LT Jkc^' Jet*. n-n m syioco^, FRIDAY. FEBHUAi^y 17 T 1Q?Q Here comes the news of the world as it looks from the neighborhood of Mount Tremblant, away up here in the Laurentian Mountains, deep in Quebec, north of Montreal. It only takes about a second longer for me to get my press dispatches up here than to get them at my office at Rockefeller Center in New York. They have been flashed to me via Western Union to Montreal and then relayed on here to the Mount Tremblant Country by Canadian Pacific Telegraphs. Some of the most interesting newrs flashes that have come to me here in this little C.P.R. railway station this afternoon, have come from Europe. One of these is from Spain. •SPAIN The capital of Loyalist Spain was moved again today from Madrid to Vaisncia. w© aren’t told why, but it may be because of Franco’s artillery in the suburbs of Madrid. The decree of removal was signed with the name of President Azana. The President is in France, with the Paris Government forbidding him to engage in political activities. Signing the decree for the removal of the capital comes under the heading of political activities, but Azana says he dicing sign it — a forgery. So we are told. Reports from fondon speak insistently of peace inSpain. Lord Halifax is said to have declared that an end of the civil war is at hand. London and Paris are trying to persuade Franco to agree to some sort of terms that would enable the Loyalist Regime to surrender. And Foreign Secretary Halifax is reported to be highly optimistic. MUSSOLINI The Government at Rome denies that there was an attempt to assassinate Mnssolini but formally admits the fact of the shooting in front of the Duce's Rome residence. It occurred on Tuesday morning. At the Villa TorIonia, where Mussolini lives, his car was waiting to take him to the Palazza Venezia for the day*s work. A fascist militiaman on guard noticed a man loitering across the way, and behaving in rather peculiar fashion. The guard went to him and demanded, "What are you doing here?” 7fnereupon the loiterer fired with a pistol held in his overcoat pocket. The guard, shot in the abdomen, fell to the pavement - he is in serious condition. Other guards dashed to the scene and seized the man with the gun. Mussolini emerged from his residence just as they were scuffling with him. The assailant turns out to be a former inmate of insane asylums, twice committed as a lunatic and only recently released. The obvious inference is that he was waiting to shoot Mussolini when the Fascist militiaman accosted him. However, as ohe official Roman bulletin points out, the facts indicate only - that a madman shot a guard iteMGEL ISLAND Wrangel Island Is a bit of polar land in the Arctic Ocean just above the eastern tip of Siberia and due west of northernmost Alaska, rangel Island is in the possession of Soviet Russia, Nevertheless* today* in the United States Congress, a bill was introduced to establish anAmeriesn Naval Air Base at Wj»angel Island. Representative Maas of Minnesota entered the measure in the House of Representatives, And Senator Reynolds of North Carolina is to propose a similar bill in the Senate, The purpose of the Wrangel Island project Is to round out the American system of Alaskan Air Bases* and complete the northern air defense of the United States- But - the island is in the possession of Soviet Russia. So what? Representative Haas de­ clared today that the Soviets held Wrangel Island "without legal rights." He stated his belief that title rests clearly with the United States. "If the question of ownership arises*" he said today, "we expect the United States will prove proper title to the island," The Soviet Russians are termed "trespassers"* accused of getting possession by force. In Nineteen Twenty—Four* s-n American expedition was on that bit of Arctic land, when the Soviet ice irp angel inland - z breaker, called RED OCTOBER, came along and kidnapped the expedition. The leader of the abducted party of Americans was Charles Wells. Reports from Russia first told of his being ill - some mysterious sickness. Then, his death v;as announced. PLANES The Senate Military Affairs Committee today heard testimony given by Hugh Wilson, the United States Ambassador to Germany , He has been in America ever since we called our ambassador home from Berlin and Hitler called his ambassador home from Washington. The Military Affairs Committee is considering the affair of the French Military Mission that got United States government help in buying airplanes in the U.S.A Two previous witnesses before the Committee were our Ambassadors to Paris and London. Our Paris Ambassador Bullitt is said to have been the one who originally recommended United States Government help for French air plane purchases - this because of Bullitt's opinion that the French were lagging badly behind Germa: r i . the building of war planes. In Washington both Bullitt and our London Ambassador, Joseph P. Kennedy, told the Committee alarming things about the war peril in Europe. There was some opinion that the alarmist expressions might be a build-up for the President's armament program. Also that our Ambassador to Berlin hafl different ideas about the PLANES - 2 European situation. ThatTs why he was called before the Coinoiittee today - to give his version of European affairs. What did Ambassador Hugh Wilson tell the Committee? The hearing was held under conditions of the utmost secrecy. Not even stenographic records were made. Ambassador Wilson refused to speak until all stenographers and clerks had left the committee room. After it was all over, it was revealed that the Ambassador had talked In very general terms and frequently refused to answer questions, saying that if he did answer it might decrease his usefullness as an Ambassador abroad. EDITORIAL We’ve heard a lot of talk about the need of radio censorship, ^overmaent control of the air and all sorts of official supervising. That’s natural enough, because when anything large and imposing pops up, it’s sure to make some people see perils and view with alarm. COLLIERS WEEKLY, in an editorial points out that this country has found no need of censorship for magazines and newspapers. fTReader censorship”, it says, ”is all the censorship that magazines and newspapers have ever needed. They haven1t needed and don’t need czars or police to regulate them.” And then the COLLIERS editor applies this same reasoning to radio. ’’Listener censorship”, he writes, "is all the censorship that p&dio needs* It’s so easy to turn the dial and find a different tune.” "Yes,” that’s the severest censorship of all - just turn the dial. Listener censorship vith all of you doing bhe censoring. Johanns en. Sitting around ijie, on the floor of the womens room, here in this little railway station near tim Mount Tremhlant, are a group of skiersj some from Montreal, some from the States5 also a number of French Canadians who live here in the neighborhood. Several in the group are unusual men whom you may have heard of. Sitting here, right beside me, acting as my official timer, taking the place of the N.B.C. Production Man, Charlie Warburton who times me at Radio City* Rockefeller Center, In New York, is Maurice Kelierman of Australia, a famous motion picture cameraman, explorer, world traveller and brother of Annette Kelierman# Kelierman Is up here making a ski film. And, sitting on the floor beside me is one of the best known dog team drivers in the world, Harry Wheeler. He drove up through the falling snow a few minutes ago with his sled and team of Siberians. He?, and his dogs are getting all set for the most important dog race of the year, which takes place the first four days in March, 200 miles north of here, at Val D’Or, the Valley of Gold* Here beside me, also, is one of the best known men in this part of American, Herman Johannson, originally of Norway, father of those two crack Magill University skiers who are breaking records and running off with so many xkk honors this year, Peggy and Bob Johannson* In the year it 1893, when he was 19 years old, Herman Johannson left Norway to study engineering at the University of Berlin# At the same time he It was who aroused interest in Central Europe In the sport of skiing. In 1900 he came to America and did the same thing. So, we could almost call him the Father of Modern Skiing. For a time he got sidetracked, went down to the tropics and became involved in the digging of the Panama Canal. Johannsen-—2m L*T*5" Why did you give up the tropics, Mr* Johannsen, and come back to these Laurentian Mountains, where the snow is three feet deep and it’s so bitter cold ? £> J “ That * s easy, Mr* Thomas* I came back here to Lac Mercier and Mount Tremblant because X made up my mind that snow—covered pine trees are a lot more beautiful than any royal palms* L*T*s- Mr Johannson here has built many of the big ski jumps in America* Ten years ago he laid out the first ski trails on Tremblant, the highest peak in the Laurentians© And *ow he has been helping Joe Ryan of Philadelphia put up the most spectacular ski lif1 America on that same mountain* Mr* Johannsen, at Lac Mei*cier and lift in on Mount Tremblant today people told me that even A at the age of sixty-four. you are a good skier* ArnH you getting too old to ski ? Arntt you stiff, and your bones brittle^A^ t H ^ MR*J*: Yes, I guess they are brittle, iind I have to leave the ski- jumping and the racing to my children, Peggy and Bofe# But skiing is a thing you can do as long as you live* In fact I believe a man can ski when he*s too old and weak to walk* Because skiing is easier than walking© L*T*t— 1 take off my hat to you, Mr* Johannsen* This ski lift that you and Joe Ryan have put up Mount Tremblant, and with which your fellow Norwegian ski—wiaard, Kftling Strom, is associated, is the most thrilling thing in its line that Ifve ever seen© IONOSPHERE And nov,, how is the Ionosphere these days? We are goxiig to bt^ getting answers to that question from the United States Bureau of Standards. Today the Bureau started a service to report on conditions in the ionosphere £ the way the Weather Bureau I'eports on conditions in the atmosphere. But who gives a rap about this new ionospheric reporting service? Nearly everybody. All of you who listen to the radio. The ionosphere, the scientists tell us, is a vast electrical area that surrounds the earth at heights between fifty and two hundred and fifty miles. It’s made up of layers of positive and negative electricity. They call it - an electrical ocean surrounding the earth. Radio waves as they travel are reflected from the ionosphere. They shoot up and strike that electrical ocean and bounce back to us. The new ionospheric reporting service v-ill bive radio engineers a forecast of radio conditions, and enae^e tnem to adjust the finer technical points of broadcasting; so that the words I speak from up here at Mount Tremblant will shoot up to right to where you are, in Florida, the ionosphere ?nd bounce ■ • ■ ■ — - ---.... - -■ . .. _____ —■ -- ■ ■• ■ ..- _____ _ TONOSPHERi: or Ohio, or the Bahamas - or wherever you are. And here are the last words I have to send up from snowy Mount Tremblant tonight. My last message for this week to bounce against the ionosphere. is:- SO LONG UNTIL MONDAY.