The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945

by The New York Times

  Franklin D. Roosevelt.

  Winston S. Churchill.

  AUGUST 15, 1941

  JAPANESE SCORN THE EIGHT POINTS

  Roosevelt-Churchill Plan Is ‘Nothing New’ And Besides It Is ‘Too Late,’ They Hold

  TOKYO, Aug. 15 (UP)—The joint declaration yesterday by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill “contains nothing new,” and even if their eight points for a new world order could be enforced they are “now too late,” authorized quarters said today.

  Tokyo was most interested in the fourth point of the “Anglo-American bloc”—the one concerning trade and equality of access to world supplies of raw materials—but its language was denounced as “vague” and “noncommittal.” In this point, it was said, lies the “whole cause of the present world struggle.”

  Japan, it was added, has reason to know that London and Washington never have been able to envisage economic equality on the part of any “have-not nation,” and Japan will be unwilling to believe that President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill intend, or will be able in the future, to give this country “an equal chance in world markets.”

  REVERSAL IS SEEN

  It is strange, an informed source said, to hear two nations that for years jealously have guarded the bulk of the world’s wealth both in raw materials and consuming markets now talking of a new era of economic equality.

  Newspapers considered the Roosevelt-Churchill declaration of less importance than German reports of victories on the Ukraine front in the war against Russia. The Russo-German conflict remains the key to the international situation, Nichi Nichi said, and Japan must not “relax her watchfulness for a single moment.”

  The small ultra-Nationalist newspaper Kokumin, commenting on the Roosevelt-Churchill declaration, asserted that Britain was in her last struggle to preserve the status quo in the Far East, but would fail because of Japan’s “immutable determination to establish a new order in East Asia regardless of British-American plots and manoeuvres.” A reckless attitude on the part of London and Washington, this newspaper said, will “only push the Far Eastern situation into a more dangerous stage.”

  “Americans should realize their laughable folly in playing into British hands,” it added.

  If the Roosevelt-Churchill declaration serves any purpose at all, Kokumin declared, it will be to “mark a turning point for an intensified Axis offensive.”

  AUGUST 15, 1941

  WIDE ACCLAIM HERE FOR ‘EIGHT POINTS’

  Hailed as the ‘Mein Kampf’ of Democracy and Blueprint for a New Order

  The Roosevelt-Churchill declaration was generally hailed by organizations and individuals here yesterday as a blueprint for a democratic “new order,” as a “victory code” and as “the ‘Mein Kampf’ of democracy.”

  A dissenting opinion was expressed, however, by John T. Flynn, chairman of the New York Chapter of the America First Committee. He characterized the declaration as “a lot of words—a cover-up statement.”

  Clark M. Eichelberger, acting chairman of the Committee to Defend America, said the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Great Britain “have raised the curtain of the future and have given the world the general principles of the world order which a democratic victory will make possible.”

  Speaking for Fight for Freedom, Inc., the Right Rev. Henry W. Hobson, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of the Southern Ohio Diocese and national chairman of the organization, said the eight points of the joint declaration were “our victory code,” but that it could be put into effect only “after we start shooting at the enemy of all mankind.”

  FLYNN VOICES SKEPTICISM

  Mr. Flynn, in a statement issued from the offices of the America First Committee here, asserted that President Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill “didn’t meet to draw up a statement such as they issued.”

  “They should be frank and tell the American people why they did meet and what they actually decided to do,” he said. “What the American people would like to know is what Churchill demanded and what Roosevelt promised.

  “All of their words about all the peoples in the world naming their own kind of government is meaningless unless it applies to such countries as India, Indo-China, the Dutch Indies, British Malaya, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland.”

  Speaking as an individual, Bishop William T. Manning said the declaration “cements the fellowship between our country and other English-speaking nations,” and that it “unites us irrevocably with them for the overthrow of tyranny and aggression and for the maintenance of justice and human liberty.”

  ANTI-NAZI LEADERS’ VIEWS

  James H. Sheldon, chairman of the board of directors of the Anti-Nazi League, who called the declaration the ‘Mein Kampf’ of democracy, said it would go down in history as “a 1941 Declaration of Independence, written on behalf of the oppressed peoples of the world.” He said the eight points comprised “a strategy of democracy against the Nazi strategy of terror.”

  The Rev. A. J. Muste, secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, said the declaration was not reassuring to those who “recall how completely the Idealistic Wilson–Lloyd George statements of the last war failed to justify the hopes which they aroused.” Asserting that the declaration would lead to “another Versailles,” he said that “World War III will spring as surely out of World War II as it did out of World War I.”

  AUGUST 22, 1941

  NAZIS IN KEY CITIES

  RUSSIANS GIVE UP GOMEL

  By C. BROOKS PETERS

  By Telephone to The New York Times.

  BERLIN, Aug. 21—Considerable gains in all sectors of the Russian front are claimed by the German High Command today.

  In the Southern Ukraine, Kherson, Dnieper River port southeast of Nikolaev, was captured by Elite Guard troops, according to the communiqué.

  In the Gomel sector, about midway between Smolensk and Kiev, the advance continues beyond the city, probably southward along the Dnieper in a drive to flank Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine.

  On the northern wing Novgorod, Kingisepp and Narwa have been taken, and therewith the drive to cut the vital Leningrad-Moscow railroad has been brought within forty miles of its goal, it is asserted.

  TWO-MONTH GAINS TALLIED

  Units of the German Air Force rained bombs on Odessa and Ochakov, from which Black Sea ports Russian soldiers are being evacuated on ships. One transport of 6,000 tons is reported to have been sunk in this “super-Dunkerque.” Three other large vessels, one of which was a 15,000-ton passenger ship, were damaged, according to the official news agency D.N.B.

  Two months ago tomorrow, on June 22, the Germans began their invasion of Russia. In this period, authoritative military quarters here report, about 5,000,000 Russians have been killed, wounded or captured. The number of prisoners is said to total more than 1,200,000, so that, according to German casualty estimates, the Soviet has lost nearly 3,800,000 dead and wounded.

  [A Russian communiqué this morning admitted the abandonment of Gomel, and an earlier Soviet statement told of a “direct threat” to Leningrad. A Soviet spokesman said, however, that in the eight weeks of the conflict the Germans had lost nearly 2,000,000 men in dead and wounded, and that the Russians would win eventually whether the war lasted for “months or years.”]

  In addition, 14,000 pieces of artillery of all calibers, 14,000 tanks and more than 11,000 planes are said to have been captured or destroyed.

  SPRING FIGHTING WEIGHED

  The Germans definitely have the upper hand in the fighting, informed quarters assert, although it cannot yet be said that a decision in the war has been reached. The Soviet officers’ corps has suffered heavily, these circles add, which increases the Russians’ problem for future resistance.

  Since the single important strategic consideration of the present stage of the invasion is to cripple the Russians’ powers of resistance so badly that they cannot revive it by next Spring, the capturing of cities is a minor consideration, inform
ed circles say.

  Moscow, for example, probably will “remain in the rear of our troops for some time,” they declare. Leningrad, moreover, is a fortress, they add, and may not be stormed, but merely surrounded.

  To Marshal Klementy Voroshiloff’s appeal to the residents of Leningrad to arm and prepare to resist the threat to their city, the Germans reply that should they attack the city and the Russians employ the franc tireur method, they should recall Warsaw and compare the latter city with unscathed Paris and Brussels.

  German troops are ferried across the Dnieper River after having set fire to Mogilev, Belarus, July 1941.

  AUGUST 28, 1941

  NEW IRAN REGIME ENDS RESISTANCE

  British and Russian Forces Continue Advance—Offers by Teheran Awaited

  By JAMES MacDONALD

  Special Cable to The New York Times.

  LONDON, Aug. 28—An announcement that the new Iranian Government, formed yesterday, had issued orders to its forces to “cease fire” was received simultaneously in London and other European capitals today via the Teheran radio, and was regarded here as most welcome.

  At the same time it was emphasized in London circles that British and Russian troops would continue to advance through the country. Officials of both countries are waiting to see what offers will be made by the new Iranian Government, headed by Ali Furanghi, with regard to various aspects of the general situation, including expulsion of Nazis still in Iran and safeguards against any creeping back into the country. Although the expulsion of Nazi technicians and others from Iran was one avowed cause of the Russo-British entry into the country, one of the underlying aims of both invaders was to establish direct land communication with each other, as well as to keep the rich oil fields from falling into German hands.

  EXPECT FORCES TO MEET

  In welcoming the Iranian order to “cease fire,” some persons in London pointed out that further opposition on the part of the Iranian forces in the large and mountainous country would not only have caused serious bloodshed but would have been useless from a practical point of view.

  The British and the Russian forces will now be enabled to extend their control of communication lines speedily toward vital objectives via the trans-Iranian railroad and the Teheran-Tabriz road. It is assumed in unofficial quarters that the British and the Russian forces will continue to advance until they have met and thereby solidified communication lines and established protection for the oil lines.

  Before the Teheran radio’s announcement, news reached London that there had been an order for general mobilization. This made it appear that ultimate Anglo-Russian occupation would not be readily accepted. In the light of later developments, this order was interpreted merely as meaning that Iranian men of military age were to be brought under control at a moment of crisis.

  As an example of the futility of Iranian resistance it was pointed out that in less than twenty-four hours British forces had taken control of the world’s largest oil refinery plant at Abadan, had captured the entire Iranian Navy, had seized the strategic wireless station at Muhammereh and had trapped several Axis merchant ships in the harbor at Bandar Shahpur. Moreover, a column of troops had advanced from Khaniqin, Iraq, to Shahabad, Iran—a distance of about 100 miles—in less than three days.

  STATEMENT BY PREMIER

  The Teheran radio’s announcement, as picked up in London, quoted the new Premier as saying that the government would do its utmost to maintain good relations with foreign powers, “and especially our neighbors,” and continue to have peace with the rest of the world.

  “In order that these intentions should be made clear to the world at large,” the Premier said, “we declare at this moment, when the governments of Soviet Russia and Britain have ordered certain actions to be taken, that the Government of Iran, in pursuance of the peace-loving policy of His Majesty, is issuing orders to all armed forces of the country to refrain from any resistance so that the causes for bloodshed and disturbance of security shall be removed and public peace and security assured.”

  AUGUST 31, 1941

  BOOM IN STRAW SHOES

  Nazi Industry Is Unable to Fill Orders for Footwear

  By Telephone to The New York Times.

  BERLIN, Aug. 30—Shoes of straw, last year a novelty for children, are now being demanded in such quantities that the new “industry” is unable to fill all orders.

  Made of a very close weave of straw, the shoes are said to be waterproof. They are lined with cloth and thin leather and their arches are braced with light metal spans. They last about a year but must be resoled every four to six weeks. A pair costs 16.50 marks.

  Experiments for the manufacture of shoes from the bark of trees are also being made, but thus far have met with little success. The sale of leather shoes to the public was drastically limited at the beginning of this Summer.

  SEPTEMBER 21, 1941

  TOKYO STILL FIRM

  Japanese Are Insisting on Special Status in the Far East

  By FRANK L. KLUCKHORN

  Special to The New York Times.

  HYDE PARK, N.Y., Sept. 20—Negotiations with Japan looking toward a settlement of Japanese-American relations have reached a virtual standstill, although they are being kept open in the hope of effecting an eventual settlement, it was reported on good authority today.

  Japan’s insistence upon terms that would give the Japanese considerable control in China and the unwillingness of Secretary of State Cordell Hull to depart from his insistence that Japan should have no special status in East Asia are understood to have caused negotiations to bog down for the moment at least.

  Meanwhile, more than half of the United States Navy is forced to remain in the Pacific at a time when it is operating against German and Italian submarine, surface and air raiders in the Atlantic. It is feared the reverses suffered by Russia in the Ukraine and around Leningrad will encourage Japan and increase the difficulties in the way of a settlement of the Far Eastern situation.

  According to reliable diplomatic sources, Secretary Hull’s insistence that Japan drop her plans to obtain a privileged status in China, and his refusal to talk detailed terms until the Japanese altered their present attitude, led to the decision of Prince Fumimaro Konoye, Japanese Premier, to attempt to negotiate directly with President Roosevelt.

  The President, however, has consulted constantly with the Secretary of State on the matter and, according to the information available, neither this government nor the Japanese has to this point softened its position. The President told reporters yesterday that he was in constant touch with Mr. Hull even when he was at Hyde Park.

  Mr. Roosevelt has not made public any reply to the letter received from Prince Konoye, and in his press conference yesterday hinted strongly that there had been no recent developments regarding Japan. The Japanese Embassy in Washington revealed last week, however, that one of its staff was on the way from Tokyo to the United States by way of Peru because Japanese ships do not now travel to American ports. It was thought likely that he was bringing new instructions from his government.

  Prince Fumimaro Konoye of Japan. Rebuffed by Secretary of State Cordell Hull, he sought direct contact with President Roosevelt.

  At the moment, however, American trade with Japan is virtually at a standstill and American embargoes on shipments to Japan have increased sharply the economic pressure under which the Japanese are laboring.

  THREAT IN PACIFIC IS FEARED

  Should the German Army continue to be victorious against the Soviet armies, and Tokyo come to believe a Nazi victory over the Russians is inevitable, it is widely feared that Japan will tighten her Axis bonds and move north or south, thus threatening the United States with simultaneous naval struggles in the Atlantic and Pacific.

  There is every reason to believe that President Roosevelt is still giving considerable personal attention to this two-ocean threat, which may become more acute at any moment. No doubt exists, however, that this government was encouraged to believe th
at the recent Japanese governmental shake-up, with the Emperor taking personal control of a large part of the military establishment, was forced by economic pressure on the part of this country. But the best information available here is that a solution of difficulties is unlikely unless Japan softens her attitude.

  While no specific proposed terms for a settlement have been made public, it is reported that Japan seeks to maintain control of the Chinese treaty ports and the four Northern Provinces of China and to maintain “token” military garrisons in some other parts of China. In exchange, it is reported, Japan is willing to withdraw from French Indo-China and give up any idea of southward conquest. Although these terms may not be exactly correct, in a general way, diplomatic sources believe, they give a reliable idea of the Japanese position.

  Equally reliable sources report this government is unwilling to come to terms with Japan at the expense of China, but will go so far as to give Japan economic aid and restore trade to a normal basis if Japan is prepared to eschew conquest by force.

  SEPTEMBER 21, 1941

  AIM OF PRESIDENT IS WAR, NYE SAYS

  Urges ‘All Loyal Americans’ to Oppose Foreign Policy

  Senator Gerald P. Nye appealed last night to “all loyal Americans” to oppose President Roosevelt’s foreign policy program of all-out aid to nations fighting against Nazi Germany on the ground that it represented a deliberate attempt by the President and British leaders to involve this country against its will in the war.