i ^^IIOCO, WEDNESr/.Y. JANUARY 7. 19/i2. GOOr EVENING EVEBYBODY: It "Uilat inmuTOi urob-rt4yvZ-:a^TgTTi battle c;5W y»y^rarin the Philippines. The Japanese have been delivering a virtual non-stop bombardment of Corregido from the air, and on land they are pushing a savage mass attack to drive General MacArthur and his small army into the sea. ----- — Yesterday there was a breathing spell in the land fighting, but the enemy made up for it today. Ae a correspondent reports, Japan is turning on the heat trying to take Corregidor by storm and wipe out MacA-rthur’s defense positions in Batan. As the army Ct"-- communipue s-gys^ the American and Philippine troops are /I i continuiri-t a steady and violent resistance. The front lines are being continuously bombed and machine-gunned LEAD by e'.eniy aircraft- The Japanese axe increasing pressure at all points. Several Japanese planes were ---- hit by our anti-aircraft fir^ But under that continuous rain of Japanese bombs and machine-gun straffing, ettr troops are still holding out. A The interpretation of the tactics is that the Japanese are trying to soften up MacArthur’s troops in preparation for an all-out assault by infantry, preceded by parachute soldiers Tonight's communique from the War Department 7iCJ~ Ma cArthur said General iismAxticiixix reports the Japanese ^ A A mercilessly bombing defenseless towns and villages all over Luzon. jMacArthur names four towns which the Japanese razed to the ground, undefended f. towns, none of them had any military installations j whatsoever. ifaExyxiMd^Taiix)*x»»xoex3toi!i3i*:4xijix*A«oe3e x:t±xr tft to'^ms were machine-gunned in the streets LEAD - 3 enemy planes^ The Japanese, adds MacA-pthur, apparently pick on Sundays and religious holidays for their attacks^7^:nowing that on such days a large number of civilians would be going to church or on the streets. Churches were made special objects of attacks. I f ’P I iijS J I J 1 MALAYA r The news from Singapore, riot so good. The British Imperial forces there are fighting against report-5 7 t odds of five to on^\ ^ \ ^ they are putting up successful and heroic struggle. The dispatch add^ that they are exacting the \ highest possible price\for every yard gained by the \s, Japanese. In other words, the Japanese are gaining. A nd ^ 4LP^^=:ggt:teii According to obseryers in London, the British \ out the scorched earth policy. in Malaya are handicapped b}^^ their failure to carry The Japanese have advanced four hundred and twenty miles ih twenty-eighjt I days, and military experts in London consider that L phenomenal, considering the nature of the ground J over which they had to fight in Malaya. \what made it oossible was thi6 long coastline, which enabled the Japanese to make one flank landing after another. MALAYA - 2 London offers one explanation for the failure to destroy the rubber trees. It would have been impossible to scorch those rich plantations short of felling the trees one by one. They do not burn easily. Kf J 1 H n PARLIAMENT f I There’s a row pending in the British Parliament over the campaign in Malaya. London newspapers are carrying angry editorials and members of the House of Commons are getting ready to ask a lot of sharp n I and penetrating questions. The biggest one of all is: | Why didn’t the High Command at Singapore follow the •‘1 Scorched Earth policy, destroyfe^ everjwthing in the path of the invading Japanese? Why wasn’t the radio station at Penang put out of commission before the Japanese took the island? Also the big smelting works? Why did the British leave large stocks of tin, gasoline and rubber for the enemy? Also quite a number of small ships? One London newspaper used these words: "Penang is a shameful name in this war^^*^ y asked the quest ionWas it necessary that we should A provide our enemies with shipping and food? Ironically enough there are letters to the editor of several London newspapers protesting against | the Scorched Earth Policy, particularly the destruction of rubber trees, also tin mines. Most of those letters | f ■ii&i PARLIAMENT - 2 are written by stockholders in rubber plantations and tin mines I j tt BATTLESHIPS Here is thf» answer of our Navy Departmeit to the c?aims made in Tokyo that a violent naval battle, six hundred miles west of Davao, had ended in damage to another. Says the Navy spokesman, I QUOTE; "We have no information to support those Japanese propaganda claims." It was pointed'out in Washington that claims like these are frequently made for the purpose of extracting information, in the hope of inducing our Navy in contradicting such reports to give away the disposition of the fleet. So the Navy Department is not biting at the bait t the sinking of one United States battleship and severe p 5 -.; 1 . iO NAVY II Senators today learned why the Japanese were so ! successful in landing troops on Luzon, while the Philippine Array was powerless to prevent them. The infor;aLion came from Admiral Robinson, Chief of “t^he > ) (fK Bureau of Ships. He was tell ing~~t^Le^« why he needs eight hundred and forty-five millions more, A and that right away, for shipbuilding and repairs. Senator Wiley of Wisconsin aslced the Admiral why the Navy didn't concentrate on small ships instead of great big dreadnoughts. The V/isconsin Senator pointed out the recent achievements of small American patrol boats. Admiral Robinson told him why. Those little boats, he pointed out, have no offensive pov/er at all. One shot by a cv \iis eijoT a battleship^ and they d be blasted out cf the water. A navy, he explained, must be a composite thing, carefully balanced, no emphasis NAVY - 2 on any one branch. Then he said;- "Take those landings at Luzon. The Japanese transports were protected by a fleet. Otherwise, our submarines BUDGET President Roosevelt prepared us for it \ yesterday wrhen he told us we would have to spend fi^'ty-six billion dollars, more than half the nation’^s income in one year. Now today his budget reveals tkit a program that will cost us seventy-seven billiojis i for the next year and a half. Mostly for weapons and] munitions, to beat the Axis. j Here are the figures:- For the fiscal year Nineteen Forty-three, that is,* beginning July first, the total amount to be spent by Uncle Sam will be Fifty-nine billion dollars. Of this, fifty-two billions, seven-hundred-and-e ighty-six millions and » i a few hundred thousand will go for our army, our navy, i I and the lend-lease program of help to our Allies. Leaving a trifle of six billions, a hundred and forty-one odd millions for the regular job of running the Government. Of that- fifty-nine billion dollar total, the President estimates the Treasury will collect ) i BUDGET - 2 twenty-seven billions of revenue in Nineteen Forty-three. Leaving n deficit of thirty-five and a j| half ii billions. So our public debt at the end of the fiscal year Nineteen Forty-three will total a hundred and ten billions, four hundred millions. Along with this budget, the President today sent Congress his recommendations for new taxes, for raising another seven billions right away. And not including those extra taxes on payrolls and wages for Social Security which will come to another two billions. The time has come, he told Congress, for extraordinary tax measures to prevent inflation. A number of measures have been suggested for that. said he, such as income-taxes collected at the source, payroll taxes and excise taxes. Then he added: ”I urge the Congress to give all these proposals careful consideration. Any tax is better than an uncontrolled price rise,” said the President. He also advised Congress to allow the I BUDGET-^ Treasury to collect taxes monthly instead of quarterly. As for the two billions -- he expects y(X to collect by bigger Social Security taxes, that money he wants to use to increase the payments to pay old-age survivor insurance to more people, to increase disability payments and hospital payments, and to give unemployment compensation to more people. I He also went on record today as in favor Li of excise taxes, particularly as a measure for cutting down inflation. That is, tax luxuries, semi- luxiries, and even some necessities. Also, he wants to renew the tax on excessive profits of corporations. His argument was that under war conditions, the tolerate country cannot kiirxti undue profits because they X undermine unity. Also, he wants Congress to put an end to tax exempt bonds of any kind whatsoever. And we are going to spend -- seventy-seven billions in eighteen months in our all-out fight against the Nazis and the Japs. i N. A.^i. To carry out the ^President’s program we’re going to have to turn out one airplane every four II minutes, one complete airplane; and a tank will have to roll off the line every seven minutes by Nineteen IH Forty-Three. As for ships, two of them will have to slide down the ways every day. That’s one phase of the j production schedule which Mr. 'Roosevelt outlined yesterday, the National Association of Manufacturers | calculates^ c turn out next year one hundred and twenty-five | I f thousand planes, ten million tons of shipping, and [ seventy-five thousand tanks. ' The N.A.M. points out that the aircraft part of it gives us the best idea of what it all means. II To produce those hundred and twenty-five thousand 111 plarios will reQuire one hundred and forty million I N.A.'i. - 2 square feet of space. In other words, an area equal to more than a thousand city blocks or about CTK^ ^tJzrtL the size of Manhattan Island. Putting it in terms of men, an army of more than one million, three hundred and ninety-two thousand will be^employec^.^ In Nineteen Forty, there wer^l^^a^^undred and ninety-three ihousand,^^^ * \ In the matter of tan^ks, the N.A.M. figures that at present we*re producing two thousand, eight hundred month, thirty-three thousand six hundred a year of all types- X r S That's the Nineteen Forty-One id rate. The President's program calls for^forty-five J! thousand this year, seventy-five thousand next year i i m m T -1 daylight Daylifht saving for everybody, everyv/here, one Jiour. And that for the duration of the war, and six months after. T-farg> will be the law, at least A that's how it looks today. The Interstate Commerce Committee of the House has recommended a bill making it compulsorj^ to take effect twenty days after the bill is passed. The suppestion the White House A was that Congress shoald permit the President to proclaim daylight saving up tb two hours in any region of the country. That would mean using his own discretion about time in different re^gions. Aatd The ^ctrgT:staU<-.CuimWJ^M -.Cui!TOit>*>oo »f--bhe^api!rf-fr»» i.Qco-i'aon^ed- a bill to that effect^ But th^House The Committee doesn't care for it.^^Representatives are in favor of the same regulation that we used in the first World War, ^ ^ >1 AMBASSADORS New ambassadors to Russia and Turkey. President Roosevelt today asked the Senate to approve his transferpf Lawrence A. Steinhardt from Moscow to Ankara. According to the dope from Washington, this indicates that the President, after his conversations with Prime Minister Churchill, believes there is a real hope of keeping Turkey oii, of the Axis, particularly since he is giving Lend-Lease aid to the Turks. As for Russia, the President has already spoken of Major General James H. Burns of Pawling, New York, as the man to represent us in Moscow. Sounds rather extraordinary, since United States Army li officers to a man were anti-Rad until recently. But General Burns, who speaks Russian, proved his ability when he went to Moscow last Autumn with Harry Hopkins, to confer with the Soviet General Staff on Lend-Lease. There he saw for himself what the Red ambassadors - 2 Armies were doing and came home convinced the Russians were doing a great job in their war against Hitler. The feeling is that at present a military man will be far more useful as Ambassador in Moscow than a professional diplomat, and particularly Major General Burns ad 3 isi II t ii< i ; m PRISONERS Here’s a story that sounds too good to be true, almost a tall story. It comes from British press service and if it isn’t true, it ought to be. n ^il A flying boat with twenty British airmen was V WRXK shot down in the Mediterranean. They shore, landed in Libya, triikiL- held by A >< ^ the Axis. As a matter of fact, they landed near Derna_, where Un^be" Sam^s—Mgyii'iCfl landed 9f»«e -hmidred gmd» •^hiwty "f if y"'OT siie- yeare -ago^ Pretty soon they were overhauled by a patrol of Italians, twenty of them, a foot patrol. There was no fighting, since the British airmen were unarmed. But evidently an argument ensued which seems to have run something like this. Said the Italians: "You are our prisoners To that the leader of the British replied: "Nothing of the sort, you are ours." PPISOMEBS - ? The Italian leader thought the matter over, and then said: "Perhaps you a^e right, but I don’t think so. *111 The discussion that followed hinged on a of geography. The British claimed the Italians were trespassing on Brit territory. But since the | Italians were armed, the British didn't press the point but accompanied their captors to the nearest post, which «y. was at a place called Barce. There the British leader ^ had the further ga£]^ to present his argument to the J n Italian major in command. 8=^ £.ven the major said that perhaps the British were right. At any rate, he left those British airmen without a guard or escort; ^ .. ft let them get av/ay. The British airmen headed east, and encountered ii| another party of Italians, fifty of them this time. fully armed. The Italians, not noticing that the British had no v/eapons, threw up their hands and threw down PBSIOxVF.PS _ •> their arms. Then they all went on east towards the British lines. Later, they ran into another party of Italians and still more. It was all'very chatty, everything done in the friendliest possible spirit. The Italians had plenty of good red' vino in their wtiter bottles, and it must have been a right jolly party when those d/Thx, yK. British airmen walked into their own lines^with li two hundred and fifty prisoners, probably singing good old Italian operatic tunes H i