PAGE SIX
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1943
THE KANSAN COMMENTS
What Does Russia Want From Poland
Constantine Oumansky, Russia's Ambassador Extraordinary and Envoy Pleipotentiary to Mexico, stated recently that Soviet Union's frontier with Poland lies west of the territory which the Russians took in 1939. It is quite clear that Russia knows what she wants in Poland today. She knew what she wanted as a partitioner of Poland in 1939, and she took it.
The excuse of the Soviet government was that Russia was forced to intervene to liberate the eight million Ukrainians and the three million White Russians.
When Joseph Stalin signed a nonaggression pact with Adolf Hitler on August 4, leaving the British and French to fight over Poland, he supposedly was not interested in the Poles. However, just two weeks after Britain and France declared war on Germany because of the invasion of Poland, Russia had mobilized her army of three and a half million and had also invaded Poland.
The Soviet government's share was so huge that it was understood, particularly by Germany, to be for temporary military purposes, not permanent. Russia got vast quantities of farmland which she needed least, while Germany got the heavy industrialized part. Russia got the oil territory which Germany needed, and Germany took the textile plants which Russia needed.
This territorial set-up is probably one of the reasons why Oumansky says that the Russian-Polish border will be farther west than the one established in 1339. The Tri-partite conference at Moscow did not settle the question of what Russia will have of Poland. Will she get as much or more than she wants this time?
—W.T.
Guerrillas Play Part In Winning War
Guerrilla bands are playing a vital role as civilian fighters in the great Soviet people's army. These bands vary in size from a half dozen to hundreds of thousands of persons. Their equipment ranges from a few firearms to speedy tanks, even planes.
The guerrilla bands are a part of a strategy of Russian defense-in-depth, planned long before the Germans came. Weapons and dynamite were hidden on collective farms and cached in hideouts.
The purpose of these strong civilian forces is to make surprise attacks on the Germans while they are fighting the regular Red army, and to bring added disasters to the retreating Wehrmacht by means of harassing, dynamiting, killing, raiding German-occupied villages, destroying supply trains, and cutting communications.
Although the small victories of these "armies of the forest" are only pinpricks of success in the gigantic war, they are a terrific threat to the German armies. The Germans are afraid to enter the fastnesses of the guerrilla forces. They burn down the forests, raze villages, imprison suspects, and raise huge, combating anti-guerilla forces, but the tough Russian civilians still remain a tremendous problem.
In October, guerrillas blew up 33 troop trains in the Tarnopol region. Last week they struck an unexpected blow at Cherkassy. In the coming battles forecast by the conference in Iran, guerrilla warfare may prove a decisive factor in the defeat of the Nazis—W.T.
Rock Chalk Talk
By MARY MORRILL
The Christmas Spirit: As far as we know mistletoe made its debut this year on the Hill at Watkins hall and Alice Goff and Bob Applegate were first to capitalize on the seasonal opportunity to ignore propriety without being talked about. To insure nobody's easing out there are five sprigs of the convenient green decking Watkins. It is sent in similar quantities each year to Watkins by an alumna, who although now in
Texas, apparently still has the better interests of the hall at heart.
幸福
College is so broadening: After finding a dead rat, bearing earmarks of Fiji captivity, under the enrollment sheet at their library study table, Kappa freshmen have concluded that Phi Gam frosh are just chips off the old block.
Phi Gam active bet Jim Ritchie, also active, that he couldn't stand on his head on the table without getting thrown out. Jim crawled around an hour making strenuous attempts to elevate himself bottom up.
The girls got lots of studying done one other afternoon recently when a
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Ft. Knock doesn't know what its missing; Apprentice Seaman Stone of PT4 has been amusing his roommates recently with the tale of a marine he knows from Guadalcanal who carries a small bag of gold teeth with him. This marine, (even Stone can't eat while he tells it) chiseled them from the mouths of dead Japs.
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Closed meetings: Things became rather stuffy last meeting night for Kappa Sigs who have taken to holding fraternity pow-wows in the basement of the Hawk. Toward the end of the session, the basement door blew shut and locked on the outside.
KFKU PROGRAM
Tonight:
Monday afternoon:
9:30 p.m. University of Kansas Roundtable. "The Future of France and Her Posessions." Speakers: J. N. Carman, chairman; W. E. Sandelius; and Mattie Crumine.
2:30 p.m. French Lesson. Mattie Crumrine, radio instructor.
2:45 p.m. Spanish Lesson. Maude Elliott, radio instructor.
The place had no windows and it appeared that the whole chapter had been buried alive—a fact which was screamed up the ventilator by Russell Baker in frenzied manner. Tension was finally released by Bob Gibbon, president, who blushingly came through with a remarkable knack for breaking locks.
Christmas and New Year holiday travel has always been heavy. Even in normal years the railroads have a mighty big job on their hands to provide accommodations for all. But war means heavier and still heavier transportation responsibilities . . . and now untold numbers in the armed forces will have to be accommodated.
No real American will stand in the way of any uniformed man or woman . . . and we're confident that even though you had a reservation you'd cancel it cheerfully if in so doing it meant that a member of our fighting
forces could travel in your stead.A typical American gesture, thank heaven!
So your railroads make this request: Think twice before you decide to make a trip during the holidays. If it's imperative that you go, we wish you as comfortable a journey as possible in these days of heavy war traffic.
But if your trip can be postponed until later, then know that in all probability you've done some member of our armed forces a good turn . . the kind of a good turn any one of them would do for you if your positions were reversed.
This Christmas—Give War Bonds
The Progressive
UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD ROAD OF THE STREAMLINERS AND THE CHALLENGERS