L.T. SUNOCO. MONDAY. JUNE 2. 1941 GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: The British are making no attempt to minimize the fall# of Crete. They admit this means the cutting of an important lifeline, and presents Britain from sending supplies and reinforcements to the armies of the Middle East through the Mediterranean. Fighting men of the Imperial Army are still arriving in Egypt from Crete. Many in rags, their wounds covered by soiled bandages, some even without shoes. An American reporter describes them as grim and unsmiling with the memory still fresh in their minds of days and nights of fighting without sleep or food. They thought also of the comrades they had left behind still fighting doggedly in the mountains and v;ith no hope of escape. They told a story of fields literally littered with dead. One young officer said that Crete now is almost unrecognizable The villages are heaps of dust and rubble; the valleys, hills and CRETE - 2 fields covered with de^d bodies. The City of Canea wiped off the map. The German air borne troops, related the survivors, came by the thousands — day after day. One soldier declared that the Nazid died like flies, but still they came. Not only the soldiers fought in Crete; truck drivers, cooks, engineers, signal men, even the Air Force ground crews grabbed any weapon they could, even pick or shovels, to fight back the Germans vdio descended from the cloud s. One Officer reported that the German technique was That they had every gun position photographed in advance and came over in endless flocks until they had silenced every anti-aircraft gun, The British Navy, we learn did an extraordinary job in saving fifteen thousand of the soldiers in Crete. And in the face of the fact that the Germans held all the harbors. 1 BRENNER Another conference in the Brenner Pass; Hitler and] Benito cooking up fresh war plans•]That seems to be the closest guess (Jr ^ the meaning of their meeting In the Brenner Pass today. Officially ^ * cr * ^ i'tpiiyI'CS as a conference on the political situation. (^though it was hedged in bw greater secrecy than any similar meeting, it was noticed that not only the head diplomats but the army chiefs were present ./The official announcement contained the usual^i‘1^ ^tout a spi]^t of cordial zailljKx amity and complete agreement on all point^ taken up by the chiefs of the Ayis governments. f I B-j-jt a political discussion would hardly explain the presence of Field Marshal von Keitel, chief of the Nazi general staff, and General Caballero, chief ^f the Fascist staff. The official communique that the two generals, on their part, A ”had an opportunity^or a conversation in the spirit of heartfelt comradeship*of* arqfe on German-Italian cooperation in the military field. The conference lasted five hours and apparently the best guess is that Hitler was telling M^jssolini what to do now that Crete, is in Axis h^nd^j—it^s hardly probable that they met wltliout discussing the United States, particularly President Roosevelt^s last speech. BREMMER _ 2 l^ere's a cable from Vichy about another conference. Fj.ench General Maxim V.pygand arrived there by airplane from Africa. Ostensibly to make a report to Marshal Retain oijfhe French situation in Algeria and Tunisia. But it was rumored around Vichy that they als<^*isCT»«!< Syria, although Wpygand’s audience with his chief lasted less than an hour. he»s expected to stay in the temporary capital of France for several days. And that name Syria today took on greater importance than ever. It is there that the British are expecting the next smash from the A:^i£ war machine, although this is not announced officially. It was hinted in a special Fascist communique that the Germans and Italians will now concentrate on Tobruk, throw in a crushing blow at the British imperial garrisonThaTi^ out there for so long. Messages from has been holding report that |^man-Itali~an planes are batterina^Jha^fenjers of Tobru^ cea^ssly. The Itallins claim to have destroyed five small transport: anchored in the harbor and sunk an auxiliary cruiser. Throughout Great Britain there- s a Clamorous demand that the BRENJ^ER -3 high comniand should take action in Syria, beat the Germans and Italians to it. That's the spirit which the loss of Crete has aroused in London and the provinces. Critics didn't hesitate to speak their belief that the high command of the Middle East, needs more imagination, ingenuity and initiative. And most of all they need more planes and tanksI For the Ack of which Briatin lost Crete. In the face of all this, the arrival of Weygand in Vichy is considered Of great.’importance. For Weygand is the French government's principal authority on Syria The London critics clamor in chorus not only for the occupation of Syria, but the defense of Cyprus, the]ast island base that the British have in the eastern Mediterranean. Cyprus has no fewer than six airfields and between its two mountain nnges is a wide plain with plenty of room for countless planes. It is reported that there are strong concentrations of not only British but Free French troops in Palestine and Transjordania. And now the Britons at home are crying out that their own most urgent need is to prevent the Germans from getting a land base on the eastern side of Suez, which would enable them to carry out the pincers - 4 operation in concert with the Axis forces in Libya. If Hitler moves into Syria and Palestine, he will be more and more following the road marched twenty-two hundred years ago by Alexander the Great. m ik: m I S!irFIA FOLLOW Kerens a later dispatch from Cairo. It reports that the authorities in Syria have cut off all wire communications with Egypt, both telephone and telegraph That is, all private communications. Mail services have already been suspended but only for five days so far. And here’s another item in the same line, which comes from Beirut. The headquarters of General DeGaulle’s Free French forces in that area have been established at Haifa, in Palestine, ft gives the F^ee French an ideal strategic jumping-off place for a dash into Syria. NEVILLE I heard some rather surprising things about the Near East situation^heard them at luncheon today. The Neiv York Daily newspaper, P.M., brought a group of us news people together with a couple of foreign correspondents. One of them — Bob Neville, Just back from a trip to the Near Eastern war areas — where he uj for P.M. A War correspondent Neville told us that the Suez Canal is closed — has been closed since January. They do open it now and then for brief intervals and get a few ships through, but then the Nazis sow up the canal once again. How? By mining it. Bob Neville told how German|^ planes fly over, skim at low level above the canal — and drop mines into it. He said they used three kinds — the most effective of which was a delayed mine. This Infernal machine lies on the bottom of the shallow Suez Canal, and is set off by the vibration of ships passing above it. But the first ship does not necessarily touch it off, or the second or the third. The delayed mine is so constructed that any one of a series of ships may touch it off — the delay part making It extremely tricky. You can»t tell when they*11 blow up. The P.M. correspondent said that it took much time to sweep and clear the hundred miles of Suez Canal A NEVmE of these treacherous devices — so much time that the canal can be opened only at rare Intervals, especially as the Germans keep on sowing the mines at night. ‘^'hen how do the British get supplies to General Wavell and his army? The P.M. war correspondent says that war materials do not pass by ship through the Canal. Coming up the Red Sea, they are unloaded near the entrance of Suez, - at Port Tewfils — and are carried overland. But how about the British fleet? Neville answered that the British Eastern Mediterranean Fleet is trapped — so far as Suez ? is concerned. The mining of the Canal is so easy that war ships, if they tried to escape by that route could not make it, in his opinion. Their only exit would be to fight their way through the Straits of Sicily and then through Gibraltar. Theymight liave a desperate battle getting through Gibraltar, if the Nazis should launch a blow to close the Straits. All in all, the British situation in the Near East is one of great peril — this according to the American newspaper correspondent who has just arrived from that area. IMk The radio at Baghdad spoke today, spoke in a very different tone from the broadcasts we had been hearing about of late. It called upon all the people of Iraq to cooperate with the army in maintaining order while a constitutional ministry is being set up. But the curfew rule still was enforced. Fpom Cairo comes word that Prince Abdul Illah, the regent, *. now engaged in organizirl/ A ^ the new Iraqi government, which will be pro-British. The next —VUc/vc ^ premie^whe has held that office before; a strong partisan of the British. The boy King Feisal is also back in Baghdad. British headquarters report everytHing returning to '' normal again in Iraq, but the Nazis claim stillhave control A of the M^sul oil fields. The great industrial machine of the Dnifed States of AraeriKa is now on a war basis. This nappened today when President Roosevelt at Hyde Park wrote his name to a new lot of Congress, the Priorities Bill. Making it compulsory for factories and plants the country over to give their first attention to making the things the Government wants^^~^d with no alternative. Hitherto, priotities applied only to army and navy contracts. But the signing of that bill gives government officials the power to issue priorities to anything which may be necessary for either the defense program or the ^end-Lease program. This power is vested in the Priority Dlvison of the Office of Production Management. There was a good deal of argument over the bill before it was passed. The House amended it to give this authority to the High command of the Depart, ent and the Navy. But the Senate revised the measure and the power now rests with the O.P.M. And here’s a further step in the sam direction. The War Department has asked Congress for a bill to authorize the President to commandeer any property whatsoever that is considered necessary during the national emergency. Owners of such property will be given what is described as "fair compensation. J LANDON Ex-Governor Landon of Kansas today added his bit to the volume of comment on President Roosevelt’s fireside chat. He told the graduates at a middlewestern college that the President manifestly has not made up his mind about the war. The best trained reporters, Landon said, cannot agree as to the meaning of the President’sor what he added in his press conference the next day. Therefore, said the £x-R^publican Candidate, we are forced to the conclusion that My.. Roosevelt still believes we can help England without getting into the war. But, he added, the war party oyimerica is trying to read into that presidential speech ^ that are not there. HIGWAy More highways, more bridges are needed, says President Roosevelt. Congress for a hundred and tiventy-five millions to build access roads and bridges in military, naval and industrial regions, roads which the Federal Works Aprency considers vital to national defense. A hundred millions will be spent on the access highways, twenty-five millions to strengthen bridges and widen existing roads. The Federal Works Agency reports that there are four two hundred and areas in which these highways and bridges are of importance to national defense. The government has already found means of building one thousand and ninety miles of these roads. The hundred and twenty-five millions he ask^ for are to construct some fifteen hundred more. HOUSTOr^ One hundred and ten years ago, a famous American took his oath as United States Senator from Texas. His name was Houston, General Spm Houston. Today another Houston took hispath as the junior senator from the Lone Star State ; Andrew Jackson Houston, eighty-seven n % year old son of the seat made vacant by the death of AT A the late Morris Sheppard. AH§W»^"yft’glBP6Tr~M7--Aygtgn~'ya5^ he won’t be senator longl It was an interim appointment^^Wrien Vice-President WSillace repeated the words of the oath to him. Senator Houston, for all his eighty-seven years, replied with a firm ”I do^ that could be heard all over the Chamber. !!• is now the oldest member of the United States Senate. | % y » 3 Ee announced in a statement to the newspapers that he*s I • £ thoroughly in accord with the foreign policies and program of PresidentRoosevelt. he will support the President in his efforts for adequate and complelte preparedness. SUPREME COURT For some years Governor Phillips of Oklahoma has been engaged in a fight with the federal government. The ^ew Deal wanted to build a government dam on the Red River. Governor Phillips wanted to stop it. He said that a hundred thousand acres of good Oklahoma land would be sacrificed to that dam, much of it being valuable oil and agricultural acres. We’ve heard about this fight from time to time. Once the Governor even called out the state troops to stop the federal f i men from going ahead with the power project. But, today the j United States Supreme Court ruled against him. Saying that Uncle Sam j has a perfect right to build a power project on the Red River. The opinion, written by Associate Justice Douglas, laid down a new principle which will be of importance all over the co\Jntry. "We now add," said Justice Douglas, "that the power of flood control extends to the tributaries of navigable streams." PROHIBITIO.\ The prohibition forces are on the march apain again. using the same strategy and tactics as they twenty-four years ago, tcJting advantage of war threats and conscription to put over legislation against the sale of liquor. The heads of the army and navy are not in sympathy. The H^use has already passed a bill forbidding beer liquor near military a^e^sT^hat would cover a hug©lot of ground, since we have two Jiundred and four military areas, the Senatec=xt: ir blocked by »»naUor Bob LaFollette of IMsconsin. b.-*th Secretary of Y/ar Stimson and Acting Secretary of the Ravy rorrestal are opposed to it. Stimson pointed* out to the Spnators that the revival of prohibition laws would make a tough problem for the army authorities, compel them to cope with bootleggers once again. Acting Secretary Forrestal of the Navy that instead of having the beneficial effect expected, these prohibition laws would tend to raise an adventure—seeking curiosity in the young men of the army, which would more than offset any possible benefits. St