L.T..SDMOCO. TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 9. 1941 GOOD EVEHING EVERXBODX: The war news can be sketched briefly. Berlin insists that the forces in the Leningrad area have stormed the fortress of Schlisselberg, and that the Germans and Finns have Joined forces - on the Karelian Isthmus. The word from Moscow concerns the central front, where the Red Army claims great victories in a full fledged offensive. Moscow says the Nazis nave been driven back to a point forty-five miles East of Smolensk, and that the threat of a blitzkrieg drive on the Soviet capital has been removed. Berlin gives some sort of confirmation on the power of the Soviet drive in the center. It would seem Indeed as if the Red Army were making a supreme effort there. London reports the sinking of three German ships off the Soviet arctic coast — one of the ships a destroyer. The Arctic area has been little noticed, but the Germans and Finns there are driving against the Soviets on the far northern shore — and the WAR - 2 British Nav-/ is coming to the aid of the Red Army. Still further north, Spitzbergen. The allied forces which seized that vast Norwegian island in the arctic ocean, were led by Canadians. A raid by Canadians, British and Norvregians. j 7 In Rome^ President Roosevelt’s emissary, i^iyron Taylor, had an interview with Pope Pius today. The latest is a report that's circulating in Vatican quarters. that the purpose of the Taylor Mission is to persuade the Pontiff of the iiciaaii Oathelic to accept the American policy of collaborating with c^oviet Russia - at least passive acceptance by the Pope. .Xhe President would like A to have this accomplished, as a way of lessening the hostility of american Catholics to aid tM to the soviets. 1 li SINKINGS In the siniilng of the steamship Sessa, the available facts at this iioment are as follows. The ship was under i'anamaniaLn registry, flying the i*anainanian fliig, but she was being operated by an American firm. The ship was bound for ■‘•celand, and was carrying a cargo owned by the government of Iceland, a cargo of foodstuffs, cereals and lumber - no arms or ammunition. The Sessa was buiit in Finland, by a i>anish shipowner. The vessel was one of the Danish ships tied up in American harbors one of tnose taken over by the Kalkmll United States Government some months ago. She v/as then transferred to the registry of the hepublic of F^ama, and put into operation V an ifilmerican Company. The Sessa left ^ew lork on August six^h. There’s a report that she was in a convoy^ then sunk. The vessel was torpedoed on August seventeenth, three hundred miles oft' Iceland, Nationality of the submarine uninown - presumably a German U-boat. Of her crew, r.mmc twenty-four men are reported, and are presumed^to have been lost. One of ohese was an American. Three survivors were rescued by Unitea States Naval vessels on September sixth - three days ago. The news was revealdd by the Navy department today. i 1 I SINKING - ^ The sinking of a ship under the Panamanian flag, but operated by an American firm, comes at a time when any event of the kind has the quality of dynamite. The torpedoing of the Sessa follows closely on the bombing and xJt sinking of the United States freighter, Sed^"&yfarer, in the Red Sea. No lives lost. The report is that the Sea Wayfarer carried a cargo of Lend-Lease materials bound s for Suez - war supplies for the British near Eastern Army. Word from Cairo today indicates that the vessel was bombed in the northern part of the Red Sea, one of tne most forbidding areas of water on this earth. Abounding in reefs and rocks - and rimmed by desolate mountains a that rise from the desert. We are not told the nationality of the plane that sunk the Sea tstm/farer. It might have been ItaliUM - or German. Both «azi and Fascnist planes are operatitig in that area. >— The two ship sinkings closely pertaining to the United States appear in the news within twenty four hours, and they follow so soon after the attempt to torpedo the United States destroyer Greer in the i^ortn Atlantic. We can hark back further to the sink mg of the Robin iiioor - the first United States veisel oXNj^XM -5 to be attacked and destroyed during the present war. It all adds up to a new crisis, which in turn puts a new accent of importance on President hoosevelt*s radio address to tne Nation Thursday. what he will say can only be surmised, but it is reported that tne President will reiterate his previous contention that the blMttKtxjL United states will protect its rights at sea, will repeat tnis with a still greater emphasis. And there’s a report that he may announce that he has prdered the navy to keep the sea lane between the United btates and Iceland free of Axis warships. \ CHURCHILL FOLLOW 6iIjKIIjGS This news about the sinking of ships is in dramatic relation to Prime Minister Churchill*s address to Parliament today. Churchill argued the contention that Hitler may soon take a line of action on the riorth Atlantic that will bring the United States into the war. Addressin g the House of Commons, the Prime Minister reasons as follows:-Hitler*s idea previously was to finish off Soviet Russia and Great Britain, and then deal with the United States. But Hitler may be forced to change his plans. The Nazis y^xpected a short war against the Soviets, but now the Blitzkreig faces a campaign through the winter. \ Churchill said that the Germans have lost more men in the Russian War thus far than they did in any year of the previous World War- Faced with a long war agaljis^" the Red Army, Hitler also sees the battle of the Atlantic going against him. Churchill said that British shipping losses have been curtailed greatJ^ithat during July and August the tonnage of jij'ig shipping destroyed v/as three times as great as tonnage the British lost. Ha calxed that an extraordinary statement, but said it //as true. He added that it was partly because of the American ii n I t ' CHURCHILL FOLLOW SINKTr^pS - 2 Patrol system, which is aiding the British fleet in the Battle of the Atlantic.Huge quantities of American supplies are going across, and Churchill reasoned that Hitler might have to make an attempt to stop the stream of Lend-Lease goods. He may be forced to carry the sea war into the American patrolled waters, and that would bring on a shooting war with the American naval forcew. From this argument, Churchill went on to call for greater American aid — aid of two kinds. He asked for more American heln in the Battle of the Atlantic, new naval measures against the Hazis, action by American v/arships. This is partly because of a vastly greater need of aid to the Soviets. Churchill revealed that large volumes of aid-to- Britain material are being diverted to help the Red Army. And the Stalin forces will need much more. The Germans have already seized a large part of the Soviet War industry - and the United States and Great Britain will have to make up for that. promptly by a discussion of that much debated proposal an American Expeditionary Force, a nev; A.E.F., Robert Cary, a conservative The Prime Minister's address to the Commons, was followed 1 member, pointed out that General Sir Archibald V/avell and other ^ j i CHURCHILL - S British idUitary leaders, have stressed the necessity of sending an American army into the war abroad. The M.P. supported that contention. It*s a mistake,he declared, ”to say v.’e do not need a large army. We may have to produce a larger army than we possessed in Nineteen Eighteen,” he added. li UJi 1 ! M I: si In New York:*s big espionage trial, there was dramatic testimony today about the famous American bomb sight - that celebrated military secret stolen by Nazi Germany. A government witness took the stand, and was introduced by the United States Attorney as - "A counter-espionage agent.” William G. Sebold, an American citizea, a German by birth. He fought in the Kaiser*s army in the World War, then Immigrated to the United States, became naturalized, and worked in the plant of the consolidated Aircraft Company at Aan Diego, California, Today he toxd how in the summer of Nineteen Thirty-Nine, he went back to Germany on a visit. At Hamburg before he left the ship, two men came to him and asked him about his work at the American Airplane Plant. Sebold told them, ”Go find out for yourselves•” Later at his family home in the Ruhr Valley, a Gestapo agent visited him, asked him to cooperate with Nazi spies working in the United States, and threatened him with death unless he agreed, sjpbold went tto to the United States consul at Cologne aiid told him the v/hole story, as a result, a plan was laid, whereby Sebold would pretend to become a Nazi spy, but in reality he would work for the United States as a counter-espionage agent. :i . 4 ^ -I, li I SPlEb - k. He went to Hamburg, and there took the Gestapo’s training course for spies - a study of under-cover radio amd telegraphy and secret writing, code work. - At this piint of the story, the bomb sit,ht enters. Hov/ did the American authorities learn the Nazis were xka able to steal that carefully guarded military secret? Today Heboid, the Cuunter-espionage agent, explained as follows. He told how he wanted to establish confidence with tv/o Gestapo agents. To maxe a good impression on them he remarked: "Perhaps I will bring you the famous American bomb sight.” To which the Gestapo men replied; "Don’t bother. The bom^ sight is in our possession." % Heboid says he was told that when he returned to the United Htates he should contact a man named Herman Lang. This Herman Lang had formerly been in an inspector at the Carl Norden Plant. That’s the place % where the invention for aerial aiming was developed. Its correct name is - "The Morden bomb sight." Today this same Herman Lang is one of the sixteen defendants on trial. He is accused of having procured the bomb sight secret v/hile he was an inspector at the Norden Plant, and i s. 6P1E6 -5 of having trainsmitted it to iNazi Germany. The bomb sight was the headline item in the testimony given by counter-espionage agent bebold - though the story went on with still more melodrama. He told how when he returned to the United States, he was contacted by an F.B.I. agent and a representative of the State Department. To them he gave five micro films, which were photographs of instructions to guide him in his espdjonage work. Directed by these .instructions, the F.B.I. built a radio station on Long Island, and got into communication with the Gestapo in Hamburg. The F.B.I. sent to the Gestapo two or three hundred messages - many of them phoney, to mislead and frustrate. Counter­ espionage work. p .URa. RQQ^EVELT There was today a scene of simplicity, solemnity and I sorrow at Hyde Park. \A sunlit day, the open air, the glowing green of nature in parly autumn, a church amid the tbees, old trees - some of th^m higher than the spire of the church. A ^cemetery a hundred and thirty years old, and there the rector of bt. James Episcopiil church spoke the age-old words of scriptual promise*.* "I am ibhe Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord. He that believeth -la Me, though he v/ere dead, yet shall he live. I r And whosoever and believeth in Me, shall never die." r A small group listened with bowed head, the President of the United States, member of his family and some friends and / neighbors. Thus they bade a final farewell to Mrs. bara Lelano Roosevelt, mother of the President, a woman who lived a long and ample life, with dignity and honor i J ^QVIbS Today began the Livestigation of motion pictures the charge of war propat,anda. The proceedings were started by Willkie, Wendelu^WiiJtt^ representing the Hollywood Producers, He argued Willlcie that the investigation was illegal. The^^^^jt±±ic±JB^contention was turned down, and the hearing began. Senator Nye of Worth Dakota was the first witness. He charged that Hollywood has a financial stake in a British victory. The companies have large interests in Britain, which would be wiped out if Britain lost. Then Senator Wye proceeded to answer accusations of anti-semitism. ”1 bitterly resent this effort,” he cried, ”To misrepresent our purpose, and to prejudice the public mind by dragging this r|tL‘ial issue to the front. If the anti-semi tic issue is now raa sed for the moment,” He added, ”It is raised by those of Jewish faith. Then he uttered a warning, saying:- ”Let us not disguise the facts and fool ourselves about the seriousness of this geiT^ral anti-Semitic nightmare.” And he explained that after the war, the aAOVIrli -k, massGS ol uneaiployed will be ready to respond to agitatirs ^ Who will want," he said, - to help them find the scapegoat responsible for it all. Organized forces and their leaders", he declared, "w'ill find a goat." Nye of i'lorth Dakota asserted that the production and distribution of motinn pictures is contirolled by a few people. These he described in the following words: "Four or five individuals" eacii of them I believe an American citizen. But ^ the majority, born abroad in lands ^at have been xxa saturated with hate, with fear, with prejudice and with persecution." There was a lively series of exchanges, aa Bendell willkie took a hand in the proceedings. At one point Senator ClarK of iAissouri stated that last year*s Republican candidate had sent him a letter making incidious reflections on the committee. The Senator said the letter was, in his words, "A monumental example of campaign oratory." That drew a huge laugh in the crowded committee room. Willkie shouted over the din, " I am very appreciative, mr. chairman. That*s the best thing in the record yet." At another time, S-nator *“cFarland, wno is not an ® isolationist, asKed wh -ther senators Hye or Clark had any tagixita .\ iAOVIiiiS - 3 4 .jwlciLXwilSt^ ■ wiiot)hQr.■ {■ftnr\T;ors"Nye or Gli^yk had ai^y iegisiiation ia iniad. Nye replied ”Wo". "iou mean^' ‘“cFarland shot back, ’’That we should conduct this inquiry just for publicity?” That drew a round of applause and laughter in the benate caucus room. Nye went on to explain that there wasn’t any need for legislation, that the Interstate cojiinerce laws would be enough to check motion picture war propaganda/ He pointed out that radio is required by law to give equal time on public issues to opposite sides. That drew a retort from willkie: ’’Does that mean that the movies would be required to make pro-hazi pictures?” All of which would seem to indicate that before the hearing is tnrough, we may have as lively entertainment as you will find in many a Hollywood comedy. OUvi iAK . fV^L^ % 11 ^ m tl ¥ I f 1 1 Mi