L.T. SUNOCO - WEDNESDAY. APRIL 9. 19,11 Good Evening, Everybody:- The speed of Hitler’s Nineteen Forty-one war machine is well-nigh incredible. There have been plenty of prophets of gloom in these last few months, but the gloomiest of them never predicted that Hitler’s motorized hordes would break the line in the Balkans, the strong Metaxas line, in three days. But let’s look at the picture through British eyes. With characteristic English reserve a spokesman in London said tonight that it is obvious the immediate outlook in the Balkans is very serious. When those words "very serious" came through, Wavell’s army had not yet been engaged in that terrific Balkan battle. But it was obviously on the verge of its first big fight with the Nazis, the first real battle between German and British arms in almost a year, since Dunkirk. w As a matter of fact, we don t even know exactly where the British expeditionary force is. But, it’s believed that LEAD - 2 'avell’s men are helping the Greeks in Western Thesaly and two other provinces, to the Northwest of Salonika. The British part of the line is the only one properly equipped with tanks, heavy artillery and anti-aircraft guns. Until today it was thought perhaps the British were making a stand at.^ or near Salonika. But at four oTclock this morning one of the Nazi panzer columns dashed onto that Aegean port, and the Germans now hold the great Greek port which was an important Allied base in the World War twenty-three years ago. Here’s the story from the German High Command, all corroborated by the Allies. At first no news came from the Germans. But now their bulletins are pouring in like bullets out of a machine-gun. The Nazis say they took five southern Jugoslav cities in seventy-two hours. Apparently their armored divisions moved almost with express-train speed. They paid mm LEAD - 3 but little attention to northern Jugoslavia, where the Jugoslav high command had most of their troops concentrated. Instead, they dashed through mountain passes where they were not expected. That thrust into southern Jugoslavia has isolated the Jugoslavs, cut them off from the Greeks and the British. Furthermore,! | the Nazi hordes are now in control of both the Vardar Valiey and the Struma Valley. So at the moment it looks as though the British and Greeks are worse off than they would have been if the Jugoslavs had signed that treaty with Hitler. For, according to that agreement the Nazis were permitted fcnly to send military supplies and hospital trains down the Vardar Valley, ^ow, within a mere seventy-two hours they have comjolfet^fcC.e^^ into Greece, for alljtheir forces. and/Yhe Swastika is now on the shores of the Agean. The German account indicates that Salonika gave up without a blow, jBut Greek dispatches acknowledging surrender of the port, declare that Salonika fell only after many savage repulses. German casualties are reported to be terrific The explanation is given that the Jugoslavs were the weak link in the defense — that the Allies would have been better off without them. The Nazi army struck from Bulgaria, swept through the frKAD - 4 Jugoslav mountain passes, captured the line of communications down the Struma Valley, and swooped down on Macedonia. Perhaps helped by the inhabitants of those Macedonian regions, who have long hated the Serbs. However, nothing of that appears in the day*s communications. By capturing Salonika, the Germans have the eastern wing of the Greek army cut off, cut off and helpless, ihey cannot retreat, for there*s no place to which they can retreat. There can’t be another Dunkirk there, because there isn’t any shipping. Prime Minister Winston Churchill told the House of Commons he was sure that the Greek army would light to the bitter end. Turning our eyes west, the latest is that the Nazis in south Serbia have cut their way through into Albania and will be on the shores of the Adriatic before long. From the other side, however, comes the claim that one Jugoslav army has crushed through the Italian lines in Albania, crossed the Drin River, and driven into the Albanian interior. They are hoping to make a junction with the Greek forces in Albania. But in Rom.j the Fascist! spokesmen claim the Greeks are withdrawing from Albania. In Athens, the Greeks are treating the capture of Salonika a LEAD - 5 something to be expected. Be that as it may, Salonika is a big seaport, giving the Nazis access to the Aegean and cutting off a large and helpless Greek army, which Berlin says has now capitulated ft became obvious today how seriously the“sending expeditionary force toGreece had weakened the Ar The German high command announces that Hitler’s taken Derna, where they say they captured two tl: including six British generals and a huge amount not confirmed by the British, but also it’s not denied. Today the German and Italian columns are rep6rted to be at Tobruk, just eighty miles from the border of Egypt. Evidently that is true, for Lord Moyne, the Colonisal Secretary, told the House of Lords that British tanks and reenforcements are returning, pre­ sumably from Greece. Berlin says the British are about to evacuate Greece and leave the Greeks in the lurch. But the real meaning appears to be that the British are returning some of their forces and equipment ^- q Africa to meet the German threat there. However, there is one notable British victory to report. LEAD - 6 The troops of the Empire have taken Massawa, the oldest colonial seaport that Italy had, the seaport of Eritrea. That means the British virtually have all Eritrea, and the last Italian air base in East Africa. 1t also means that the British are able to clear the Red Sea of enemy ships. CHUKCHILL Even the terrific news over the wire was hardly more hair-raising than the words of Winston Churchill, The Prime Minister drew a picture for the British House of Commons that was the most grave and ominous since Petain surrendered France. For one thing, he admitted to the Commons that General Wavell!s army in Greece is in danger, that it was z hazardous to J? U/bM. send it there^ put ^caCf he-da? convinced that sticking pedantxcallir to the maxim of !’safety firstn was the most unlikely way of winning this war. at; £n£j ^ ^ _ One part of the story that the Commons heard from Churchill was a repetition of the old slogan, ntoo late.n If the Jugoslavs had helped the Greeks at the time that Mussolini struck, they could have destroyed the Fascist armies in Albania before Germany could move. But the Jugoslav Regent, Prince Paul, behaved just like the governments of Belgium, Scandinavia and the Netherlands, fte tried to compromise with Hitler. He kept on compromising even while the German armies and air force were being concentrated in Bulgaria. He refused to receive Foreign Secretary CHURCHILL - Eden and Chief of Staff Sir John Dill; he refused to discuss detense with the general staffs of Greece, Turkey and Britain. If Jugoslavia, Greece and Turkey had formed a defensive front, Germany might never have attacked. Greece alone stood strong. 'Ihe Greeks told Eden that they would fight even if they had to fight alone. The Brime Minister then went on to admit some of the worst disasters that have befallen the Allied armies. Belgrade, he acknowledged, is in ashes, and he said the Germans entered Salonika at four o’clock this morning. At the same time, he declared the Ger. ans had suffered more than one bloody repulse at they the hands of the Greeks before^got to the Agean. Churchill then explained the bad news from Africa. Evidently the army of the Wile was taken unawares. German troops and vehicles in Libya have made a rapid attack of greater strength than the British commanders expected at so early a date, and the Btitish have fallen back upon stronger positions in country easier to defend. At the same time, he revealed the CHURCHILL - 3 fact that the -tpitish in Africa are fighting now not merely for Cyrenaica but for E^ypt. In other words, that swift advance along the African coast begins to threaten Cairo itself and the Suez Canal. . A-H—of -aourse was-diselosed—tn the—news elsewhere^ Th«*r the Prime Minister went on to another picture of gloom. A f\. U-boats and Nazi surface raiders are F-ag4n^ the Atlantic farther and farther westward, nearer and nearer to the shores of the United (TW-r States. He tacitly admitted the possibility that great masses of weapons and instruments of war involved in the aid-to-Britain bill might sink in the depths of the Atlantic and never reach the fighting line. He then told the Commons about those ten Uncle Sam oL-'i<dxnM revenue cutters that President Koosevelt had sent over. He^&veaie4 the faat that they were ships originally designed to help the Coast Guard enforce prohibition. But now, said Churchill, they will serve even a higher purpose The Prime Minister harped on the fact that the most important part of the war, the real crux of the whole conflict. CHURCHILL - 4 is the Battle of the Atlantic. Everything, he said, turns on that. And he that four million tons of British shipping have already been sunk. He this point more portentously and eloquently than ever before I The salvation of Britain depends * \ t A ^: ' '• *; ^ ■ jj upon a full scale American^effort,.an effort at least equal to the prodigy accomplished by the Americans in Nineteen Eighteen. ThatT s the way he put it. -A< high pointy of Churchills address to the Parliament may have interested Soviet Dictator Stalin. He said there were many signs that point to a Nazi attempt to secure the grain fields of the Ukraine and the oil fields of the Caucasus, to giin the resources with w*hich to wear down the English-speaking to world. And he warned *is people to expect an attempts# invasion any daj , any moment, also an attack on Turkey. GERDAU SHIP In all this turmoil, there comes a slightly ironic itrm from South America. A German freighter arrived at Rio deJaneiro with a cargo of airplanes for one of the Nazi air transport lines in Brazil. She sailed from Bordeaux and made the journey in twenty-nine days, across the Atlantic without ever sighting so much as a British warship or submarine. NORTH CAROLINA Back on our own home grounds there was one encouraging event, a ceremony at the Brooklyn Navy *ard. Uncle Sam put into commission the United States Battleship NORTH CAROLINA. SheTs the most powerful battle lintr afloat, thirty-five thousand tons, with nine 16-inch guns. That means she can throw ten tons of tremendous shells for a distance of twenty miles at one salvo. President Roosevelt was represented by a wire which points out that sheTs the first addition to Uncle Samfs navy since eighteen years ago, when the U.S.S. WEST VIRGINIA was commissioned. The NORTH CAROLINA^ a little seventy million dollar affair, is the first of ten of her kind, and the next four will be still larger, forty-five thousand tons. The NORTH CAROLINA is .... five months ahead of schedule. Tho NORTH- CAROLINA brings our battle strength to sixteen capital ships. When her nine sister ships are completed, wefll have twenty-five, and thatfs a line of battle in any man's navy. LABOR The conference between the soft coal operators and the miners here at home has been extended another twenty -four hours. In the hope that the southern operators will sign on the dotted line along with the northern operators and the union. Meanwhile, there1s another coal conference going on between the operators and mine workers in the hard coal industry. One of the busiest men in the United States today was Philip Murray, President of the C.I.O. Murray flew to Washington after a conference in Detroit ever'the C.I.O. dispute with the Ford Company. Murray had a long conference at the White House with the President. When he left the White House Murray told the newspapermen that there would be an important announcement from Detroit about the Ford situation at five or six o»clock this evening. He implied that it would be the news of a settlement. But no such announcement has been made and Detroit reports no indication of one. A congressional committee today was asking William F. Knud sen what to do about all these strikes. Knudsen told them he didn’t think legislation would help. He thought there ought to be a cooling off period but that should be brought about by an agreement between management and labor. If defense plants are tied up by strikes, he added, then the government should be permitted to take them over and operate them until the strike is settled. The Military Affairs Committee of the House decided to call J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They’re going to ask him how much of all the striking in defense plants is the result of Communist penetration. labor - s GALEKTO with all the world toppling to pieces, there are doubtless people who still want to hear what actually happened to Two-Ton Tony, the garrulous Galento. Tony for once in his life, was not so talkative after that defeat at Washington last night. For the first time he did not say to anybody: "I ill moider the bum." But the officials of the Boxing Commission in the District of Columbia were highly inquisitive. They wanted to know aht about the left hand that Tony claimed he had broken. The surgeon who examined the mighty paw last night after the fight found no sign of a broken bone. Whafc*s more, m Tony refused to go to the hospital; so the Commission help ud his end of the purse. They turned the X-ray on that left fist and found indeed no broken hand, but bones in such a sore condition that they * could eaily have caused great pain and slowed up his effort. Thereupon they let poor old Tony have his five thousand odd dollars. So there’s the end of the latest turmoil of Two-Ton-Tony. And now Hugh for the end of this.