!llllLLI In Paris tonight Premier Henri Queille collapaed in the Senate building. The Pre ■ ier was cli ■bin& the ornate •staircase of Honor•. Suddenly be stuabl•d;liilil 1::f unoonaoioue on th• aoarlet oarpet._. ~ • • ......... 1\ ~ • --•••htw-~uwa A ■l:-t°be word ia that the aixty-toar year ' I\ old French p---.,..;~4 i■ recovering fro■ what i■ described ae •a aild heart attack•. . II In San Diego, Chile, this evening Bans von Becker, -ustrian Charge d'Affaires, was assassinated in hia office. The assassin, a refugee troa the Se•iet Ukraine, fired three shots at the diploaat,and then turned th• aun on hiaaelf. .9ftJIA The State Department informs us today tlat. •• will take no direct part in China's current troubles. A State Department official denied that the Onited States is intervenini in any way to establish a coalition ' •overn ■ ent with the co-unists. Also, he said that the larinas arriYing at Shanghai today are not there to maintain law and order. They are ■erely there to protect A■erican lives -- in case of e ■ ergency. fro ■ Meanwhile, a news dispatch f • ■ anting tel11 of Co ■■unlst forces reinforced by land, sea and air, in a ne• attack northeast of Hanking. Thia would be a third front against the Rationalis · t armies. A news dispatch from ,eiping tells of that cit7 .. sealed off by the Rationalist co ■■ander in northera Chian. T his to prevent Co■■unist infiltration. Buainea1 in the a ~ cient ci\y is said to be at a standstill, with fires still burning in the suburbs. Fires caused by Co1111ubist guns. Jllllll Radio Berlin, the Soviet's l a rgest propa g anda outlet in central Europe, was off the a ir today __ for two hours. Why? Because tbe French destroyed the two antenna towers of the &uasian-controlled radio station. The radio towers, one nearly four hundred feet bigh,atood in the French sector. Last month the rrenoh coaalnder warned the Soviets that these tower ■ ••r• a ~ T o danger to airmen. The Russians -didn't even reply. So " today the French co■■ andant cleared everybody out ot the neighborhood of the great steel aasts, and put hia engineers to work. There ••r• two loud explosion•. After the saoke cleared away, theri were no radi ■ a1t1 - and no Radio Berlin. But there were safer landing condition• '"""-- for our big pl a nes flying in now at the rate of two~ bundred-an Q -fifty a day. An all-ti ■ e record. Later today Radio Berlin came on the air a g ain. But its voice was weaker. The broadcast ~e J aed fro ■ one of Hitler's old radio towers in the Soviet Zone -- with less than half t h e power of the ori g inal station. Ir-. ~ D N l : ' D - - l!'H81!DCH'a .:b;::M:e - N e l l - - ~ ~ M f t ~ ~he United S t ~ tes coul . ave been i nvolved in a war last ~pring, i l a mis ta ken intel igence estiaate had not been corrected -- in ti ■ e. So we learn fro ■ the E berstadt Coaaittee. T h is oaaittee is a part of the bi- partisan commission headed by for ■er President Hoover the coaaission charged with re-organizin g our Federal ~o•ern■ ent. The Eberstadt Coaaittee reco-ends that all oar ailitary budget practices be o•erbauled. ~top &l the waste in spending for defense. That's t _ e idea. Also, the Coaaittee wants tte D efense Secretary to be iven ■ ore power. It asks th?t be ba 'fe coa p lete control of the three ser•ices, witb ant orit7 to establish policy. Instead of merely supervisi ng t e AraJ, the lavy a nd t h e Air Force, as at present. - ive i■ ~ far bigger job. Be -- t h e efense S ecret a ry -- to be eon 7 d e ~na e e er of tba ia al S e cu rit y o nc·1 • ich adv i ses t .. Preside t on co r cii 1 c =a e rs 0 i c and military. The general the ■ e of tre Eberstadt report is for dre centralized control of our armed forces- ~ under civilian control. •civilian control ot the ■ ilitary,• says the report, m~st be •clearly eatabliabed, and tiral7 ■ aintained.• And, finally, the report 1a7s th a t our preaent ailitary thinking is wrong. Thia because our 1trategio plaDs are aade without clear guidance for a long-tera peace. It also charges our ■ ilit■ry thinker ■ with plan»iDI to tight a next war without knowing quite wtia~ we'd be fighting for, - it ■ e bad another war. JSPIOIAGE In Waslin g ton C ongressional spy hunters announce a aajor drive to find out whether there are spies operating in our governaaat right now. Acting C hairman Mundt told reporters today that ai next week the Bouse Dn-Aaerican Activities Coa■ ittee will start drafting legislation to ti g hten up our espionage la••• Also, the Coaaittee is following up on the story of a civilian technician at Aberdeen, Maryland, giving infor■ ation about the Borden boab sight to Co ■auniet agents. The Co ■alttee wants to hear aore from lhittaker Chaabera -- to get bis vie•• on the best way of tightenlna up on our la••· Congrea1 ■an Mundt also says the Comaittee is trying to find out · whether spy rings operated in the government after Ch~abers left the C oaaunist Party in dlneteen Thirty - eight. Also, it bas a long li s t of witnesses to be questioned, including Donald Hiss, brother of Alger Biss, who today was indicted in Re• York on tw charges of perjury; ~ae\her ia•~cted ••• Willia• Ri1■an, ~ ~or■H e ■ ploywe-e-1-4..lte - ~ a t t of ' C n ppers _a flt t y e C C in wit t J us ce .... e rt e t t t i , , . C . o f e witne se C n be called, n w - - ithou l eri e r secution f lger iss. a s t a e Co i tee s evidence• ic s s t at until quite- recently t ere ere Co munists in ide ~ tate epartment t,heee•Reds, A.. h-e say · &, in positions where t ey c uld have ta en out secret aterial. R N J R -------- Y o r t od y, l o f i c i 1 o f Ju tice ep rtmen c a red un lin on t e rt o f an investlg tor o f the Bouse U n-Americ a n Activit ie s Commi ttee. B cl aims that one of t e undeveloped microfilms 1n th t um pkin of hittaker C ham bers' w s almo t ruined. The Ju st ice D epart- ment uses these word s:- "a bunglin g amateur investigator who turn&d a flashli ht on the sensitive negative." The damage is such that · F.B.I.laboratory experts say t ere is little chance of restoring the negative. All of which, a dds the Justice Department, may have prevented the p ossible indictment of an entire wartim e es ionage ring. They say they now do not know wh a t was on the film. An interesting point is raised: - if any of the documents on the ruined film -- ·a nd there were some two hundred of them -- were dated latar than Au ust twenty- fourth, nineteen th ir ty-nine, the government might have had evidence to break open an xtensive espion ag e ring. The t hree - yea r St tute of Limit a tions was suspended in nineteen forty - t o , or t d u n tio o r, nd tree ye rs f ter rds. That mea n t ~t e sp·on a e 1f1~! . u u s t nineteen t irty-nine, c an s til l be p rosecuted. T o ay i n Ne w York, a new Fede al Gr nd Jury took over from t e one that expired ye st erd a y, t o inve s tigate Communist espionage. C ief Assistant Attorney General Alex Campbell told reporters that t h e Ju s tice Department is ready to prosecute whenever it finds evidence to justify a prosecution -- nd with no punches pulled. E'PIO E _____ ......_ e hea r now that the um kin contain ed a confid ential report sent through the St a te Depart ent in Nineteen " hirty-eight a report from "Vine ar Joe" Stilwell. 'his mes sa e, we · re informed, is of particular inter es t today, as China is in danger of being overrun by the Com n unists. 1en years ago, when ~eneral ~tilwell, ,,. ~ in his secret report lte-w- the Japanese 1rmies were A ~ stalemated in China -- neither side able to rin. "Only the Reds have a definite plan," he wrote. 'l ' hat plan guerrilla warfare, and mobilization of the masses. This Stilwell dispatch, found among the Pumpkin papers , sent in one of the Government's moat confidential codes. If the Red spy ring had acce•a to the original code, it would have been a simple matter for the code to be broken, and many of our top-flight••••• secrets would have been known abroad. H Ll D ---- ome t i a o, r em emb e r t he sto ry of C l a r en ce Ped dicord, the bl in d m an who w a s s ta r tin g o ut to hi tc h- h ike to Ne ork, from Portland, Or e gon? he b l ind man h e a din g Ea t f or a n oper a tion. H op in g t o r egain his si g ht. Well, today Cl a rence went back hnme by pl a ne, with a load of Christmas presents for his wi f e and children. C an he see? Not yet! He'll have to come back next June, for one more operation -- And then, maybe • • The doctors had expected he would be able to see his wife and children this Christmas. But : · ate ix intervened -- in an odd way. The operation was in progress in the hospital. Pedaicord lying on his back. Someone told him to roll his eyes, and he obeyed. txd Suddenly, he could see -- there w as a flash of light in his sightless eyes. And what did he see? Well, he s a w hat the surgeons were doin g . · An , his rea c tion was natural. B e pulled away -- at the wron g moment. ~o, now they'll ha v e to try it all over again. PRE TDENT --------- I n 1s. in t n to y, r Truman y s e h n' t c , n ed is ttitu e bout t h Con r ~ i ona l Committee's investi a ti o n of Communi s m. It is still a red herring to him. Be adds th the regards the whole matter ab closed. Also, th the will not ve o a salary increase for himself if Con · ress passes it! But, he says, he wants to make it p lain that he did not ask for a pay hike for himself, although be did want more money for other top government offici~ls. However, if he gets his -- well, he won't. say No. iv e -nat i on co~miss i o n 1 eavin .. ashington toni ht for Cos ta ica. Thy re oin to investigate th all ged inva i o n of that coun ry. Th is Comm issi on i s to b the first test of the new Coope rative Uefen s e ystem worked out by the American Republics. T he Commission even has po er to recommend armed help for Costa Rica, if it finds that Nicaragua did play a part in the invasion. But the general feeling is that the invasion was merely a raid by an · armed band of the supporters of Costa Rica's former President, Rafael Guardia. Today, in San Jose -- the Cart.a Hican capital -- formej President Guardia was tried, in-absentia, and, formally convicted of treason. T he charge made was that he cooperated with a foreign country, Nicaragua, for an invasion of his homeland. Evidence at the trial was given by one of the invading party -- a Nicaraguan officer, the frontier, early this captured by Costa Rican troops on week. his man stated that the commanding officer of the , inv ad in t r o op a ct ally id b lo to he icara g uan N a t ional u a rd . He a l o t e sti f ied h a ving s een former P re ident G u rd ia ith the inva d in g pa rty. T he icaraguan p risoner even ha d circum s tanti a l evi J ence to of f er. He identified his own auser rifle produced in court, said it w as iven to him by the son of the Dictator of Nicaragua, General Somoza. And he pointed to the Nicaraguan coat of arms etched on the stock of the weapon. Whereupon the court found the former res ii ent of Costa Rica guilty -- of treason. And the belief- in San Jose is that he'll face a firing squad -- that is, if captured. Although, Costa Rica is one of the few enli g htened nati o ns where the death penalty has been abolish e d. --o-- That five-nation commission, by the ay, has another job on its hands, while down there. It has been told to inv e stig a te stories going round about a •caribvean Legion.• This Legion, we hear, is a band of law _ ~ss t; STA H I ' A - ----- soldi a-of-fortune, equip ped ith m o em arms -- rea y to fi g ht fer anybo y t any time; their services availa 1 to the highest bidder. A ban d of mercendri s, equipped with tanks, guns and ammunition. S everal Central American republics tell of threats from this -J.4 - ~~ ~ ~ - Jts,.,~ - ~ 1-i-- so-calle Legi n.-)._ ~ ~ e Commission hopes • to find out whether there really is such a high-powered outfit. LTP.1948.12.16i.pdf LTP.1948.12.16ii.pdf