L.T. SUNOCO FRIDAY. FEB. 14t 1941 GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: The story of British parachute troops landing in Italy takes a sinister turn in the late news. The first bulletin from Rome was brief and fragmentary — merely stating that on Monday night British warplanes dropped parachutists in two places, both in southern Italy, in the Province of Calabria, the toe of the Italian boot. There was no statement of how many British soldiers floated down out of the sky, a mere mention of two suicide squads. Then later word — they were captured after some fighting, in whicn a police officer and a civilian were killed. They are now reported as saying that British planes carrying the"’ from Greece lost their bearings and dropped them at wrong places. The latest account from Rome tonight raises the question:- What is the status of these parachute soldiers? Are they to be regarded as prisoners of war — or spies? They were heavily armed with ~ach4ne- guns, hand rrenadas and sapplias of* explosive, and were well supolieo with Italian money. They speak fluent Italian tnd were obviously sicked for their knowledge of that language. The uniform they wore is a central point of discussion, home oescribes their clothing as plain PARACHUTISTS - 2 khaki jackets, long khaki trousers, without puttees; and, civilian shoes. The Italians leclare their unifor.ns bore no insignia, no military markings. So were they really uniforms or tii just clothes? Tne authorities in Rome said that tonight they «ere investigating to find out whether Great Britain has ever odtlicly announced the uniform of British Parachute troops, and whether the parachutists were garbed accordingly. The point of it is that an enemy operating behind the lines is a soldier, if in uniform - and is required to be treated as a prisoner of war. If hefs coing his war work in civilian clothes, his status is that of a spy. The purpose of the parachute landing was to attack 1 important objectives, says Rome, but the? didn’t succeed apparently. The capture of the soldiers of the sky is related with this ohrase - nbefore tney could cause the grave damage they had in mind." They are said to have admitted that they were flown from Greece to blow up railroad junctions and rater power developments — but *.ere cropped at the wrong places. flell, there are possibilities of decidedly -rrave damage in that -'art of Italy. It’s a mountainous and barren area, but is the site of one of the ereat Italian aqueducts, a system of water power for PARACHUTISTS - 2 many factories and f water supply for more than two hundred and fifty communities. In addition, there are other power developments which provide electricity for war industries at Taranto and Naples — and as far north as Rome. These large and important projects down toward the toe of the boot might well be the target for a British raid - parachute raid. London gives no confirmation of the story, says nothing is known about it. But there was excited interest in the British capital, and it was pointed out that General Wavell, the victorious British commander in north Africa, might well resort to tattack by parachute. He was a military observer in Moscow some years ago when the Red Army put on one of its mass demonstrations, dropping military units from plants. They say that General Wavell was impressed with these parach ite tactics, and may now be trying them out at the expense of Italy. Nazi Germany used parachute troops with telling effect in the blitzkrieg blow that demolished the Low Countries and France. AIR BATTLE Today, in the vicinity of the British town of Fol stone, on the English channel, there was a phenomenon of new military import. Out of the sky there fell a rain of machine gun bullets. Also shells such as are used in small cannon — aerial cannon. In the sky high above the Channel a huge air battle was being fought. So there was no surprise that machine-gun bullets dropped to earth. In an air fight there’s a mass fire of machine guns; and thousands of spent missiles rain downward. But the cannon shells were another matter. It became known at the beginning of the war that German fighter planes were equipped with cannon, but these were not so much in evidence in the great air battles of last summer and fall. The fire of machine-guns massed on a plane seemed to be more effective. Recently, we’ ve heard that the British have been mounting cannon on their new fighters. New tactics developing in the war of the sky? Only the other day air Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding told me of new sky fighting with cannon because of armored planes. So today cannon shells as well as spent madhine-gun bullets, fell on Eoikstone. The air battle is iescribed as being the greatest since the mighty combats on high last September, when hundreds of planes AIR BATTLE - 2 whirled in giant dogfights. Today*s engagement began when a big fleet of British bombers, heavily escorted by fighters, flew out over the English Channel to attack the invasion ports on the other side. At first there was no opposition, but then a huge swarm of Nazi fighters came roaring. The battle was fought among the clouds, an intricate maze of warplanes in the acrobatics of combat. Berlin claims tha^ nine Spitfires were shot down. Britain relates that the Nazi armada was driven off. The Germans have a follow-up to yesterday1s story of a destructive attack on a British convoy in the Atlantic. They now raise the number of ships sunk to fourteen; tonntage eighty-two thousand. And the Nazi high command today claimed that a second -tit, British convoy was attacked and dispersed - this one by air^attach* The action is described as occurring off the coast of Scotland - six British merchant ships damaged heavily, set on fire, disabled - according to the Nazi claim. GRErCE Twerp’s a French report tonight that Germany is trying to persuade Greece to make peace with Italy. They say that the Fascist government in Rome has agreed to let Berlin mediate and settle the Greek-Italian War - if possible. ItTs to be done by Nazi diplomatic efforts at Athens combined with threats of a German stroke at the rear of the Greek army. The story goes on with the statement that Italy is desperately short of gasoline, and has so little that Fascist planes don’t venture to fly east of Crete - too much distance for the little gas on hand. Hence there!s not much hope that Mussolini can retrieve the situation in Albania by winning any victories. P&& Hence the desire to call the whole thing off. This, moreover, would enable the Fascist Duce to concentrate what resources he has left for the defense of^jrkoixhB A haxxisfixin Tripoli, in north Africa. SPAIN V-e continue to get what purports to be inside information abou the conferences that Franco held with Mussolini and Petain. Today’s version is that the Spanish leader offered the Italian Dictator to do anything he could in the cause of peace - mediate, try to bring the war to an end. The talk between Franco and Marshal Petain was along the same line - peace. This continues the supposition that Franco has no idea of joining the war against Great Britain - that he rejected the proposals for a stroke against Gibraltar. On the other hand, here’s a dispatch that has an alarmist sound - sudden defense activities at Gibraltar. Ty^e report is from nearby Spain. They say that just across from the Gibraltar line, busy doings are being observed at the Rock - every man called to his defense post, warships dashing on patrol duties, R.A.F. planes scouting all the time. Signs of vigilant guard against a sudden attack. All this^auddei^ defense activity has been going on for « forty-eight hours, began two days agol JUGOSLAVIA There's not much to be said about the meeting between Hitler and the Jugoslav Premier and Foreign Minister — save that they met iri Germany • The bulletin tellingof the conference uses the usual empty diplomatic phraseology, saying — T,the discussion of questions of mutual interests occureed in the spirit of the traditional friendly relations of both countries.n The supposition is of course that Hitler is trying to lay down tne law to the two Jogoslav ministers and draw their nation into the wazi camp for some sort of German plan of activity in the Balkans. Of more consequence is a report from Ttrkey — if it's true. It emanate s from what is described as "foreign sources close to the Soviet Embassy", and declares that Stalin's Bussia will do nothing to keep the Germans f,rom occupying Bulgaria — if they should decide to do so. If Hitler moves, Stalin will remain quiet. Here's the latest irom the Balkans. Rurr(n^ia is said to be detailing the British Minister _ won't let him go — though Britain has broken relations. FArtSAST There1s nothing new in the Far Eastern situation, which is regarded as a Number One point of danger, Australia has been keenly alarmed by the prospect of an ambitious blow by Japan, but today the acting Premier at Sidney spoke some relatively reassuringj.*ot*ds. He said the crisis had grown no worse, things more or less suspended in the balance - but no new signs of a Far Eastern flare-up. The state of things out there on the other side of the world was much in mind when President Roosevelt today received the new Japanese Ambassador. Personally, the greeting was cordial for Ambassador N0mura and President Roosevelt are old friends. The new envoy expressed himself in these words to the President: "It is a source of real pleasure to be stationed in your great country, where I have a large number of friends - among whom I am happy to count you, Mr. President, as one of the oldest and closest The President responded in a similar spirit. But both statesmen agreed that there was grave cause for trouble between their respective countries. Said the President to the Ambassador: "There are developments in the relations between the United States and Japan which cause concern.n LErJD-LEASE There was a new suggestion today in the argument over the possible transfer of American destroyers to Britain. The word from Washington is that there may be a compromise between the opposite opinions - Wpndell Willkie saying we ought to give Britain from five to ten destroyers a month. Secretary taraxx of the Navy Knox retorting that the fleet needs all the destroyers that it has. The new proposal is that, instead of handing over our own destroyers, we should use our shipyards to repair British destroyers. It is pointed out that one reason why the British covers a Navy is in such need, is because a lot of the’»r own destroyers'are A A laid up and need reconditioning. Some are just affected by the wear and ex tear of hard usage, while others have been damaged in battle, hit by shells or bombs. And the British shipyards are so heavily over-worked they oanft recondition the destroyers that need it - not with any promptness. So, if we would do the reconditioning in our own shipyards, the British would have more destroyers in service - which is the main thing. let them seven five cr ten destroyers over here every so often to be LEi> i/fr - 2 repaired. lhatfs the argument Senator Wheeler, leader of the opposition to the bill, delivered a scathing attack today. He declared that British dominions and colonies are asking andzetting cah °or war materials they eliver to Britain. ’’The British Colonies,” said he, ”are demanding that cah be put on the barrel-head.” That was the Wheeler theme in bitterly assailing the request that we lend, lease or give. All of this is preliminary to the big debate which begins on Monday. It promises to be a longdrawn out affair, but administra­ tion leaders see the passing of the Lend-Lease Bill by a majority of as muhh as three to one. DEBT Debate in the Senate toiay urged -- higher taxes. The lawmakers were debating the bill to raise the limit of the national debt -- lift the lid to sixty-five billion dollars. Several Democratic senators spoke up with the demand that more money be raised by taxation - to tvoid a continual piling up of the public dfebt. Said Senator Tydings of Maryland:- ’’The ability of the people to pay is higher now tnan it will be at any future time, that is judging from our present outlook.” The amount of talk today wasn’t very much. The Senate soon got around to a vote. There was no count, ao need for any. The Senate passed the bill to raise the debt limit to sixty-five billion dollars — did it by a voice vote — nobody speaking up in objection. gusic Here’s an idea for you music lovers to argue - it may A seem almost a sacrilege to some. It concerns the oratorios of if Handel, those great sacred coral works, a religious heritage. A A prominent personality in the operatic world suggests - why not stage the oratorios of Handel as operas? I heard about this, talking to Herbert Graf, who is stage manager at the Metropolitan Opera House. He told me that the’ H^ngs-riai oratorios would go magnificently as operas - all A /V except the "Messiah", which is sheer music, not drama. He named especially - "Joshua", "Judas Maccabeus" and "Saul", with its famous death march. They’d be a natural answer to the call for opera in English - because they were written in English. In passing, the Handel operas were written in Italian, including the famous aria, which we know as the Largo. Yet Handel was a German. ^The Metropolitan Opera House stage manager tells me that the scenarios of the Handel oratorios were taken from medieval miracle plays, and are especially adapted to stage production. ;ha* he plans this summer to give oratorio* as opera as a music music festival event. He MUSIC - 2 mentioned the Berkshire Music Festival, which is of nationwide fame — the great summer event at Stockbridge, Massachusetts. ALL in all, it*s an idea that can start many an argument among music lovers. And here’s one for gasoline lovers —