Vol. IV No. 8 Delhi, Thursday, Nov. 1, 1945 Reg. No. L5015 45,000 Slated To Go Home This Month Approximately 45,000 India-Burma and China personnel will clear India by sea during November, bound for the U.S., it was announced this week by Theater Headquarters in New Delhi. Category IV men falling in the 60-69 (points) group will remain in their units and move with them to the embarkation points at Karachi and Calcutta during November. It is planned, transportation permitting, that all units now designated as Category IV with either be at, or enroute to, ports of embarkation for the States by Dec. 1. Personnel of the 60-69 designation and not assigned to surplus units will be moved to POE's as casuals on the following schedule, the dates being approximate: 67-69 points, inclusive - Nov. 15. 64-66 points, inclusive - Nov. 19. 62-63 points, inclusive - Nov. 24. 60-61 points, inclusive - Nov. 27. No estimates were given as to how long it will take to clear all 60 pointers from the Theater. Primary factor, as it has been from the days of early rotation, is allotment of ships. 15 SHIPS Fifteen ships have been allotted to the Theater during November. Seven will come into Karachi, eight into Calcutta. However, included in this number are some ships which can only take around 2,500 passengers, plus two non-standardized types capable of loading only around 1,700. The 15 ships can accommodate 44,994. That theater planning has been accurate is evidenced by a check of the Roundup story of Sept. 20. In that edition Headquarters was quoted as saying that around 55,000 would be moved in the period Sept. 23 - Oct. 21. Actually this figure had to be sliced to 52,850 as one troopship, the Callan, was held up in Karachi with engine trouble and did not sail until Oct. 29. So out of the estimated 52,850 forecast, figures reveal that 48,635 were sent out by air and sea. Another ship sailed two days later, bringing the total, with Callan included, to around the 55,000 estimate. There is seemingly considerable confusion among the men awaiting shipment at Malir concerning the waiting time. We have received numerous letters the past week, complaining that troops are being held there too long. TWO WEEKS WAIT This misconception appears to have started because of a Roundup story which stated "efforts are being made to clear the men within four or five days." This effort did not succeed. Men can only be shipped out as the vessels are made available. The average waiting time is about two weeks at the present time. Some men have had to wait three weeks. This was partially due to the breakdown of the Callan. Numerous other complaints have reached us concerning conditions at Malir. We informed Col. J. N. Hauser, Theater Replacement head, of the situation and he invited this writer to what was to have been a closed officers' meeting of his staff. The meeting was mostly routine and the only news that came out of it was the fact that plans are being made to provide for more recreational facilities through larger welfare funds. Technical matters, concerning docking of ships, was the principal topic. No evidence presented itself that there was a deep, dark plot to keep the G.I.'s at the ports as long as possible. After the meeting, we talked with Lt. Col. Franklin G. Pruyn, head of Replacement Depot No. 1 at Karachi. We cited the principal complaints in the letters: Confusion over waiting time; too many details; ignoring of rank by working non-commissioned officers as privates; poor food; too much emphasis on dress; rudeness by permanent party personnel; lack of recreational facilities. C.O. TALKS Here, according to Pruyn, is the true picture of the situation: WAITING TIME - The average waiting time in the replacement depot is about two weeks. When ships arrive ahead of schedule, it may be less; if they arrive late, it may be more. But no one should plan on staying less than two weeks at Malir before boarding a troopship. Category IV units are likely to get a break on this, for when they arrive at the replacement depot, their records are usually in order. It follows, therefore, that casuals, as a rule, have to wait longer than their counterparts in Category IV units. (Writers complained points meant little in getting out. Pruyn stated he moved men out as they came in, if they were eligible for discharge. If, for example, an 80-point man came in on a Wednesday, three days after a 60-point man, the 80-point man would not necessarily go ahead of the 60-point man. He would remain three days behind the 60-point man, all, other conditions being equal.) DETAILS - The permanent party is still new to its work and swamped by overwork. To aid them, potential returnees are put to work in accordance with their MOS number. But when a man is due to be shipped, he is taken off the job immediately. Pruyn had no knowledge of non-commissioned officers being used as privates of the guard. He neither denied or confirmed it. SOME VOLUNTEERS MESS HALLS - The permanent party could only allot two G.I.'s to each mess hall, each of which feeds between 500-800 men. The best mess hall in the camp was run by a volunteer from the returnees. Quite a few men have volunteered to help while awaiting their ships. DRESS - The Depot CO says the men are still in the Army. He said men from Burma and China were the main dress offenders. He said he had required men to shave off their beards but had allowed them to retain mustaches,
PERMANENT PARTY - Charges that the permanent party is rude, indifferent and refused to answer questions were denied by Pruyn. "I have made a check on that situation and can say through my own personal knowledge that it is untrue." he protested. "With a large body of men, I do not deny there may have been isolated cases of disagreement." RECREATION - At Karachi, there are tennis courts, 12 day rooms, four EM's clubs, four Red Cross clubs, five shows and an additional cinema rented from an Indian for matinees, swimming pools and baseball, volleyball and badminton facilities. Radios have been installed except in areas where there is no electricity available. Troops generally take all available books aboard ship with them but details now meet the vessels after they dock and replace the "lifted" reading material. That ends the complaint book for the week. |
Late in September, with 27 months overseas, Buck slapped down the cover of his battered typewriter in the Ledo Public Relations Office for the last time and started on the long road home. This is the last of his series of stories on evacuation from Ledo, Assam to New York City, U.S.A. |
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Dear Ladies:
(A term I trust you'll recognize As pure convention only, the way I'd write "Dear Sir" to James Petrillo or Mayor Hague Or Tyler Kent or the Lordly Double-Haw Or sundry others I should not see fit To greet by voice in passing.) Six years ago Pompous portly genteely apoplectic, Your august group rose up to wrap the flag About the corpse of Liberty Madame. Your Generalissimo arose declaimed Words that aligned your group in Aryan pride With a sister league Die Deiutsche Frauenendschwestern "The D.A.R. will shed its last lorgnette Guarding the memory of those who died To give our land its birth; while we have life And lungs and stalwart busts the sacred walls Of Constitution Hall will never wince To hear the sound of song from sepia thrush While we have lobby strength and puffed-out cheeks This woman Anderson will not perform In any cause in Constitution Hall!" Six years Dear Ladies (polite address of course) You won your point! A smug committee sat Victors! Anschluss was past. The books were burned The Czechs were taken; the Poles betrayed; The Jews Exiled and dying out; the world was poised Precarious upon the perilous edge Of chaos; the skies were red... and Lady Marian Would never sing in Constitution Hall. Six years ago we read the news. We gasped Even the ones of us below the Line. Poorly equipped by history and training For tolerance, were mildly shocked. We thought, When God installed the diaphram and throat He paid no heed to outer skin. The Negro Singing down the years, we thought, was part Of national inheritance. The sound Of Negro voices down the years was warp |
To the tapestry America has woven But who were we to dare the D.A.R.? The clerks, professors, tradesmen, housewives, students - Little people in little jobs, content To let the big folks talk. And someone did America's First Lady struck her blow, Withdrew an olden membership, refused Identity with those who use the flag To cloak the knife that slit the Bill of Rights. And Harold Ickes let America hear Her daughter sing of freedom from the steps Of Lincoln Memorial. Justice in this And poetry and pride. The little people Rested, the battle over. Rested. Forgot. But now, Dear Ladies (still an empty form). You rise against the tide, against the times. Now in October, Nineteen Forty Five. You bar distinguished music once again Because the fingers making it are brown Because a war you did not know was on Is over now, you raise your curious flag Your quaint, distorted banner, shouting loud: "Our sons have fought and died to keep intact Our right to hear music... music from hands that have No pigment, nor tinge. We join the fight once more For keyboards made with ivory notes alone (We plan to send all ebony devices Back to Africa.)" You may succeed blood and sweat and tears In barring Hazel Scott from Aryan Hall This time they may convert the Capitol To Concert Stage. And other Christian ladies Somehow clothed in wisdom, may withdraw From cheapening association. But Wait! Your luck is out. This time mere loss of face Will not suffice as punishment for treason The clerks, professors, tradesmen, housewives, students Bullied to quiet or unaware or numb |
Six years ago have learned through war and time And blood and sweat and tears and loneliness And the giving away of husbands, brothers, sons The price of a cause, the meaning of liberty The beautiful sound of freedom in the ears The sound of freedom made by happy throats The sound of freedom in uncensored notes! The little people, big in strength from union And big in soul from battle and big in heart From suffering from loss have risen up Revolt has come against intolerance Tolerated long and overlong Against a treason long intolerable The little people roused at last, are now Themselves the Sons and Daughters of Revolution. But they will need no halls and no committees No Social Register, no dues. Dear Ladies Their genealogy is plain: Born once Of ice, and living cold, afraid they rose Were born again of fire and gave their lives. Or else the lives most dear to them that song Be heard again by free men everywhere That words regain their old integrity That men achieve the Founding Fathers' aims That the healing sun of hope come down and drive The darkness back and blind the priestesses Of bigotry. For once the light has struck Philistines flee and leave their temples empty Temples that sound in later years with notes From happy and derisive alien throats Remember this, Dear Ladies, in your wars On Marian and Hazel. Sincerely yours, GORDDEN LINK Kanchrapara, India 13 October 1945 |
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China CG Bares Chennault Story Roundup Staff Article Lt. Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer, commanding general of the China Theater now in the States, told the United Press this week that Maj. Gen. Claire L. Chennault had requested retirement because he did not like being superseded as top air commander in China by Maj. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer. Wedemeyer said Stratemeyer is Chennault's senior and that it was natural for him to become senior air commander when he moved to China from the I-B Theater last July. At that time Chennault's sudden retirement brought demands for Congressional investigation. The China CG said Chennault had indicated he would like to return to China. Asked whether the former 14th Air Force chief might command China's air forces, Wedemeyer said, "That would be a good job for him. The Chinese know him and like him and he knows China." Wedemeyer also told newsmen that Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and Madame Chiang will visit America but said he did not know just when. |
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