L.T. - su::oco. vsdnsc D ay . novi :-.^ er 12. mi. 1 GOOD EVHNING ETiTP.YBODY: Hi An old but alvfays picturesque ceremony was enacted in j the British Parliament today. It was the opening of a new session T with all the ancient rites d^cribed by the custom and tradition of the Mother of Parliaments, conducted by King George himself, with K Queen Elizabeth at his side^^ On either side of them were the hereditary, Earl Ifershal, the Duke of Norfolk, and the Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Lancaster, both in khakl^ ^ The King today did not have the orb and sceptre in his hands nor the crown on his head. He made the customary speech from the throne dressed in the uniform of an admiral of the fleet. Speaking about the session which just ended, the King declared that it was memorable because relations between Britain and the United States never have been closer than they are now. War aid from Ar^i^ffe^een sent over on a scale unexampled in historyV;^e^the growing intimacy of the t«o countries strikingly illustrated by the meeting between Prime Minister T4. -i-vip Kin? Dut it, ^on the seas Churchill and PresidentBoosevelt, ^ ^ ^ closest fraternity.” and oceans commanded by our c -I* - • fT-e chart that chej agreed upon will coani 13 a c^acoE. liahiat:ry ractaoma r'Scolutlon ami unsaLfish ling lecrga 3 aid somethiiLg we aeTer eucected to hear froci rhe British tmrone, 'vs^ words: *^1 heartllj welcome as an allj Che great Initn of SoTiet Socialist republics-'^ ^d he added: ’^he heroic resistance oi the arnies si the Soviet Unicn ww has won 117 ieepest aiaiiration-Be sail further: ’’in cooperation with the Inited Spates :f Anerica, 217 Bnpire is affording the Soviet Shion all ocssible assistance against the coaunon foe-^ The British people were further cueered by ssine encenraging infirnation from the Brine Minister, who spohe to the Coamens after the Bing’s opening speech. In tne four aenths ending with Cctober, sail Churchill, sx the British lost thousand ttns of shipping. seTan anncrec aTerage tt on-j ' LEAD _ 3 he added, has been accomplished in spite of the fact that there never have been more U-boats or long range aircraft than are working now. He declined to give exact figures on new shipbuilding, but he said that the United States are .budl^in^^erchant ships on a scale many times that of what the British could do. And he said: ’^If we are able to get through this year, we shall certainly find ourselves in a good supply of ships in IIj,neteen Forty-two, ?he freedom loving powers possessed of large quantities of vessels in N|^neteenForty-three, which will enable operations to take place that are utterly beyond British resoiirces at the present time.” October, almost one million tons of enemy shipping have been destroyed, principally in the Mediterranean. Thsn he revealed an interesting fact hitherto secret A It concerned something learned from remarks made by Rudolf Hess, the Number Two Nazi who flew to Britain. Churchill said: *’In various remarks Deputy Fuehrer Hess has let ^ fall. nothing has been more clear than that Hitler relied upon a i{, Churchill reported that in the same four months, ending ^ I •d LEAD - 4 stsrvcitioii attack ©van inor© th.an an invasion to bring us toa our knees. The people in Britain now have a supply of food stocks A double what they had in Nineteen Thirty-Nine.” As for the Suez Canal, he reminded the people that Hitler promised to take it by last May, and at present the chances are that his promise v/ill remain unfulfilled by Christmas. He announced that he was not going to make any changes in his Cabinet, and 04 added: ”I do not consider it necessary to alter angy-k-gwwtixaiarwtx in any fundamental manner the system the or conduct of the war.” At the same time he urged people not to go in for too much wishful thinking, sa^dt-he did not desire to encourage either complacency or despondency in regard to the eastern front. I f?- 1 I liu. 11 I^Li n ■w I C—- r WAR On that eastern front, the military ■iiiwp*..i in London report A that Hit ler^s offensive seems to have bogged down. ------------------- 7U- Some of the observers make a good deal of capital out of tlie fact that the Nazi spokesmen in Berlin talk principally ^out the fighting in / the Crimea. They say the Gerians have battered a path clear through / / the peninsula all the way to the Stra)j1:s of Kerch,'at its extreme eastern end. In fact, the Nazi hi^ command claims to have crossed tne Straits of Kerch. But they ^mlt that the Red defenders are established in a strong positipfti on the other side of the Straits The territory there is a smaiyi peninsula protected iby waterways and f?- . connected by a narrow isthiciids A / TlfmciiXMrMnc Thus even the conquest of the Straits leaves the Germans with a / tough job ahead of them,' / acknowledge they. -no^et taken Savastopal, although they are at the water ^s edge on mos’^—of the otheiL, shores the CrlTflg^." It is noted that the Nazis aren»t talking much about the 0 rest of the eastern front. Their acknowledgement that the last hundred milometers are the hardest is taken to mean that Hitler is / setting nis people reedy for the bed news that he cen't heep bis j rroiiise of Eoooow tnis winter^ |h€^. lir tftpr - ;; eJBeSJOU ej>ee<Mi^wier 3>ne feet Ir definite. T-^-ree weens ego, Hltler^s 3 Dnncun l c ue r:-0B. iifes-iqu&rtsrs Enr-Tiniei tb^t bit t.iTa:::c% gi^rb wts iri'.blc tii-.T bllone-ert -f Todsy tne Jtzlt ■<^r>-. tpef^la? of E ac&lrEi. ini ii t^^eiEs •-•^ ^ thet tiife drive on K oloow h£.£ be-en £Oop;>ed exerywhere eneepi in one sector, thst is ero^ond f-_lE, E-o:7=t E imnirE-: dlometert is toutb- T-rfrE, tnt SErnr^nt .e E'.^sor tf^er Eiotnsr, 'rrai taey tdidi iiai iOi-e Ere «.E'jncnm.r “i^e of tnen hs-s ne-ie eny neaewix- I « % i 1 j fflJUTZIGER The crash of an airplane In Southerh France killed one of the principal members of Marshal Petain»s cabinet. General Charles Huntzlger, Minister of War, and seven other people perished^hoiv-lMaPf burned to death. Huntziger had been making a tour of inspection of the Fpeiich Military establishment in North Africa. Setrsms flying back to make a report to Marshal PetajnTtook n off from Algiers, flew across the Mediterranean in spite of bad weather, then crashed on the western slopes of the Black Mountains. I Huntziger, you may remember, was one of the delegates who had the tragic duty of signing the Armistice imposed on the French by Hitler, signing it in the same car in which twenty—two years earlier the Germans had surrendered to the Allies. « NEUTRALITY The fight in the House over neutrality began with a gain for the opposition. It quite a surprise for the leaders of the forces tha% support the President. Two big time Southern Democrats ran out on the Administration and did it in a fashion as to make ^ 7 ^ spectacular. One of Representative Richards of South Carolina, third ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Hitherto, iw has backed staunchly all of President Roosevelt’s foreign policies. Hm announced that he ini « against the bill as passed by the. Senators, because "if the House adopts it too, we will be totally engulfed in the boiling caldron of war.” Thereupon, the isolationists made a surprise move Congressman Ham Fish, their leader, announced that one-half of the speaking time allotted to the opposition would be under control of Congressman Richards. The other .Southern Democrat who walked out on the Administration was Howard Smith of Virginia, up to now also a strong supporter of the President. SaidJia^ have reached the parting of the wstys and can support no further steps towards war." .tnrt-^ha- .t-rL g -t-rtPitT. "tfe are ill equipped and ill prepared." A imJTRALITY - 2 /O /V Smith said further that he would return to the New Deal fold as soon as the President takes a firm stand on the labor is sue "We cannot solve the troubles of the whdle i world until we are able to govern ourselves.” Correspondents noticed that before the debate began, the isolationists were extremely busy all over the capital, holding conferences and planning their strategy. Republicanpongressman Murray of Wisconsin offered a prophecy that no fewer than seventy-three other Democrats besides Richards and Smith would | bolt, and that would give the opposition more than enough to 3 defeat the bill. Speaker Sam Baybum, however, assures us that the Administration has a substantial majority which can^t be shaken J bioff A few months ago William Bioff was a name of terror for everybody in show business on the^Pacific Coast. He had the entire motion picture industry intimidated, from the assistant property man a. on the set to the mogul in his mahogany office. Today he i^convicttiA^ sentenced to ten years in prison and fined twenty thousand dollars. His confederate, George E. Browne, nominally his boss as President of the Stage Hands, got off more easily, only eight years, « A twenty thousand dollar fine. The United States Attorney in his address to the court, pointed out that Browne was the weaker character of the two, although he had higher rank in the Union. VTrien Federal Judge Knox imposed the sentence, he used these words: "Great as is my sympathy for the avowed object of labor, I have never been able to see why labor leaders shoiild be entitled to any special dispensation of mercy. These men have violated the laws of the United States and also betrayed a sacred trust. The d.fend^:^2^ared^ themselves to be dishonest /A j Tbev have disgraced and dishonored in heart, in mind and in action, ih y n -L. it a blow which will leave scar the cause of union labor, dealt it a diow ^ for years to come.” LABOR There*s much ado about labor in the capital tonight, and no surprise to anyone. When that late bulletin came over the wire Monday night, announcing that the National Defense Mediation Board had decided against the open shop in the Captive Coal Mine, it was obvious that a row was imminent. ' Government torrigirt is faced with the beginning of an almost total walkout of C.I.O. leaders from Goveinment boards. on top of the withdrawal of Murray and Kennedy from the Mediation Board, comes the resignation of John a C.I.O. leader in Ohio, from his Job as Labor Relations Consultant of the Office of Production Management. M n i r that the President has /A /f received the resignation of two other C.I.O. men from the Mediation Board. J o JLL It is that this has caused no little concern at the >/ White House. This doesn't come from the President himself, who has a cold and wasn't saying anything. But Secretary W'illiam Hassett told the correspondents that this apparent split with the C.I.O. wa«uv*ry much on the President's mind. Hassett also protested that it was immature, as he called it, to describe the situation I LABOR . 2 as a row between Mr. Roosevelt and John Lewis. If there is any quarrel, saia Hassett, it is between the United Mine Workers and the united States Government. One thing seems pretty sure: If Lewis calls a strike in the Captive Coal Mines, the A^my will take over. Officers of Uncle Sam have been in Pittsburgh gathering plans and blueprints of all the mines. And 14-1 b ggpo-ptod~the minute the strike is called, the Government will seize all the reserves of coal at tlii^ mines and also at the steel mills. This coal will be rationed among the steel companies. Later in the afternoon, there was a real surprise, an expression of sympathy with the C.I.O. from the ranks of the American Federation of Labor. George Meany, Secretary-Treasurer of the A.F. of L. declared publicly that he absolutely disagrees with the National Mediation Board»s ruling against a closed shop in the Captive Coal Mines. It so happens that Meany himself is a member of that Mediation Board, but during most of the hearings on that coal business an alternate sat for him. i( 1 y IiA£OR ” 3 Meany added, however, that as the ruling of the Board was a majority decision, he thought that in the interest# of national defense, all parties to the controversy should abide by it. And here*s a still later development. President Roosevelt takes a hand. He has asked the heads of the United Mine TS'orkers and the steel companies to come to the White House Friday morning and talk with him personally. From one labor dispute there’s good news - peace. The striking building trades workers on projects for the United States Kavy at San Diego went back to work at noon today. RAILhOADS t Every day it becomes more evident that the unions mean businessJ^theytu strike if they don't get their terms. - Here's a bulletin from Chicago^thatthe big five brotherhoods are perfecting their plans for a bi* walkout. They have divided the railroads of A the country into three groups. The men of one group will stop aCt work six o^clock junday morning, December Seventh. The men on the second group of lines will strike December Eighth, and the third December Ninth. They explain that this is going to be done to prevent the strike from becoming unw^4ldy. One group is eastern, one western, and another southern, but the brotherhood chiefs refuse to say which group will strike first. j i i F.T.KPHANTS After ten of their elephants died of poisoning at Atlanta, Georgia, the Ringling Circus heads promptly put a detective on the job. loday the sleuth reports that their poisoning was undoubtedly deliberate, a mass murder of aniiiials and an inside job. The official veterinarian of the State of Georgia,made an autopsy and his diagnoses was the same, arsenic pwlntaiKi poisoning, deliberate, criminal. The circus is at Augusta today and a report quotes the boss of the bulls as saying that six other elephants in the herd are Ml showing similar symptoms to those that were killed last week. But it is too early yet to determine whether their case is the same^ IS I u Ji \ M PANTIES Here’s a serious Item from London that I almost forget • It concerns P,A. - well, some of the clothes that ladies wear. It’s a problem that has vexed the British High Command for quite a while, we hear. English women who join the Auxiliary TorritorialService are furnished with clothing as well as board, lodging and wages. The clothing includes not only* uniforms but what goes underneath. || The things underneath were really nice, as one lady put it. but they were not pink, and that emsed trouble. ||! deck "^ow the Government wants two hundred thousand more recruits for that service, and in order to encourage recruiting a brilliant British Major has made a ruling that the girls in the Auxiliary Territorial Service may buy their own under- clothes, pink, red, or any color they choose (x^ ^