The new Premier of Jordan has called elections - to decide whether or not Jordan shall join the Baghdad Pact. Ibrahim Hashem formed a provisional pmr■~ govenunent today. The purpose - to keep the lid on - until the voters can have their say. The seventy-five year old remier declaring: "The elections will be neutral and honest. To ascertain public opinion on t6;;;;-Jor issue. " Which major issue is the question of that alliance of Turkey, Iran, Ir rq , P ' . kistan and Britain. A Comnunist barrier - the Baghdad Pact. In Damascus, capital of Syria, the word is that other Arab countries have agreed - they'll offer Jordan financial aid. To take the place of subsidies - that Britain now provides. London wants Jordan in the Baghdad Pact, and might cut otf the money, if Jordan refuses. Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia are against the pro-Western line-up, and would be willing to advance. some twenty-two million dollars. Which would enable Jordan, l in their ords, "to dispense wl.th financi:.l aid which keeps~ Jordan under British influence." ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ : ~-~~~~o> ✓ JORDAN - 2 Britain, on the other hand, is reported ready to hike the ante, increase the money for Jordan, if that country joins the Baghdad Pact. The oviets must be laughing about this mix-up - which results, largely, from the shipment of Communist weapons to Egypt. Arab countries - welcoming Red armament, as an aid in their quarrel with Israel. Today, in Jordan, things were fairly quiet. The rioting - having died down. There was an easing of police measures to keep order, and the curfew was lifted at Bethlehem. Which clears the way for pilgrims to visit the scene of the Nativity. Israel reports an agreement - whereby some sixteen hundred pilgrims will pass from Israel into Jordan, to visit Bethlehem on Friday. FOLLOW JORDAN At the United Nations, tonight, Israel was accused - by the U .N. supervisor for the Palestine truce. Charged - with "deliberate violation" of the Holy Land Ann istice Agreement. By attacking Syrian forces, with heavy loss of life, on December E levent~. Major Gen,ral E. L. M. Burns of Canada told the Security Council - that raids of this kind might bring on "full scale hostilities 11 • Israel declares that the attack along the Sea of Galilee was provoked by Syrian gunposts - which fired on Israeli fishing boats. The U. N. supervisor declares - that the Syrians did not interfere with the fishing boats. He argues, moreover, that if they did shoot at boata - this was a small reason for full scale retaliation, in which so many Syrians were killed. Tomorrow, the Security Council will consider the Syrian demand for U.N. action uaiJISS against Israel, including economic sanctions. MOSCOW Bul g anin and Khrushchev came oack to bl.ft Moscow, today, an d got - a nuge reception. In bitterly cold weather, a hundred thousand p eople welcomed them - as returning heroes. A fter a tour of southern Asia, Bulganin looked worn out. The Soviet Premier - tired and listless. But not Khrushchev. Bundled in a big tur coat, he bounced out of the plane at the airport .. full of vim, vigor and vitality. And - immediately made a speech. S ying - the people of India, Buma and Afghanistan are allies of the Soviet Union. Nor did the head of the Russian Communist Party refrain from taking another crack at the West. Concentrating - on colonialism. C lling it - "a blot on mankind." More and More Khrushchev seems to hark back to the Russian past - the big, noisy, talkative Russian of old tradition. ANTARCTIC - , ; ; , ; . _ , - . · -- Four avy planes have made the fir~t fti~ht - from New Zealand to the Antarr.tic. Landinp - on an air strip, cut in the oo}ar ice of McMurdo .' ound. A ba i:-- e - for the Antarctic e pedition, headed by Admiral Byrd. ThP fnur Navy o ane~ buckPd heavy heao-vindP - on the flipht of a th u.and mtle~. Four otherR vere forced back. They vere of .horter ran~e, and couldn't make it - a~ein~t +.he wind~. The crews were willin~ to continue - takin~ a chance on a craAh landin~. But the order w~s - to return to Chri tchurch, Jew Zealand, where the ~hort ran~e planeR will be loaded aboard an icebreaker to make the voyape by Rea. COURT-MARTIAL Today brought a verdict of gui lty - for the only west Pointer ever court-martialled for collaborating with the enemy. At Fort Lewis, Washington - Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Liles found guilty of making Red propaganda recordings, while a prisoner-of-war. Found innocent - in a whole series of other charges. The penalty - to be skippefn promotions for two years. FORD - today gave The Ford Motor Compa~~• out the first financial statement - it has ever made public. Because, for the first time - Ford stock is being put on sale on the market. Ten million, two hundred thousand shares of cormnon stock - instead _ _{tent:!;;(. • of about seven million, as•~ t ~ abnounced last month. The reason - the large public demand. The financial statement shows that, in the past ten years, the Ford Motor Company earned net profits - of one billion, five hundred and thirty-six million. This - in spite of an eight million dollar loss in Nineteen Forty-Six. Which financial misadventure of going into the red - brought about _s-~ ---~-M\.~&~ ~~ ~ ~v•..J ~~ a Company reorgrmlzation. After that - huge profits. During j\ the first nine months of :is year, for example, the earnings ~ came to a record-breaking total of more than three-hundred-and- twelve million dollars. The total of sales in this period came to more than four billion dollars• worth. Company assets - two billion, four hundred and eighty-three million. compared with twenty-eight thousand ' FORD - 2 - dollars - with which Henry Ford founded the firm in Nineteen Three. Last year, Ford did thirtY-and~two-tenths per cent of the total automobile business in this country. This year - twenty-seven and five-tenths per cent. Such are the figures for the Ford Motor Company, which until now has been - a family-owned concern. STEVENSON Tonight, the youngest son of dlai Stevenson }Me ~ in a hospital at Goshen, Indiana. Hurt - /4. in an automobile accident - ~ a broken right knee-cap and a fractured lower jaw. JOhn Stevenson, nineteen years old, is a lophomore at Harvard. In the automobile with him were three Harvard classmates. Two of whom - were killed. The other - injured, but not badly. Young Stevenson was driving up an incline of a railroad over-pass. When, at the top of the incline, two trucks appeared. One was trying to pass the other - and was in the wrong lane. Young Stevenson, trapped, trying to steer his automobile between the two trucks. But he sideswiped one, and his car was thrown head-on into the other. Tonight, dlai Stevenson was at the bedside of his injured son. hr,u>. And his estranged wife, Ellen Borden Stevenson, I\ was on her way. EISENHOWER President Eisenhower became a grandfather for the ~ ~ - I~ > a ~ / m ~ ~ - tourth time, t o d a y . / ' ~ a girl/Being the President, he's given number one position in the news - the mother, coming next. The father, M a jor John Eisenhower, hardly gets any mention at all. We are told, however, that the President's son was informed. He was at the hospital - where mother and baby are "doing very well". - LAU < CHE ------ i in the race for t. t, P f · e n a t P • I t f4 n "u n c P +, h ~ e' 11 pno e RenHhl ican enat.or BendPr. Governor Lau .... che ha already come out. a a "favouriet .· on" in the battle for the Pre!)idenc y He expre~se~ little hope or a pre ~ idential nomination, and merely wantP to hold the Ohio ~•••~•S riele~ates aA a way of exertinp. inflience at the Dem cratic Convention. His real ~oal the United States Senate . CRASH No explanation suggested - for the air disaster at Jacksonville, Florida, today. The airliner, with seventeen aboard, was making a routine instrument landing. Then crashed near the airport. All l ives lost - and the casualties would have been many more, except for slack business this pre-Christmas week. Only twelve passengers aboard the sixty-passenger airliner. MURDER!ft At · an Rafael, Cal fornia, ichRrd Rovers vas really stubborn about it. Offe in~ - to commit a murder. Price - 0 ne hundred thou.and dollarP. He wa F out to earn the blood money - and wouldn't take no for an answer. ~hat's the riddle? 0J7er., a thirty-four year oln plasterer, took it into his heed - that a nea1 could be made for the esses~ination of Erskine McNear, a member of a family prominent in c~,ifornia history for a hundred year~. He telephoned McNear's step-mother, MrA LouiRe McNear, offerin~ to commit the crime - RO that she could inherit her step~on'P fortune. The la dy wa~ aPtonirhed - to say the lea~t. But she thou~ht fa~t - and temporized with him - and then informed the heriff, who told her if the offer was re,eated - po ahead, make an apoointment. The offer wa~ *~ repeated. Ro~er . - telephoninF a~ain. Then Aeverel more teleohon callR - followed by a meetinJI to a c]o.e the tan.action. ~ - 2 m._JCA)(JOOC . ,tbecta.&u~ In the interview, Rogers talked up his proposition, like a high pressure salesman - chat murder proposition.~ ' :,A--vt- A.Q? -In an adjoining room~ two police officers A with a tape recorder. When they had the conversation on tape for evidence, they stepped in and made the arrest. Today, the would-be assassin~for-hire gave an ~'AM explanation: "I was tired of being poor," he said. ~ , A ~ he'll contime being poor, A ~ ~ ~~'_,QQ~~~~~~ ~ s~ ~ ~ -' RAG PICKER Here's a story of an aged rag picker, who preferred to die - rather than reveal his secret. A secret - of wealth. At Wichita, Kansas, Jim Ross, seventy-nine years old, went around picking rags, m living in misery and squalor - as a semi-recluse, in an old un-heated garage. The place - craaaed with rub 1sh . T he trash - he picked up day after day. But the word got around - that he had wealth, hidden treasure. hich some criminal decided - he'd get. At the point ' or a gun, he tried to force Jim Ross ~o reveal his secret. But the aged recluse preferred anyth1ng - rather than disclose where the money was hidden. ' ~ J He was shot,and killed. But t n ~ ~ never learned the secret. I Today, the police report - the result of a search. Under heaps of trash, a mountain of old clothes, rags and Junk, they found three trunks. Filled - with money. Coins - and small bills. one_ containing coins in glass Jars, six In the other two trunks - other thousand dollars' worth. RAG PICKER - 2 thousands of dollars. Including - nearly ninety-five hundred one-dollar bills. A small fortune accumulated by the seventy-nine year old miser, in long years of rag picking. ARMY - The rmy ha fou d t n ou - what he G,l' like, and don't 1 ike, t. meal time A d • . urvey w ~F ma e, with uertionariP r , amon~ more tban forty-five r oldierR; and here'. t.he VPrciict. The thin~ they ike mo P t - are (youve ~ueF ed it) ~teak nd chicken: a . o roa~t beef and hot 11■ biFc1nts. Which iA - about what you'd exoect. ind a lot of us would concur. Althou~h I would add sweet potatoe ~ and ice cream! But what d the G,I'~ hate the mo r t? That'F al. o ju. t about that you'd expect - s~ue,h, turnips, rutabapa an~ parsnips. Th ~~ e ve~etableR - which are enethP~a to ~o meny mall boys. td y~u ever hear of a youn_g. t,pr cryinp- becauPe he ~idn't vet enouph rutaba,:taF? f. outhernP.r G.1 1 P howPver F for blacl-eyed peas a nd turnip prPen , . Which are held in utter contempt - by ther G.I•~. You'd think Foldier from New En~land would rave about - thoAe ~ood old NP.w Enrland boiled dinnerA? But not at all. They are en hu~ed about a9p}epie for breakfast; and Boston baked bean, any time. That famouA boiled dinner? - Nix! the Amonp- the bevaraFes, w ich would you think i•I\ ARMY - '2 --- least popular? An wer - iced coffee. They like their java hot~ A favourite bevera~e, a~ tevealed by the que tionaire, is - milk. At one Army post, for example the G.I'. drink an avera~e of a quart-and-a-half of milk e day. The Army i careful to state, Quote: "We didnt check on beer". Henry there iR no tellin~ what the figures vould have been if they'd put. that on the list. - 0 - HENRY: Love11 1 my .u~~e~tion to the G,I•~ would be: "Boys, stick to the milk!"