EGiPT There is still no decision in the battle of bigypt. which was in its third day today. But it is clear that the British have had the better of it thus -^hey have checked Rommel - that at least. With their defense line at the very jjateway of Alexandria, they have inflicted on the *>lazl Field Marshal the first setback that he has received since his victory in Libya, however, everything is still in the balance British take care to tell us that. The strategy of the battle seems to be fairly clear. It was expected that Ronimel would stik strike at the ‘Southern end of the British line. “Jut he did not do this. Instead, he hit X t the north, along the Mediterranean, at th^place called El Alamdn il And he was beaten back. Today and yesterday the news was the same, ti 5: |_ the heavy charges of the Nazi tanks - repelled. L Meanwhile, British General Sir Claud Auchinleck, launched an attack of his own, at the opposite ene of the line. the south. SaaaiMi And there he found the Germans weak, and British attacks drove back the enemy. It '.vould appear that some of the •1 EGYPT - 2 empire units got through, and started skirting the southern German wing - with a threat to outflank Rommel completely. encircle his Panzers. However, a late story from Cairo states that little more has been heard about the British forces that crashed through and were threatening snzls encirclement. The British emphasize the belief that Rommel, though repelled is merely mustering his forces fra for a new attack. Yesterday, Rome and Berlin declared that their armored battalions had punched a gap in the defending front just south of the Mediterranean near Rl Alamein. Today, they insist that th^y have widened the British gap still further. with the capture of two thousand prisoners The latest is a British denial that artillery fire can be heard in Alexandria, '^e had this report via London last night, '.nd it continued today - the statement that the Nazi Panzers were so close to the great naval base that the sound of cannon could be heard in the city. Tonight British authoriti es I EGiPT - 3 in Alexandria say that this was, in their words, ’’entirely false*'. < BRITISH LOSSES London today announced the loss of six warships - a British cruiser, four British destroyers and a Polish destroyer. They were sunk in the Mediterranean, during recent convoy operations tvr getting supplies to Malta. The cruiser A was the Hermoine, a fifty-four hundred ton vessel, commissioned in Nineteen Thirty-nine. These losses announced are not altogether surprising. since it was known that British warships had been sunk in the Malta convoy battles that were in the headlines a few weeks ago. At that time, Rome ."announced tha*t seven British naval vessels had been Msstm destroyed - and admitted the sinking of a big Italian cruiser. The London admiralty at the time stated that losses had been incurred, and later Deputy Prime Minister Attlee told the British tiouse of Comir.oas that a British cruiser had been sent to the bottom, together with several other vessels. These losses were the same as those the British Admiralty announced formally todaj^* - so we hear from London. h I « RUSSIA The latest from Soviet Russia is a Moscow statement that the tremendous German offensive is slowing down. Giant tank battles have been raging along the front at Kursk, ad other huge attacks have been going on at Kharkov. It seems to be that all out Wazi offensive so much talked about. Berlin states that Hitler* s war machine is smashing forward along a front of a hundred and eighty miles in southern Russia. The Nazis claim that they have shattered thlF red Army line and are driving forward. Moscow howeverk, indicates nothing of the sort. Russia says that savAge resistance has checked the Nazi attempt at a new Blitzkrieg, and that the enemy drive is weakening. The MOSCOW newspaper called tells of surprise blows by Soviet tan fordes and declares that the Germans are in a serious A position. ADD KUSSIii Here*s a late flash from Russia. The ‘Soviets finally admit the fall of Sevastopol, saying the Crimea Naval base has been evacuated. ■0 t IIGEBS The Chinese are imo^n to use English in a peculiar way^ sometimes. We have an instance of this today — the English being a little odd and yet most expressive. The central China news ^gency speaKs of what it calls, "The meritorious historical pursuit group known as the A.V.G." ies, the American volunteer group, more colloquially called — the flying _tigers. Today they fought their last air battle an an independent unit — for ying '^Igers are’^belng inducted as a regul^ unit of the United States Air Force. \ At noon today, they beat off a squadron of Jap bomber^^hat ^ied vainly to unload their high explosives on the city of H^ngyang in the Province of Hunan, borne of the Jap planes w^e shot down, and the other^chased away. So this was the last v^tory of J^ie £lyTng ^Igers -- an a* a separate outfit^ tink Henceforth they will battle as members of the United States Air Force — after having distinguished themselves in such prodigies of air battle, those almost incredibli exploits of shooting down Jap planes. That American ^olunteer group had merit indeed and made history.^So we can appreciate the quaintness of that Chinese English phrase: "The meritorious historical pursuit group known as the A.V.G." J The boldness of the ene%' attacks against ships on this side of the Atlantic is illustrated in startling fashion by a torpedoing in Costa hica. In ^osta Kica is right -- right in the harbor of Puerto Limon. ^ ]/i^ It was announced to day that last nigh^ w en t into the Costa hi^an port and torpedoed a ship.. Ihe vessel was the San Pablo, and is listed as having'been under the Panamanian Flag^“The freighter was lying at the dock, when it was torpedoed and sank. Puerto Limon is only a hundred and ninety two miles from the Atlantic entrance of the panama Canal, which adds^jpi ^ startlinga submarine going right into /A ^ harbor and sinking a ship. SABOTEURS Those eight saboteurs w^^re faced with formal charges today, when four specific charges of espionage and sabotage were preferred against them. Two of the charges wa are based on the laws of war. Two others concern legal statutes pertaining to war and conspiracy. The four charges Include various angles of the affair - such as entering this KBMl country secretly and In civilian dress, enemies not In uniform, iJ»azl agents planning to comuit hostile acts against this country, sabotage and espionage. Each of the four charges carries a maximum penalty of death, and they are what the ft eight saboteurs face when they appear before the military commission appointed by the President. 1 I 7 APPROPRIATIONb The signature of the President of the United States is a mighty bit of handwriting. Por example, it can mean a lot of money, ’^oday President Roosevelt put his John Hancock on ^BJi documents for the expenditure of nearly forty-five billion dollars. The principal item was the enornous armi supply bill for nineteen forty-three which provides forty-two billions^ art eight hundred millic.ns for armament. In addition, the President signed six minor appropriation bills, each of which came to a mere billion or even a picayune few hundred millions. And these brought the grand total up to the resounding figure — forty-four billion, eight hundred and sixty-seven million, seven hundred and sixty-four thousand, nine hundred and eighty-one dollars.^^Put that in your pocket and jingle it around as small change. 1 } MONEY It looks as If we may have gold paper mon»^y once a^aln - XBidaaBXBif gold notes of the kind in circulation before the United States went off the golj^ standard. But that does not mean that we are going back on gold - does not mean that you will be able to exchange the paper money for the yellow metal. Back in Nineteen Thirty-four, when Gol^ was called in by the government, the Treasury had a huge stack of gold notes on hand. These were never Issued to the public, because they were redeemable in gold, and that was out. ^o, the whole huge quantity bb was kept In storage. Now^ however, the Treasury wants to issue new paper money, and this is expensive to print. Moreover, It reouires materials of which there are shortages. ^>o why not use all that gold paper money, which is still stowed away? Use it - with the understanding that the ’’redeemable in gold” part of it is only a fiction. The Treasury estimates that by issuing worth four billion, two hundred million dollars'^wrath^of those gold notes, they can save two hundred and forty tons of paper and a million eori two hundred thousand man hours of labor - not counting | MONEY - 2 I Ink and other materials. That would save about two million dollars, the cost of printing new currency. So that Is how It happens that we may see gold notes again. .'fr r tl 1 hlXP.-OSION Harlan, Kentucky, has had a lot of explosive events — with the long history of gun fighting traditional in that mountain area. Hut Harlan never had an explosion like the ore tiBiiyat today — when hundreds of thousands of gallons of gasoline 1 blew up. ihere are big oil refineries at Harlan, and one of these caught fire. »>orkinen declare that gasoline from a tank- car overflowed, and a flaming blast followed. Company officials state that four giant drums with a capacity of from twenty-five to fifty thousands gallons of gasol4jaa,, were destroyed — ad one after another blew up — the only casualties were two persons injured, and they were people whose home near the refinery was blasted from its foundation. WEDDING In Boston this evening a wedding is being soieoiniEed at the ..It. Vernon Congregational Church in the aristocratic Back Bay District -- and a most formal wedding it is. S+ately procession, bridesmaids j and ushers, music and orange blossoms -- and so on Private Wallace Bell and Aileen Koyonan didn’t thinK they'd need a formal wedding. In fact. they didn't have the price of anytning elaborate. A auiet trip to get hitched seemed quite sufficient Butnthen Aileen got a wedding present from her sister -- \ I and what a present. [ I' Aileen's sister is a fashionable modiste in I Hollywood, a creater of styles for the stars of filmland? ij So the present she sent to Aileen was a wedding gown | and veil, a gown of flowing white satin, with a lace Dodice, streaming ribbons and a long train. And a veil of shimmering gossamer trimmed with orange blossoms| Any girl would dream of getting married in that. | i Aileen gazed with ^asps ol wonder and then v/ith a | I sigh of dismay. - 2 She certainly couldn’t W3ar that ^ordeous creation on a .lere trip to the preacher’s house for a quick neddint, and then a speedy getaway. The gown required a wedding to match, a formal church ceremony. However, the fact remained that the young couple did not have the price of anything more than the simplest kind of ceremony. So what could fiileen do? It looiced as if she could hand that wedding dress on down to her granddaughters -- the gown in which Grandma did not get married. Then a good fairy stepped in, a good fairy in the guise of the Women’s City Club of Boston. Aileen and the wedding gown, ana felt sentimental about it. And tnereupon they decided to arrange a formal chuhch wedding for the soldier and his bride. So that is how Private Bell and Aileen are getting married tonight in tne fashionalbe Back Bay section of Boston -- viith- as much social fa mare and flutter ■jn'gre the wedding oi a Cabou anu a Lod^e. These ladies heard aoout the dilemma of Private Bell, | I B a BY Today in Bt. Louis, the lAieber family lost its newest baby — the two-year old boy that came to them so strangely. They^FB a bit A sad about it — and yet glad. It is one of those wistful stories of sighing and smiling. I Day before yesterday, twelve year old Virginia ifceber was romping at a public playground — when a middlokged woman approached. a woman carrying a baby. t>he seemed ag’itated and distracted. "Please take care of my baby for me", she said to Virginia, and handed her the child — a two-year old boy. Virginia took the little fellow, and the woman disappeared — she never did return. The twelve year old girl was rather glad that she didn’t. Bhe liked the small, smiling tot and carried him home to her mother — Mrs. Mazie Weber. And that brought joy to the Weber household. It is true that they were poor, and Mrs. Weber could hardly provide the necessities for her own children — three of them. But she was delighted with the little boy, and bought him milk a new suit and a pair of shoes and ordered an extra bottle of^M±±^ to be delivered for him each day. r r Tv B a BY - 2 But that, alas, was a nev. drain on the meagre finances of the lAiebers. And the mother thought that, with an extra mouth to feed, she had better look for a Job. She got a newspaper to search through the want ads — the help wanted section. She was turning over the pages of the paper, when she saw a picture that stopped her. She recognized it — a little boy, the newspaper told the yard to play — and had not been seen since. His parents were distracted. When Mrs. Maxie Weber read that she felt sad — and yet happy. She realized that the child had been stolen by the strange woman in some strange sort of abduction. Dutifully, Mrs. Weber took the child to the address given in the newspaper — to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Jiewis. And there was a deliriously happy reunion. Today the newspi^permen questioned Virginia, and she said resignedly: ”He was too sweet. I Knew somebody would be wanting him cry even back. Why”, she exclaimed, "He didn» t^nxMXJKxy once.” how the child had disappeared from his homij^. He had gone out into |