A wild winter ga le 1s ~ o n i g ht swe ~ ping th P a cifi c north we st - from Bri t is h C o lumbi a to South e rn Ore g on. At l a st wor d t he b i g blow was centered o!f Vancouve r Islan d -- movin g southeast. In blindin g snow a a ■ Seattle-bound Northw es t Airl i nes p lane crashed this afternoon near S n okane, killing all ten persons aboard - - the first casualty of the storm. Toni g ht's temp e st 18 described as the worst in fifteen years, with roof- top s torn off buildings 1n Victoria, Greenhouses smashed, power pylons uprooted. CEA SE FIRE ------ -- - It ma be t ha t the C hin e se Reds a r e a cce p ting t h e •cease fire• p r op os a l for e n d ing the war in Korea. T h is sup p ositio n is b a sed entire ly on u ncon f irmed re orts from London. Again t h er e m ay be not h in to it at all. But, it m i g ht be a re al intimation sli p ping out. A late dis p atch from London states that Indian P rime Minister Nehru had a sudden, unex p ected conference with British Foreign Secretary leWin thia afternoon. Nehru is in London - there to attend the ta l ks held by the members of the British Commonwealth. The Nehru-Bevin conference this afternoon ie a definite fact, though what it was all aboutis not official l y disclosed. But the re p ort is that lehru gave to B e vin a reply that the government of India haa received from Red China a reply to the •cease fire• p ro p osals that were put forward last Friday by the UN Committee trying to arra n ge a truce in Iorea. i CEASE FIRE - 2 So what a n s ' er does Red China make? ell, Witt w have still other r e ports - which w re " ci c u la e d in London e arlier toda y . •Informed sources• are reported as saying t a t t h ey understood the Chinese Reds were ready to a ree to a truce. This, ins ite of the 1•• fact that Soviet Russia last week, expres ed •~,x opposition to the •cease fire• sug" tion. The view w s given that Chinese Communlata were willing to make an end of their invasion of Korea -- in consideration of the offers made in the UN proposal. These were - the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Korea, and a consideration of the question of Formosa. Also - a four-power conference on the Far East, which would include RPd China. - together with Unit e d States, Great Britain and Soviet Russia. And - the possibility of Red China being admit ed to the United Nations. But all this, as I say, is in the realm ' of reports - and a.t the U N toni ht, at Lake Success, C E AS E FI R E - 3 n o b od y se e m s t o k n w an y t h in g about t he Chin e s e R ed re p ly, s u n o sed to ha ve been receiv e d in Lo n don. - ~ . . . i n a m■ l a te di sp a t ch from W& s hin g ton, Assistant S e cre ~ r y of State Dean Rusk ..... UL eftd-,1.ehtl §t"oMrwn,._,a~ said to have told a Senate sub-committoe that t h e Uni t ed States is convinced that the Chinese Com m unists will reject the •cease tire• offer. 0 S e cretary of State Dean Acheson 1s reported to have ssured members of Congress privately that our government is not committed to support any attemp, to give Red China a place in the United Nations. We hear that Acheson pointed out that we havferely agreed to discuss UN membership, also Formosa. So we are not pledged - even if a truce is arranged 1n Korea, a •cease fire• as intimated in London. KOREA ------- t h e seco n d d ay i n Kor ea , the l imited UN offen s ive - that •reconn a i s sance in force, .. ro l led f orward uno pp osed, below Seoul. L ead ing columns this afternoon entered the ancient fortress town of Suwon. Allied atrol and reconnaissance p lanes brought beck word that the C h inese were falling back all across the west; withdrawing towards Seoul and digging in ten miles south and southeast of the South [orean ca p ita~ 'A dd KOREA In the Wonju a rea, UN forc e s were ulled back a few m il es today. This •to revent flank ~ G, i n f 11 tr at 1 on X e.,_ t h-e 8 ob&e k S(ffl II t ~~~ str a i ght en out th e UN lin e across the widest part o f South Kor e a. D Th e r e 's m uch confusion in the news from Kor ea tonight. As a UP corres p ondent puts it; 'Which way are the three hundred thousand Chinese maroh1ngt• At Eighth Army Headquarters, the staff 1s trying to puzzle this out too, piecing together ax■ aerial and g round reports from patrols. The answer just•• doesn't seem to add up with the C;'i~:;;::_~eading .... ~,--~ 1n all directions • . Last night there~••-;f to be two explanations 1 but tonight military observers have many more. The most likely of them seems to be that the Chinese will concentrate all their forces in the Central mountain corridor -- that they will pullkl& back in the West - then h i ~ H forces with a full scale offensive. ADD KOREA ( The lat e st. Durin the night a UN patrol pushed forward south of S e ul but no enemy forces w er e encountered.) All night lon g bombing rocket and strafing attacks hammer e d the Chin es e in their new nos1tions north of Suwon. INDO .. CHINA { 1 n Indo-China to d ay, the Vie t Minh rebels thre t ousands of fresh troops into the ~a ttle for - the Red Riv e r rice bowl . For the fir st time in the ~ five year Indo-China war the Reds have launched their A troops in front 1 assaulti blp to now it has always bee - uerrilla warfare, attacks on isolat ed French outposts) A dispatch from Saigon describes enemy c a sualties as •tremendous• with more than thirty Red battalions 1n the attack. rrenoh g round tropp1 are outnumbered in this -- •the big ~ est battle of the ~r~ ' "" war•. But have superiority in ,,< a.rt 11 lery '" equipmen,1 and 1n the air. At last word the defender• are holdln1 EISENHOWER ------...--~- .... In London t~is m o rning General Eisenhower had a message of cheer for the co un tries of the Pact. The General told corres p ondents that he believes he can make his Atlantic Pact army •a p ower so strong that it will p revent a third World War.• Be spoke of being greatly cheered by the readi n ess of European gover ments, and their citizens, •to meet the onerous requirements of rearmament.• Be also was em p hatic about iaiation being impossible for any free country -- that all of us must stick together in a common alliance against Soviet imperialism,• was the way he p ut it. After the meeting, General Ike chatted • it h correspondents behad known during the last war. •Thia is where I came in• h• said, and then added:- •only its kind of odd to be drafted at my age, when the law talks about eighteen year olds. But I'm glad people still think of me as of draft age!• • He is in Lisbon tonight and tomorrow will meet Portugal's President and military l eaders before flying on to Italy. SPAIN from Madrid, there's news tonight of Spain's · rmy. The army which Spain could put at General Eisenhower's disnosal - if she were included in the Atlan ic Pact. General Franco already has twenty- ~ two divisions available. If war/\comee, that number can be swelled with forty more divisions - giving & ~Q.~ total of two-and-a-half men under arms. ,A Word from Madrid 11 that Spain badly needs arms and equipment, 1f she is to take part in the defense of !urope~Jfould gladly join in the Atlantic J Y ~ ~ Paot, if asked. So far there9'1- been no asking L-~- ,A /'- r-' except by her neighbor, Port, 1 5al. J:ver since the Atlantic treaty was signed, Portugal has been urging U 5/'••~ ~ ~ , ~ ~-f.-ffet4 - AJ.o--.. ~ - ~ - s w ,i,~a...._ ~ ••~ea.--"'°'™-.. 1 J'ollowlng ~ full ; i p l o m a t i l . o ~ o ~ ~ n ! i r n and ~ L . ~ , I Britain had its first glim p se today of our B-36 atom-bombers when six of the ten-engined pl anes touched down at Lakenheath airfield in England. They'd flown the five thousand miles from Forth Worth with normal crews of fifteen men - also •make believe atom bombs, a full complement of armament- but no ammunition.• • FOLLOW 36s At Fort Worth, Texas, today, a B-36 bomber touched down after a non-stop fl1 ht of fifty- one h ours and twenty inutes. This without xatt• refueling. Th re's no word of the mileage covered. But the plane may well have established a new distance record for this sort of flight. It's easy to work out that if the plane had been flying at three hundred tt~■ miles an hour, it would ha.ve coveretore than fifteen thousand miles - top 1ng the existing -orld record by more than four thousand miles. FOREIGN POLICY Wor d Just 1n rom W~sh1ngton~-Senate Dem ocratic l e a e rs wil l se e k a formal vote of confidence on t h e President's plan for sending U.S. Troops to E urope. The De m ocrats will try and avoid a direct ~~ test on Senator Wherry's resolution~ forbida transfer of U.S. forces without Congressional approval. The Democrats plan to side-track the Republican resolutionJsend it to the roreign Relation• Commt t tee for hearings j Then, draft a new one, which would give full endorsement to the President'• announced plans for sending ten divisions to General Eisenhower's army. W E APON From W a h ington we l ea rn today of a t:-J"ir - revolutionary anti-aircraft gun - "the most , 1, unconvention a l 1n ne a rly a century!• The n e w g un, so 1t seems, is still in the experimental stage - under development at the Naval Ordnance laboratory 1n Maryland. The idea, was taken from the Germans, who were experimenting with a smooth ba·rel gun. This firing a shell like an arrow - at S•■•S~ twice the velocity of present day shells. The Germana never had time to complete their experiments, sot• tod&J we have their idea. The new shells fitted with finna like a dart, can be fired with high accuracy -- for at least sixty miles. 'Undoubtedly there are many snaga ahead,' say the scientists. If thes e can be ironed out and the new type of gun proves a success, 1 it may well be the answer to the problem of hitting planes and g ui ded m1eeiles which fly faster than sound. 1 INFLUENZA News of the British influenza epidemic becomee l alarming -- witb medical authorities ov e r there referring back to the deadly sween of the flu back in Nineteen Eighteen. At that time, tb e world-wide ~pidemic took millions of lives. From the middle of England, around Liverpool, the flu has swept south to London and north into Scotland. And tbe ~• epidemic has crossed into Ireland -- spreading through County Cork. From one place &tie~ another comes the same sort of new• -- thousands of workers 111, slowing down industry, schools closed,, " / p ~ ~ ~ -t:...~t.,,.., ~• hospitals overcrowded./octors and nurses/'\taken sick,-- Th~flu is accompanied by pneumonia - ot which Glasgow reports five hundred oases. In Liverpool last week there wer,ore than two hundred deaths. That's the only area where things are serious enough to recall the scourge of influenza in the First World War. But its bad to have to recall it all. REPRESENTATIYI In Britain today, Lord Roth rmere'e national newspaper, -f'he Daily Mail, cast its eye in the t general direction of Japan. It hint d that, before long, President Truman would be send~ng a diplomatic envoy to the Japanese government 1n Tokyo. Quipued the Daily Mail: •Mr.Truman 1s anxious to have a Yankee at the Court of King MacArthur.• RMY News from the Army - they've abolished rookies. Which does not mean, ho ever, that they've done away with the •awkward squad• the sorry-looking g reenhorns who don't know one end of the gun from the -is,.~:,~ other. They•v~ ab olished the ran k of •recruit: ind the GI., The moment he 1s inducted, becomes a •private• right away. 7 Wh a t's the reason! I inquired of the armJ today, and found the whole thing a little complex. Until now, under a set-up decreed by Congress - if a GI re-enlist e d he was given the rank of •recruit'. A rookie all over again - although he might be & well --e-v•'lf ~ trained soldier,Awith/\experience.Ml ~wttl-e ~ So, according to that, a squad of rookies might consist of combat hardened veterans, ex~erts in the ways of the army and in the methods of war. ~ That'sAwhat theylre changing. No more rookies, ~ not officially, though the U.S. Army will still have its sh a re of the clumsy footed, weary and bedraggled -- until t h ey are turned into snappy soldiers. -- lhe eternal rookie. --- • AIR FORCE UNIFORM The Air Force is oin I to have a fit,- sartorially, that is. Today the an ouncement was made that, hereafter, Air For c e uniforms will be tailored -- for a perf ct fit. Hitherto, the enlist d men, getting their uniforms, have had to take what comes off the top of the pile. Their g neral size was considered, and they were handed an outfit without any consideration for the niceties of tailoring, Sut that's \ all being changed - and hereafter, they'll be fitted with uniforms, just as a civilian tries on a suit in a clothing store. At Air Force supply centers, individual booths will be available, with full length mirrors - as in any tailoring establis - hment. Uniforms will be altered, according to the best traditions of sartorial art. All for a greater smartness and a -;,r better appearance. The Air Force is going to have a rtt! ~~r-A-t-0~}t?