The White Falcon - 20.01.1945, Blaðsíða 4

4
THE WHITE FALCON is published weekly by and for the
American Forces in Iceland, under supervision of Special S<
vice Section, Iceland Base Command. Some material is supplied
by Camp Newspaper Service, New York City, republication
of which is prohibited without CNS approval. THE WHITE
FALCON has been passed by the censor and may be mailei
home for one-and-one-half cents.
IBC Special Service Officer . Lt. Col. Lee F. Gilstrap
Supervising Officer ........Lt. David Zinkoff
Editor .....................Sgt. John Moran
Associate Editor ...........Sgt. J. Gordon Farrell
News Editor ................Cpl. Robert Hill
Staff Reporter .............Pvt. E. C. Gray
AN EDITORIAL:
“On Sticking Out
Our Necks”
In last week’s issue we ran a notice across the first
page of the Falcon inviting readers to unburden their
minds to us< We asked for “guest editorials” — on any
subject of possible interest to GIs —and we promised
to print all such worthwhile editorials we might re-
ceive. It was our intention to initiate an editorial col-
umn which would be wide open to every man in the
Command and which would directly reflect the opini-
ons and attitudes of those to whom this paper belongs
~ the soldiers of the IBC.
We promised to print the first such “guest editorial”
in today’s paper. The reason we are not keeping that
promise is because we can’t — we have nothing to keep
it with. Frankly, the “response” we’ve received has been
negligible. We had been a little hesitant about stick-
ing our\ necks out so far, because it’s always rather un-
comfortable to pull them back in again. But we took
the chance anyway.
Since our attempt to fling wide the gates of opinion
Jias thus proved futile, we shall once again accept the
prerogative of writing the editorials ourselves. But if,
upon occasion, we may write something with which
you find yourself in disagreement, we’d like you to know
that we’ll always have space for your reply. As before,
we welcome any comment you may care to make —
on any subject of a “printable” nature.
WE’LL TRADE YOU!
According to a report
from Ft. Lewis, Wash., Pfc.
Sol Katz of the Bronx ran
into some pretty tough lugk
during a recent furlough
back home: (1) Jewelers
told him a watch he had left
for repairs had been lost;
(2) He sent his uniforms to
the tailors and the building
burned down; (3) He lost
More Than 700,000
Negro Troops In Army
More than 700,000 Negroes
are serving in all arms and
branches of the Army and
60 percent of them are over-
seas, reports the War De-
partment in a summary of
the accomplishments of the
Negro troops during 1944.
Negroes are participating
on every fighting front. They
took part in the Normandy
D-Day landings and were
with General MacArthur’s
forces in the return to the
Philippines.
Chaplain (Capl.) Janies
Jones of Dallas, Texas, won
the Silver Star and the Purp-
le Heart for gallantry at the
Anzio beachhead. The sur-
vey praised the harmonious
relations existing between
white and Negro troops.
Heavy Response In Photo
Contest Causing Delay
In Printing Pictures
Response to our Cl
Photo Contest has been a
little heavier than we had i
expected—with the result
that we are now publish-
ing photos two to three
weeks after we receive
them. This is just to let
you know that your pic-
tures have not been mis-
laid or forgotten about.
They will be returned to
you at our earliest op- |
portunity.
one of his medals on the
train hack to camp and then
his garrison hat was stolen;
(4) He arrived haek in camp
a day early.
GI PHOTO OP THE WEEK
CONSTRUCTION CREW
v carton of cigarettes and an 8 X 10" enlargement of the above photo go this
wt*ek to Pvt. Donald L. White of the Signal Corps who has captitred this scene of the
Engineers erecting a Nissen hut here in Iceland. Pre-fabricated in the States, a hut
can be erected in less than a day’s work by the Engineers. Built around a skeleton
framework of iron, the huts are lined with ply-wood to keep out the winds.
AMERICANWRITERDENOUNCES
SHALLOW ARGUMENTS OF
"WAR WITH RUSSIA" HOWLERS
The following article, written by top-fliglit U.S. corre-
spondent, Leland Stowe, presents such a clear analysis
of the faulty and groundless “reasoning” of those who
are inclined to view with alarm the military might and
political power of our great ally, the USSR, that we
thought it worth bringing to your attention.
“Of course we shall have to fight the Russians some
day.” You’ve heard people say that, and so have I. Too
many of them. A queer thing, though—you never hear
anybody say exactly WHY.
Okay. WHY should we ever get into a war with the
Russians ?
Should we fight them over land claims? Well, there's
not a spot of land in the Western Hemisphere that Russia
wants—and no land in Siberia that the U.S. wants. The
Soviet Union already possesses one-sixth of the land sur-
face of the globe. It’s got so much land that it hasn’t
yet had a chance, to develop but a fraction of it. How
are the Russians and Uncle Sam going to pick a fight
with each other when both possess more living space
than they know what to do with? Our anti-Russian war-
mongers never explain that. The reason is that they can’t.
Maybe these Calamity Janes and Johns mean we must
fight Russia because the Soviets have a different system
of government. But we didn’t fight the Kaiser because
he was an autocratic emperor. We only fought him be-
cause his U-boats had sunk an awful lot of our ships.
We don’t like dictatorships, hut Generalissimo Chiang
Kai-Shek has been a dictator for years. Nobody in Ame-
rica ever says we’ll have to fight the Chinese. We have
lived at peace with all sorts of foreign governments ever
since 1776. Nothing in. cur history indicates that we’ve
got to fight the Russians' some day just because they
have a Soviet : _ sterv
“Ah,” objects Calamity Jane. “But the Russians are
Communists—and there are Communists' in America.”
You know the rest of the argument.
But wait a minute, brother. Americans claim to he
Christians. Some Americans have converted quite a lot
of Chinese to Christianity. And even though we’ve made
a great many Chinese forget Confucius, the Chinese never
say they’ll have to fight us. Supposing Russia disappear-
ed tomorrow. Would our very small minority of Com-
munists in the U.S.A. stop believing in Communism just
because of that? You can’t stamp out either a religious
or a political idea by force. In all history that’s never
been done. Hitler and Hirohito built gigantic war mach-
ines to impose an idea—their own cockeyed idea—by
force. But they don’t seem to be doing so well.
Then our Calamity Janes and Johns are afraid of Rus-
sia’s Communism and Socialism as ideas. As far as the
U.S.A. is concerned, here’s some mighty shrewd advice
—and it comes from Sir Samuel Hoare of Britain. Sir
Samuel is just as conservative as Col. Robert R. McCor-
mick of Chicago. But this is what arch-conservative Sir
Samuel says: “Communism, for all the claims of some
of its propagandists, is a national and not an interna-
tional product. It is brought about by internal condi-
tions. If you fear it, you should set your house in order
so that your social and political conditions will silence
any demand for its introduction.”
Before they ask American soldiers to go and die in
Siberia, let our “war with Russia” howlers answer that
one first. But they never do!
“FUEL RATIONING”
REARS UGLY HEAD
ON SAIPAN
A Marine Corps report
from Saipan states that rat-
ioning threatens transportat-
ion even on this war-leveled
Central Pacific island.
The transportation spok-
en of is that furnished by
a large number of carabao
which have been put to
work hauling ammunition
and wounded soldiers oii
two-wlieeled native carts.
“The darned things drink
so much water, though,” one
cart driver complained,” that
even when we have trouble
getting it for ourselves, we
have to pour up to 40 gallons
a day into the carabaos.”