liiI:L-.--.§!iN0C0^__TUESDAY^’FEBRUARY_.^^_12A2 £ GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: nav I Tonight's late. Dulletin tells us that a battalion of sailors and marines has been organized on the Batan peninsula, and is fighting in the Philippine battle there. Sailors and marines formerly attached to warships - now battling shoulder to shoulder with the arifry troops. And this Navy communique, just off the wire, pictures a flash of brilliant action by an American motor torpedo boat -- the type of craft tl.at has distinguished itself all along. They probably ! torpedoed a warship. It happened in Manila Bay, and the bulletin reads as follows;- "Although under the heavy fire of the warship's guns, and in the full glare of searchlights, the motor torpedo boat managed to fire two torpedoes -- and to survivie the action without being hit. PHILIPPINES I k 1 Tile vivid flashes of military action A described in today’s report from General MacAithur.^T’^jQ^ occurred at the opposite ends of his battleline. It.is apparently now that the American and Filipino forces hold a defending front about halfway down the Batan peninsula. That small peninsula is thirty odd miles long, north to south, and MacA^thur^s men are about fifteen miles from the southern tip, off which lies the island fortress of Corregidor. They hold a line east to west, the east end anchored at a place called Pilar. The Japs have been striking at both ends, giving us a twofold story today. At the western shore of the Batan peninsula. they tried to outflank the line - by making landings. That’s a favorite device of the enemy - the landing and flanking operation. This time they made two attempts, trying to put troops ashore south of MacArthur's line - PHILIPPINFS - 2 ..-c behind it. The first was the less important of the two, though it was made by the Tatori,' the y Japanese name for special shock troops, something like the British commandos. trained for landing and jungle operations, of a^^pecial difficulty and 1 ^- hazzard.’- The time was - early in the evening. The was broken up - "frustrated by our artillery fire," Tatori tried to sirxii^ashore in boats, but the attack reports MacA^thur. So you can see the picture. American searchlights on the shore, picking out Jananese boats as twilight closed down, aitd: American A guns blasting^tto^ in the gathering darkness. "A second and more serious attempt," xkiibx relates General MacArthur, "was made at midnight. A large number of bargest," he goes on, "approached the coast." How were they discovered? The answer gives us an interesting disclosure - the revelation that MacA^'thur PHILIPPINES - 3 has night flyers. It is only too well known that he is pitifully short of air power, and every other kind T of power in fact - except strength of th« heart and power. But he has at least a few planes and pilots equipped and trained for work on high when th^ sky is ibcEkxx black. And here, in the terse words of tw' military communique, is MacA^thur*s description of the repulse of the enemy landing attempt. ’^The raid was discovered,” he ”by a few of our night flying pursuit planes - which immediately attacked the convoy with light bombs and machine gun fire. As the enemy troops approached the shore,” he continues, ”our beach defense attacked with artillery and machineguns. The Japanese suffered heavy casualties in men and boats,” says our Far EasternComraander. All that in the dark of night. And then, as they PHILIPPINES - 4 used to say in the old silent movies - came the dawn. What was seen at the break of daylight? MacAjthur’s r report of the operation concludes with these words:- ”on the following morning a number of disabled barges were found along the beaches. Some of these,” it says, ”were burning, and others were adrift. None of the invading group reached sHore.” That’s one-half of tonight’s battle story from the Philippines. The other, enacted at the other end of the line - was quite different. No landing attem^l by boats, it was a4^ on ‘terra firma - and^^our men did the attacking. Previously, at the eastern end of th e line across the Batan Peninsula, the Japs had tried a flanking operation by direct^atteclc - witckx charging American positions. They were repelled, and today’s communique tells that the Americans and Filipinos - 5 responded with a count er-attack. How did it make out? Okay, and here’s the way General MacArthur tells it. •Our troops overran three lines of enemy trenches, capturing considerable equipmnt," says he. INDIES \ i The signs and portents would seem to indicate the Japanese enemy is making ready for a thrj^ against the all-important island of Ja. \And if Java went, the present Number One ba^ of the united nations operations would be lost.1 The signs and porten' in this case are bombs, the Japanese battering at th e / / big ^ naval and air base and at other important j flying fields^ Hitherto, the enemy method has been to ^0 start with sky bombing and then go on to invasion. And the Dutch believe that this may be the case once I again, with Java as the objective. The Dutch feel that the peril is increasing, 4 tkztxtkBxi^ with the Japanese getting new strategic Doints - this in spite of the heavy blows they sustained i A ^ in theStraits of Macassar. Still more heavy blows - with Dutch Batavia announcing that tv/o big American INDIES . 2 bombers have sunk two more Japanese transports - possibly three. This boosts the total to thirty-four or thirty-five enemy vessels sunk or damaged in the Battle of jjjacassar. \ BRITISH PLANE In the shooting down of a big British passenger plane - thirteen out of eighteen persons aboard lost their lives. Five survived. A dispatch from Melbourne states the big airliner with a whole passenger list, was flying from Darwin, Australia, north across the Timor Sea. It had the bad lucj to run into a Jap air fleet. Squadrons of bombers escorted by fijc fighting planes, were making an air raid against the Dutch part of the island of Timor. The Jap fighters spotted the passenger liner, and shot it down. I . SINGAPORE Not much new from §ingapore, where the N-_ .. .............. ...... ............. J siege is in its early stagesf. The Japanese got a t - ................/' taste of what they may ejfpect, when several of their small boats in the Straits of Johore were sunk by artillery fire.^ Singapore reports that the enemy is engaged no?/ in building rafts - apparently for a mass attempt to get across the Stra it. ^ - an d ' he -my—aticki Irerge ai:treirpi-i-s -medes. Singapore had heartening word today from Australia, where the Army Minister promised help. i He sent* the following message to the beleaguered naval base:- ^Everything in our power is being done to insure S: that the greatest amount of help will reach you with all possible speed.” BURMA In Burma, the enemy forced his way across the Salween River, that formidable and all-important river barrier that blocks their way to Rangoon. Japanese troops got across, but v;ere attacked by the British, and most of them eliminated. A large scale crossing was prevented, but some enemy soldiers did get across. Just how formidable Ui4rS we don’t know. A dispatch from Rangoon gives us the picturesque detail that the Japanese are trying to cross the broad and treacherous waters of the Salween by a method they call - ”hop, skip and jump.” The river has a huge lot of small islands and mud flats, and the Japanese are trying to make their way from one to another - hopping, skipping, and jumping from island to island, mud flat to mud flat. 1 WAR DAMAGE The Senate today voted a bill that would gran free insurance against property damage from air raids. This grant is included in a measure that would increase the borrowing power of the Beconstraction Finance Corporation - the B.F.C. to be permitted to borrow an extra three and a half billion dollars. Of this, one billion would be used to finance what they call - a war damage corporation, which would be a sort of government-operated aiir-raid insurance concern. The war damage corporation would compensate losses to the extent of fifteen thousand dollars - in case of air raids. P^^operty owners would be reimbursed for damage to that amount - fifteen thousand dollars. But only property would be covered. The bill, as passed by the Senate today, would not provide any compensation for loss of life or personal injuries. CIYIMAN DEFENSE The Office of Civilian Fefense is being reorganized. This was announced today by Executive ■n irector Landis. Question Number One - What about Mayor LaGuardi* of New York? Today’s reorganization indicates that he will continue as Director of Civilian Defense, at least I for some time longer - this in spite of the fact that has indicated that he will resign and contend himself /) with being Mayor of New York. Question Number Two •- What about Mrs.Franklin D.Roosevelt? She figures in the new reorganization as Director of the Division of Community andVolunteer Participation Service. I suppose you’d call it the D.C.V.P.S. Executive Director Landis was asked - "What about Melvyn Douglas?" He becomes head of the Arts /V Council that will coordinate the services of actors, CIVILIAN DEFENSE - 2 artists and writers in promoting civilian defense. The appointment of Douglas has been attacked on the ground that the movie actor is - ”a parlor pink." Executive Director Landis stated today that he didn’t kno?/ the meaning of the* term - "parlor pink." I suppose one might hasten to inforM him that "parlor pink" doesiri^ mean a room painted with delicate rosy tints^ However, Landis declares he has the utmost confidence in the Hollywood picture player. RUBBER In spite of the war, we*re gett iig rubb er. This was revealed boday by Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones. it is true that the great fubber areas in Malaya are in enemy possession, but the tree that yields latex also grows in the Dutclj East Indies. And we are now getting rubber from such islands as Java and Sumatra. How much? We have imported a hundred and fourteen thousand tons since that fateful Seventh of December, when the Japs attacked. But, in the words of the Secretary of Commerce, isxxKxiflHKX "There will be enough to get along if we’re careful." ^ industry announces that hereafter only seven types of CORSETS 1 Here's a beguiling question -- how many kinds of women are there? Now go ahead fellows, and think up your choicest adjectives. The war and all those shortages are due to have an effect on the ladies. Not that there'll be any shortage ^ of women -- they won't have to ration the girls. But the war will decrease the number of types of feminine figurds. It's all because of the rubber shortage. No, I don't mean that the feminine figures are made of rubber. They do, however, depend somewhat on the elastic materialj The enchanting curves of the form divine will have to do with less rubber. At Chicago an official spokesman of the corsets will be manufactured -- for seven types of figure. At the top of the list is what they call "the best selling figure." That's more or less self- I i 0^p^g^]Q3^'t,ory something like the best seller among books, which is usually fiction. f 1 y CORSETS - 2 Next comes what they call -- the average figure. Not such a best seller, just a staple article -- something like the cook book. And then we find the junior figure, and the misses figure -- miss being about twenty years old. The remaining four figures are -- the averafee-tall, the average-short, the average-full, and the shot-full. These trade names applied to lovely womanhood are a little prosy and disenchanting. Think of falling in love with a short-full. Anyway, there will be only seven types of the feminine figure, and the strait-jackets for these will have a minimum of rubber, with almost no stretch. Meaning -- there’s bound to be some anguish -- if a short-full tries to cram herself into a non-stretch best seller. V The Bundles for Coing£e_s^ mo vement is sweeping along like a whirlwind -- so we hear from the headquarters of the campaign at Spokane, Washington. The idea is to send something to your senator or member of the House of Representatives. Something in accordance with the slogan "Bundles for Congress -- Keep *em Laughing." It all began after a bill was passed in Washington to provide legislators with pensions. That inspired the Spokan Athletic Round Table with the idea ^if they need pensions, they could also use bundles. All hilarious articles are being collected, such A as false teeth, glass eyes, and wooden legs. I suppose they figure the legislators might need the wood^^egs to the pay window, the glass eyes to take a look at the amount of the pension check, and the false teeth to eat all the ham and eggs. Word from Spokane today says that the directors of the new and rollicking charity are dumbfounded by the public response. Not only in their own city, but BUNDLES . 2 elsewhere. They've been swamped by messages from other where the people want to join in the good work, and contribute a few tons of the funniest things that the local comedians can think of^ Meanwhile, in a much more serious and even pathetic vein, the Civil .Service Commission in Washingtc asserts that the* plan to pension Senators and Congressmen has been badly misinterpreted. The bill that Congress passed merely enables the lawmakers to share in civil service pensions by.making suitable payments^ /\ there’s no reason for the big laugh that’s being cooked up. That’s the official view in Washington.— TAXES In tho Senate toc^ay, Vandenberg of Michigan burst into poetry on the exceedingly prosy subject of taxes. The Senator reminded us that more than thirty-six and a half bill ion'dollars had been appropriated for war during the last week, and this, he added, will have to be translated into increased taxation. At that point Vendenberg waxed satirical with the following ditty: ”Count that day lost Whose setting sun Sees not another billion at Jap and Hun." Okay Senator, but why fling the poetry at us? t I u I 4^1 'rSa BASEBALL The major leagues of baseball made a deciison today on the subject of night games. They had in ]. mind what President Roosevelt said when he gave the opinion that professional baseball should be continued during wartime as a meanse of public entertainment. The President xotatiKi added the suggestion that they ought to play more night games -- to permit war-time day workers to see more baseball. Last year, each U a Club in the two major leagues was allowed to have seven night games on its home grounds. This now is doubled - save i in the case of Washington. Each of the major league teamsmay have fourteen night games. but Washington is allowed twenty-one. Maybe that’s in honor of the President and his night game suggestion.