UESDAYlx 19^2 GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: The latest from North Africa states that the battle for Tunisia has entered the critical stage. American and British forces are battling with the Nazis all along the line across the narrow northern tip of Tunisia. Today's late bulletin from Allied North African headquarters tells us that Hitler's forces are defending the area of the city of Tunis and the naval base of Bizerte with vigorous firhting. They are holding strongly, says the Allied bulletin. And the they are throwing into the battle best of their fighter planes and squadrons. These crack Nazi air units are trying to stop the Allied columns closing in for the kill. Jeeting them, are General Doolittle forces of air battle, and an intense conflict rages in the sky. AFRICA - 2 Today's Army communique from Washington states: "Air activity continues in the whole Tunisian area including bombing and especially fi ,hter plane sorties against enemy low flying attacks on ground troops." The Army bulletin lists losses as six Axis planes shot down. We lost five, but three of our xightei’s are safe. Our bombers hit Bizerte, giving that Nazi-held naval base a tremendous blasting helping our troops on the round push into the tip of Tunisia against heavy enemy resistance. I happen to be broadcasting from Philadelphia tonight. And I have just ceom from anotner important Army-Navy "E" ceremony, where Colonel Hausemann of the Philadelphia Ordnance district presented the coveted "E" to the workers at the great Disston plant where the light armor plate is being made for our men in North Africa -- for the tanks and planes they are using in this critical battle in Tunisia. ITALY The question of Italy and what will happen if Tunis falls, is sharpened today by a still stronger ru:aor that .lussolini is indeed seriously ill. ^ed, f are told now that he has been confined to l e for two weeks, by what is described as a grave malady Well, for several years there have been reports that Mussolini was suffereing from a chronic heart ailment. Maybe that is what has sent him jcte to bed now -- if the rumor is true. There is nothing official about it, but it raises the possibility that the Fascist Duce might be removed from active political leadership in Italy. All of which might have far reacMj>g results in the opinion of London. The news every day brings more and more tidings of cracKing morale in the Fascist nation. Panic * - and nerves are affecting the Italian people increasingly. Fear is being spread throughout the country by t^e / removal of inhabitants of the bombed sections of J industrial north Italy to safer sections. \ There has ITALY 2 been increasing popular resentment in Italy against the war, and there is no telling what might happen if iussolini were out of the picture. The state of affairs in the peninsula~shaped liice-a-boot is giving a lot of worry to Nazi Germany, which is much concerned about its Axis partner in the role of a weak sister. London believes that this explains some Nazi statements about the Vatican. The German radio has been saying that Pope Pius may protest against the air bombing of civilians. The Italian cities have been getting a heavy dose of bombs, and the Nazis talking about Vatican intervention, are trying to encourage the Italian people. T 1 } ~ i / / RUSSIA In Russia the Soviet forces continue to smash the Nazis backwards -- in snite of desperate German resistance and counter attacks. More Red A -n my successes are again reported on two fronts - - Moscow and Stalingrad. A hundred and thirty-five miles west of Moscow, at the key citv of Rzhev, a dominating point in the German defense system, a communication center and tremendously fortified -- there in the bitter campaing of last winter, the Soviet counter attack got to the outskirts of the city. And there the Red Army has been ever since. Now, in their great drive at the center of the line, Red Army forces are smashing their way into the key city of Rzhev, and hope to soon recapture the entire place -- probably the most heavily defended point on the Russian front. The Germans are resisting with bitter determination; spurred on by a g direct command from Hitler so we are told. The Soviet army newspaper, Red £> ar quotes Hitler as telling his commanders: "The loss of Rzhev would be equivalent to the loss of hall’ of Berlin." At Stalingrad the former Soviet defenders, now on the offensive have recaptured new positions from the Germans. In the Stalingrad area, the Nazis have had to retreat at various places. They have been forced, in the words of today’s Moscow communicue trahslated into English -- "to reel backward southwest ward." NAVY This afternoon's Navy communique announces new successes for American submarines in the Pacific. They have sunk five Jap ships -- one a destroyer. And, they damaged two enemy vessels. The Navy bulletin lists our undersea victories as follows: one destroyer, one nine thousand ton tanker, one eight thousand ton cargo shipj. one sixty-three hundred ton cargo ship, and one two-thousand ton freighter -- sunk; all sent to the bottom. One twelve thousand ton car.,o ship damaged ana believed to have been sunk, and one six thousand ton cargo ship damaged. This list raises tne score for our submarines to a hundred and forty-one Jap vessels either sunk or damaged since the beginning of the war. ROOJi'EVr.LT President Rooceveit announced toc?v that the disagreement between the V, ar Prociuct ion Board and A-rmy and. Navy has been settled. It has been common talk for some time that there had been a dispute about v.ho should control various phases of v.ar production. Should Donald Nelson*s ft.P.B. be the boss, or shoulc the chiefs of the Army and Navy < ive the orders? Today at the White House news conference President Roosevelt *as asked about reports that )e was preparing a directive to clarify the question -- the president himself to decide who was to be the boss. The President replied that there was no truth to these rumors, and that he was not issuing any decision on the subject. He said there has been some overlapping of authority between the V.P.B. and the military chiefs and referred to a statement he made a week ago. A+ that tine he told a newsman that the Production FSoard -- Armv-Navy difference ROOSEVELT 2 would be settled by hatting the leaders concerned not go into a room and^come out until they had reached an agreement. And that is what has happened, said he. They went into a room, and came out with everything fixed up -- all harmonious*. Which is much better than the older idea of two disputing gentlemen going into a room, and theone that comes out is the winner. BRITISH RLF0P..1 Great Britain todav was presented with a sweeping plan for post-war economic reform. It proposes a sort of social security program reaching from the cradle to the grave of every Britisher -- a kind of insurance to cover the economic contingencies of life for evervhnnv. --- -— ■ -- - The plan is an official government affair, prepared at the direction of the Churchill Cabinet -- and was submitted by Sir William Beveridge, who drafted it. His idea is to reorganize completely Britain^ social insurance system., which has been exceedingly costly and widely criticized. His own state insurance plan has many features of the American New Deal It would be financed by collections from everybody, employers and employees --and would use up about eleven percent of the national British income. In return it would provide benefits for the entire population. The London Dispatches use the BRITISH FEFORI 2 phrase -- "from D ukg to dustman.” The be net its would cover such things as unemployment, ill health, accidents, marriages, child births, family allowances for children and retirement pensions for aeed persons. Sir William Beveridge describes his program as revolutionary. He says: "Revolution -- yes, but the British revolution." That would give Britain freedom from want, which is one of the four freedoms President Roosevelt envisions for the entire world. Sir William Beveridge believes that his state insurance plan would attain that end for Britain -- "without going Bolshevist,J he says. And he poses the whole issue in this phrase "How far we must go toward Moscow." In th$ London Parliament a voice was raised today -- calling upon the United S+ates to take the lead in world reconstruction after the war. Sir Arthur Greenwood, a former Labor minister in the Churchill Cabinet, summoned American post-war leadership to extend the spirit of the Atlantic BRITISH RLFORi 3 Charter to the entire world. And he added: "Freedom from want must be a cardinal aim/" The Labor i.P. soared to heights of rhetoric in these words: "Woe betide this land," he cried, ^should our magnificent youn& generation, on the threshold of a new life, face the future cynical embittered and frustrated because of our failure and our neglect of the responsibilities which this generation has undertaken during the war." Rather better than a good deal of House of Commons oratory. He meant more, we hope, than that Uncle Sam should pay the bills. i / ^ i r / FIRE Boston is closing a lot of places of entertainment -- drastic action following the frightful fire disaster of Saturday nic,ht. Today the Boston Licensing Board, on the recommendation of Governor Saltonstall of Massachusetts, voted a measurephrased in these words: "To suspend forthwith all entertainment licenses." This affects six hundred and twenty-eight restaurants, including night clubs, two hundred and ninety-three taverns and thirty-fiore hotels. Meanwhile, the fire disaster at the Cocoanut Grove, which has taken nearly five hundred lives to date, is under vigorous investigation -- and there may be a grand jury inquiry of charges of negligence and violation of safety laws. b AijrjB ALL Today the baseball businessannounced that it has received what it calls -- "a go signal". Go ahead play ball during the coming war-time baseball season-. This in a letter written by defense Transportation Lirector Lastman to Baseball Commissioner Landis and the President of the two major leagues. The transportation director is all important in the matter of strike-outs and home-runs, just now, because professional league baseball, with teams travelling from one city to another, depends altogether on transportation -- and there is a war-time shortage of that. Would transportation be granted to the pitchers and hitters? Apparentlv yes . Transportation Director Eastman, in his letter, merely asjcs the baseball clubs to cut down the amount of travel the players do. "Explore the possibilities for curtailing travel," says he. To this he adds the belief that baseball should be permitted to have travel facilities. He thinks that various kinds of people have less reason to use war time transportation thatn the ball players. »'i 0 -.1 Li a For the vvomen’snpage -- we have a couple of new flashes tonight. Rear Admiral Randall Jacobs, Chief of the Bureau of Personnel of the Navy, today promulgated a stern order to the sailorettes. Certain standards for winning the war. For example a Wave might be seen with her slip showing beneath her skirt. The sailorettes wear uniforms, but a skirt will be a skirt, and a slip will be a slip. And then Waves have been seen with the seams of their stockings slant-v.ise and crooked. You know, how you see a girl walking and the seams of her stockings can be so cockeyed that you think she is knock-kneed or bow-legged, or both. Hence the official edict issued bv Admiral Jacobs todays to the Waves. It states: "Slips shall not show below the uniform skirt. Stocking seams shall be straight." And, the order adds another aetaii: "Hair shall not cover coat collar." The Sailorette Waves must avoid looking li*e Veronica Hake. V. A VLb 2 I always knew that an admiral was a great personage, but an admiral must be still greater -- when he can command the skirts, the slips, the stockings and the hair-do. As a married man, I can only marvel. Maybe they ought to have an admiral at the Viestern Union telegraph -- judging fro am a disclosure made today! Last week in Washington the Telegraph Company advertised in Help V» anted, for girls to act as train pages at the Union Station. The ad called for -- brunettes, five feet four inches tall, weighing less than a hundred and twenty pounds. Obvioisly -- they did not want a cross between the giantess and the fat lady of the circus for a train page. BuV why th£ brunette? There was a lot of curiosity about this -- especially 'among the blondes. Urgent inquiries were made, and today the telegraph people broke down and confessed. Gentlemen may prefer blondes, but they -- at Western Union -- prefer brunettes. Because, they Vi A V E S - 3 explain, brunettes are more stable. Blondes and redheads, notes the telegraph company are more flighty. Reminding one of -- the wdizzy blonce." But they don*t 'Aant ’em dizzy in dealing with trains at the railroad station. I knew a blonde once who made me so dizzy -- but then that* a long story. And now Hugh let’s hear about blondes or brunettes or something from you.