U.S.-Moscow Deal on Vladivostok, Strategic Bases Of Soviets in North Pacific Would Balk Japs Now
COMPTER, JOHN
U.S.-Moscow Deal on Vladivostok, Strategic Bases Of Soviets in North Pacific Would Balk Japs Now BY JOHN COMPTER r' » almost 7,000 miles by railway from Murmansk to Vladivostok, about twice the,...
...Hatred of Fascism, combined with a well-founded hereditary hatred of the Germans, maintain the fighting spirit of the Russian people despite the fury of the German drives, if the Japanese intend to follow the example of Italy, they will receive even more • decisive \etbacks than did Mussolini...
...Just as soon as air raids are judged to be imminent, all upper stories of high buildings should be evacuated...
...Oar poverty is our pedigree...
...This is a dangerous notion...
...After the collapse of the organized resistance entire military units of Yugoslav regular soldiers took to the mountains with lighter equipment under the leadership of their officers...
...An agreement between the United States and Russia, on the other hand, based on the preservation of the Russian front, would so radically change the balance of power in the Pacific to the disadvantage of Japan that the latter'* chances in the event of a conflict with the United States would be immeasurably reduced...
...prohibited, even though it was necessary to break a number of commercial contracts...
...v ..' Yugoslavia-has paid -dearly for not having Wrfthrbwn earlier the pro-German govern...
...Nonetheless, it is a mistake not to realize that a Japanese attack on Russia could have tremendous consequences, and not for Russia alone...
...To serious-minded citizens, fully aware of the fate of Rotterdam, London and Moscow, these activities are important...
...Suffering has become a tradition in the Serbian villages during the 50O odd years of fighting against aggressors who wanted to dominate the Yugoslav lands, key to the East...
...that is to say, for all who intend to continue to fight Hitler...
...Many prisoners fell victims of machine-gun fire during the escape across a swift river...
...3) They house a population of maximum density...
...No front in the Urals is possible unless Russia is in a position to receive supplies by way of the Pacific...
...We then have to fall back on passive defense, and it is mainly this passive defense I want to discuss...
...There is no sign cf the collapse of the Russian front, and the Germans still have many unpleasant surprises in store...
...Nevertheless, the collapse of the Russian front—and this possibility meat be considered—would Jead to the establishment of a Russian fascist government which la its subservience to Hitler would soon surpass Petain...
...In the occupied lands of Europe the "V" campaign is spreading like wildfire...
...DUT the Germans are not enjoying their con-** quest All sources of news from Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, in short from the mountainous ' parts of Yugoslavia, repeatedly stress the surprisingly quick organization of the Comitadji or Cetnik Guerrilla...
...As many people as possible should be evacuated from the city...
...In Moribor, near the Yugoslav-German frontier, there was an orthodox chapel, although in this city the population was purely Catholic...
...Comitadji" means member of a secret committee, as they existed in the wars against the Moslems...
...In fact, it would require a extraordinary luck to hit one of the invisible streets if you tried tf> do so...
...Japanese ports possessing military importance have been closed to foreigners and a strict censorship has been clamped down...
...State officials are making tent surveys in nearby upstate areas to seek out temporary quarters for 1,000,000 women, children, aged and infirm persons from New York City...
...they would have to be provided with two sets of pumps, one for getting rid of stale air, and the other for getting rid of water that would flood the shelters if surrounding mains were broken...
...yVlout 100,000 children between the ages of !*S>15 narve been sent to Germany on foot...
...Com-naikiui was practically unknown in agrarian Yugoslavia...
...The outstanding characteristic cf the new government is the absence of Foreign Minister Matsuoka, who signed the Russo-Japanese Pact and swore to Stalin that he would sooner commit suicide than give his consent to war against Russia...
...As a direct consequence of the 'German invasion of iRaasia, a change of government already has taken place in Japan...
...j I understand there is no anti-aircraft artillery to speak of in the whole area, except what is on warships in the harbor...
...There may be some sub-cellars of large buildings that would be reasonably safe if provided with adequate pumps: but such individual cellars are few and far between, and most cellars are not safe against the danger of the building itself falling on them...
...An agreement with Russia for the use of these bases would not only help to preserve the Russian front in Europe but would also tie the hands of Japan in the Pacific...
...U.S.-Moscow Deal on Vladivostok, Strategic Bases Of Soviets in North Pacific Would Balk Japs Now BY JOHN COMPTER r' » almost 7,000 miles by railway from Murmansk to Vladivostok, about twice the, distance from New York to San Francisco, and it would seem that worlds could crash at one extremity of Russia without the other knowing it...
...The Spanish contingent is led by General Agostin Munoz Grande, who has been in Berlin for several weeks...
...8*rtain foreign diplomat tried to intervene on MMH of the children...
...the invasion began one wave of German bombers was sent to these-cities to demolish the centers of the military command...
...AO were listed as volunteers...
...everyone, who desires a victory for Britain must support Russia and the Russian army...
...Furthermore, the presence of new American bombej- squadrons in Vladivistok would constitute as great a threat to the industrial and military centers of Japan ak_ they have already become to the industrial centers of the Rhineland and the Ruhr...
...IN any event, it would be a colossal error to play for this delay at the price Jm wSS taining neutrality in the event of a Japan—* attack on Russia, because the collapse ef the Rusian front would net only greatly strengthen the position of Japan in its bid for hegemony over the Pacific, but it would also give <Hitkr the opportunity to utilise Pacific bases for operations against the democracies...
...skeleton—but directly on the walls...
...Yugoslavia will be the one to have a ready and experienced force, to wage a real -war from within against the common enemy...
...the departure of vessels is...
...As Spain eele-Watod the fifth anniversary of the Civil .War's first dsy of fighting, reports in Washington indicated that the Spanish army was in direct control of German officers, that the Gestapo was tightening its hold on communications, commercial offices and factories, and that official sections of the German army were already in place around Gibral-ter preparatory to an assault Last week Washington Military Intelligence heard that the powerful Condor tank-division was waiting outside LaLinea for orders to move on the moat between the British on the Eock and Spanish territory...
...jjrr* wore interesting detail is revealed in the ggtuientioned letter: The Germans prepared the 'flRfegation of Yugoslavia while playing friends jps'.tte semi-dictatorial Government which gg«ri the pact in Vienna...
...The papers' only "¦ft was their dislike of totalitarianism...
...It reaches from Murmansk down to Tobruk...
...Such shelters would need to have a construction some six times as thick and strong as the subways, or else lie 50 feet or so underground...
...Some laymen have the idea we should build "deep borab-proof shelters...
...The very day the Germans entered the town, all priests and monks were ordered to march with shovels to the chapel...
...so that -when the wall is blasted, the whole building collapses...
...Once the Bering Straits' bridgehead is established, there is little to stop Axis soldiers from pouring into Canada's western wheatfields...
...But even so, it will be safer to evacuate the skyscrapers...
...The read from Smolensk to Vladivostok It very long...
...It is perhaps even mere important from a moral aspect The Russian ,soldier who is forced to make such great sacrifices must feel that he is not alone in the struggle...
...It remains to be seen however how much protection even thick mats will actually give against the terrific air pressure and flying debris of a direct hit...
...He is typical of the young, anti-Catholic, pro-Nazi Falangist hierarchy springing np inside the Spanish amy...
...The Gestapo leader reckoned that such a gesture could instigate a wave of hate among the orthodox against their Catholic fellow-countrymen...
...At the present time, the greatest difficulty in the strategic position of this country vis-a-vis Japan is the absence of American bases close to the Japanese Islands, which necessitates the conduct of active operations far from home bases...
...The new cabinet .insists that it intends to pursue a cautious policy dictated solely by the best' interests of Japan...
...Vhere they can spread out still further apart and thus make sure at least that there will be fewer casualties from any one bomb...
...Unfortunately, the means of maintaining Russia's communications with the outside are limited...
...The latter, however, cannot indefinitely wage war without a permanent open line of communications with her Allies...
...He was refused an audiaith the Militarkommandant...
...wide area of the block than into one of the canyon-like streets alongside the block...
...Even if you were on a high bridge, looking down on the model from above, the narrow streets would be almost out of sight between the masses of buildings, and any marble, no matter where aimed, would be far more likely to drop on the 200-ft...
...Thus mostly children and women and elder relatives of the warring South Slavs now bear the direct fury of the Gestapo, the German soldiers and their aides...
...A glance at the map reveals reasons for the U. S. general staff's anxiety over German successes in European Russia which would afford the Rising San an opportunity to set its troops in the iced Northeastern Siberian bases...
...But the reverberations of the battle at Smolensk are sft powerful'that the echoes al-ready have reached the Pacific's shores...
...Access to Arehangelsk is not dependable with German submarines patrolling th^ Arctic Ocean...
...In the accompanying article architectural expert Herman Kobbe presents a grim picture of what might happen if enemy planes did come over Manhattan, wherein are the world's financial, industrial, transportation and commercial arteries...
...Raiders will of course pick out as objectives the areas in which they think they can do the greatest concentrated damage...
...The orthodox chapel •served the religious needs of the soldiers in the nearby barracks...
...Signature is a nom de plume...
...The only really effective way of reducing casualties...
...In the words of General Franco, the only consolation Spain now has is that: "Gold corrupts nationals like individuals...
...To build enough for everybody in New York would probably require huge expenditure of energy over years of time...
...Serb Guerrilla Armies Still Fight in Mountains, Build Force to Implement British V Drive By MILAN HERZOG Kfrmerly with the Belgrade Pravda, now broadcasting regularly from the United 'States , s ] to Yugoslavia ALL communication between Yugoslavia and the outside world has been cut off by Germany...
...T'HERE has been some especially careless talk * about the upper stories of skyscrapers being safer than the five bottom stories...
...In that event, Germany and Japan would become masters of the entire western shore of the Pacific, and they could then emerge in the rear of the American defense line, whose northwestern archer lies in Dutch Harbor on the Aleutian Islands, while present Russian Pacific naval and air bases are located at Kamchatka, on the Komandorski Islands, in Anadyr and at Cape Schmidt...
...Yet apart from the Atlantic, there is a secend great theatre—the Battle for the Pacific...
...Finally, a number of recent measures taken by the Japanese Government clearly indicate preparations for war: all Japanese shipping has been recalled from foreign waters...
...Germany's striking power is sufficiently great to require, serious consideration of the latter possibility...
...In favor of decentralization into low-building districts we can say that far fewer persons will be exposed to injury from any one bomb, and further, that all can get quickly from the buildings into streets...
...Such a reprieve would, of course, be very useful to the democracies, but unfortunately it seems to be quite impossible...
...To build even one such shelter for 500 people would be a long, costly and difficult undertaking...
...In most low .buildings the floors are carried —not on a steej...
...Those illusions must be dispelled...
...But the main objective of such a brr-k was effected: the Germans have been shown again and again that the spirit of ^democratic people, which was the only ore in Europe to overthrow half a dozen dictators of all shades only by-democratic means, cannot be broken by force...
...Until well into 1943 Alaska will be so ill-equipped, so lacking in trained U. S. troops, that two or three German-directed Jap cold weather divisions could take our northern outpost with ease...
...Behind the scenes the War Department actually discussed the feasability of dispatching an expeditionary force to Vladivostok...
...trofessors, representatives.of the syndicates, j^K and others who fought for years against aehttorship have been jailed and executed unto1...
...They know well that a potential enemy might sead its planes over to crack American morale and prove to the Latin nations that the United States is vulnerable...
...Most high officers of these strategic headquarters were killed on duty in the barracks...
...The Murmansk outlet cannot be expected to last long...
...and at the same time to send as many people as feasible out of the city altogether...
...The Cetniks from the mountains smuggled weapons into the camp and a whole camp cf 2,500 prisoners made a successful break for freedom...
...To forestall a Japanese attack on Russia is a matter cf vital importance for all who are concerned with the maintenance of a Russian front...
...Thus the Japanese are preparing their people for a move similar to that taken by Italy when it stabbed defeated Franee in the back...
...The buildings of the leading democratic newspapers "Politika" W "Pravda" have been demolished, thus ful-JMjIag a pledge for revenge given by the Ger-¦B* because of clashes between the Yugoslav *°yspapersmen and Gcering and von Neurath...
...Most of them were schools, ftopitals, besides military objectives and gov-•ritaental headqaurters...
...Jsjh offended the pride of the Yugoslav jour-Wjts in their own country...
...Newspapers speak of the weakening of ties with Germany and the desire to strengthen friendly relations with the United States...
...Most of the German troops assigned to this duty have been transferred" to -Bessarabia .'to help the hard pressed Romanians, who don't show signs of enthusiasm in fighting for the Germans...
...from sub zero ice fields to desert heat which keeps soldiers' drinking water boiling...
...The decisive battle has not yet begun in this arena...
...not least from Russia...
...With gusto he described the holy character of saving Europe from red Upe...
...These mats would have to cover all transoms and all doors, both on the corridor side of the wall and on the side of the adjoining offices as well...
...Interior corridors in the lower parts of the buildings will probably be the safest places for the skyscrapers population, but only on condition that the corridor walls are completely covered on all sides with mats...
...Now the northern end of this vital area, called Slovenia, is divided between Germany and Italy, Hftler^-having taken the Hon's share...
...And we know of cases where Or-Njdfox priests have been hanged under the jMs charges...
...different pretexts (lately because the Ger-,aais found them guilty of Communism...
...This, however, is merely our hope...
...This is important net only from the material standpoint, for the receipt of needed supplies...
...Then he shouted: , "All those who do not wsnt to join in this crusade to save civilization step forward two paces...
...i. e. from Yugo-¦av press attaches in the few European coun-jjHeV still permitting a Yugoslav, legation, news 4pito directly from Germany, by devious ways, ^ptojtrHsteoing posts near enough to pick up the fiak radio station in Zagreb, Croatia, and, last Jrt...
...At the present moment the main conflict is still being waged in an arena facing the Atlantic Ocean...
...And it is here that the problem has been one of increasing acuteness in the last few-years, until now it is clear that a struggle impends between Japan and the United States...
...Kobbe's analysis reveals that training of large forces, like the 100,000 volunteers of the fire auxiliary force will give this city little advantage if the shelter problem is not tackled and solved...
...An organization dating back to the days cf the most effective Comitadji resistance during World War I, when guerrilla warfare in Serbia haras developed into a real art, was in existence and prepared for action...
...Some Hungarian troops have been sent southward to replace German soldier...
...General France was reported glad to be rid of him...
...Strong solidarity has thus been created between the Serbs and the Jews...
...No such shelters can be provided in this emergency for a population of 7 million persons...
...No Fueling With Japan MOT since the middledf the 19th century, when Japanese battleships sod- ' denly appeared off the California coast and bombarded several towns, has war with the Mikado appeared as imminent as it did last week...
...The enemy has been harrassed from the very first day...
...The accompanying article is written by an expert on Russian and Japanese relations and military history...
...But they bit harder blows •than tapping the Morse code "V" on tables, and they write the letter "V" in German blood over the occupied, annexed or puppet-governed areas of their fatherland...
...Japanese oaths are not quoted high on Oriental stock exchanges', Jpfet a government preparing to violate its treaty obligations necessarily finds the presence of such a man dead weight ¦ The presence of an increased number of military men in the cabinet is significant particularly because almost the entire military clique favors closer ties with Germany...
...Storm Signals A WIDEFLUNG city civilian defense ¦** corps is rapidly spinning into being as Mayor LaGuardia organizes air raid wardens, explosive and incendiary bomb lectures, enrolls more than 62,000 raid wardens and trains 28,000 persons to shut off electric current at power houses without cutting juice from hospitals, trains and elevators...
...There they were forced to demolish the shrine with their own hands...
...This swelled considerably the ranks of the mountaineers...
...A recent escape from a concentration camp was organized through the concerted action of Jews and Serbs...
...In the first hours of the sudden German invasion the patriotic Cetnics took over the civil defense and the fight behind the fast advancing enemy's rear...
...We shall probably hear little from Yugoslavia about tapping the "V" sign tr chalking the "V" on walls...
...demo-.-, cratic Catholic Popular Party...
...2) Even if their skeletons remain standing, their walls will offer no protection at all against a bomb blast...
...State Defense councils, and municipal governments everywhere in the metropolitan area, where live more than 15,000,000 persons, are working overtime to prepare the sector for possible bombing raids...
...J Voluntary' Crusade' ANTI-FASCISTS everywhere are chuckling at the news of German-inspired international brigades organized to fight ^yh the W ehrmacht against the Red Army...
...To the public, Washington annotneed appeasement's end—no more oil to Tokyo...
...The use of Russian ports on the Pacific would make it possible not only to acquire bases close toibe Japanese Islands, but virtually to encirch* them...
...4) They cannot be quickly or easily evacuated...
...From this region information comes through reliable Catholic channels, since in Slovenia the national jpolicy was in the hands of the...
...The subways might prove more dangerous than the streets, except perhaps in the few places where they happen to be very deep underground...
...There is one report of a striking brutality which should be mentioned...
...The distance from Vladivostok to Yokohama and Kobe is not much greater than from London to Cologne and Bremen...
...The Yugoslavs never stopped their campaign for victory...
...WW were without food during the entire march...
...iJPjuS writer today had an opportunity tp read...
...For against the skyscrapers we can say: (1) They are the likeliest choice of s target...
...Those who need to be in the city should be spread out thin, and mainly in low-building districts" which do not invite bombing...
...Jews and Serbs have been rounded into ghettos by their masters...
...s * • • JAPANESE radio commentators have already *f begun tof compare the military position cf Russia with that of France on the eve of capitulation...
...Other important reasons for the barrier erected between Yugoslavia and the.free Western Hemisphere are ewer growing, or more ac-eorately the never ceasing state of siege in the} eastern half of Yugoslavia...
...It is not difficult to guess what strategic opportunities the occupation of these bases would furnish to Japan and Germany...
...Cetnik" is the word for ranger...
...I believe, is by decentraHging the population...
...Fierce fighting in the wild Balkan mountains and the war against Russia prevented the Germans from executing their plan of mopping up the remaining soldiers of the former Yugoslav army...
...IT is true that low buildings are mostly of a * construction less resistant than the skyscrapers...
...Only one real outlet to the sea furnishes Russia direct contact with its allies...
...The Generalissimo, is still ascertain of his control...
...I don't know how dangerous the lower five stories will prove to be, but I am quite sure the upper stories of all the buildings will be good targets for the raider's bombs...
...If you were to build a model of the downtown skyscraper district, covering the space of a tennis court let us say, with the buildings perhaps ten feet high, and if you were then to stand on a raised balcony alongside, and toss a marble (representing a bomb) at the huddled mass, it is perfectly obvious that the marble would much more likely strike the :oofs or ujuper stories, than the lower stories or stre'ets...
...There are many who would like to postpore that struggle until the end of the war with Germany...
...In all other respects the fate oi'Slovenia, the only part cf Yugoslavia annexed by Germany and Italy, is simfiar to the fate of the Czech Protectorate, ox to Poland...
...Nipponese troops in the Soviets' modern Diomedes air base, and other Russian well-equipped fields less than 100 miles from Alaska would attract German "tourists" and "technicians" like broken promises around non-aggression pact From these far off Siberian bases a German-Jap force could easily bomb the U. S., Nome, Unalaska and Kodiak bases off the frozen map...
...The reasons are manifold In -the first place -the Germans do hot want to antagonize the still neutral world through -the publication of the incessant atrooites committed by German soldiers since the first bomb fell upon the open and undefended city of Belgrade...
...The Sino-Japanese conflict is often considered to be a "local" affair, although this view is profoundly mistaken...
...yPLJLletter from Moscow, written by an official •*tiber of the> Yugoslav Legation, who has first mi reports from his occupied homeland...
...The United States is deeply concerned because of particular essential American interests...
...Such an estimate of the military position of Russia is premature, to say the least...
...and the absolute passivity and non-collaboration of the population in the artificial Hitler-Mussolini creation of the Kingdom of Croatia, with the Italian Prince Aimont as prospective monarch...
...What if enemy planes get through after all, as some surely will if enough of them make the try...
...But at best they are full of dangerous electrical apparatus and are not designed to shelter crowds, except on the station platforms themselves...
...The steel skeletons of the high buildings are riveted together in such a way as to stand up even if the walls and floors are blasted off...
...It certainly seems that the city authorities should take timely steps to clear out the population of the high buildings, especially from the upper stories, and help to establish them in low-height sections...
...Denmark and Norway are being fhcred into the front line trenches, where, ¦jjperts indicate, the Russians are slaughtering them- Source of anti-fascist amusement in countries like Norway is that the fftinns are well rid of the thousands of jSauhgs now being sacrificed by the Goeb-Hfi propaganda machine in its efforts to ¦tint the invasion of Russia as a spontaneous international ernsade against CommuTypieal of Nazi recruiting technique is the method by which the Spanish Falangist party has been organising the Anti-Bolshe-fjk Spanish Brigade, fhe young men at the Academy of Cadets, sear Madrid, were lined np on the parade ground early this month and subjected to a lusty harangue by the commanding officer...
...Inasmuch as the significance cf the Russian harbors and bases is fully understood by the Japanese, and might lead them to act very soon, an agreement of this nature between the United States and Russia is an immediate and pressing necessity...
...and force them to turn back...
...pfwan pilots were found in some of the 132 •owned planes around Belgrade carrying precise ?erial photographs of the Yugoslav capital with Niets marked...
...Japanese'citizens hastily are returning from abroad...
...In New York they will presumably go for the Navy Yard, the docks and shipping along the water front, the railroad terminals, the bridges, and any congested sections of factories, high warehouses, hotels, and office buildings...
...Regardless of the past, Russia today "fights against Germany in a common frcrt with the British, and in the interest} of the common struggle against Hitler...
...And when the rest of Europe passes over the wall-writing stage t-i a more effective one...
...Fifth columnists had tjjrted exact data for the German High Com-|P*'»f the whereabouts of the highest staff gW> in the key cities of Sarajevo and Mostar...
...The puppet government of Croatia, with the assassin Ante Pave lie as head of state, has been especially busy pleasing its masters...
...Both the Baltic and the Black <ca are completely blockaded by Germany...
...iHjf*- The two treacherous regimes preceding %-national revolution of March 27, 1941, which restituted democracy in Yugoslavia, facilitated :jfcjeriminal negligence the German ipvaSion...
...That is the Pacific Ocean, and if the Japanese succeed in choking 6ff Russia's Pacific life-line, the effect might be catastrophic for the Russian front, particularly if the Russians are forced to retire to the Volga and Urals...
...There has not been a single night without fighting in Yugoslavia...
...But they do not dare to undertake risky expeditions into the mountains...
...No Anti-Aircraft, Useless Subways, Shelters, Leave N. Y. Defenseless By HERMAN KOBBC (Xoted architect and author of "Housing and Regional Planning") 1I/E must face the fact that New York lies wide Open to air raids...
...What I have said about the upper floors being dangerous, applies not only to office buildings but to all high hotels and apartment houses as well...
...Slowly the impact of the war,emergency is being felt by 7,500,000 New Yorkers...
...Untrained, ill-equipped, and unenthusiastic >has< "volunteers" from Spain, France, the Inlands...
...The reports' speak of incredible atrocities against priests and nuns, because they have been the picneers of the Slovenian national life during the Haps-burg oppression and are not willing to yield to Hitler...
...A trickle of information is steadily coming in fmm the occupied Slav South East, partly through diplomatic channels...
...But these reassuring words are contradicted, by alarming facts...
...So, our active defense depends entirely on our interceptor planes, which we hope will be able to spot the enemy planes far out at sea...
...To those who see fantasy in such predictions, attention can only be drawn to the 2,500 mile front which the Germans are garrisoning and fighting...
Vol. 24 • August 1941 • No. 31
