I y.'AR *"•*1 _ ^jjVuJbl-y I (fill' Tonignt the war is back to the rumor stage. Y/hatever action tnere is is mostly important because of meanings that may be attached to it, interpretations. Talk of a Nazi attempt to invade Britain increased today with events along the English Channel. The long range German guns at Calais opened a cross-Channel bombardment of the Dover area - the heaviest and longest continued rain of shells since the invasion scare of last fall - when a German landing attempt was J expected momentarily. \Hour after hour the big berthas hurled — shells against the English coast, concentrating on the port of A Dover. Half a dozen guns were firing at regular intervals. British heavy artillery replied, making the duel of cannon^a day-long thunder and booming. Did the outburst of the big berthas ? presage an invasion attempt. That question ilashed to mind in Britain. It was suggested further by an air battle over tne anglish Channel, the biggest clash of sky fleets since the invasion scare of months ago. As the cross-Channel cannon exchanged their long range fire, many planes whirled in dogfights overhead. And it is not clear just why the ney, outbreak of sKy battle occurred — but it provided food for rumors. The British government has just ordered the evacuation of ten thousand children from the port of Plymouth, that British harbor which had been blasted consecutively for the past few days - the worst bombed place in England they say. Last night Plymouth once a^ain was bombed with devastating havoc. Today a large part of the town was officially declared to be what they dall an ^evacuation area”, and the children of most of the inhabitants of Plymouth were ordered taken away to a safer place. Rumor weaves about Spain. London this morning reported that the Berlin radio had stated that Britih consuls in Spain were advising all Britons to leave the country. Later in the day, this was dened by Berlin. London had still another German report that the Franco govermnent had arrested thirty-one British on charges of what were described as - "activities directed . against the Spanish state." And Spain has closed its frontiers. ‘I'hat was another rumor rife in Britain - that the Franco Government had sealed the borders of the country this morning. All this raised an alarm — the s suspicion that Hitler was about to launch through Spain a blow at Gibraltar, a thing expected by British opinion. In Greece — the -Nazis tell of their motorized troops reaching the southern shores of the Peloponnesus, the lower peninsula of Greece. They claim to have cut off part of the British troops that were retreating to ports of evacuation, but admit that large numbers of the Empire forces have been embarking on boats and sailing away. The Greek radio is reported to have announced tonight that j a new government has been formed at Athens — a government in j collaboration with the Nazi conquerors. I ^t*s headed by a general. and he has issued a denunciation of the ureek royal family doesn't represent the Greek nation any longer, and called upon Greek soldiers to stop fighting. This Greek radio declaration is reported by Budapest. advance took the town in North Africa, the Axis forces have made some sort of - but it doesn't appear to have been anything much. They ,e town of Solium, the capture of which had been reported days WAR - 4 ago. From Sol'iim thsy pressed onward — but not far. Both the British and Axis accounts agree on that. The whole Mediterranean situation, Greek and North African, is to come up for full debate in the British Parliament. Prime Minister Churchill made formal announcement of this when he told the Commons today that he*s going to ask for a vote of confidence on the decision to send troops into Greece NAVAL Neutrality patrols of the United States Navy are operating a far as two thousand miles out in the Atlantic, and this is a part of the plan to maintain a safe channel for shipments of war supplies to Britain. That statement was made today by Admiral Stark, Chief of Naval Operations of the United States Navy. Two thousand miles is a long distance across the Atlantic Ocean, and navy patrol ships are scouting for Nazi vessels of war over a vast area. What they see they report to the British fleet. and these spare Britain a great amount of scouting — looking for Nazi U-boats, warplanes and sea raiders. Admiral Stark further indicated that more United States t] naval craft will be transferred to Britain. LINDBERGH the President. The War Department today accepted Lindberghfs resignation as Coloneli This was accompanied by another White House ^ttack in the exchange between the celebrated flier and It began when the President took sharp exception to Lindbergh’s attacks on the Administrations policy of aid-to- Britain, and compared the aviator to the copperheads of the Civil War. ^ Lindbergh responded by sending in his resignation t&l a« Colonel, and writing a letter to the President about it. A letter in which he said — "I had hoped that I might exercise my rights as an American citizen to place my viewpoint before the people of ray country in time of peace - without giving up the privilege of serving my country as an Air Corps oflicer in the event of war.” Today Presidential Secretary Steve Early stated that the Lindbergh letter had not yet been received at the White House, and he attacked the flier for making the communication public befo^^etres'iint.had got ». The White House Secretary said A that this was not the first time that Lindbergh had done such a thing. ■ UNTBERGH - 2 Seven years ago he sent a telegram to the President, and made it BtthH public before the President received it. That was at the time the Government cancelled the air mail contracts with private airlines. The Army t>ok over the flying of the mails — and there were a number of fatal accidents. Quite a controversy ensued, and Lindbergh sent a telegram of protest to the President in which he predicted that the air mail actionwould have a bad effect. Thentte'Presidential Secretary made a sharp remark A about the Lindbergh resignation. "This leads me to wonder," Steve Early, "if he's returning his decoration to Mr. Hitler." ^hie'rfeers to^mLl. the Order of the German Eagle, A ~ is couole of years ago — by Hitler’s presented to the famous flier a coupie ox y Chief Lieutenant, Goering. It'S quite a sharp controversy between the President . the trans-atlantic aviator, who for of the United States and the tran ■ i hero. One result is that now the Flying years has been a national except q w ^1_ ovetft bv courtesy. So let s Colonel is a Colonel no longer - *X«t, * ..the =tory of the military rank held by Lindbergh. itxKfik look back at th - ^ Back in Nineteen Twenty-five, two years before his flight of Aorlc rdiovin, he / as comiRissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Aviation Reserve. The next year, while still an unknown pilot, he was commissioned a National Guard Captain. In Nineteen Twenty-seven, after his trans-Atlantic sky voyage had made him a figure of world celebrity, Lindbergh was made a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve. He was appointed to this rank in Nineteen Thirty-tw/o and again in Nineteen Thirty-seven. The Presidential secretary was asked today whether fciniik Lindbergh’s leaving the Reserve Officers Corps of the Air Force would be considered a loss. His reply was that Lindbergh, in any case, would not have been called to active service. "From what the President indicated,n said Steve Early, "Lindbergh wouldn't have any duties even if he continued to hold his commission.” TAXES On the taxation front - v.e hear of congressional opinions against the sales tax. This is in accordance ^ith the opinion of Secretary of the Treasury M^rgenthau, who stated that he was a hundred per cent against levies on the common needs of life, like food. "A tax on the poor man’s table,” said the Secretary, ”goes against everything this administration has worked and stood for.” There’s a proposal, sponsored by the New YorE Board of Trade, that income tax exemptions be reduced. Cut the exemptions of single men from eight hundred dollars to five hundred, and aw married men from two thousand to one thousand, and cut the exemptions for dependents from four hundred dollars to two hundred and fifty each. inspite of the 1^1 Then there are j ? ' o 0 s proposals for balancing the budget, v — national defense and aid to Britain iture^ for c isinance Committee thinks that this Chairman Tydings of the ue^at * 0 the average normal expenses for the could be done by estimating normal expenses by taxation. But what about government. Pay these the abnormal expenses . like national defense and aid to Britain? TAXK - 2 Senator Tydings says that this could be amortized, that is - distributed over a twenty year period^Another measure proposes to put a constitutional ceiling on the national debt, adopt a constitutional amendment limiting the amount of debt v,hich the government is permitted to pile up. All these various financial ideas are coming up in * v _ committee hearings, with witnesses^cpp«aiiiTTg-rt© giv# their opinions on various angles of the new taxation. One witness today entered a vigorous objection to a proposal to double the present tax on from chewing tobacco. And^tazs^the debate that ensued, we discover tha the traditionll joy of taking a bite out of a plug has by no means disappeared from this nation. The witness who spoke to defend chewing tobacco, explained it this way: nThere is a time for chewing and a time for smoking,"You canTt work in a mine and smoke. You canft push a plow behind a mu-ie and have a ^oe. « cigarette in your mouth," said h», and^added - "But you can chew tobacco." The moral is that chewing tobacco is the working man*5 luxury, and doubling the tax on it would be laying a hea^ burden the toilers. TAXES - 3 Another witness made a pathetic plea, demanding Congress be as kind to widows as it is to gambling houses, he said that various individual taxpayers, especially widows, get a worse break under the tax system than the gambling houses at Reno. He then proceeded to explain how thiscondition exists. It was all a bit complicated with taxation technicalities, but the main point was simple and touching - donTt treat the widows any worse than you do the gambling houses. COAL The United i« ine Workers made the announcement today that work in the soft coal mines will be resumed on Thursday morning. This — as a result of the agreement suggested by President Roosevelt, There has been no final settlement of the issue on which the Southern Coal Mine Operators were holding out — the question of a wage differential, a somewhat lower wage scale in the Southern mines than in the Northern. That critical point is still to be negotiated. A late report about anthracite:- the hard coal companies and UAion have agreed to operate while negotiating. Until hay Tenth, FIRE. Blazing news from Massachusetts, Tonight one of New England’s worst forest fires is roaring and raging, sweeping through the woodlands, burning houses, driving people homeless. Earlier in the day, the news was very different. It related that the forest fire had been brought under control, after destroying a hundred square miles of trees and some seventy-five cottages. The blaze was almost out apparently, but then suddenly it flamed up again, and went sweeping on - an inferno on the march. And at last reports^tt ~wae out of control once again. ODDITIES You can always depend upon the inventors for something funny. That’s proved once again in Cleveland, where the annual convention of the Inventors of America went into session today. Their latest inspirations are on display, all the way from infra-red and ultra-violet rays for use in laundering clothes to a new-fangled tombstone with a phonograph that reproduces the voice of the late-lamented. One invention is the doing# of the radio star. Fibber McGee. Nice name. Fibber - and it would be all the funnier if his Job on the radio were the broadcasting of the news. However, his invention has to do with motoring - something to be used in all-metal cars. Ifs a bloc* of wood to be fastened to „par £o the motorist can knock fashiHHBdxt,the metal steering gear, -o A wood after narrowly escaping an accident. u whimsy, of course, but some of That’s a humorous ,.ninuy, the dead-serious invention toothbrush, for example. And th-n s sound just as funny. A toiee-action there's a mask of eternal youth. You can have it place of your regular f ce» young. £fted on the front of your head in and thereby you will look forever ODDITIES - 2 The theme of ingenious inventions takes us to a swindling story up in Canada — Montreal. The victims of the gyp game were four Parish Priests, French-Canadian padres. I'hey were in court today telling how a couple of slickers persuaded them to invest their money in a new invention. What kind of contraption was it? Well, it was something that lia stirred the deep interest of the Four French-Canadian Parish priests. A modest bathing suitl Unsinkable too - you couldn't drown in it. But the real marvel was — a girl could wear that bathing suit and be a model of shrinking modesty. The four French-Canadian priests had long wished that there was some kind of/eminine thev could give their £®>roval. So they swimming attire to which they couxu ^ Rut alas the miracle kx never materialized invested their money. But ala., fnr the girls is feHlfc beyond the Perhaps a modest bathing su ingenuity of the most inspired inventor. Another story of a swindled clergyman comes from Denver 11s a went on trial today for passing In the Colorado Metropoli- a lot of bad checks — how tney could bounce J One of them was a fifteen-dollar check which he gave to the priest who married him OBDITItS - 3 and it bounced. Even more remarkable — the cheeky crook gave a rubber check to the lawyer he hired to defend him on the charge of passing worthless checks. And now euppo5e-'W,eheve'-had“-enough'4a&rvedrB-foPi one broadcast, -ea le^s see what remarkable things Hugh has to relate.