f /Qf^^ ^ >t /A ^The Viord from India is broadly - that the Indian Nationalist Party is preparing to say;- ”No.” They are about to refuse Britain's offer of a dominion status for India - after the war. This is stating it broadly. Tonight*s dispatch from New Delhi makes a subtle distinction. It declares that the Working Committee o the All-India Congress is drafting what it calls - "a statement that in effect turns HMt down Great Britain's plan, but avoids a flat rejection^^ So there's the subtle distinction between a turn-down and a flat rejection. The meaning would seem to be"" that they'll say they can't accept the proposal / as it stands, but will leave a way open for further discussion - a possible compromise. This - in spite of the fact that British Envoy Sir Stafford-Cripps has stated flatly that India would have to take the plan II or leLve it as it stands L Mahataa Ghandi is af^ainst it - that seems to be clear. The little brown holy man is said to be urging I ? ,1 the Nationalist Committee to reject outright.the Londonjy J ! proposal desic^ned to get India whole-heartedly into theV i r, I I war. Ghandi's viewpoint is said to be the familiar one - opposition to all war, in accordance with his creed of non-v iolenceThere are contradictory reports about the position of Nehru, the active Nationalist leader. Some say he's for,'" others against. I* } The latest would seem to be that he, like the majority of the Nationalist Committee, is in favor of a temporizing turn-down," leaving the way open for further discussions. The main Hindu objection"is said to rest on . hi IP the plan brought by Sir Stafford the claim that, while the piai Tn^ia self-rule after the war is over, Cripps viould give Ind it does not transfer any power to the Indiats right now. IHDIA - 3 r Moreover, fUndus are said to be opposed to the clause of the plan that would, in their view, establish the Mohammedan sections of the country as a separate dominion. Next in importance to the Nationalist Congress is the Moslem League, representing the aggressive Mohammedan minority. They say the Moslem League is prepared to inform Cripps^that the Mohammedan group does not feel it necessary to consider the British plan- /‘ because if it is turned down by the Nationalist Party - / xkxtxthsxxKKX what*s the use? There*s nothing completely-certain about all of the foreeoing,' but it represents the Urge probability^ what we may expect to become definite tomorrow probably. BURisA 1 j In Bur^a,the Chinese have definite!-.^ succeeded in breaking- out of a trap at Toungoo.. Tne Japs had them y G t/ encircled, itikx Chiang-Kai-Shek's veterans HHirthe ( a comnisno. ot AjiGrican GcriGral k^h"! h V gt I lought t/hGir v/ay to the enemy lines, and joined up with Allied forces to the northeast of Toungoo.^ They've abandoned that important town, although at hast reports it would seem that a Chinese ^ar guard was| still holding some part of Toungoo. I The other key city along !the China battle line is Proae -- west of Toungoo and on the Irawaddy Piver. The Japs are pushing hard agair^st Prome, threatening to outflank the t’v place and it wduB^seem that the British pX------- ^------------- - 7 - position there is in peril. /Today's British t>olleti n gives us the probability that tie British-Chinese forcej will fall back for what may be a deeisive battle on the lying south of Mandalay. That will mean a crucial struggle for northern Burma. • iiist in — which tells us Here's a late dispaatch, .ust V, c Keen encircled by Japanese that a British force has been BUR:iA_- 2 troops ten miles south of Prome. They're in grave danger. But this bad news is partly offset by reports the that Chinese killed five tho_usand Japs in a bitter battle at Toungoo. ii'i; . I mmm PHILIPPINES The battle in the Philippines^nas turned into a d_ay and night boiabardaent -- by Japanese artilleryjLs I well as enemy b^ing planes. Today's communique issuej by the V.ar Department in Washington Ltates that cannon on "thG sout/h shorG of liddnils, Bny havG join go . in "thG attacjc on Corrcgidor and tho other island-fort if icat ions nearby.^ They have been targets for tons of air boabs^ and nov; artillery shells^too are raining on the powerful defenses. Our guns are replying with a heavy, fire, making it a dual cannon':?^ Apparently little damage has been done. f In fact, the largest injury reported today Was on (y a place that should have been^ immune -- a h_os£_i.t^al on Batan Peninsula. The army reports in the following 1 words:- "A base hospital in Batan was bombed by the Japanese,'causing a number of casualties. This hospital," the announcement goes on, "was been carefully avoided by the enemy bombers - until ^hp Jaos have been observing yesterday." In other words the Japs pHiLiPPiliES - 2 t,he 01 ano humanity, but apparently couldn't keep up the lofty standard of conduct. “s?y / To the north ol Australia the Japs are having a tine. They're being bombed and blasted, and in th Hew Guiiea heavy floods are still washing them out. Australian and American bombers^hit the Japs on the Island of Timor and destroyed six eneny planes on the ground. And they hit at a New Guinea air drome, rain where the tins of bombs devastated Japanese flying installalLns. From Australia we have a statement of what American bomber forces did to the Japs in the campaigns of the Philippines and Java. Colonel Lubank, Commander of the American war planes, states that sj^xteen enemy warships and forty-six transport^ were sunk^or damaged^ up to '-larch First. Since iarch First^ it is estimated that at least fourteen other Jap warships v-ere sunK that the Australian government wi 11 stana__firi|^b_ej^dj the decisions of General MacArth.a^^ey won't try to own forces, with the appointment of a new set of hard' fig-ting Conmanaers. CONVOY BATTLE ■issii| The. e s something rather vie ird about a navalj r ji engaremeno in a snowstorm.) I don't recall many examples 1 of this - warships batt^-ing with flaming gunfire in a s.^irling haze of white ^hen things are seen through falling snow, they can assume a ghostly appearance. So imagine the dim hulk pf a hostile war vessel looming in the blizzara - and then the flash and roar of cannon. This ghostly kind of battle has been raging for . four days now on the frigid waters north of the Arctic/ j -------- —— . _____________________ _____ j shore of Soviet Russi^The weather up there'^at this time of the year^ is likely to be of the most forbidding kind. Spring has not yet arrived, and s_nowsj,orms are a commonplace. At the same timef that Arctic area of the sea is the most likel^.place for naval fighting just now. United Nations aid to Soviet Russia'is a dominatinpf theme - with^he German Spring oifensive ! IQDI6Y_BATTLE -2 expected momentarily. The Red Army needs every bit j ! of help it can possibly get, all the armament that | Great Britain and America sand send. And that means great convoys steaming around the Arctic coast of Scandinavia, and on to the Soviet port of I^urmansk. Nazi Germany, by the same logic of war, must try to stop these convoys; must attack them with all the power the Nazis can muster in tl^t northern region. And so^he greatT^ battle that's raging right now is a convoy affair -- repeated Nazi attacks on a big convoy of British and American ships that are guarded by British and Soviet naval units. Let's look at today’s communique issued by the London Admiralty. U's couched in the usual terse kind of military phraseology, i^hich can b . U states:- "Attacks by enemy effective and telling. surface 1 1 CONTOY__MTTLE - 4 craft and U-boats to Drpvpni a ^ a • pievenL a convoy of American and British supplies from reaching Russia were beaten off by British and Russian forces." ”0n the morning of March Twenty-Ninth," the l iidmiralty announcement continues, "enemy light forces were sighted. The visibility was poor with frequent snowstorms. H.M.S. TRINIDAD engaged one large enemy destroyer, which she crippled and set afire. -She then gave chase to two other destroyers, which escaped." "A few hours later," the communique goes on. ^another attack developed. During the ensuing engagemat H.M.S. ECLIPSE hit^ and stopped onedestroyer - but the arrival of two more enemy destroyers compelled her to break off the engagement." The London dispatch then goes on to enumerate some of the damage:- "The loss of one destroyer has already been admitted by the enemy," it says COMVOY_BATTLE . 5 "H.M.S/ TEINIDAD and i ECLIPSE suffered some damage, but both s'hips returned to harbor^safely. " To this we may add that the TRINIDAD is an eight ; thousand ton c ruiser ^and the ECLIPSE^ is a destroyer. Continuing with the battle, the London announcemen states, ^During the passage of the convoy, the presence of the U-boats was discovered, and successful attacks by the Allied forces resulted in three U-boats being severely damaged, if not sunk." This Admiralty bulletin says nothing about possible damage to the British-American ships of the convoy^- beyond the general state«nt that the enemy attacks v/ere beaten off. The Germans, on their part, claim to have sunk or damaged a- number of convoy ships. One bulletin mentions four sunk, and another speaks of two. They claim to have destroyed one big freighter loaded with American armament bound for Soviet Russia. i CONVOY BATTLE - 6 Such is thwhat we know of the big battle .[U of the convoy, and in additioi^Wfe hear of heavy Nazi air raids against the Soviet port of Murmansk - / trying to destroy supplies already landed there, and trying also to put the harbor out of commission. 5 ''- 'It ,i > i.i J i'j ‘ t* \ ! ■ - .1 wwiiiiKiSihv 1 China is sending a diplomatic representative to the Vatican. This was announced today by Y/hang Sdhix£hiE:i'' Shi-Chieh, Minister of Informatioi^ at Chungking. He I stated that the Chiang Kai-shek regime had asked Pope Pius the Twelfth to exchange diplomatic reference^ and that the request had been "favorably received.” China will r_^eive a Papal Nuncio at Chungking, and in return China will send a diplomatic representative to the Vatican. This follows insistent reports that Japan is trying to establish diplomatic relations with the Vatican. Tokyo states that this is be_in^_done - an arrangement similar to the one that China announces today. MiMiililiil SPIES Brazil-reports the discovery of a plot to create a secret base for Axis submarines ^operating in the South Atlantic. A.t an isolated point along the Sxxzilzs; Brazilian coast, they discovered a special dock - secretly constructed. And nearby‘"^//as a hidden store of gasoline - huge quantities,say the Brazilian police. They have arrested tv^enty Japs at^Ste nearby town^iir These are said to have engaged in a conspiracy to refuel Axis submarines by means of the secret dock and supply of gasoline. This disclosure comes to a climax of police raids throughout the State of Sao Paulo. At one locality'the police seized a large number of automatic rifles and four hundred thousand cartridges. another place^they broke up an outlaw Japanese meeting and found a military map-of Brazil^with strategic 1 SPIES - 2 r points marked in red ink. Another headline arrest is I / that of a Japanese named Tono'gawa, a humble, hard-workin£‘’ farm-hand -- apparently! The Brazilian police claim fhat he is really a general in the Japanese army an officer who at one time commanded an invading unit in China. Inkhe possession of this farmer-general was found a quantity of rifle bullets^''and a number of war trophies. ROOSEVELT. i ' l / 'T President Roosevelt stated today the new Pacific War Council in Washington^will work in parallel harmony with the similar war J c 0 unci3^ in^^^JjOjxdA^J He indicated the London group will consider Pacific war problems of a political nature. While the Washington council will devote itself to matters of action. Thus they will direct the battle against what the President today called "the powers of black paganism". He quoted that phrase from a letter he received. CORRECTION Some people seem to think that last night I indicated that no more heating units for old electric ranges will be made. That inference was incorrect. The order issued by the War Production Board applies only to jcs heating units for new electric ranges. i 4 blackout Last night in Bristol County, Massachusetts, they had a blackout. The people cooperated earnestly in the darK war-tiine precaution, and there was only one arrest for violation. < y' On a black street in Fall River^a gleam of light flashed. It was a man lighting a match. He held it -- in the small flame flickering the darkness. Air raid wardens instantly arrested culprit and demanded A sternly -- what did he mean by violating the blackout? In response they got a hiccough or two, the whiff of a beery breath, and the following explanation: The unsteady gentleman said he lit his match -- because he wanted to see the blackout. Get the idea? It was so dark he couldn*t see any blackout at all. So what do you do in a case like that? You light a match, and take a look.