NOT KEEPING UP WITH DEMAND

Southland Times, Issue 25538, 5 December 1944, Page 5

NOT KEEPING UP WITH DEMAND

U.S. Production Of Arms (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, Dec. 3. America is faced with a war production situation in which, according to Lieutenant-General Brehon B. Somervell, commanding the United States Army Service Corps, “the utmost will be required if we are to continue to supply pur troops on the fighting front with all they need.” Lieutenant-General Somervell said: “It happens that right now American industry is not keeping up with the current demands of our fighting men in 40 per cent, of the major items on the programme. Seventeen per cent, of these are in critically short supply. I am concerned that you may be so deeply engrossed in postwar planning that you are not giving all the thought you should give to current action.” He appealed to management and labour to return “to that sense of urgency we knew early in the war” and keep at the job of production for war until the last German and the last Japanese had surrendered. EFFORT TO INCREASE OUTPUT In an effort to increase the output of munitions to meet the increased military needs the Government has suspended for 90 days authorizations for civilian reconversion production in 103 acute labour shortage areas, says the

United Press. The action follows the warning of the War Mobilization Director, Mr J. J. Byrnes, that he would suspend all new civilian production if the manpower shortages were not remedied within a reasonable time. However, 400,000,000 dollars’ worth of non-piili-tary "reduction authorized in the past four month's is probably not affected. DEMOLITION ORDERED IN GERMANY Scorched Earth Policy (Rec. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 4. Evidence that the Germans fully intend applying the scorched earth policy just as ruthlessly in their own country as in Alsace is contained in a recently captured enemy document, says a correspondent of The Daily Telegraph at Strasbourg. It orders the complete demolition of all buildings affording accommodation for enemy troops, in what it calls the “present displacing movement,” and adds: “All means must be employed to ensure that no house or no shack is left in a usable condition. Troops must not depend on the engineers but must do a large share of the demolitions themselves by burning houses.” The German News Agency says that a German commando force blew up the Nederrhine dam, south-west of Arnhem, flooding the British positions in Holland over a wide area. The ArnhemNijmegen road was already under water at four points. SHOW OF STRENGTH BY LUFTWAFFE Jet-propelled Planes In Action (Rec. 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 4. Correspondents at Supreme Headquarters agree that the Luftwaffe yesterday put up the biggest show of strength for weeks over the battlefronts. At least 75 jet-propelled planes were sent against the British at Venlo and others were seen in the Duren area. A correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Agency reports that Thunderbolts attacking enemy concentrations near Duren scored eight direct hits on a cluster of 17 guns in a wooded area.