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Se ORE RY, al I x SE ie ro SSR a a PN Nd C i Ea A orn re eee SR ns re _ + iia By Gregory Clark The Germans haye won all their battles so far in this war, by novel ty and surprise. The people they have crushed, including such Bri. tish forces as they have bested, were people who for ong reason or another were unequipped with nov- elties and had no capacity to sur- prise the 'Germans. The people of France had been patiently rotted by novel and skilful political dis- sension, The British troops with whom 1 shared the retreat in Flanders in 1940 were to. all in- tents and purposes, as far as equipment and training were con- cerned, the same troops with whom I had been demobilized in 1919. But the reason the Russians have held out against battle-sea- soned German armies ever freshly supplied with novelties, both ma- terial and intellectoal, is that the Russians themselves, at the very outset, adopted the principle of never doing what the enemy might expect you to do is fatal to the German character. If you creep into a room to say boo at some- body, and somchody says boo at you, it throws you off balance, Have Surprised Germans Technically and mechanically, the Russians have astonished and suprise not only their enemies but their allies in the high develop- ment of engines for winter fight ing in their planes, transport and tanks. In the military art, the Rus- sians have made contributions to the world history of war in the breaking down of big armies into small armies, cach complete unto self in both fighting -power and supply. But in addition to organized novelty and surprise, the Russians have for months been running a competition amongst the men, the boys, the girls and the women, every last one of whom lawfully regards himself or herself as a fighter for Russia, to see who can "think up the most outrateous sur- 'prise for the Germans, And when you get every regiment, every hat. tery, every air squadron, every fae- tory and every village and farmer competing In such a contest, the Germans are very likely to he sur- prised. i - Pavel Nikitin, one of the war correspondents of the Red Star, Russian army newspaper, tells this: "Not all Russians are big men, A soldier named Vlaschenko, who Is still alive and kicking, is all arms and. shoulders and 'any legs. He has developed the most extraordinary technique of Jong poles with boat hooks at both ends by which he travels over the roofs of Stalingrad, crossing streets and lanes by swinging across on "his pole, and also light ropes with hooks at the end which ho flings across streets from roof top to roof top, trapezing himself Almost anywhere he likes. With carbine, bomb and 10-pound pack- els of TNT, he has wrought havoc in astonished German headquart- ers and outposts; for what sentry can see a white rabbit In the snow at night? And who can see a white cloud drift amid the blizzard, high overhead? Crawls Through Sewers "With a Russian lumberjack's packsack contaiping 69 pounds of TNT, Vlachenko recently grawled through a sewer systeffii, many hundreds of yards of which was believed to be in ruins, and de- stroyed a bridge immensely valu- able to the Germans in Stalingrad. Ho was gone two days and we thought he was killed. Then the bridge blew up. So we had a feast ready two more days for Vlaschen- ko's return. His own explosion had given him a hemorrhage of the nose and ears and had strained his 'eyes in some painful fashion. But he was only four days in hos- pital, and the last I saw of him hq, was rigged up in his white * -mightshirt, with a new 20-foot dur- alumin pole the Engineérs had 'made for him {in his Jhonor, and his colls of delicate rope, off for another night's novelty and sur- priso for the Germans in Stalin- grad." It is not the government, the | war council or the army and air command of Russia that is fight. ing on our side right now. It Is all the people of Russia, No ald is too much or too good for them, Send your contribution and use your ingenuity to think up ways and means of inspiring others to send theirs .to the Canadian Ald to Rus- sla Fund, 80 King St. W., Toronto. Consumer Goods Reach North Africa The United States War Depart mient sald recently that large quan- - titled of American consumer goods have arrived in North Africa. ~Mheése supplies, the department "#ald, have relieved the urgent need of food, clothes, fuel and medical pupplies. It reported also that progress ia: being made In restor- ~ ing normal economic life, - Fuel has | * 'Been supplied for fishing boats and #arm tractors. Consumer goods 'are rationed under French super- A Nfocat btodd (£3 7 hardly | Somewhere in Alaskan waters, a Navy photographer shot this of a big PBY patrol bomber being walked into a land berth by JOIN THE NAVY AND B-R-R-R| ¥ 0 -its Navy ground crew--up to their waists in ice-speckled, freezing water, Keep Both Eyes On Winning War On August 4, 1917, Lloyd Georgé Spoke as as Follows: While the Army 'Is fighting <o valiantly, let the nation behind it be. patient, be strong, and, above all, united. Thegstrain is great on natios~ and on individuals, and when men get over-strained temp- ers get ragged, and small griev- ances are exaggerated, and small misunderstandings and mistakes swell "into mountains; Long wars, like long voyages and long jour- neyg, are very trying to the temp- er, and wise men keep watch on on it and make allowances for it. There are some who are more concerned about ending the war than about winning it; and plans which lead to victory, if they pro- long the conflict, have their dis- approval, and the people who are responsible Tor such plans have their condemnation. Let us keep our eye steadily on- the winning of the war, May I say Iet us keep both eyes? Some have a cast in their eye, and while one eye is fixed truly on victory, the other is wandering around to oth- er issues or staring stonily at some pet or partisan project of thet own. Beware of becoming cross- eyed! Keep both eyes on victory. Look neither to the right nor to the left. That is the way we shall win. If any one promotes national distrust or disunion at this hour, he Is helping the eremy and hurt- ing his native land. And it makes no difference whether he is for or against the war. As a matter of fact, the hurt is deeper if he f8 for the war, because whatever the pure pacifist says is discount- ed, and, as far as the war Is con- cerned, discredited, Let there be one thought In every head. If you sow distrust, discontent, disunion in 'the nation we shall reap defeat. If, on the other hand, we sow the seeds of patience, confidence, and unity, we shall garner in victory and its fruits. The last ridges of a climb are always the most trying to the nerves and to the heart, but the real test of great endurance and courage is the last few hundreds or scores of feet in a climb up- wards. The 'climber who turns back when he Is almost there never becomes a great mountain: eer, and the nation that turns back and falters before it reaches its purpose never becomes a great people. You have all had exper fence In climbing, ~no doubt--per- haps In Wales. Any mountaineer can start; any sort of mountaineer can go part of the way; and very often the poorer the mountain. per, the greater is his ardor wher he does start; but fatigue and danger wear out all but the stout- est hearts, and even the most stout-hearted sometimes fail when they come to the last slippery precipice. But if they do turn back and "afterwards look up and see how near they had got to the top, how they curse the faint-hearted- nesg which bade when they were so near the goal! Britons To Draw Belts Still Tighter _ Britons are going to be asked to tighten their belts a few: more notches, the Food Ministry said in announcing that reductions will be made in food: rations, but added that the process will be so gradual it may not be noticeable for some time. Reductions will begin Jan, 11 and will be spread over six months. Extent of the réduction was not announced im- mediately" The move will make more shipping space available for the war materials, them give up. Britain Takes War Work To Workers Small war factories are operat- ing In many tumble-down buildings in Britain, and thousands more may be opened soon in empty shops, barns and cowsheds, dere- Het churches, mission halls, and garages, The Ministry of Supply, Labor and Production, in London, plan to give work to 750,000 married women able to do part-time tasks of a simple kind . near their Part-time work is now done by 250,000 women and a million more "are needed, The obstacle is that most of those who want part-time work live in rural and urban areas away from factories. The «plan is to take the factories to the workers. Navy To Have New Ration Kit Emergency Food Containers for All Life Rafts' A better chance of survival for shipwrecked sailors huddled on "life rafts was held "out, not long ago, thanks to a food-holding de- vice "evolved through research work carried out by officers of the Royal Canadian Navy. Naval headquarters announced that a new "emergency ration con- tainer" has been devised and adopt- ed. It is regarded so favorably that United States and British naval authorifies have .asked for specifications and may adopt it. All life rafts now will be stock- ed with the new containers which include water in specially designed tins which will not rust nor break even at 15 degrees below zero, chocolate bars which will", stand heat to 212 degrees without melt- ing, chocolate tablets, concentraf-~] ed biscuits, . The ration kit is no bigger than a woman's overnight bag and Is coated with salt-water-resisting paint. The water can holds 16 ounces of water of a formula whic will not cause rust. # A food container to go Inside the kit Is a little bigger than a - sardine can and holds 12 choco- late tablets, each 70 per cent. whole milk; two bars of cocolate, enough to last.-a man two days. All foods --are processed to stand up to ster- lization without spoiling. It 18 proposed to put four kits on each 10-man raft and eight on each 20-man raft, lashed into spe- clal compartments, With 25,000 kits on order the work of re-equip- -ping rafts is expected to proceed. Bach kit contains eight tins of water, eight tins of food and eight packets of extra food in the form of sealed milk tablets. ' "Eat slowly" is hte only direc - tion given on the container. This is necessary because of the high caloric content of the food. "tine type, blueprint of the Federal Govern- . homes." U. S. 1943 Budget 160 Billion Dollars More Than All Other Bel ligerents Spending In Year The most expensively worded book in history--the 'United States "Budget which, will call for cash spending of more than $100,000, 000,000 in the next fiscal year-- went to press last week. Because it is also one of the big- gest .and most complicated hooks published each year, it will not be ready for public reading until Jan, 111, when clerks will read the introduction to both houses of Congress. g ,Containing about: 1,000 pages of the annual financial ment will be primarily a bill, ten- dered as part of the price of vie- tory. The document will contain a few million dollars for routine things like forest conservation or beetle control, but the direct war costs for the Army, Navy, Maritime Commission, Lend-Lease, and simi- lar activities, alone, are about $100,000,000,000, That's about §30,000,00,000 more than is being spent in the current fiscal year, which will end June 30, 1943. It's about four times as much as was spent by the United States in the World War. It's more than England and Germany, and all the other belligerents are spending, a year, put together. At that, officials said, the only reason the figure wasn't bigger is that it represents the largest sum which the experts believe can be spent in a year, considering the prospective output of United States war factories. Winged Cannon We will some day see aircraft that are simply winged artillery pieces, says Collier's. They will go along with ground troops and armored forces, doing much of the work now handled by big mobile * rifles- and - howitzers, The biggest cannon has a range of twenty miles: or so; a smaller picce mounted on a plane has a range equal to that of the plane, plus a little. Hundreds of miles, in other words. The Bell P-39, with a 20 or -37-millimeter can- non in the nose, is a'sample. The Russians have used it to destroy German tanks in quantity. The- Russians have another ship of their own which operates simil- arly. : . A 37-mm. shell from a plane [is just as deadly as one fired from the ground, generally speak- ing, and the aerial cannon is much easier to move around. It can go find a tank, rather than wait for a tank to find it. The flying cannon of tomorrow will be stable, enough to allow more accurate aiming than is possible now, Hang On Tightly To That Rooster He May Be Needed To Wak- en You At Crack of Dawn It you are still lucky enough to. possess a rooster, then hauyg on to him and encourage chanticleer 'to herald the dawn, says the, Ham- lion Spectator. The disturbing fact is that' alarm clocks are be- coming scarce and may soon be as rare as a heaping sugar. bowl, " The rooster that crows may yet be something more than a neigh. borhood nulsance. Not" only are no more civilian alarm clocks being made by most manufactyrers, but the supply of them has been largely' exhausted in, wholesale and retail circles. Considerable - brass and copper went into the production of alarm clocks, and these are now essen- tial war materials. Germany and Japan used to supply the world market with many such clocks, but the last thing the Axis desires to do .right now is furnish the democracies with any device that contributes to their alertness and gets fhe workers to thelr jobs on time. One company is turning out a plastic alarm clock which re- quires only a little steel for its inner mechanism, but this product goes only to the fighting services. Some neighbors' radios can be depended upon to wake up the soundest sleepers at a regular hour every morning; hut once it be- comes known that this is viewed as a service of convenience it will no doubt he discontinued prompt- ly. A vain and lusty rooster there- fore appears -to be the last hope when your alarm clock finally gives up the ghost and there are no more spare parts available to make it tick. ein ge 'War Tomatoes Replacing Roses In the glasshouses where roses and carnations bloomed in peace time, British flower farmers hope to protluce this year 50,000 tons of tomatoes. They are also growing great quantities of out- door food crops. One nursery alone, whose out- . put in 1939 was entirely of cut flowers, produced last year 950 tons of "tomatoes, 125,000 let- tuces, 320 tons of sugarbeets, 100 | tons of onions and 75 tons of carrots, all from glasshouses or from land previously planted with flower crops. This year 82% of the nursery's total glass area is planted with tomatoes and 80% industry has been controlled by horticultural cropping orders and its employees are reserved at the age of 30 only if they are en- gaged on food production, LIFE'S LIKE THAT 4 4 ar By Fred Neher a 7 "i (7 7 oo "I 'have this trouble every 'winter, « + « People demand their coffee. * steaming hot!!" , plete change in the | THE WAR . WEEK -- Commentary on Current Events Shipments of Fuel To Africa May Be Decisive War. Factor Shipment of large quantities of * fuel to French Africa has caused drastic restriction in the sale of gasoline in the 'Eastern States, says The Christian Science Moni- tor. These measures for the con- servation of gasoline have offic . lally cut pleasure driving and con- siderably hampered economic ac- tivity of Jarge parts of the Ameri can population. Yet these restrictions have been' necessary to stabilize Anglo-Amer: fcan conquest of vitally important positions in French - North and West Africa. The United States military administration needs large. quantities of material and fuel not only to supply the Anglo- American fighting forces but to re-equip disarmed French troops and to restore economic life in these regions, N Recent reports from. French Af- rica indicate that these large-scale American shipments to Africa may contribute to bring about a com- balance of forces in the Mediterrancan and -in the South Atlantic. French mil- itary and economic power in Af- rich will be increasingly mobil ized and put into the service of the United Nations, New French Army The most important item in the framework of this mobilization is the organization of a new "French army under the command of Gen. Henrl Honore Giraud. Vichy disposed of 150,000 colonial troops In North and West. Africa which, however, were poorly equipped. They particularly lacked anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns, planes, tanks ang other modern material. Only a small part of the French army so far has. received . modern American equipment and only some regiments are operat. ing with the Anglo-Americans on the Tunisian front. The bulk of the French Army has 'remained' in its cantonments, In Algeria and Morocco and has to be reorganized and redtrained for modern warfare. In the meantime immediate mo- hilization of the classes 1934-1939 (men from 23 to 20 - years) has been ordered in order to re-enforce the new French army. This means that if sufficient American war material is made avallable a French army of approximately 200,000 men will fight side by side with the Anglo-American forces In Africa. More than 1,000 exper- lenced French war pilots are said to be in North Africa and will be re-trained for service. They are being armed with fast new Amerf- | can fighter planes. Yet re-organization and re-train- Ing of so large an army, mostly composed of North African and Senegalese troops, takes time. The Axis 1s well aware of this - diffi- culty and is hurrying men and ma- terial to North Africa. It is Mkely that Hitler will attempt not only to strengthen his hold on Tunlsla, but even to throw the Anglo: Americans out of North Africa be- tore mobillzatfon of the new French .army fs completed. The struggle for North Africa has just begun. French Naval Units Meanwhile the French naval equadron at Dakar ang the rem- 'nants of the French Fleet in North African ports are likely to onerate with 'the Anglo-American' units In the near future. Admiral Sir An- drew Cunningham, United Nations naval commander in North Afri- can waters, disclosed that already several small units of the French Fleet, probably destroyers, are helping Allied warships to convoy supply ships in the Mediterrapean. While the restoration of th two - big battleships Richelieu and Jean Bart (each of 35,000 tons), hoth heavily damageq by British 'and American naval guns and planes, will take long months, a force of three modern "cruisers (each of 7.600 tons) at Dakar 'and two smaller cruisers at Casablanca is probably available at once. So are halt a dozen destroyers, 10 to 15 submarines and a large number of supply vessels which had been laying at Dakar and .in North Afri. .can ports, k The disarmed, French squadron at Alexandria, comprising the old . Admiral battleship Lorraine (22,189 tons), four cruisers, several destroyers and submarines, m'ght also be re- fitted and induced to join the Un. ited Nations forces. Allled Ships Interned It' appears, however, that {hes French commanders are not. anxious to bring their larger ships into the battle line. Not only are they reluctant to put themselves . under British or American com~ mand but, after the scuttling of the [bulk of France's naval forces at Toulon, they consider ft their duty to keep at least, some rem- nants of the once proud French fleet out of war, Appropriate guarantees for replacement of lost ships on the part of the United . Nations might dissipate these ap- prehensions. France had approximately 700, 000 to 800,000 tons of French mer- chant shipping in the Mediter- ranean which did not fall into Axis hands, Vichy-France, more- over, Intermed 35 Allled ships of 120,000 tons, Yet In recent months the Vichy Government leased 400,- 000 tons of their ships to Fascist Italy. JS In November, 1942, the interned Allied merchant vessels were handed over to the Axis, accord. ing to a statement of the British Ministry for Economic Warfare. The number of ships operating under the French flag between France and North Africa and tak- en over by the United Nations after occupation of Algiers and Morocco has not been disclosed. Cunningham, however, has stated that an agreement had been reached with French author-_ "Yea Africa under which French merchant ships in North and West Africa would be employed, sque directly in Allied service and some to meet the economic needs of French Africa. * Shipping Losses Replaced Allied spokesmen have declared that United Nations losses in ship- ping since during landing opera- tions in North Africa have been completely replaced by captured French merchant vessels. It Is likely that 'rot less than 100,008 tons of French merchant ships have fallen into Allied hands. The United Nations position in North Africa will be considerably eased if the American High Com- mand succeeds in the French transportation system which has disintegrated since the defeat of France. Reports from American war correspondents in North' Africa discloged that French locomotives were worn out and that most of the French cars in North Africa had deteriorated and broken down when used by Allied troops. Anglo-American forces, therefore, had to rely almost en- tirely on thelr own means. of transportation, which has consid- erably delayed their advance into Tunisia. Now, however, sufficient quan. . titles of vehicles are available and United Nations supplies are dispatched over the Morrocan-Al- gerian coastal rallway and over the strategic highways which the Fernch had constructed in North Africa. Allled air facilities In theso . regions are also rapidly improving and expanding, Stalin Is Named ~~ "Man of the Year" Joseph Stalin was named by Time magazine as its "Man of the Year" for 1942, S "The choice of any man of the year is In no way an accolade or a Nobel Prize for doing good," P. I. Prentice, publisaer of Time,. said in making the announcement, "Nor is it a moral judgment," he added. "The two criteria for the choice are always these: Who had the biggest rise to fame; and . who did most to change the news for better (like Stalin this year) . or for worse (like Stalin, 1939, when his flop to Hitler's side un- leashed this world-wide war)." Time, "which has been desig nating a "Man of the Year" since 1927, picked President Roosevelt last year and Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1940. Bluey and Curley of the Anzacs. "Spoiling a good trick" % 3d By Gurney (Australia) I Take\ an oaoinaay ARMY 15SuE BAYONET so A THEY SAY HE use To WORK IN A CIRCUS GosH, | romeo To TewL YER. 1 OPENED A Tin OF RAT POISON WITH THAT BAYONET. THiS MORNING. reorganizing \ 09: