L.T. SUNOCO. TOKSDA^. DECEMBER 19, 1989, GOOD EVENING EVEMB0D2: Today Naval district headquarters at Norfolk had intercepted a radio message from Uncle Sam*s cruiser TUSCALOOSA. The commander of the TUSCALOOSA was notifying the Navy Department that the hig German liner COLUMBUS was being scuttled in mid­ ocean and the American cruiser was standing by to take off the crew. A couple of minutes later came a bulletin, from the White House. President Roosevelthad just received word from the Navy Department and was making public what he had learned. The TUSCALOOSA had come across that thirty-two thousand ton German luxury liner four hundred miles out at sea -- sinking. When the War broke out, the COLUMBUS was in the Caribbean, with eith hundred American passengers aboard, on a luxury crusie. COLUMBUS FRy.Tr^TO? - 2 Sxie v.as one of the most expensive vessels of the German mercantile marine and listed as the thirteenth largest liner in the world. Vrtien news came of^ the commander of the CQLUiaBUS put into the Dutch West Indies. But there the harbor wasn’t large enough, so she made for Havana, disembarked her pass eng ers^tta®*«v and then steamed off at full speed for Vera Cru*. Last week on December Fourteenth, the COLUMBUS weighed anchor, with oil and provisions enough for fifty days at sea. The rumor was that she was bound for Oslo, ii«r~oal>jfttr3r~fffr Norway. TUSCALOOSA found the COLUMBUS sinking in the presence of a British destroyer. But the Navy Department said further that so far as was known, no violation of neutrality had been committed. The report that she was scuttled by her own men is not definite, merely an overtook the COLUMBUS, the Germans gave up hope and opened the seacocks sooner than see the enemy^ Kwwflagrxtf one of their A later ~thw bulletin bringthat the inference The guess is that when the British destroyer ice /A have possession crack liners. FKEIGhTER T iil folks at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, had a free show todayj Sfiep.ggt front seats for an unexpeoted wai. spectacle_ A German freighter, on her way from Vera Cruz, Mexico, was plowing the deep, when a large warship hove in sight. According to one resiaei of Fort Lauderdale, it was a British ship and she fired a snot across the bow of the German freighter. The ftgpagn freighter immediately turned about, putting on the steam until she got within American territorial waters, then anchored and hoisted a flag asking for a pilot boa^. The British warship remained at sea beyond the^yl imit. wntayrta. It later turned out that the German freighter left Vera Cruz at about the same time that the COLUMBUS g-'-ny<■>***■» A gg»sct»—The-COLUMBUfl’ -Ureng chantre- -gt'* ■■ e-v-adiTTg—^hc sea-dd^e-s—^ q . tho--bolief-in-~som&-~t|ua^ters ic that—the Dyitigh- werr &hi-p j—wh4oh ffired—a—shot—tha.. bow w ■^■UAurlous-;tehg»> QOLUMBUD. FRglGKTER - 2 Later in the day, the proceedings outside Fort Lauderdale became more clear. It was a British cruiser, H.M.S. ORION, which almost nabbed thi§t German freighter. A ■ EXETER 1$ all the excitement over the sinking of the Graf Spee, the British Criiiser Exeter was comparatively forgotten. She was the one driven out of that naval battle, forced to withdraw, limping away from the scene of action. The British Admiralty made public today a report on the battle from one of His Majesty * s Colonial Governors, presumably the Governor of the Falkland Islands. The Graf gpeefs fifth and seventh salvoes had scored direct hits, the account said, "The forward turret of the Exeter was struck and eight of a crew of fifteen marines were killed," it continued, "The bridge was damaged, but the captain oi the Exeter escaped injury. "The Exeter then closed in and was again hit three or four times by shells from the Graf Spee. Finally the nine-inch Exeter came within range of the Graf Spee is five guns and returned shot for shot untl only one eight-inch gun — on the Exeter — could be fired by hand." EXETER - 2 "The Exeter*s steeping gear was damaged and the Captain steered for forty-five minutes by the boat compass from the after control near the mainmast," the Colonial Governor said, "Meanwhile the ship’s sides and upper works were riddled." "Orders were transmitted from the after control to the engine room by a chain of ten sailors until the ship no longer was serviceable as a fighting unit and fell out of action. Numerous fires broke out and the seamen threw burning material off the deck. Fire-fighting parties fought below decks." . / V^The Exeter limped fourteen hundred miles from the scene of the battle of the Falklands, carrying sixty-one dead FINiMS The latest from invaded Finland is that the Soviet forces in the Far North are now a hundred and twenty miles south of Petsamo* The Bolsheviks have ten or twelve thousand men massed up there in the Arctic Circle. But observers in Norway declare t hat the situ ation amounts to a stalemate,now* The principal thing the Russians have to do is consolidate, and on the other hand that will give the Finns plenty of time to strengthen their defense lines. Meanwhile, it grows colder and colder in those Arctic regions, making fighting more difficult on both sides. On the southwest coast of Finland, Russian bombers made a raid, setting fire to the feeas® of Abo, as-port^on th one of the most important^in Finland. It1 s I I I ninety miles west of Helsinki, and used to be the capital of the country and is still the third largest city. The famous humanitarian bombers of Stalin also made a raid on Viborg, but there, it is claimed, they hadf^ciet much success.-sud—iii ^six Red aircraft were Ml 1 IS I shot down. On the Karelian Isthmus, the Soviet Army launched further ! 1 heavy attacks but were repulsed. They suffered severe losses of men, and numerous tanks were destroyed. FINI\iS - 2 Tiie Supreme Allied War Council met in Paris today and received advices from Helsinki. No announcement was made after the meeting of the War Council. But[therefs a reliable report that the Finnish Government had advised Great Britain and France that the Finns could hold out all winter provided they got some help^ And n—pt i mi Provided also that the usual heavy snows fall on and after Christmas. Ex-President Herbert Hoover sent a cable to the Prime Minister of Finland^ rt~w€Mi quite a useful cable^for it remitted a hundred thousand dollars, Just one part of the first week's receipts of On© piece of Finnish news originates in America. !?,. ' ^ llilllll, L AjlviEiiL ICAI’i PLAljES The innish Governiaent will soon get a shipment of forty -four^fighting originally put together for Uncle Sam^s Wavy. , 8iscd5fc“took A A delivery of ten of them. But meanwhile an improved model of the same plane was devised. So the Government consented to the other forty-four of that consignment being sent to Helsinki. j^The sale was approved today by the Joint aeronautical board of the Army and Wavy. ) ROOSEVELT President Roosevelt was back in Washington today, and the newspaper men asked him about that House investigation of his National Labor Relations Board, what did he think of it. Mr. Roosevelt replied, he was ashamed to say he hadnH read all the testimony. They asked him about his forthcoming message to Congress what was he going to say? Was it true he had made drastic cuts in the budget? To this Mr. Roosevelt would not reply definitely. He said he would rather put it this way, that a lot of government departments and agencies think the cuts he has made are most drastic, ^iie also told the public that one good guess about his message is that he’ll remind Congress about a pledge it did not keep, a solemn promise to raise five hundred and fifty million dollars in taxes to pay for farm benefits^^ LABOR BOARD The investigation into the National Labor Relations Board furnished some more drama today. On the stand was Nathan brought to light one actiisn by Secretary Wit t which was interesting, to put it mildly. It happened back in Nineteen Thirty-Seven, when the Little Steel Strike was in the air. Secretary Witt went to the help of the C.I.Q, strike leaders — advised them how to obtain a ruling from, the Board. to the General Counsel of the N.L.R.B. That memorandum was read to the Committee today. The Congressmen asked Secretary Witt about this. Congressman Halleck of Indiana wanted to know whether this memorandum did not show that he and other officials of the National Labof Board were laying down a strategy to set a trap for Inland Steel Company. Secretary Witt replied that he didnTt like the word fStrategy”. Then the Committee's counsel jumped Witt, Secretary of the Board, the official who was put on the pan by Board Member Leiserson la t week. Today's proceedings fhis became known through a memorandum that Wit t wrote into the fray and asked him if he would prefer the word "conspiracyis That word touch off the fireworks. Everybody present decided that it was not a private fight, and almost everybody started talking at once and in their loudest voices. FA-rtM AID Secretary Wallace!s boys at the Department of Agriculture are working out a plan to help the farmers without irixiatung the budget. In other ViOrds, the farmers are to get more money, but it wonft come out of the taxes. That is, if the plan is adopted. ' \ Tnt- oJtgWgf Ihe extra money is to come out of the pockets of the consumer, or, putting—i^~ orudedy-y the conoumer jUk be- ■tlTg-igtSS&t. And hereTs the way it works:- Let’s assume you’re a wheat farmer. The parity price is a dollar and twenty-five cents a bushel. The market price is only a dollar. How then is the farmer to get his dollar and a quarter? Before be takes his wheat to the mill, he gets a certificate from the Department of Agricultua* worth a quarter for each bushel of wheat. takes his wheat to the mill toge~t.her- with his xk certificate . The miller pays the farmer a dollar for the wheat and a quarter for the certificate. The miller then in turn, when £ he sells the flour, sei Is the certificate along with it, and whoever buys the flour has to buy the certificate too. Thus all along the line that extra quarter a FARM AID - S bushel for the farmer’s wheat is passed along to the last purchaser. He can frame the Certificates and hang 'em on wall. 4-n^ „ l^J„ HI IT /7. /ffe?. KLbCTIOJS went on to HereTs a guess of the Republican PartyTs chances next year as seen by a big—shot Democrat. Senator Bert Wheeler of Montana has been swinging the circle through the west for to see what he conic, see and to hear what he could hear, and probably mend msi a couple of political fences or so on the way. He returned to Washington today, and notified the newspaper men he had something to say. But he wouldn’t say what they most wanted to hear, which was - "What about your own candidacy for the Democratic nomination?" U/“£* "nothing doing on that," said the Montana Senator, Pf-c b i v c —mb entions—tre1 aflp that the national tendency out west is towards the Republican A- Party. And if the Democrats nominate a conservative, the voters will stick to their G.O.P. They’ll vote for a Republican rather than for a reactionary Democrat, But, he added, he thinas a liberal Democrat would win the west. He declined to say which ^-7 4^'**'* liberal D^mocrfit, hint that such a Democrat should come from Montana^ iat ^ » : I ; I 1 ! I 1 < i I 1 ' 1 ENQLEBEEg, In a Brooklyn department store buying toys,: not—only—ar" Tr->rsasri—-but & leudAj»l-e—eegopation forMritls-— While she Aat doing so she let drop some remarks and mentioned the name TtHaas.n Something in those remarks and the name attracted the attention cf the sales girl ll, I l„-_ 1__ happened to be an avid reader of newspapers. She tipped off the police. The^P«££B% followed a?» the lead rrii \ i‘)i—iirn Urd liir-rn all the way to Canada, ^jtey^ook-with them photoatata of-fingerprint□ ^-.t h» ¥he-~~c'rv»fr--jp 3 U)iied--tip tne ^irarl'l-iii'~?open:to^>a And there today <5=^. vv^-jsst^v . they )i hT n mi in ■niln i m i n w_ a former pugilist whose names are ^ A ^ Ernie Haas and also Walter Kaehler. They arrested him, they say, because his fingerprints corresponded with those left behind him in the room where Dr. Walter Richard Engleberg was found dead on December Sixth. ¥es, Engleberg, First Secretary of the German A Consulate General in Hew Y0rk. And, say the cops, they have a confession from this fcrnie Haas, the boxer whom they arrested in Toronto. a couple of casual careless remarKs droooed ^in a department store.- EXTORTIO j M And nere’s a tale that some sentimental people would find it difficult to1 believe. The vice-president of an Philadelphia insurance company in received an extortion note. It notified nim to leave ten thousand dollars in a certain spot on a certain date^ and on pain of dire happenings. The insurance viee-presiden"^turned the note over to the police, and the cops laid a trap for the writer of tnsk note. A decoy package was planted at the spot designated in the letter, near a hospital. Thirteen i j—trp«ncig*. disguised as hospital orderlies, physicians and other persons, were lying in wait. Presently along came a man who picked up the decoy package. He was one cf the orderlies at ohe hospital. He was arrested, held without bail, questioned, and according to his own account, icgiven the third degree. the police clergyman, had written that extortion note to the insurance ^ 'Jr vlce-presldenf^Lu*d « for the thrill of it. When they had been arrested, however, tneir heard that an innocent man EXTORTION - 2 conscience pricked them, and they told their parents, Tue clergyman father promptly went to the police. The innocent hospital orderly was released. The schoolboys were taken before the presiding judge of the Philadelphia County Court, Aid thqr say it* 11 be a long time before they forget the remarks made by tnat presiding judge - - — M _ i £>YriD Here's the latest from admiral Byrd and his iaisiEt expedition t $ fas to the South Pole* T>iey have Just figured out that they probably T^on't be able to eeleorate December Twenty-Fifth. The reason for that is, that they won't see December Twenty-Fifth, there will be no such date for them. As the Byrd flagship, the I ORTH STAR, is going now, she'll probably cross the international dateline on the Twenty-Fourth. So doing, everybody aboard automatically loses a day. The tSyrd expedition thus will jump clear out of December Twenty-Fifth into December Twenty-Sixth But tnc—friettds-oT^»e±**trtjrg3-ef^#he^fteTrwith-Byrd noed The Rear Admiral's radio message says even if all of Christmas Day is lost, Christmas packages will come \ out of the hold just the same and there'll be turkey and fixings on the table1 regardless of woat tne.calendar says. C&dl lAr^Udh cJU> y<^ T hr