j^k-UNQCQ.SbjPT^Hniri 1940. - ft GOOD EViiWIWG EVi!iK¥r$ODY: I oft jn get a thrill out of the day^s news, and a o.ii i-i_L oul of pc.osing it on to you. But, tonight, not 'niy am I getting a thrill but some young people sitting beside me are getting one, and I hope you will share in it. What1 s it all about? Well, just this:- I am sitting in a banquet hall)'&Tthe New York World1 s tfair, and in just a moment I am going to tell three young people that they are the winners of some glorious prizes. In fact, one is to be given a ticket for an airplane flight, by China. Clipper, half v.ay round the world, and back again, or perhaps all tne way round the world if the war shou-Li end in time • A flight from taxiixaxxkmxlsxiiB America to inner-most China. And, three other magnificent prizes. The three young people sitting beside me know that they have been lucky. But, not one of the three knows who is to get that airplane flight across the world INTRO - 2 An.., i ' jii i ing to continue the suspense for a few minutes longer^ until I have given yu the highlights of the world’s ■s. i£j? nev; First in importance comes the new s from the war in Europe. WAR The strangest part of the war news today comes from Norway* and it sounds indeed strange. It is vouched for as quite authentic / ...rid *iere is. travelers who reached London flying by way of / Stockholm, report tnat Hitler is giving back all the Norwegian , s^ips that he commandeered for the invasion of Britainy The Nazis had seized practically everything that would float an4 sent it south to Dutch, Belgian and French harbors. That is, they sent all that th^y did not uss in Norway itself; for training purposes. For months. Hitler’s generals had their men practicing embarkation and disembarkation, rehearsing their attempted onslaught on Britain. The Norwegians report that they were even practicing the disembarkation of cavalry. Eye-witnesses, for instance, describe landing drills in which cavalry soldiers swam their horses from ship to shore. But now those people from Norway, who are described i in the dispatches as reliable and responsible persons, report t that Hitler has returned all those vessels to their Norwegian owners or a , hundreds of them.frhe inference is that he has abandoned, t least postponed^his invasion plans. This follows on the heels of reports that the gale which ra^ed through the Channel for thirty-six hours had raised havoc with Hitler’s intended armada, and the waves have scattered his huge concentrations of ships in Channel ports. And it was also made known today that the pilots of the Royal Air Force have distributed huge fields of mines in all harbors occupied by the Nazis, all the way c±ea* from Norway dowi to the Bay of Biscay. vu The itraxsim Air Ministry states formally: "It is known that thousands of tons of enemy shipping have been destroyed by these mine fields, some of which were laid within a stone’s throw of the docks juu L xjus in some enemy harbors.” And the Air Ministry adds that the enemy were unable to prevent those mines being laid even in strictly preserved and thickly defended waters. Some observers in Britain are venturing the statement that Hitler’s plans for an invasion will have to be somebody invents a tank capable of swimming the Channel. until A££ of 11 a... TI— iff th a statement issued by Sir Alan Brooke, Commander-in-Chief of the Home Force in Great Britain, he issued an open invitation to Hitler, and said he would actually welcome an invasion, welcome the opportunity to throw the Nazis back into the sea. Then Sir Alan Brooke remarked wryly:- "They did it twice to us, in Norway and at Dunkirk, and it is about time we got some of our own back." Of course this is highly optimistic news. But it is being taken seriously even in Washington* Official cirlces in touch with the latest and most dependable information from / Europe are^asrfipltt^that the Fuehrer has run into a stalemate and that his ambitions for an invasion are hopeless, for the winter at any rate. However, the Britishers are still on their guard. They are say g that this news from Norway may be just another ruse of the Nazis. So the people of the island are taking no chances: they are still watching ,thds« coasta,keeping their eyes open, and oa^heir toe* to fight off any invaders. ; /v I h LONDON — ) Air Mar^harl Goerin^ sent his raiders over southern tn^land today in one constant stream. The alarm sounded in I I II IT I— 11 1 ■' r j ^ Vc-Sv^cr v\-e> London with almost the regularity of a clockft sounded nc fewtr than eight times. Just an hour and a i^al^-ago word came across the sea of the eighth alarm and probably right at this moment the people of the great are undergoing another raid. All this followed on a night wrhich was virtually one long The most spectacular feature of the night!s performance oAc was the bomb dropped on the American embassy, and others which v.reciied some <f the stores in the West End, shops well known to all American tourists, 2(ome of them awe old established I institutions But during the day the British aerial defense was fcdo X strong for the attackers* The Nazi raiders failed to get through x ^ x^ X^ / and no bombs dropped on London during the day. That!s the British X X claim, but Berlin declares that Tilbury Docks were heavily bombed and there were huge outbreaks of fire. Railroad Junctions X / / X x were also destroyed according to the Nazi accounts / There were some spectacular maneuveringjln the air EGV?T Mussolini*s bombers made a successful attack on British warsnips in tne eastern Mediterraneanj so says Rome. Add tne Italians also claim to have bombed British land forces in Egypt, particularly at Iviarsa Matruh, railhead of the line running along tne African coast to Alexandria. The Italians declare their raids were successful in suite of anti-aircraft fire. Here’s the other side of that Egyptian story. The Royal Air Force heavily bombed Graziani’s forces. ADD i^GYPT Later news from Cairo brings word that two of Graziani1s motorized columns are pushing aheid over the sonds. riut the progress of the Italian Expeditionary Force do9snft seem to have the Egyptians worried. Newspapers in Cairo are prophesying that the desert of V/estern Egypt will be the burying ground of Fascism. Another Cairo newspaper says the Italian advance canTt seriously be described as an attack as it hasnTt yet encountered any opposition. The Italians contradiet this and say they met determined opposition, but broke it up. RIBBhNTROP FOLLOW V>’M The next--most important bit of war news concep< 44 «the--^ <iipl<«aats^ HitierTs Foreign Minister, von Ribbentrop,^made a sudden. *uite uncrxpecttfd* journey to Ronie# owners h® v L^L with-Musseiini^s Count-^laiw, There was no official explanation of tne except one wciiaa played it down as being merely a part A A of t5f» routine in' 'tiw relations between the two Axis powers. How'ever, the Nazis press played it up as a conference of the utmost importance, from which most vital results are expected. What makes it all the more significant is that General Franco1s Foreign Minister^ Suneiv was in Berlin conferring with Ribbentrop. Ribbentrop cut short his consultation with the Spaniard for this hurried and most mysterious visit to Ciano. The deduction, therefore, is that the principal topic which Ribbentrop and Ciano will discuss is the destiny of Spain. It»s no secret that General Franco1 s country is in a bad way. . „ A A He needs money badly and has tried to get it in the U.S.A. (Ifcte- ) there it -was a ease of no diee* Franco and Suner, therefore, cd have to-throw themselves on^ the mercy of the Axis. So, it may be RIBBENTROP FOLLOW ttAfi - 2 that the Nazis, bai fled in their plans for ^a. toil! try to strike at the British Lion through Spain ADD jgBi^.NTKOP Later reports from Rome tend to confirm the idea that the dictators are planning an an attack on Gibraltar in concert with Franco. Franco^ Foreign Minister today was loud in announcing that Spain demands the restitution of A Spanish territory, including Gibraltar. Rumors in Rome tonight are that Franco is all \ set to join in a general attack on Great Britain. MEXICO Trouble In Mexico, and it sounds like serious trouble. There was a report in El t'aso, Texas, today of an uprising in the southwestern part of the State of Chihuahua. The rebels are the partisans of General Almazan, the unsuccessful candidate for the job of President of Mexico. The story is that a band of armed men are approaching a city ninety miles southwest of Chihuahua City, the capital of the state. Whether the rumor is true or not, has not been sufficiently established. But General Guerrero, Commander of the Fifth Military Zone of Mexico, confirms the story that he has sent troops to southwestern Chihuahua, Jwo hundred cavalrymen, and fifty infantry. The g#neral~-say6 tne ru«or~of- confirmed*- but he’s tafclng no«oiuaiees^ ;rLuG ihere vras trouble at St. Paul, Minnesota, where the State leheration of Labor is holoin^; a Convention. One of the delegates on the floor saw something red in the visitors* gallery. LsJt' So the delegate got up on his ^nd shouted to the Chairman, demandingthat the person waving a reo flag in the galleries should be kicked out of the hall. The Chairman granted the reo.uest, and the Sergeant-at-Arns was on his way to the gallery to throw out lO*- JoL* (Luzt but before he got there an indignant woman stood up in the gallery, waving her hand. And she cried "that do you mean, red flag?" Then she e)?iained:- ’’This ain t a flag, it’s a sock I’m knitting for my husband.” CHIJMA bbSAY COljTKvST V/hen I went on the air a few moments ago X mentioned that I was speaking from a banquet table at the Worldfs Fair. A 9 and tha t there were x> some young people with me who were about to get a thrill. Briefly, the story is this:- Some time ago an axxazy essay contest was announced, open to all the college students in America. Students from Kixxi coast to coast have <fVU 7 S%Mu> ivv been taking part, writing essays on the subject ^America! s° Sta):e-in->Xhe Far East,--and the importance--to - us of-e—strough Chinas The judges announced were a most distinguished group:- Secretary of the Navy Colonel Frank Knox, famous author Pearl Buck, Dr. Angell, former President of Yale and now one at of the moguls of the N.B.C.; Editor William Allen White, Explorer Dr. Hoy Chapman Andrews, Colonelv<Ted Roosevelt, Mrs. William A- ^ Brown Meloney, kdttya Editor of This Week Magazine; Colonel U/vu&d} ^ Gil Hodges of the New York Sun, Alexander Woollcott, S .nator Elbert Thomas of Utah, Admiral Yarnell, Dr. James T. Shotwell A if and Publisher Henry Luce; Amsqpcmjcxixiqtsi And, myself. For months essays poured in. And then, for weeks they were read and the Judges did their work. Tonight, the three first - CHINA i&uAY CONTIj^ST - winnei’s have been brought from different parts of the United States to attend a dinner^to^e given their prizes and to be toi-. Ah.ich of the three is to get the trip by plane, around the globe, to China. By plane far up the Yangtze, beyond the gorges to Chung King, the capital of Chang Eftawtfaj ShaKkxiaS Kai-^fhek. All along there has been a mystery about this tremendous essay contest:- Who could the sponsor be? It sounded like the sort of thing the Government of China might do. The Japanese, hardlyl Well, the sponsor, the man who is giving the prizes also sits beside me. And he is an American. Albeit the ^ I \ most unusual one. He is one of the world»s.aviation pz pioneers. He has built airlines in North America,^South America, and is responsible for most of the airlines in the i*'ar hast. His name is William D. Parley, x known on five continents as "Bill" Pawley. The ap clause you have just heard came from a most 7T il distinguished gathering of people. ^Secretary-Havjv Colonel 4tnox is sitting her^neaiwc^^..; Over^ t4ere in gorgeous i CHINA ESSAY CONTEST - 3 Chinese costume is Anna Mae Wong. Here-also is_X^ VT Socmtt Explorer Roy Chapman Andrews, Colonel Rooaeveit, Pearl Buck, Admiral Yarnell, fc>eT!PtTn—Thomas from Utah*, Geoi-ge Rxiti i'itch another extraordinary American who has been building roads all over China. Bill Pawley has mapped out the Asiatic roads of the sky And, the room is full of other notables.^ Oh'-yes^ my sister ^ "fP gtdr Pherbia Thornburg who conducted the essay content. ^WTio are the winners? To continue the suspense a little longer 1*11 give the names alphabetically:- Helen Averitt, who has been flown hare from California, by Bill Pawley, just to this dinner. She says the prize money, no matter whether she gets first, second or third will enable her to go on with her college work which she feared she would have to give up, for lack of funds. Richard Curl from Ohio State. Jdik Dick Is going on to Princeton Graduate College to get his /\ Doctor's degree in Political Science. So far he has earned his way both through coll go and graduate ^1 school. And, Minerva Desing, from the University of Pennsylvania, who in Jurijus year got her doctor's degree and was praised CHIN k ^SaAY CONTf^T- 4 highly by President Gates of Penn.^ for her research v/ork concaer^Lng the Far East. Am nov,, they, and you, x and everybody will hear for the first time who gets first prize, who gets that flight by Clipper, to China and back, or x to China and beyond. Pm getting a thrill out of this;‘Cat^novv the greatest tiirill of all goes to: yvu^ now the greatest tiirill of all goes to: -What ao yph. V^hat do you say to that ;,INN.di: l»m so thrilled ITm speechless. A check for One Thousand Two Hundred Dollars and also a trip to China and back by Clipper, airi all expenses 1 Pinch me, Mr. Thomas, pinch me. Surely there never was anything in the Arabian Knights more wonderful than this I I think 1*11 faint in Mr. Pawley* s arms. L.T.: If there is anything to be done, I hope you’ll faint in mine. At any rate, don't faint in the arms of Hugh James CHINA i^SSAY CONTEST - 4 becdose right at this moment Hugh has something to do. haven11 yon Hugh?