GOOD EVENING EVERYBDOY:- In the Philippines Mac Arthur's men have just been through the most savage battle yetin that last ditch fight. --------- ^ In the latest encounter, theAmericans and Filipinos h£|d to withstand th an attack by two Japanese divisicns under the command of Lieutenant- General Nara. They were well planned and coordinated assaults, timed to take place simuitaneousljrr. At several points iilong the west coast line, big groups of Japanese fighters, known as Tatori, came at MacArthur's forfces like the fingers of a clawing hand. Aerial maps founds in the possession of prisoners showed how carefully planned was their attack. Savage fighting ensued in the underbrush, says the war communique, and then adds, "hot our men supportedby our infantry and mortar fire, forced the enemies back to the coast.” Those who attempted to escape hy sea were drowned; the others killed or captured. \ixn VWc - On the east coast of Batan, the Sixty-Fifth |b Division of the Japanese tried a frontal attack, while part of it attempted to surround MacArthur in the Pilar section. The frontal attack was made by the Hundred and Forty-Second Japanese infantry. The attempted envelopment was made by two Japanese infantry regimentsGeneral MacAjthur’s artillery stored the frontal attack riwrptr before it got well under way, and the attempt to encircle MacAjithur was driven back with heavy losses, MacArthur used these words: "All enemy fBXsx thrusts on the west coast have now been completely mastered. Tnc enemy troops employed in this desperate venture, where of the best. They wdre shock troops especially trained and selected.” And he adds the encouraging sentence: "They have now been entirely destroyed." Some previous reports from MacArthur have dealt with the savagery and cruelty of the Japanese. This one deals with their bravery, for he says:- ”They resisted with a courage which is characteristic of Japanese troops, but in the end were glad to surrender." And he concludes:- "They are being treated with the respectw cons ideraj^:^ which their gallantry so well merits." MALAYA - American flyers to the rescue of Singapore,* That*s the most spectacular story we have from that most crucial of battlefronts, where the outcome will have a meaning of tremendous import for all of us. Yes, the arrival of our flying fortresses in the life and death struggle against the Japanese in Malaya is of some encouragement. At the same time, the War Department communique tells us that they were only small formations. However, even small formations of those heavy American bombers can do much. They raided the Japanese airdromes at Kuala Lumpur and Kuanton in Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, the capital of the Federated Malay States. was on its way to raid Japanese vessels in the harbor Another formation of four flying fortresses * of Balik Papan, on the island of Borneo. They ran into a big formation of Japanese fighter planes, v\li ich flew up to intercept them. One of Uncle Sam's big MALAYA - 2 bombers was lost, but the American fliers shot down nine of the enemy. It was at Balik Papan that the flying fortresses had a field day last Thursday, sinking one Jap transport and setting fire to another. Part of the Japanese invasion fleet took refuge in the harbor of Balik Papan, during that memorable battle of Macassar Strait last week, when the Americans and Dutch between them sank or crippled at least thirty-two ships of the Japanese. FOLLOW MALAYA With the siege of Singapore in the headlines, world attention is focused on a narrow strip of water the Strait of Johore, which separates^island from the mainland. I*ve crossed it t,ime and again during many months of residence in Malaya -- crossed it via i that famous causeway, which the British have now blasted with high explosive. I remember the causeway as a broad and commodious strip of road -- wide enough for a first class motor highway, and also a railroad. Today, I wanted'some more precise information | about the Strait of Johore. So 1 called up Carveth Wells, explorer, author and lecturer, who spent much of his esrly life in Malaya. ■How familiar are you with the Strait of Johore?, I asked him. To which he responded, "Why, I worked on the job of surveying the causeway that they*ve just blown up.” And to this he added a strange remark. ■! wonder what the tigers will do now." FOLLOW MALAY A- 2 "Tigers?" I asked "Yes," he replied, and went on to tell me that one of the odd things about the Singapore causeway was a tiger or two ambling across now and then. The normal way for the monster cats to travel to the island from the jungles on the mainland was to swim the Strait. Occasionally, however, Master Stripes would take the easier way. And then the passing motorist would see a big Malayan tiger trotting down the road. So, with the causeway blown up and the Strait of Johore blasting with modern war, what will the poor tigers do now? I asked Carveth V/ells what the country in general is like along the Strait. I remembered the town of Johore Bahru, the residence of the Sultan, just across from Singapore -- place with its A A royal palace. But what about the rest of the country along the twenty-five miles of narrow water? Carveth reminded me that it was mostly mangrove swamp -- jungly. FOLLOW MALAYA - 3 the dark and gloomy tangle of the Equatorial forest. Solionight the enemy, facing the Empire defenders across the Strait of Johore, is in a maze >1 of jungle and mangrove swamp -- with a few lines of I motor road and railroad leading|to the shattered and broken causeway. Such is the terrain for the war news in the siege of Singapore Carveth V/ells, by*^ the way, told me he didn’t believe the Japs would ever capture the powerful stronghold on the island, 0 i INDIES In the Indies, the Dutch are putting up a desperate fight against the Japanese invaders in West Borneo. The latest thrust of the Iiikado*s Army in that regie was reported to have taken the port of Pontianak, the most important point on the western shore of Borneo. It means that the Japs are driving with redoubled ferocity toward the rich islands of Sumatra and Java. If they have or if they get Pontianak, they will be only two hundred miles from the island of Bilatan, an island rich in precious tin. The story from Batavia tells us that the natives everywhere are helping the Dutch for all fehey*re worth. The Dyaks of Borneo are fighters of legendary courage and prowess, Guerrilla fighting is their middle name, as the British and Dutch learned to their cost in years past. But decent government, ^ood treatment, has changea those DyaKs into frineds, and still sbutcfeIlows. r bus : ja In Burma the Japanese prepared an invasion fleet on the Salween River, a fleet of barges to ferry troops for an assault on the west bank of the river, to open up a bridgehead for a march on Rangoon. But in this theBritish forestalled them. S.A.F. bombers roared across the river and blew the everlasting daylight out of those barges, which were packed full of Japninfantry. The R.A.F. Blenheim not only bombed the barges, but flew low and riddled them «ith machine gun bullets. The Japanese had no anti-aircraft on the spot, so tried to drive the British off with their own machine gun fire, which the Blenheims quickly silenced. Late accounts of the evacuation of Moulmain show that it must have been quite a dramatic affair. A rear guard held the place wiiile the main body of the British troops crossed the mighty Salween, one of the mighty rivers of the world -- and one of the least known. It must have been a fierce battle with the British rear guard heavily outnumbered. But they held BURMA - 2 the Japs off until the main body of the army got across the turbulent Salween, with the Japanese firing everything they had at them. A CHINESE The Chinese had another successful day in the Canton area, where they are dangerously close to Hong Kong, dangerously that is, from a Japanese point of view. SBk'>~UA/6-. Yesterday they captured a place called /A only forty-five miles north of Hong Kong and forty-five miles east of Canton. Today, Chiang Kai-shek's troops captured a place called Poklo, two hundred miles further east;the southern part of the Province of Kwantung. Thus General Chiang is in a position to encircle the Japanese. TheChinese claim that their enemies had heavy casualties. This is timely, as President Roosevelt today wrote a letter to Speaker Sam Rayburn of the House,'and asked Congress to let him lend the Chinese half a billion dollars. There is urgent need, said Mr. Roosevelt, for the immediate extent ion to China CHINESE - 2 of economic and financial assistance, larger and different from the help that Congress has already authorized. So he asked Congress to pass a joint resolution enabling him to lend the five hundred millions to Chiang's government. 7 LIBYA In the Libyan desert, the spearheads of General Rommel's panzer divisions have swept ahead still further towards the Egyptian frontier. Already they a hundred miles beyond Benghazi, and rn myiiiu— only sixty miles west of Derna. This news comes from Cairo, so it's no mere Axis propaganda. The British admit tiigry 'hgyg the Fourtl^Biv is ion of Indian troops is falling back before an at-t«r^^f Germans and Italians^ A ! RUSSIA In Russia, the Red Araiies are sti.l forging ahead, still pushing the Nazis back. Apparently, soaie spectacular news is in the making along that seesaw front from theBlacK Sea to Leningrad. The Soviet spokesmen are hinting that they are waiting for certain movements of their troops to be completed before telling us all about it in a comprehensive report that will show large gains in the Ukraine. Hence they don’t give us many specific details today Just enough is coming out of Russia to indicate that the armies of !«iarshal Timoshenko in the south are moving on a wide front, and that Stalin hopes to reach the Dnieper River before Spring and establish that as a line of defense. NAVY That we are fighting a tv^o-ocean *ar with a one-ocean navy is today's word from Navy Secretary Knox. He told this to a Senate Committee. Our naval situation is both the Pacific and theAtlantic is critical, said Secretary Knox. It is largely a problem he explained, of holing and doing the best we can with what we have, and putting every ounce of effort into building more naval strength as fast as we can. Then the Secretary of the Navy went on to tell the Senators that the first and most critically important thing is the maintenance of communications between is the United States, Great Britain and Russia across the north Atlantic. That effort, he said, is absorb i:*g a large number of our smaller vessels and engaging the attention of a considerable part of our naval forces. The situ ation in the Far East, he added, is particularly crucial because of the distances. Everything, he pointed out, has to be transported seven thousand miles across an ocean infested with the enemy. Everything going across has to be protected. JAP FISIIFBMEN The government at last has taken into custody some of the Japanese fishermen on the West coast. For years the activity® of the great Jap fishing fleet off our Pacific shore been a matter of general gossip. It has been declared, and never contradicted, that those fishing smacks were manned partly by Japanese naval officers. It*s a fact, which nobody has denied, that everyone of those fisherman was a potential spy. Nearly all those fishing vessels are equipped with a powerful two-way radio. Early this morning, the F.B.I. took action at one point, Los Angeles. They raided Terminal Island in the middle of Los Angeles harbor, and took in some five hundred Japanese. There was a total of two thousand two hundred Japs on that island. The men ebhsxs arrested are all aliens. BOBBER The American Automobile Association wants Congress to do something to stop the great volume of malefactions now threatening to sweep the country as a rise of the rubber shortage. Thomas P. Henry, President of the A.A.A., made the statement that not only the bootlegging of tires but thefts sfx^rixs and price gouging are becoming rampant everywhere. He said so in a letter to Senator Truman, Chairman of the special committee investigating defense. The head of the A.A.A. declares that if this kind of thing is not controlled, it will surely lead to black markets on a large scale. PAYPOLL SAVINGS The Treasury Dep?rtment wants us to kmr that the voluntary payroll savings plan is going great guns. No wonder - because it’s one of the finest ways to save money and get a good rate of interest. Hundreds of thousands of employees are putting a certain percentage of their earnings into the plan." It’s exceedingly simple. All you have to do is sign a card authorizing your employer to do it, and he takes out of your wares each pay-day the percentage you feel ^spare. That money is applied to the purchase of defense bonds, and as the weeks go by you accumulate government securities. It means fighting money for r Uncle Sam, and the best investment in the world for yourselves . DAYLIGHT Pre s ident->Roos e ve It has been receiving suggestions from the citizenry for new names to apply to Daylight Saving Time. Some people, it seems, are going to resent it when the clocks are pushed ahead next Sunday. So the idea is that if you call it something else, people won*t feel so mad about it. Fred 9. Clark of New York telegraphed thejffhite House suggesting a oresidential order that it be officially called "victory Time." But Mr. Roosevelt himself has another idea. He thinks "war time" would be more appropriate. But he doesn’t make it an order, just a suggestion: Eastern Warjtime, Central War Mountain Warjtime, Pacific Waijtime. time,