Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-12-31

By the Associated Press.
Prospects for the new year Of
world conflict brought from Al
lied military leaders declarations
of confidence and victories in
mighty impending blows against
the enemy, while Nazi spokes-
men offered the German people
only gloomy predictions Of more
hardShipS in 1914.
The Allies are CLOSING in upon the
enemy and the coming year gives
every promise of being year of de-
liverance, declared 1t. Gen Jacob
L. Devers, who is going to the Medi-
terranean theater as deputy COM
mander of Allied forces.
Gen. Devers told graduates of the
Royal Military College at Aldershot,
England, that they would participate
in what we'll may be the most STIR
ring and far-reaching events in the
annals of the world"
Big Offensive Against Japs.
In Washington, Admiral Ernest J
King, commander in chief of the
United States Navy, said he con-
Cured with Gen. Dwight D. Eisen-
hover. new European invasion COM
mander, that Germany may be de-
feated in the coming year, and as
serted that a tremendous offensive
against Japan is planned in 1914.
The main lines of attack" have
been set. and "unremitting pressure
on Japan will be continued and in
creased" Admiral King declared.
The American commander in the
South Pacific, Admiral William F..
Halsey, declared that never have we
been so ready to strike killing blows
in so many places, simultaneously.
We propose to strike these blows
again and again"
Admiral Halsey, in a New Years
message in the forthcoming issue
of the American Magazine, said
We aim to fight our way along
the straight road to Toxic"
Japs See Outlook Dark.
In Toxic Domei News Agency
broadcast a gloomy New Year mes
sage from Premier Hideki Toto
warning the japanese nation now is
facing a cruel test" and that it is
the sublime duty of every one now
to sacrifice body and soul without a
single atom of self-interest."
In San Juan, Puerto Rico. Mai
Gen. William E. Shedd, United
States Army commander in the
Antilles department, told his troops
that I'VE now look with confidence
to important victories during 1914
He disclosed that one unit of Puerto
Rican troops already was in the
European theater.
Russians Optimistic.
Russians in Moscow, preparing to
celebrate New Years as the biggest
unofficial holiday of the year
everywhere expressed hope that 1914
would see the end of the war. AS
ISOLATED Press correspondent Eddy
Gilmore said Gen. Eisenhower
whose prediction that Germany
would be defeated in 1914 was
widely published by Soviet news
papers, had suddenly become a very
popular figure.
The New Years preview as
painted by German newspapers
reaching Stockholm was sharply
different. Hitler's Voelkischer
Beobachter could only offer hope
that the German Army might hold
off the Russians, and warned it
could mean defeat if the Nazi
Armies are forced to withdraw
within the German border. Re-
viewing 1943, it acknowledged only
Russian gains not mentioning
bombings, North Africa, Sicily 81
the fall of Italy-as it declared
there has been no decisive change
in the military sltuati
Nazis Thirst for Revenge.
Heinrich Himmlers weekly, Das
Schwartz Korps, said the bombings
had made Hundreds of thousands
of Germans thirsting for revenge -
and that the Germans would not
rest until revenged by ''the killing
of 100 persons for every German
killed, by the running of 100 places
for every German place ruined"
(see WAR OUTLOOK, Page ADD