Iii.Xi.JJLSUNOCO •MARCH_20j_ 12^2 GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: I * ID in Colorado tonight - to b© more exact, I'm on board a train in the Denver Union station. A Bnion Pacific train called the Pony Express. One minute after I finish broadcasting, and while Hugh Barnes back in New York is saying so long for me, aboard this Pony Express I'll be pulling out of Denver for Cheyenne, Wyoming. How has the war Oiffected this mile high state? A lot of which is more thati two miles high? Well, Colorado seems to be war minded enough, all right, it seems to be about 100 % that way, but Colorado is not the sort of state that ever lagged behind in anything. Governor ^alph Carr who is sitting beside me tells me that Colorado has developed a defense council that beats ^bl these western states and that every man, woman child is being enlisted to do some sort of war »ork. ____ M a CARTHUR And how goes the war tonight? Well, the news tonight is dominated by two names, both beginning with A “ America and Australia, Our own General I I MacArthur today issuod his first statement as Commandejv in-Chief of the armies of the United Nations in the Southwestern Pacific. He declared that President Roosevelt ordered him to Australia to organize an offensive against Japan. The primary purpose of this, he continued, is the relief of the Philippines. So there you have two angles - the President invision ing a great offensive and MacArthur thinking of his comrades in the Bataan Peninsula. In Washington the President today echoed this - he ssid that this country is doing everything possible to relieve the Americans and Filipinos in Bataan, but the President added that the supply task is difficult; complicated by those great distances and by the present shortage of shipping. Ouu in Australia the Prime Minister today told the United ^ Press correspondent Francis McCarthy that it’s 1 1 MACARTHUR - 2 the American plan to use Australia as the springboard for an Allied offensive against Japan. That in the Australian view is the meaning of the MacArthur appointment. | Prime MiniTter'Surtln’Tf^ustraliar'' rev6aled t/Oday that/ th© naming of th© Am©rican g©n©ral as suppeme commander was actually proposed by Australia \ -......................... - and h© add©d that Pr©sid©nt Roos©v©lt agr©©d.yinstantly and then he added this phrase, 'British acauiescence, said he, was a good deal more tardy. He stated that it was only natural that Australia should now turnto the U. S. for aid. We are depending on America, said the Prime Mininster .of Australia, oour nations have ouch in common, hhk and he went on to explain that the great land of the southeren himisphere could not de­ pend on the power of Great Britain as a shield against •^^pan. We realize, he said, that Britain cannot ^^lly protect the far flung empire. He even went to voice Australia’s doubt about Biitians’s war policy. He said that as far back as the time of ’•'inich the defense proposals drafted by the late AUSTRALIA^ Prime Minister Chamberlain did not suffi ciently con- sider the British Dominions, and that state of mind continued, he added. And he argued also that the Australian^ had opposed the campaign in Greece and thay they were right about it. He said that Australians were puzzled to see reinforcements poured into the British Isles too; where they felt there was little danger of attack. Then he focused today this criticism on Prime Minister Churchill. All of admire that brilliance of Churchill, he said. although we sometimes have doubted the wisdom of some of the decisions he has imposed and feel that some of them have been dictated by political rather than strategic considerations. This is all the more pertinent becauseoof a minunderslanding right now between the Australian .government and Churchill The trouble concerns Richard G. wasey who, until now, has been Australian Minister to Washington, f^hurchill has just appointed Casey to the L.ondon War Cabinet with the rank of Miniister of State t:i I ij |E I * i \ 511 iil iy 'I w AUSTRALIA - 2 to Cairo. Australian Parime Minister Curtin isn’t at all keen about this shift and he said today that he was surprised at the speed of the appointment surprised that Winston Churchill should insist on it in the face of the reluctance of Australia. NEW BRITAIN On the war side the U. S. Army announces that two of its big bombers, flying fortresses, scored another direct hit on a powefful Japanese cruiser off New Britain Island. It's not indicated whether this was the same bombing success that was announced yesterday. The Japs are said to he moving two great fleets of transports guarded by heavy cruisers and airplane carriers - moving that Armada toward Australia. This might mean the much expected in­ vasion of the southern continent with swift work from MacArthur. However, another dispatch tells of s Jap invasion fleet moving against Port Moresby - the key point on the vast island of New Guinea, noath of Australia. And this may be the real expla­ nation - a major effort to seize strategic points on the New Guinea coast. Last night we had the supposition that the Japs were trying to ti’rust across 110 miles of ferocious jungle and mountains on New Guinea, aiming at the south coast ot that . , we hear that they island near Port Moresby. lOlay we ea NEW BRITAIN they DON’nt intend to go all the way across. They are trying to seize a broai, faiily clear, almost unknown valley to the north of Port Moresby ani there establish air bases in New Guinea to enable them to use air power at short range to cover an assault by the sea route. bur « a The word from Burma echoes General MacArthur declaration in the Philippines - attack the Japs. The time is surely coming for an counter-offensive says Lieutenant General Stilwell, the new Americai^ Commander of the Chinese Armies in Burma. \0ur I ........ . J happiest day he added will he when we see American and Chinese troops together in Tokyo - Americans and Chinese. However, he gives us a word of caution The Allies must abe patient in regard to counter blows said he. The Chinese have been complaining that the British have not permitted t^em to send enough Chinese soldiers into Burma for the defense of that country. America’s General Stilwell was asked about this, but he refrained from comment. On the Burmese battle front Chinese troops are in action today. They clashed with the enemy in the Sittang sector some 40 miles south of the key point of Toungoon, north of Rangoon IREATY London tells us today that Soviet Busaia has renewed a pact withJapan. A treatv concerning fishing rights. The question of Japanese fishing in the waters of Soviet Siberia has long been a source of argument between tokyo ahd^’Moscow. It has been governed by o^.e year treaties and every year there have been a lot of negotiations with renewal usually and so with this year. The fisheries’ pact expired December 31. Since then Soviet and Japanese negotia­ tors have been wrangling about renewal. It was concluded today - signed on the line- and of course it has intimations concerning larger things than fishing. It might be an indication that the Soviets and Japan have no great expectation of goxng to war immediately. On the other side ox the immense Russian dominion "Bhr Red Army reports more successes tonight. President Roosevelt today rpo claimed April 6 Army Day. We are engaged in our greatest war, said he, a war that will leave none of our lines wholly untouched’., and the Presidential PRESIDENT Proclamation gives us these words. In times of peace we do not maintain a vast standing army that might terrorize our neighbors and depress our own people, but whenever a tyrant across the seas has threaten ED our liberties, our citizens have been ready to forge and use the v:eapons necessary for their de­ fense, thus speaks the President in proclaiming Army Day, April 6. Now about Colorado and the war. Sitting with me in this Club Aar of the Union Pacific Pony Express are a number of old timers, men and women who have been in this mountain state, well ever since the old days when some os us lived in Colorado mining camps. Out of the window we can see snow capped. mountains - those glorious lofty peaks of the ? c c L i e *5? that have made Colorado famous around t>’e world and in the group here aboard the Pony Express with me 1 is one old timer with a long gray beard, long hair down to his shoulders, his name is Tom Weaver, and as a Parepector he has sought for gold all through these w president - 2 'I bt and silver mines may shut down in Colorado. ; Mines out of which have poured so much of this nations wealth. Mines famous in song and story - like the Portland and the Molly Kathleen at Victor and Cripple Creek, and the Camp Bird at Telluride. Is that report true Governor Carr? If so, how come? CARB: It's this way, Howell, an order from the War Production Board informed us the other day than any mine producing more than thirty per cent in dollar value, more than thirty per cent of gold and silver, no longer will he entitled to ar preference rating in purchasing the explosives and other materials and equipment needed to operate', hut it so happens that all of these mines have hy-products, also turnout lead, cooper and zinc, which is so hadly needed for war. But^ |hey cannot he produced without at the same ' lining the gold and silver which.appear in the same voo-pri todav is correct. If t rock. Yes, the rumor you heard toaay + v 1 . +hP^^^ Production Board that order promulgated hy tre LO|ELL_TFOMAS stands than nearly all the mines of Colorado will have to shut down. L.T. what is that going to do to Victor and Ctipple and other mining town^ where you and I used to live, Governor? CARR: They are going to shut down LoweJ^l, and many other cities of brick and concrete and steel, built at high altitudes will become ghoastowns within a few months, and Red hlodded Americans who know no other work will he driven from theii homes and forced to work elsewhere, and thei'^are man . w. o .hink the results of such action would he as had as the ravaging. passage through these mountains of invading army. We have been holding meetings here in Denver and in Reno, Novada to^'try and find some other solution to this problem. t^Aside from thit mining prohi and it's a huge one, everything out here is going smoothly. We're all in war work up to our eyes and lowell _ thomas Colorado's sons are pouring out of these mountains joining up, ready to do their part to win the war. / Also we are going tc^.ave the greatest sugar beet crop in history. The unusually heavy snowfall assures us of 1 huge crops of many kinds. L.T thanks Governor and here's anuest 1 or. which should inhcrGst; lot. of* poopl© including ypu and me. Men between forty and sixty four are called to fill a labor shortage in the war industries. Will that happen under ad.ective Service. They are going to register on April twenty seven. Thirteen million men between the upper age limits. They are not liable to competent military service, but they will register whatever kind of skill and experience they have. So will they be summoned to work in t^e war industries Tilling gaps caused by labor shortages. Today President Roosevelt intimated that The answer might be yes. He told reporters that This nation would probably face shortages of labor, not right away but perhaps by next fall. LOWELL THOMAS He explained that at present there is sufficient man power for the nation's expanding war plants, but he is inclined to think that with plants continuting to expad ' I there may not be enough workers come Autumn, and what b do about it. The President said it might be possible b ** use some agency already established to procure suffi­ cient man power, where upon one reporter spoke up and asked does that mena selective service. The President paused for a moment and then replied that he didn't know - in other words - maybe yes. They tellj us that the registration of men from 45 to 64 will re- « veal hundreds of thousands of what they call hidden j skill. The President said today that he himself was going to register. Here's how they settled a strike today at Weekawken. New Jersey. A longshoreman’s walk out. Company officials and union leaders were negotiating folding a debate standing on a dock v/ith strikers lounging around near by. The company and untion Were getting no where rapidly, and it looked bad for STRIKE settling the \\alk out. At that juncture one fcf i^e strking stevefores shouted at them in a loud racus voice, Hell, this ain’t any te^ P’^rty, this is he roards, ’’ijet s all shake hands and go hafek to work.”^ And the negotiators promptly took fehe advice and shook hands and agreed to let state mediators decide t^e argument. And 258 longshoremen were on their way back to work. That's the kid of news item I like to ! [I put on the air for a change. In the early years of this broadcast long ago, we used to have a Tall Story Culb in w>"ich we paid homage to the tellers of the biggest whoppers After a while the Tall Story Club was discontinued Apparently because its members had run out of really large prevaticating lies. However, I always I ill ^6pt in mind the resolve to revive our mendacious j fraternity if some new and talented teller of tall taleSji should arise - some master prevaricator and tonight’s thE^ ^ight. We can open the creaking door of the Tall Story Club and aokMit a new member, a brother who today I TALL STORIES RETAKE^ toli one of the biggest on record. Who is be? Let me •r introduce him, the Honorable Franklin Delano Foosevelt, ^ President of the U. S. At the White House news | conference today the ‘resident told the reporters how ^ 'S at a White House dinner a lady asked him just how |- p did General MacArthur get from the Bataan Peninsula to Australia. It was a military secret of course, whe 7i wanted the inside story, so tt^e President gave it to her, relating the following. MacArthur took a row boat,i* disguised himself as a Filipine fisherman and accroding to the President he paddles that boat from Bataan Penins” • .. tf ula and passed unrecognized through heavy concentrations | • r of Japanese naval strength. Furthermore, according +o F DR and his version General MacArthur rowed, yes, rowed the boat himself, 2,500 miles, right through the Japanese fleet and landed safely in Australia. That s what the President told the lady and the President adds M? that he thinks the lady really believed it, w'^ich also sounds like a tall one. Anyway step right into the tall story coub tonight Mr. President of the U.S. And now, Hugh, you tell one.