GOOD EVEIIRG, EVERYBODY:- Invasion is on. Invasion of Ital7 b7 a buge Aaerican-Britiah Ara7, accor4ing to enea7 reports. It 1hould be added quickl7 that the reports are 1o ■ewha\ under auapicion, because the7 coae fro■ Italian propaganda sources. !n Italian correspondent sent a dispatch to hla newspaper in Ro ■e -- fro■ a base unna ■ed. Tbat was the first news Ital1 got of the invasion. The Italian newspaper■ an reported a atead7 streaa of landing-craft flowing fro■ the African - coast to Pantelleria, ~itb the Axis powers conducting a hea~7 . ~ air counter-offensive against these l~~ding 'barges. Axis aircraft are also reported to be attackini concentrati~ns of naval units and convoys aoving east through the Mediterranean from Gibraltar. All this comes from the official Fascist news agenc7 And then, Virginia Gayda, who is stiit,chief mouthpiece for Mussolini, apparently, announces that an army of more than a million, chosen from a■ong the best troops of the British Empire and the United States, ia aoYing on Italy from Africa. Five thousand Allied airplanes, says Gayda, thousands of armored cars and·tanks, Be claims, further that aore than half the Blitish war fleet is in the Mediterranean, also a large aerchant marine fleet of Aaerican ships. The tone of Gayda's article reflects \ the utao ■ t anxiety on the part of the Itaiians. Other dispatches from Axis sources tonight add aore of the••••· The German Trana-Ocean Hews Agency tells of a large concentration of British ware ' hips at Gibraltar. ' Also Trans-Ocean claims further that a convoy of thirty Allied aerchant ships left The Rock yesterda7, with a number of giant warships guarding the Straits, such as the great battleship IIRG GEORGE THE FIFTH, the aircraft carrier FORKIDABLE, and twelve British destroyers. Then comes a United Press dispatch fro ■ Spain, with Spanish confirmation of all this. Spanish sources tell ot eleven more aerchant ships arriving at Gibraliar today, eight ot the■ Aaerican. Making a ■x total ot seventy-five merchant ships in Gibraltar Barbor. The Spaniards add that instead of one battleship and one aircraft carrier, there are one battleship and two aircraft carriers at Gibraltar. le hear too that there is the utaost tension at the other end of the ledit•rranean, with thia increasing hourly since Britain closed the frontier between Syria and Turkey. An Aray froa the Belgian Congo had juat arrived fro ■ those parts to reinforce the Allie d army in the liddle East. It is ruaored that ,~ the British Hinth and Tenth aray, and also an enoraous American force, is on the •~Y to or thro~gh Syria. The G er a n Tr ~ n s -Oc ea n e ws Agency repo r t s an o r d~r by G en e r a l N ri Pa s h e , P re itTof Ir aq an d an old frien d o f m i ne fr ~ T .E.Lawrenc e d ay s . u ri P as ha' s order was directed to the Iraqi ar ■y and talked about an hour of decision and active service approaching. Again more ruaors about the Axis satelite nations ready to throw up the sp~nge • . The latest even includes Hungary am Bulgaria hitherto considered fairly ataunch allies of the lazis. here is a yarn to the effect that high ar ■J officers in Bulgaria are offering to depose Iing Boris and throw the Bitler alliance to the wolves. All of which is exciting, but, not official. Though there is no official contradiction fro■ our - aide. Of course, there are more ru■ors from Stocthola. These tell of Italy, Hungary and Ruaania withdrawing their armies from the Eastern Front where they have been helping the lazis against the Reds. Stockholm says Jitler's confederates a r e backing out to protect their own frontiers. Well, maybe. By the ay, the ~tories a bout Allied naval atrength in the : editP.rr~nean, they are admitted by Washington, and a communi q ue from Allied headquarters in Borth Africa tells of the greatest naval concentration of the war, in those waters, now. But the communique refers only to patrol duty. However, naval officers adait that the big guns of those aonster f~eta may soon be in action, suppcrting a great air offenaiye againat Italy. The Southern . wall of Hitler's European fortress, •• are told, baa been greatly weakened. There are still enemy submarines operating in the Mediterranean; and they will continue to be a threat until Italy is conquered. Here is an idea for a reall1 novel Independence Da1 celebration this 1ear. The idea is to show the world the spectacle of an entire nation parading to honor the day on which their ~ndependence was declared. The idea coaes from Dr. Willia■ Mather Lewis, President of Lafa1ette College. Dr. Lewis has written to President Roosevelt, to the Governors of all the States, lla1 . ors of Cities. and Elmer Davis, Director of the Office of War Inforaation, suggesting that the entire nation parade - all of us ■arch. lo ,..ct'ators. Patriotic floats, carr1ing returned soldiers, bands, children, every man, wo■an and child. One vast national parade to show the world that we are a unified nation -- and that we have just one common resolve -- to win this war. It might take longer than two weeks to organize it, Dr. Lewis. Bow about getting the President to set aside a special day? Or would it be go right on working and not take any time oui Juat step up production? Perhaps such a national parade would be one way to get us all on our toes. It certainly would put the nation on its feet! JAPS - AIR - Another great air battle over Guadalcanal. le losing six planes, the Japs seventy-seven. One of the ■ost spectacular air battles of the Pacific Jar. Op to now the greatest air fight over the Solo ■ons was ~he one that took place about two months ago -- April SeveAth. On that day the Japs sent over ninety-eight of their aircraft. Our fliers shot down thirty-nine, with a loss of seven American planes, and a ■an-power loss of only two A ■erican pilots. As to the nela of this latest and greatest • ■elee in the air over the Solomons, we have no•*• detail■• Merely that our ae u ahot d o wn thirty-two Jap boabera and forty-five Jap Zeros. JW For six nights in succession, the Royal Air Force has been keeping up the greatest continuing aerial attack on Germany of the whole war. Last night' contribution was a return Yiait to Cologne, the scene of that one thousand plane raid 4f last year. Ten ainutea later, after last night'• attack began, there were two terrific explosions. They · rocked the entire city. The lazi anti-aircraft did not begin to ' ~ throw shells at · the Britiah~Wltil the first boaba had already fallen. Due . to clouds, the Geraan flak was quite ineffectiYe. lhen the B.A.F. left Cologne, the clouds reflected light froa treaendoua fires burning ~below. IIBllA{! Hitler is moving his ■unitions factories in - ~ ~ GeraanyAto the east, where they will not be quite ao accessible to Royal Air Force bo■bera a n d ~ atat•• A Flying Fortresses. A story fro ■ London reports that seventy-five thousand B•lgian wortliir' ■en have beea conacripted by Hitler's Gestapo,and taken to the Ruhr. t a ~ ~ There they are set to work dia ■ antling what the R.A.F. has left of the great araaaent work1. Th• aachinery ii loaded on flat cars and moved to eaatera Ger ■ any. le get aoae idea of the hav b7 the bombing raids in Germany froa the report that eoae been moved to Belgian cities. In fact Brussels, the capital of Belgiua, is ~ o , so cro~ded that there is no living space 1 and seven one bed. people have to sleep in ilBNAI! In France, several French Catholic &rchbiahops have signed a joint pastoral letter proteatin& against the conscription tor co■pulaor7 labor in ~ G ~ e ~ r ~ • - • ~ n ...._, • ...,.._~- ·· - - -- - -__, IJISit . . The Razi high command --- .. i■portance has been happening says nothing of any ~ in Russia. lloacow tell a k a different story. The Soviet spokesaen report that the Re4 !ray has acquired a new big bridgehead on the ri•er north of Orel. The Geraans have thrown aa unending aeries of counter-attacks in force againat that bridgehead. In forty-eight'houra they attac k e4 tourteea .tiaea. Their h•••* infantry and tank ■oYe ■ent• were covere~ · by ■ aoke screen. But they did not budge the Russians who, on the contrary, strengthened their hold of that position on the ri•er. So says loacow. The Soviet spokesaen add that the Geraans are eYidently expecting an attack in force by the Russians in an attempt to out f lank the German fortification• at Orel. The Russian bridgehead i• baaed on four Tillages which they recaptured last week after a long , desperate fight. 1gss1J_- 2 After they had failed to check the Russian bridgehead fourteen tiaes, the Geraana let loose a large fleet of bombers and escort planes. They also aoYed fresh battalions of ground forces into the line. Their bo■bers attacked in large groups, each,r.'.''l; ~::f-sc NJl~e•• fro• twenty to fift7 planes. But the Buaaiana allo have been s e n d ~ r~orca■ents ef airer■f41 ~ -,p_ ~~~ to thR Orel front. The Geraana ao longer ha•• the air ~ ~ 1uperiority that the7 enjoyed in the first two 1••r• of the Buaaian war. JI11§91 Secretary of lar Stiaeon appeared to be in a sanguine mood today. He told his press conference that the Allies have gone ahead of the Geraans in knowledge of how to use air power, and he added that they have proved it. They also have out-done the eneay in the quality of their planes and their pilots. Thi• was proved, aaid Stiaaon, in the conquest of tho•• four Italian islands between Sicily and Africa, an alaoat bloodless conquest on our part. When we occupied tb•• we bagged eleven thousand, a hundred and thirt7- five Axia prisoners of war on Pantelleria, and between tour and five thousand on Laapaduaa. Only eoae forty airaen died, and we lost ' only a few planes. The Secretary described the boabardaent of Pantelleria as probably one of the heaviest concentrations of air power • in the history of warfare. Our high command did n~t expect to get those islands STIMSON - 2 _,_, ___ _ without some hand to hand battling. It had planned to land troops. Ship to shore movements had actually begun at Pantelleria when the garrison, starved and waterless, raised the white - flag because it could no long stand that terrific poun d ing from the air • . The Secretary of War then made the inevitable of comparison i ~ i the attempl by the German ■ and Italians ~• to take Yalta. The Axis countries had overwhelming superiority in the air, and they kept pounding at the . British island for three years. But they were unable to take it 1 To be sure, the defenses of Malta probably were stronger than those of Pantelleria. At the same time, it ia a fact that the German and Italian assaults on Malta were sporadic and ~rratic. On the other hand, ours on Pantelleria were heavy, and our bombardiers ~ hit their military targets with ■■ta■iis mathem tical precision. 'ff' The capture of those four little Italian islands following on the victory in Tunisia, appears to have let loose a good deal of wishful thinking. In London, British economists were prophesying that Italy will quickly collapse if the British and of_., ~ k.(/\,\J ~ Aaerican1make~that all-out attack that we have been awaiting so eagerly. The entire industrial and economic structure that Mussolini has set up will disintegrate, ea, the experts. They say Mussolini's government has made little or no preparation to gear the Italian people to meet TC-J- the conditions that will follow an i!lvasion. ,APif the Allies are able to separate the industrial districts of the north from the agricultural districts in be south, all Italy will be in chaos. So they say. Ever since Nineteen Forty, Italy has been living from hand to mouth, and has no large reserves of food or fRED!CTIO N S - 2 raw materials. On the other side o f the globe, an Australian Cabinet Minister was making similar conjectures about ~ Japan. The Foreign Minister of the Commonwealth said that when Germany is defeated, there is a fair chance that Japan may buckle soon after. Thie is contrary to what Madame Chiang, the wife of the Chinese . Generalissim ~ said to the Parliament of Canada yesterday~ She pointed out that Japan is exploiting all the huge territories that she has seized in China and eleewhere and that the Jape have been accumulating resources to fight the Allies. Madame Chiang followed up her speech to the Canadian iarliament by tellin g reporters today that China is the only place from which a second front can be effectively l aunched against Ja p an. She expressed her opinion, which we may assume to be that of the ' PREDI£11Q~§ - 3 - Chinese hi gh command, that if we try to beat the Jape island by island, it would take us fifty to a hundred years. A story from Tokyo, overheard on the radio, reports that the Jap Premie'r, General Tojo, admitted to his Emperor that the war situation was serious. ~ Mldtthe Jap Minister of industry told the Tokyo Parliament that their production and transportation ot . iron and other materials needed for the steel plants had been stepped up tremendously. In fact, it has improved so much that the Tokyo government no longer finds it necessary to reclaim waste metals. SHOl§ -- The ladies will soon be wearing wooden soles on has been perfected by a shoe mauufacturer which gives /\. the wooden soles at least some of the fl~xibility of ~ leather, A k = h ~ knee-action effect,, so t;n:t, the ~ ladies can use their accustomed. e,. ~ feet)in walking as they have 'J /\.. ---<2 - _Q - l { - +- \N'\.: been ID 1 a r ob a 1 i n o \ , , i r C \ n t a suburb of Lo on . hre li t y ' e en Y e e o o 1n from th n o rt to Lo do n in an ol, nois c c r , and ear i , uif 'icult . C' t e nearin the city, on a ' ed : "I s t ic , ; mblev " " o," r lied t e second, "thi i Thursd " ' o am I," put i n t e third. "Let's op and have one." Don, let' t o a n d a e one - a cu of te . , w at? And -L-U-T-M.