AFRICA Tr. e British are increasingly inclined to believe that the German Afrika Korps may try to retire ta into Tunisia. Roume^s battered legions are being hotly pursued by General lontgomery's And their flight is so precipitec# that Eighth Array. it doesn’t look as if they intend to stop at any defense line for a long distance. They may even abandon their number one port, Tripoli -- and join up with the Axis outfit that is defending the northern tip of Tunisia. 1 * How they <srs-3P ever get there is not A A clear. They might attempt to crash through the American-Brit ish line in that province. *±i Or they might go to Tripoli and maKe an attempt to get to the tip of Tunisia by sea. London hears that Rommel is no longer with his deieated army. Tere w^re reports that he n do ft e^d—Lh e a— a ib .? ag ^ — f4p w to Tunisia to command tne Nazis in battle there. Today’s war reports picture a continued lull AFRICA - 2 in the oattle ior the tip -- with the Americans and British mustering their forces for a new drive. The field of activity is the sky, with American air forces making against Axis communications. The’port of Sfax was bombed violently today. General Jimmy Doolittle^ pilots report thazi fighter planes are trying out, new tactics. A formation of -lesserehmitts will pretend to attack, putting on a show to divert American attention Then a single fighter, hoping to be unnoticed, will make the real attack. £nd American fliers report that the uesserschmitts have been painted a olue-green to match the color of the Mediterranean. This makes them hard to see against a background ol )lue uater. P^LIFF From Washington ?Te have a statement that relief v*ork in the countries occupied by the United Nations v’ill he I d to shorten the war and bring a just peace. This was stated by the Director in charge of Foreign Belief Work - former Governor Lehman of New York. Today he held his first news conference in his new position, and advocated active and vigorous attempts to rehabilitate the countries that come under the United Nation's control. He said these countries are prostrate - desperately short of food r.nd raw materialfre-verR-er -Internal!~e-taired-t+mt-her~a-e- B-tr-e-eirei- —oi'— FepedTTt—Relva&i-ldrtei-iefl—end —E-elief-* expect® te-v-Twt r-tde-ec c tKr i e d rlaeea -rh ei?e-tiie-we-rit~i« - to -be- drme-r- He was asked whether rehabilitation and relief would be extended to the Axis peoples, when they are defeated, and he replied that this point had not yet been discussed. CHURCHILL British Prime Minister Winston Churchill today disclosed the tank force that Britain had to oppose a Nazi invasion a'"ter Dunkirk. If the Germans, when the British were groggy from defeat in France, had staged a landing, they would have been opposed by fewer than one hundred tanks. That was all the arm$Kl the British had left after their loss of so much eouipment at Dunkirk. And Churchill stated that the one hundred tanks were of a type that had Tailed in France. During the blitzkrieg the-e, they had proved to.be too weak to stand up against German anti-tank All of which is factual support of the view that the Nazis made a big mistake when they fai-ied to A strike straight at England after Dunkirk. • NEVLGUINEA Fierce lighting is reported in New Guinea, and once again the name of the key point is -- Buna. N0t the village of Buna -- that place has been captured by Gpneral ulacArthur ’ s troops. A nearby point called -- Buna iission, a former missionary station. The Japs have turned it into a stronghold. And, after the loss of the village, they are makin. a last stand at the mission. They seem to be in a desperate position, virtually surrounded -- anaa new attempt to get reinforcements to them by sea has been beaten ofi by Allied air attack. SOLOMONS In the Solomon Islands, American air power based at iienderson Field on Guadalcanal is striking continuously at the Jap air base at iviunda- is on the island of New Georgia, ggd—tse a hundred and fifty miles northwest of Guadalcana’ situated as to be a decided nuisance to our forces. The Jans are building airnort facilities there, and dt w these our werolanes are striking. modayTs Navy A bulletin tells of a series of attacks against Munda - assaults by flyine :fortresses, dive bombers and fighting A planes. There is little or no ground activity on Guadalcanal - the key point of battle no;v being the air base which the Japs are trying to set up at Munda TRANSPOET In 'raFhinfton, a naval board of inquiry is investigatin' the sinkinp of the liner PRESIDENT COOLIDGE in the Pacific. The ship as an Army transoort had four thousand troops aboard,-^only five lives v/ere lost in the sinking. The PRESIDENT COOLIDGE struck a mine in the Solomons area, and today Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox was asked - "Was it an American mine?" A newspaperman suggested that the small loss of life indicated that the ship was close to shore or in port, and therefore the mine it hit might have been Araeiic^n. To this the Secretary responded: "It JtiL8 VGry reasonable implication that the ship was close to shore . " Dn+ the conclusion thrt the minsxxwKr&xsix cKds 1 UL' nT iptf struck an American mine might not PRESIDENT COOLIDGE s.ra THAN£POPT _ o Secrf-1&ry pointed out that a Japanese could sow mines in the same waters where American mines were placed. "Eventually," he continued, "we will get the full story of whose fault it was - but there is a question of possible fault." At Stockton, California, an outright statement was made by a director of the American President Lines, which owned the COOLIDGE. Director Hugh Jackson stated that the liner sank after it hit two American mines. The stor; , as he told it, was that the COOLIDGE reached the entrance of harbor, and the captain stopped A the shi andjasked - Was the harbor all right} He was assured that there was nothing to worry about. What thereupon happened was stated by the director m these words: "The ship ploughed into the harbor - and struck two American mines." MMX President Roosevelt today pave an answer to arguments that wp arp planning too big an army. The schedule calls for an army of seven and a half million by the end of Nineteen Forty-Three. Add to this the figures for the Navy and Marine Corps, and f the total expected size of the armed forces comes to . about ten million men - that many to be in service by the end of Nineteen Forty-Three. Some have been saying that this is too much, Xt would be impossible to equip so manv men# - ^Xh e ten million in service wou.id hc-rm domestic economy and cause the slackening of armament production. ttot enough men left for the war industries. _ j! Today at the White House ndws confei’ence, President Roosevelt was asked about this. He was reminded of a statement made recently by former French Minister of Aviation, who gave testimony before 1 afmy - ? a Senate Committee. This former French Minister said the fall of France was partly because the French army was too bi^. They put so many men in uniform, that French armament production was handicapped. They couldn’t turn out enough equipment for the soldiers who had been taken away from the factories. The President replied that he found this statement most amazing as an explanation of the fall of France. He said it v/as equally amazinj- tno.i some oeoole in Congress had applied the moral to this country . He said that an army of seven and a half million by the end of Nineteen Forty-Three could^be oroperly equipped, and he denied rumors that the 1 seven and -a-ha If- million-planasd would be reconsidered • would probably be reduced. Reports to that effect have been going around in Washington recently, and are now denied by the ' • "- - BBIBLBY At Los Anreles, an Army sergeant is on trial, charged with conducting a school of draft evasion. The Sarg is accused of having ^iven instructions on how to keep out of the Army. How? The top kick taught his pupils to simulate chronic alcoholism. He showed them how to act like such incurable drunks that the draft boards would turn them down. One witness testified tooay that he oaid the Sargeant fifty dollars and received detailed was rejected. instructions on n how to simulate a perpetual jep.^fe Another witness said he paid a hundred dollars, and presuma hlv pot twice the amount of He didn't learn his lessons but the draft board Still another was coached by the sargeant, and BEIIIIX - 2 oJU* he lea rned nlenty 1 C. - which did him A- no f ood. He test ified today that he lost his nerve when he faced the draft bos and d id*" 1ni)t dare to play his gin and v/hiskey part. Hefs in the Army. having c it ts- It looks ?s if the instructive sargeant, onducted a school of draft evasion, trrc#-better A ^ class in jail evasion. CONGRESS Today the Seventy-Seventh Conpress of the United, States voted its own end - finished! poing out of. A existence. The Senate first, and then the House of Representctives, decided to adjourn tomorrow - sine dif-ae. That being Latin for no day, no day for going into session again. So the Seventy-Seventh Congress dies and gives way to the Seventy-Eighth - which will A convene on January Sixth. The retiring Congress has been one of the most historic since the foundation oi the Republic. It voted declarations of war. It appropriated some two hundred million dollars for war - and imposed tne highest taxes that we have ever had. The Seventy-Seventh Congress was in session for almost two years Because of the war peril and then the war, the legislators stayed continuously on the job - foregoing the usual vacations. There was CONGBFSS 2 only one adjournmeni - and that a matter of only two da> s . The Seventy-Eighth Congress, convening on January Sixth, will receive the President’s regular messare the next day. On January Seventh, President Roosevelt will apoear before Congress and present the customary report on the state of the nation. 0VEP.TIJF_FOLLO:_CONGRESS Before poinr out of existence, Congress passed a bill to increase the earnings of federal employees. The measure grants to government workers either of 4 wo alternatives - time 'and a half for overtime in excess of forty hours a week, or a flat ten per cent oay increase. The boost is not quite as simple as that - o certain oialifications that require a bit of figuring are involved. And, moreover, the thing is only temporary - not regarded as a permanent solution of the nay of a million and a half federal employees. The Senate okayed the bill unanimously, the House acted Portly afterward, the White House for the signa and the bill went to ture of the President. CRASH Today's airline crash in Utah presents this tragic record -- of nineteen persons aboard the big transport, only two survived. This was ascertained when a Civil Air Patrol pilot found -th wreck on a Utah mud flat and landed near it. He two persons alive, made them as comfortable as he A tz I i f could- flew back to summon help. The plane was A on its way from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles. It made a report to an air station at Fairlield, Utah then crashed a few minutes later. A wo.nun checking- station—operator at Fairfield says that when the plane reported^its motors as heard by radioydid not sound right. "The motors sounded heavy," sayd she. BOLIVIA In the South American Republic of Bolivia, martial lav was proclaimed today in five districts. These areas are of key imoortan^^- tin mining areas. And Bolivia is one ofjthe ^ew countries that produce tin in large quantities. Labor disturbances have broken out among the miners, and the blame is placed on what are being called - "extremists. " These extremists are believed to be inspired by Nazi agents - the lazi plan being to hamper the production of Bolivian tin. Typical of the trouble is a strike at the Catavi mines, one of the greatest of tin producers. Yesterday the miners walked out in protest against a system of Company stores, and they demanded a wage increase - a pay of one hundred per cent, famine operations .ere tied up. A sort of thing, said to be Nazi This ixxtRx BOLIVIA^- ? insDired, caused the Bolivian President^ Panaranda, to declare a nationwide state of sie^e yesterday - this followed by a declaration of martial law in the tin mininr districts today. BUBGL£!S At L qs Angeles, a forty-nine year old father began a priron sentence today - because he accompanied his seventeen year old son on burglaries. The youthful son specialized in robbing post offices, and the dutiful father went along. Dutiful is right. The father said today: "I knew my son was goinr around with bee company end would.get into trouble so I accompanied him.” Y'hich was a nice turn of fatherly devotion - he wanted to keep the boy from burglarizing in be.d comoany. ^