THE WAR IN REVIEW

...His attendance, the experts agreed, would create a delicate situation for Russian representatives whose country was the only one not at war with Japan...

...The British, according to reports from Cairo, were still dissatisfied with the situation, asserting that steps taken by Catroux were not likely to satisfy "world opinion...

...Most exciting and hopeful news of the week came in a flurry of rumors —all unconfirmed—that the United Nations v.ras about to unlimber its big guns in belated psychological war against Germany...

...He declared that the Southwest Pacific command has "something iess than five per cent of the American military resources" and is getting under 10 per cent of what America is now shipping overseas...

...Replying to a statement of Rear Admiral William Brent Young, naval supply chief, that supplies are reaching the Southwest Pacific in "quantities sufficient for large scale operations against the Japanese," Col...

...Five Per Cent For MacArthur Although the big circulation dailies, anxious as usual to wring increased circulation from any good news, no matter what its significance, hailed the attack as the beginning of the long-awaited Pacific offensive, the more sober-minded observers were quick to point out that a successful campaign waged in the Gilberts would be most heartening but would accomplish little more than a shortening of the supply route to the Solomons and New Guinea...

...This move, interpreted as an effort to cut the ground out from under de Gaulle, was said to have been prevented by Nazi interference...

...Its purpose, commentators generally agreed, would be to formulate definitive military strategy and launch a war of nerves calculated to split the German people from their Nazi leadership...

...The new offensive, the rumors related, would be launched with a declaration of principles for the treatment of defeated Germany...

...Crushing British and Italian resistance on the island of Leros, the Germans turned their attention to Samos, and, at mid-week, seemed well on their way to clearing that island of its defenders...

...Fighting in other areas in the Southwest Pacific —centered principally in New Guinea and Bougainville—while claiming its share of news space this week, was subordinated to developments growing out of the Associated Press' revelation a week ago that Gen...

...In Italy only minor gains were scored in the fighting over the mountainous terrain on the road to Rome...

...It was reported that Giraud had tendered his resignation as commander of French armed forces at least a half dozen times within the last week in protest over the efforts of the de Gaullist dominated Committee to subordinate his authority to civilian control...

...Georges Catroux, de Gaulle's envoy, ordered the liberation of the Lebanese premier and others, and opened negotiations regarding their demands for freedom...

...Nazis Check Allied Advances There was grim news from the battlefronts last week, indicating that the German Army, contrary to the views of the wishful thinkers, still retained some of its deadly punch...

...From within France itself came reports of bewildering political developments...

...Honore Giraud were in a state of constant crisis...

...Marshal Henri Petain, chief of the French government at Vichy, was rumored to have made an effort to restore democratic government to France...

...Le Grande Diller, an aide to MacArthur, denied that the Southwest Pacific forces were well enough supplied to undertake a major offensive...

...The solution appeared to be separate conferences for Soviet and Chinese delegations...

...Further to the north, however, the Russians had driven behind Gomel, strong German hedgehog, and were threatening that city, the fall of which might well mean that the German armies in White Russia and the Ukraine would be split by the impassable Pripet Marshes...

...There was a good deal of confused speculation about the part that Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek would play in the conference—if any...

...Admitting that MacArthur was receiving more supplies than formerly, Diller, nevertheless, asserted that American air resources sent to that theater were even less than five per cent, but that "the area is doing everything it can with what it has...

...Douglas MacArthur was receiving no increase in supplies commensurate with the job he was expected to do...

...THE WAR IN REVIEW IT WAS A WEEK of shifting moods throughout the Allied world—a week of expectancy with daily rumors of a momentous Churchill-Roosevelt-Stalin meeting, of disappointment over the - resurgence of the Nazi army in Russia and the Dodecanese Islands and the stalemate in Italy, of new hope with the American landings in the Gilbert Islands, of resentment over the news that aid to Gen...

...He was variously reported to have resigned, to have been arrested, still to be on the job, and to be gravely ill...

...Encouraging news of Allied offensive action came this week, however, in the stepped-up bombing assaults on Europe and the announcement from the Pacific that American troops had landed in the Gilbert Islands, a Japanese-held coral reef which lies northeast of the Solomons and straddles the direct shipping lanes between the Solomons and Hawaii...

...Throughout the week a welter of contradictory reports seeped out of France regarding the crisis said to have resulted from Petain's move...

...Mac-Arthur was far less than America had been led to believe, and of bewilderment over the curious developments in France, Lebanon, and North Africa...

...The declaration, it was said, would be formulated at a meeting of Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin—a meeting which was considered by some observers to be imminent if not already in progress...

...Bowing to the demands of the British, whose treatment of the Indian nationalist leaders may have set the precedent for the stupid action of the French in jailing Lebanese leaders, Gen...

...They announced no program of their own for the solution of the crisis...

...Although the picture was as confused as ever at mid-week, there was reason to believe from the frantic pooh-poohing of Berlin that the internal situation in France had reached another crisis...

...The apparent indifference of the Allied Mediterranean command to the Dodecanese drew sharp criticism in both London and Washington...

...This was effectively demonstrated in more than one battle sector this week...

...The crisis facing the de Gaulle government in Lebanon over the demands of the Lebanese for independence was reported at mid-week to have abated somewhat...

...In North Africa, the relations of the French Committee for National Liberation with Gen...

...It was feared that the German successes would endanger the pro-Allied trend in Turkey—a trend which some observers were predicting would bring the Turkish government into the war against the Axis...

...In Russia, although the Red Army was pushing ahead on some sections of the long front, the Germans struck back suddenly in a savage counterattack in the Ukraine to send the Russians rolling back from Zhitomir, the farthest point of the Soviet's westward advance...

...Allies' Jolt In Dodecanese Meanwhile, the Allies were jolted by the news that the Germans had mounted a strong offensive in the Dodecanese Islands in the Eastern Mediterranean, just off the coast of Turkey...

...There was some prospect that with the Fall rains coming to an end, the campaign might be speeded up, but the progress thus far—less than a mile a day—was drawing increasing criticism in both England and the United States...

...Strife In French Camps Meanwhile, the French were making most of the political news...