Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-01-02
BY HELEN KIRKPATRICK,

Chicago Daily News.
! LONDON, Jan. 1.-The year 1943
was a year of transition for Britain
in both the military and social
spheres.
| In the European theater the mill
tary initiative moved slowly but
surely away from the Germans to
the Allies. While on the home front,
social measures were begun to as
sumo more concrete form, though
giving the impression more Of
patchwork than parts of a broad
program.
A year ago the British (and Amer
ican) forces had only begun the
North African campaign and the
British 9Th Army was pursuing
Marshal Erwin Rommel's forces
through the Libyan and Tripoli-
tanian deserts. The British fleet
was split, with large forces pinned
down in the Mediterranean owing
to Axis-principally German-au
power and small but speedy naval
units.
Britain's supply lines from Amer
lea and the empire were under heavy
and constant submarine attack. At
the end of December, 1912, and in
January, 1913, the Atlantic was
dangerous place for Allied shipping.
Luftwaffe Less Active.
Inside Britain, while the Luft-
waite never had returned to attack
on the 1940-4l scale, it was send
ing planes over in ones and twos
for "tip-and-run" raids-not par
Iticularly damaging, but annoying in
their unexpectedness and in the
difficulties of stopping them.
During 1913 Britains proudest
Army-"Monty's" Gen. Sir Bernard
L. Montgomery's 8th-chased ROM
mels forces up into the northern
tip of Tunisia, and with Gen. K. A.
Anderson's LIST Army and American
forces succeeded in clearing the
Axis out of the African continent.
! From there. the Allied forces swept
the Axis out of all Italian islands
and Corsica, and made the landing
in Italy.
OF the ground forces, the ma
jorty were British; the majority
of the air forces in that area were
American, while the British Navy
swept the entire Mediterranean, as
sisted by United States naval units.
The Mediterranean is once again
dominated by Allied sea power.
UBoats Nuisance.
Though U-boatS continue to be a
nuisance in the Atlantic, combined
American and British forces of both
sea and air craft are making U-boat
warfare most costly.
Tip-and-run raids no longer bother
British coastal towns as they did
at the start of 1913, owing to the
speed with which the Raj learned
to deal with them. Every so often
the feeble Luftwaffe sends a hand
full of planes to Britain, but the
damage is negligible and casualties
are few and far between.
Britain's social program is be-
ginning to assume some shape,
though most critics think it is being
fput together in a too hit-or- miss
fashion without any overall pat
tern. At the beginning of the year
the country digested the Beveridge
plan for social assurances and
awaited expectantly for the govern
ment to accept it. 1t was disap-
pointed when the government SHE'D
away from taking on the whole pro-
gram and indicated it would accept
Is out of its % provisions.
On the progress side, however,
there were three notable advances
in caring for the aged, i'll, widowed
and disabled. Supplementary pen
sions for widows and disabled were
increased to 44,000, 900 pounds 1920
600 10000 during 1913.
During the coming year 81 600, 900
will be spent on such pensions
The most hated of all British
relief measures-the means test, by
which it was determined whether
the individual could obtain assist
ance-has been abolished. This, to
social reformers, marks the end OF
the feudal era in social security and
to most of them acceptance of the
Beveridge plan would be the be-