I- 6 OFFENSIVE There is much speculation about the meaning of the United States Military mission now in London. [ Today a group of high American officers conferred with Prime Minister Winston Churchill. We hear that the United States has promised Great Britair huge air reinforcements for a mighty blow against the Nazis on the continent. In other words -- an aerial A.E.F. for an offensive through the sky ^This angle is emphasized by the fact that the American Military Mission in London include^ Lieutenant-General Arnold, Cheif of the United States Army Air Corps and Rear Admiral Towers, Chief of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics. These two high aviation personalities do seem to put emphasix on the sky aspect of (.eric.n .ilit.ry oper.ti.nsXHo.ever. the .ts=ion In London alno Inclndos t.nL onpnrt an jor-G.notnl Elnenhnoar nnd Inf.ntnJ onport M.j.r-Gen.ral Clark. Thoir presence leads to Ih. belief lb«t sonetling 'I OFFENSIVE -2 mors t»hsn sir s.'t'ts.ck is bsing plsnnsd h63,vy Commando raids by British and American forces^^y^ possibly -- increasing Commando raids leading to a full-fledged invasion. The London belief is that some speedy action is being planned -- this ^ more so because of the state of affairs in Russia. London opinion is that the position of the Red Army in the Ukraine is dangerous; and Soviet forces are imperiled in the Kharkox area. So there is an urgent need of British-American action in behalf of the Russians counterblows in the West to take the pressure off the Red Army in the Ea‘st. London thinks that the next week or two is likely to show whether the Soviet position is so grave that an invasion attempt this summer is necessary. RUSSIA r Tonight it seoms as if the criticial stage may have begun in Soviet Russia. The battle of the Ukraine may turn out to be the start of the supreme offensive that the Nazis have been expected to make. If so, the fighting that is going on now may be of crucial import for* the future of the war. The great question is -- how much danger is there with the blitzkrieg machine smashing through in the - 4 giant struggle foi^. the south of Kharkov? ' Moscow reports ' indicate clearly that the Red Army is on the defensive. Marshal Timoshenko’s drive, which smashed forward day after day, has now stopped. ^ M q ' s ^ c ^ ow ^tells of Soviet successes, but they are defensive successes p- German counter attacks /A repelled. Fierce Nazi assaults, regardless of losses, hurled back. The enemy hurling in raort reckless A amounts of man- power and mechanized equipment, fhuge casualties of men and machines inflicted by the Red RUSSIA - 2 Army. Moscow speaks of an occasional advance, but the whole tenor is -- defensive. f Berlin continues the Nazi claim of tho encirclement of huge Red forces sduth of Kharko^*-- four hundred thousand men^* QelCan report that three trapped armies have been vainly troying to fighting their way out, and are being annihilated. The Soviets categorically deny any such vast encircleijiient, and military experts in London regard the Nazi claims as fantastically exaggerated. They point out that in the battle area which the Germans describe there would not be room for any such huge forces as three armies, totalling four hundred thousand men. Yet the British are inclined to think that perhaps the violent German offensive seventy miles south of Kharkov may have put Marshal Timoshenko's army in a precarious position. r J L HITLER 1 Moscov/ gives us s report; t/hai Hitler is having another row with his generals. They say that the German commanders want the Nazi Fuehrer to give up the post of Commander-in-Chief, the role he assumed after the failure of the blitzkrieg drive against Moscow last fall. What reply is Hitler making? Moscow says that he has summoned his leading generals to a conference, and is going to tell them that he intends to retain the high command, will not tolerate any opposition to his leadership. A "0 SOVIET^AID. In V^ashington Soviet Russia today received new lend-lease proposals. Secretary of State Cordell ffi m 5 ? Hull handed to Russian Ambassador Litvinov a plan whereby the Soviet would get ‘increased amounts of lend-lease war material. The idea is to take Russia in as a full-fledged lend-leas* member. Heretofore the two major lend-lease parties have been the United States and Great Britain, with the Soviets getting American aid on the side. Now -- Moscow will receive full partnership in that lend-lease From enemy Berlin comes a death notice, and the name of the obituary is - Mrs. Eva Chamberlain. This ,on't mean much to most of us, - save perhaps the name of Chamberlain in connection with Naziland is reminiscent ■ of the hapless British Prime Minister who tried to appease Hitler. However, tl^woman who today died in Germany at a great old age was a daughter of Richard Wagner, the composer. Her baptismal name was derived from one of the greatest Wagnerian operas. The composer | 3 named his daughter after Eva, heroine of "Die M«xxt*«XKg: Meistersinger. ” 1- 4. married name - Chamberlain? But what about her marrie Sh, .as the -id., of .. oniB.atio f.fUsh.an, Ho.eton ■p o British Admiral, he Stewart Chamberlain. The son of •rprman and married Wagner's lived in Germany, became a » • ^ hie; ardent German allegiance daughter. He retained hi - and was against his own during the previous world WAGNER-. 2 country. Houston Stowart Chamberlain was a writer and ^ protagonist of Teutonic race theories - ideas of Nordic superiority, which were forerunners of the present Nazi race fanaticism ■mpiipiil CHINA The focus of war in China is in the eastern part of that great land - not in the south, where the Japs pushed in from Burma. In this latter southern area, the Province of Yunnan, the Chinese say they are mopping up trapped enemy units. It is believe^ a good deal of fighting is going on, but it is nothing compared to the tt battle in the east - the Province of Chekiang. The Japs, I ill 5 launching a major offensive, have fought their way to | the gat^s of the provisional Capital of the Province, the city of Kinhwa. They got to within two miles of that important point, but a late dispatch from Chungking states that the enemy column has been driven back with heavy losses. What is the purpose cf this Jap drive in most ^ ^ X + +K eastern China? The opinion is^ij^ar^ msisten a e that might serve as airfields enemy wants to seize places tna e ^ O'' for the United Nations' warplanes. J CHINA - 2 territory to guard against new bombings of Japan and the vital Japanese supply routes. AUSTRALIA^ In Australia, the authorities have uncovered a fantastic war plot - a melodramatic fifth column scheme to join up with the Japs. All sorts of revolutionary stunts were planned in the conspiracy, the which is said to have stem^d out of. ^Australia First" A movement. ' ii: Four defendants have been arraigned - the formeii! Ii organizer of a producers' association, a post office employee, an insurance agent, and a dairy farmer. They 5 I are- aceueed-- of hatchiag—a -conspiracy- -iflv.jes'terB Auetralia-. Their cockeyed plan was to make a separate peace with Japan, overthrow the Australian Government, and set up some kind of Nazi regime in the Land Down Under - Socialist, anti-Semitic, and all that. One of the defendants is quoted as saying that he hoped the Japs would invade Australia AHSTRALIA - 2 so that the plotters could seize the government of the Commonwealth. They had a revolutionary proclamation all drawn up - a declaration of an armistice with Japan. It issued a decree as follows:- "The Australian nation is ordered to lay down its arms, and anyone disobeying this order will be summarily shot." Apparently this fifth column intended to do a lot of shooting - with various persons marked down for assassination. One of these is described as - "a distinguished general." The name of the General is kept a secret. But one might surmise that the crackpots had in mind a very distinguished American General. msm SUBHABINES li r» The submarine war on this side of the ocean has claimed a United States destroyer as a casualty - damaged but not sunk. This afternoon’s bulletin issued by the Navy Department reads:- "The U.S.S. BLAKELEY, a world war destroyer, has been damaged by a torpedo from an enemy submarine in the Caribbean Sea.” The communic^ue goes on to state that the BLAKELEY has reached nort with ten of her crew reported missing and six injured. The BLAKELEY' is an old-timer, a ten hundred . and ninety ton destroyer built back in the days of the ti:c previous World War. She is the second United States naval craft to have been attacked in the Caribbean - the first having been a^ast_guard cutter, which was sunk several months ago. A fr,ljht-shlp-sinki»g i» th. C.ribl.,.. bring. us X fnroedo attack who believes a tale of a veteran of torpeao in bring prepared. Ha 1. Captain Bio., • .Intj-.ighl SUBMARINES - 2 year old Norwegian* He has had his vessel shot out from under him so often, that it is an old story by now. Five times previously -- this being the sixth. Today his first mate told how Captain Axel Blom every day made his crew go through the drill of ■abandon ship. So what happened when Captain Axel Blora lost his sixth ship -- sunk in the Caribbean? He snapped out the order -- '■abandon ship." And the crew were so used to it, they knew so well what to do - that not a man was lost. Meanwhile^: there is a report of the capture of a hostile sub marine off Brazil. Patrol planes did the trick - attacking with bombs. They are said to if have spotted two subs, and sank one. They bombed the other, and hit it hard enough to have disabled it soaehow. Whereupon the U-boat popped to the surface snd displayed the white flag of surrender. :.ii SOLDIERS A Senate Committee today put its okay on a bill to provide money for dependents of men in the armed forces. The plan is to deduct part of the cash from the pay of soldiers and sailors - the rest to be put up by the government. Two classes of dependents are recognized -- Class A being wives and children. The deduction from the men’s pay would be at a fixed rate for Class A dependents - twenty-two dollars a month. f 111 The government would put up the rest in accordance with a graded scale. A wife would get fifty dollars a month. Wife and child, sixty-two a mohth. This plan was approved todyy by the Military i Affairs Committee of the Senate - okayed unanimously. Selective Service Director general Hershey says he knows of no immediate plan to lower the draft age, no intention of conscripting youths of eighteen and nineteen - not yet. But he gave this warninf - V:e have never got through a war without going down to eig’hteen,* said he num BOOSEVELT President Roosevelt today spoke v;ith optimism about automobile tires - but not about rubber. He said the prospects looked good for the development of tires without rubber. Technicians are working on several p types, and are making progress. The President said that | i' rubberless tires might be fully developed and ready for sale before the rubber on the wheels of the nation's automobiles has worn out. i How fast could you go on tires without rubber? The PheriafS^ that the typea being devised .ould I A A 'per.lt us to drive up to, .s .ueh .s thirty or thirty-tiv. miles an hour. 1 This followed a Senate committee statement i which gave warning that the shortage is so critical that | •T -ki/a fnr private civilian use foi j no rubber will be availabl | at least three years. r 1 1 JUDGE In songand story ^ne have been told about the sharpness of a woman’s tongue. And the constitutional history of this nation informs us that there is many a sharp retort in Congress. So if you add Congress and woman together, you might expect something cutting. Which takes us to Congresswoman Mary Norton of New Jersey, who today got into some verbal hostilities with the Governor of New Jersey. It happened at a hearing by the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, which is considering the nomination of Thomas F. Meaney of Jersey City to a post as federal judge. He has been named by President Roosevelt, Today Governor Ch*r-i9» Edison of New Jersey appeared before the Committee and gave his opinion of the appointment. I' He; -is^ of course, a son of the legendary inventor, Thomas 4- Edison. He was President Roosevelt’s Secfcetary of the Navy, and was elected Governor of New Jersey with the strong 1 JUDGE - 2 support of the White House. However, Governor Edison is not supporting the presidential appointment. He is strongly opposed to it. He has-been having a series of battles with Mayor Hague, has been denouncing the Jersey City leader all over the place as a political corruptionist. Today he told the Committee that putting Thomas F. Meaney on the federal bench would be just about the same as putting Mayor Hague on the federal bench. Governor Edison was followed bjri Congress- woman Mary Norton of New Jersey, who defended the appointment, and took a fling at the Governor. She ^ went back to the time when he was elected. How abouo been his relations with Hague then? Had he no-^&upported hy Hague when he ran for Governor? Edison replied - yes, he had •Then," cried the Congresswoman, "I think JUDGE . 3 you are the most arrant hypocrite that has ever walked through Mew Jersey." Now there*s a distressing vision for you -- a vision o:^hypocrites walking through New Jersey. The son of Edison the inventor made no attempt to retort with equal sharpness. He merely replied that he had not asked for the support of Mayor Hqgue when he ran for Governor, ^and repeated / what he then told Hague: "I said I would not be a ’yes-man’, thereby giving notice that I would not be one of the Hague minion's." So he stated, and let it go at that.*^ All of which would seem to indicate that | even an Edison is not inventor enough to match verbal fireworks with a Congresswoma n 0i