the
war for the ensuing months. 1t also
introduced the United States to the grim
| meaning of total war.
Concentration of sizable army in
Morocco and Algeria. together with the
problems of augmenting and supplying
this force for a major campaign, has
brought an immediate and sharp intensi-