SUB!lrUjXNikS Yesterday’s war drama in the Worth Atlantic is still shrouded in considerable mystery. Today Berlin came forward with a startling headline stating tnat eighteen British ships were sunk yesterday in attacks on convoys - for a total of a hundred and ^2^1^ — ttTYlkl • Of the eighteen ships, sixteen were -lii! a re i !lsy.sa the U-boat assault indicated by the series of distress signals. Tv-o other ships vrerr-g submarined elsewhere, says 7T Berlin. The German report on the almost incredible convoy attacx merely states that the wazi U-boats got by the defense of the ships protecting the convoy, did deadly worx with their torpedoes - sinning fifteen merchant vessels and a protecting auxiliary cruiser There’s no detailed German explanation of hov: this could have been accomplished - convoys are not supposed to be such easy game for submarines. It is believed possible that the Wazis are using something new in the way of U-boat attaex. aiacfr Wc vmr^rtTy-kne—Britt-sh-ui*^ to c^ofr Here’s a late story from Berlin, which may give some inkling of new submarine methods. It speaks of U-boat operations SUiliARIiMES 2 these berms - "attacking in packs like wolves.^ l Hitherto, we thought of^ toats as working by themselyes', IcJ^e wolf prowlers - thatfs the way they were in the World War. It hadn’t been supposed that undersea craft could operate together, in groups^ Rut now we have Berxin using the simile - Xiii "packs of wolves.n l And the Nazi statement continues that Germany ha^ at least a hundred U-boats prowling the Atlantic in groups London as yet makes nb official reply to the Nazi^ Unofficially, however, the British ma^ve light of A Jr. theirr-t^TTd^n One point provokes ridicule. Berlin at first announced that the auxiliary cruiser sunk was the former liner CALEDONIA. ThatJWtts* absurd, for the CALEDONIA was te-orvwloqq 'a-rj* sent to the bottom last June - as v/as then stated by both the A British and the Germans. Another puzzling feature is this:- Berlin’s declaration today came some twenty-four hours after the distress signals were picked up from the convoy yesterday. It’s most unusual for the Germans to announce U*-boat sinkings in such a brief time. The U-boat commanders don’t communicate with their home bases by wireless - for fear of giving their positions away to the British. SUBMARINES - 3 TT They make their reports when they return to harbor. The scene of yesterday’s convoy affair -Aas so far from the nearest German base in occupied France, that no U’boat could have got back that quickly*- in twenty-fourhours. However, submarine menace is becoming grave indeed. Today London announced that during the weekj ending November Twenty-Fourth, week before last, a total of twenty-two ships were sum, amounting to nearly eighty-el^ht t no us Or­ tons. \ This is not nearly as bad as in the dread month of April, Nineteen Seventeen, when the British lost over two hundred thousand tons a week. It’s bad enough, however, and gives point to warnings issued by British officials - that the Nazi attacks on British shipping are far more dangerous than the bombing of Britain. What tne British call - the blitz. in their oceanic difficulties, the British are looking across the sea. Today Minister of Shipping Ronald Cross told the House of Commons that the London Government has placed orders in the United States for the construction of sixty-five // „ ** cargo ships. In addition, St-id he, Serviceable United States vessels have been and will continue to be purcaased. Everything possible is being done to get shxpsj>he declared. PLAHES Today w e :iave two reports on the same subject — the number of war planes that the British mt from the United States. The two ^ ^ A sets of figures are decidedly different. One comes from the Department of Commerce in Washington and it’s a small figure. It shows that during the year ending caa October Thirty-First Great Britainonly one thousand and forty- four American built war planes. However, that meager ra$e of delivery is being stepped up. Department of Commerce officials believe that Britain will be getting four or five hundred planes a month by next summer. London gives us a figure for the past year, and estimates that in this period Great Britain received tv/enty-five hundred planes <r from the United States. Thatfs a lot more than a little over a ) y thousand. ItTs hard to reconcile the contradiction— though London does specify that half of the twenty-five hundred were training and not fighting planes. tPAi;, A topic of the day in London is the new conmierci&l pact which Great Britain has signed with Spain. This is not surprising since Spain occupies such a key position with reference to the war .Echoes of ±±that always significant word - Gibraltar. There have been plenty of rumors that Spain, the Franco Government — would enter the war on the side of the Axis powers, for a biow at "The Rock". There were London reports today that the new An^lo-Spanish pact was made only after the Franco Government promised that Spain would stay neutral, - would not go into the war. Tke ,lat£££, however, seems to negative this supposition. Official British quarters describe the report of a Franco pledge as - "not confirmed." Another interesting angle refers to that all-important British blockade, Britain^ Number One*weapon for winning the war. London is applying the blockade to the whole continent, but now is making concessions to Spain, - a commercial treaty, with shipments and a financial arrangement to expedite blockade. London today explains that all precautions will be ta^en to be certain that shipments to Spain are not SPAIN _ 2 trans-shipped to Germany or Italy. The British will regulate and see that they conform strictly to Spanish S p an i sh^Wrf ^ j cm requirements. Spain get only what Spain needs and consumes A GRE1 C£ The Greeks and Italians are at savage grips — in a war made worse by the weather. For winter is cold and white along the Greek-Albanian Frontier — icy chill and drifting snow./ The terrain is as rugged as you will find in the world, mountains. craggy hills, zx rocky passes. Ribht now the blizz-rd wind is fagG whistling among the cliffs, the steep narrow paths are choked w'ith A A snow. The reports indicate that the Italians are/trying to use their AkL A, mechanized equipment — like squadrons of tanks. But t-iie ~(<yi ^ most unfavorable be motorized war, specially in winter. So.itTs A A / / hand-to-hand, and v.e hear of fierce fighting with the bayonet — the l -r- weapon almost unheard of in this present war until now. ISSL the battle seems to have gone back to the primitive — mid the and crags a * The Fascists are battling desperately to stem the Greek attacks Rome speaks^zjF counter-attack# but has l&t little else to say. Athens reports new advances, nefo successes today — like the capture of a large villaje at an important strategic point. The Greeks claim they have the Italian base at Porto Edda cut off,and are pressing hid against the \other base at Argyrokastron The adventure into which Mussol ni entered so lightly. as it seemed — has turned into the bitterest kind of war — with the GREECE - 2 Italians still trying to stem the onset of the surprising Greeks. A MM.ZIL Tliere is word tonight that Great Britain is going to get a protest from Brazil -- a strong protest, says Rio. This is because of the incident of a Brazilian merchant vessel and a British cruiser, and twenty-tv/o Germans were seized and taken away. Tnese Germans were travelling quite legally, say the Brazilians — The captain of the Brazilian ship protested that they were witrdn waters which the Pan American congress had mapped out as a security zone. Whereupon the British commander replied — that the Pan American securitiy had no standing in international law. hDOwi '-. l T Ve can now disclose the mystery of the Presidents trip to trie Cariboean. V»e can reveal uhat the Chief Executive of the United States is going to do, cruising in southern waters - his purpose, his mission. Here’s the inside information: President Roosevelt is going to Christmas Island - to buy Cnristmas cards. From there he will proceed to Easter Island - to buy Easter cards. This was officially stated by the President himself today. And there certainly should be international repercussions. At Miami, the President boarded the United States cruiser TUSCALOOSA - amid a flock of reports that'he would inspect defenses in the Canal Zone area. Also - that he might do a bit of fishing. F.D.R. is an enthusiastic fisherman, and on previous voyabes has angled for the mighty tarpon and sailfish. Today, however, he said - No, there wouldn’t be any fishing. Or - very littxe. The cruise, he added, was strictly business. Reporters A asked - "What kind of business?" Also - "What ports will you visit?" Then it was that President Roosevelt made the revelation - telling the boys aoout Christmas cards at Christmas Island and Easter cards at nas ^er Islan^. A typical Roosevelticin v<ciy of saying nothing and preserving intact the mystery of his cruise aboard the TUSCALOOSA. CO. :-ViU^ISTC q mi : — question frequently asked^- MWhy does anybody ever become a Communist?” Tonight the question is more emphatic, oecause it can be stated this way - "Why does anybody become a Communist when it costs so much?” The high cost of being a Red was propounded today in New York before a legislative committee which is inquiring into Xx Communist activities in the public schools. Tne principal XaJbtsx witness was Professor Bernard David Nino Grebanier of Brooklyn College. Ke told how he had been a member of the Party of the Reds, and named eight other New York College professors as being Communists. Then he went on to the high cost of it all. He told how he and other faculty members of Brooklyn College had to pay regular taxes to the Communist Party. They had to hand over ten per cent of their salaries, and in addition make contributions to such things as the "Communist Solidarity Fund", the "Red Front Fund" and the "Daily Worker Fund .11 He estimates that it cost him Five A hundred dollars a year to be a Red. Moreover, the faculty members did work for the Communist Party - free. They were assigned to various jobs by Red headquarters. Trie professor himself had to write COMMUNISTS 2 book reviews for radical publications. Others taught in Communist schools. A Professor of Philosophy last year gave a course entitled ’’Introduction to Philosophy, a Marxist Interpretation.” So for the privilege of being Reds, the New York school professors had to pay plenty and do work free. It hardly seems worth it. luINE Herefs one from Arizona. The literature of mining is full of legends about lost mines, fabulous deposits once worked by the Spaniards. Every prospector in the southwest dreams of finding one or another of those lost mines. In Arizona, for instance, they talk about the tTLost Dutchman,” supoosedly somewhere in the Superstition Mountains, west of Tucson. Nov.-, a couple of old prospectors have Just returned to Phoenix after a long search in the Superstition range. And they claim they are on the track of the ”Lost Dutchman.” The legend is that the Spaniards who were working that mine were murdered by Apaches; that it was re-located by an immigrant from Germany; hence its name, "Lost Dutchman.” A further detail of the legend is that the German who found it killed several men in order to keep the secret of his mine, and then died without ever telling anybody where it was. The two latter-day prospectors have Just announced that they found a huge cavern in the Superstition fountains. In that cavern was an old Spanish kettle. They also found a couple of knives. including a heavy stone mill, the From other indications, MINE - 2 prospectors were led to believe that the cavern was the place where the Spaniards of old used to reduce the ore into nuggets before shipping it out to Mexico City. They came across a number of human bones in that cavern which they presume to be those of the men whom the Dutchman murdered in order to keep the secret of his ancient Spanish mine. BRIDGE Herefs a ratner astonisaing story in the woi'ld of insurance. ilxfcsgiKs the series of evepts began almost a month ago, November the Seventh. On that date a spectacular thing occurred - the collapse of the Tacoma Bridge. The five million dollar span ro; ; ?ipsrd -sggt. fell into Pu&et Sound - in a startling ^ A melodrama of swinging steel and concrete. At the time we were told that the Tacoma bridge was fully covered by insurance, the loss would be reimbursed. Four days later, there was a telephone conversation in ftew York. One of the persons on the wire was Walter F. brady, Vice-President and Secretary of the Merchants Fire Assurance Company. He was talking to ajfriend, the collapse of the Tacoma bridge happened to be mentioned, and Insurance Executive Brady was surprised by the following remark- "I hear,n said the friend, ’’that you people are on for eight hundred thousand dollars.” ’’Vrnat?” exclaimed the insurance executive. As Vice-President and General A6ent, he /mew all about the policies issued by his Company - especially such a huge policy. But he had never heerd that the Company had insured the ERITGE o tune of eight hundred thousand dollars. The information persisted, however. He investigated - and found it was true. He says he learned that the policy had been written by an agent in txie northwest, who failed to notify the home office about it. Nor had he sent in the premium - eight thousand dollars. So the Company had insured the bridge without snowing anything about it! Today, the New' York executive stated ftNever by any stretch of the imagination would our Company have carried insurance to tnat amount on a bridge.” Nevertheless, the Company is liable - though its lossriT^ come to more than two hundred thousandFor the rest of the amount therefs what insurance men call "coverage.” A large percentage of all Company!s risks 5* covered automatically - divided among other companies. The assets of Merchants Fire Assurance amount to seventeen and a half million - so the bridge loss is nothing dangerous. Today in Seattle, the agent who wrote up the Tacoma Bridge was placed under arrest - charged with failing to notify the home office about the eight hundred thousand dollar policy, failing also to forward the eight thousand dollar premium. (X