Current Events September 22, 1942; RUSSIANS MAKE SMALL GAINS/ JAPANESE PUSH IN SOLOMONS EXPECTED:

THE RACINE JOURNAL-TIMES

                                  RACINE, WIS., TUESDAY AFTERNOON, SEPTEMBER22,1942.

Reds Make Small Gains;
Reports Are Optimistic
Hint Germans Hope
To Freeze' Front

STOCKHOLM, Sept. 22.—(U.P)—
Adolf Hitler, abandoning hope
that Germany can crush Russia,
has started building defenses to
hold his eastern gains so the bulk
of his army will be free to meet
the threat of a second front in
the west, unusually well informed
sources said today.
The same sources expressed
belief that Hitler might start a
peace offensive this winter and
tell the German people that a
separate peace with Russia was
necessary without the total victory
he had promised them.

Knox Expects
Big Jap Push
Into Solomons
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22.—(U.P)
—Secretary of the Navy Frank
Knox said today that the navy
expected the Japanese to make
a "big push" to retake the Solomon
islands.
Asked at his press conference
about "continued rumors of a big
Japanese drive on the American
positions in the islands, he said:
"Of course, that is a safe and
sound assumption. We operate on
that basis. To do otherwise would
be foolish over-confidence."
Knox, who. returned last night
from the American Legion convention
at Kansas City, Mo., said
he was tremendously "inspired
and gratified" by the action taken
by the convention. He said he was
in sympathy with "about everything
they did."