*f- - y&usvxj-t/r: '>^**-*/, ~^rxr jpf; l£l'^e^. FIRE There Is not only a sense of tragic horror but also one of mysteiy, v.hen the news comes - fire has destroyed a town, tne victims may number as many as eight hundred I It was xn no sense a large city, and of its inhabitants^^ap^have perished. When we hear that, we wonder how? What couid make a fire so frightfully disastrous? The answer is like a fantasy of terror. Down in South American Venezuela, is the Lale of Maracaibo, and on its banks stood the town of LaGuniilas. The town stood high, on stilts, built on piles over the water. It was inhabited by Venezuelan w-orkers, oil field workers. Lake Maracaibo is the center of the great Venezuelan oil industry, its waters covered with waste petroleum. The news dispatch relates that the water underneath the houses of the town that stood on stilts was coated an inch thick with oil. were So there the makings of the ultimate tragedy of fire — not only the houses burning down, but the water Deneath tiieru flaming high, the lake on fire. The news tells of now two hundred people managed to get aboard a lighter that was moored FIRE - 2 pUfia.. and tried to push off - but the lighter capsized into the blazing water. the historic record of calamity by fire, a A prominent place must be given to thj^Flaming tragedy on Lake Maracaibo. There’s alar-ing word from Finland, about the state of things on the Finnish-Hussian frontier. There Finland has three hundred thousand troops mobilized, and they are faced by heavy forces Ox tne HeQ Army. A state of 7.ar is said to exist, but it’s called - pa war of nerves.” Reports from Helsingfors tell of Soviet actions, you might call them antics - intended to break the morale of the Finns. Red Army troops lining up at the border and blazing away - shooting into the air, however, just making a hostile demonstration. And Red Army soldiers coming in a rush with fixed bayonets - right up to tne frontier barriers. It must be a fearsome sight to see - the hordes of Red soldiers in a bayonet charge, though it's only a sham battle effect. And Soviet warplanes are described as hedge-hopping across the border, with a lot of roaring action, just keeping things disturbed. All e lot of warlike display, ,|the Finns - a 7.ar of nerves. Well, A we remember how the present Jruropean confj.ict was preceded by a war of nerves — which presently turned into one real thing. And today on that Finnish—Soviet border one instance FIra,S - 2 of the real thing is reported - a Soviet warplane shot down. Tne story is not confirmed, but it tells circumstantially ho?.' a Finnish anti-aircraft battery blazed away at a Red army plane, wnich fell between the lines, the No ^an’s Land across wnich the Finns and the Reds are facing each other. : I : - - " r." Hitler tO'cay 'h'inded In his reply to the Belglan.- Biifceli peace r-ropoes,.! — and tO'n';;ht It is in the hands of King Leopold and Qpeen Hllhelaina. Tliere is no official word of -•hat's in the Ha si oo^mnuni cation, but Berlin gives us a pretty s t ro n_ i n■ .11 c at ion tiia t 11' s -— a re j ec t lo n.. hot s,n out r 1 ght ref'ssal of the Leopold-Wilhelmina offer to mediate — net hing so direst as tlo t„ tl are informed that* Hitler has told the King and ^a.-en t'aat the attitude of Great Britain and prance make it logosslble tc talk, peace just now. ^^ith London and Paris demand!rg an end to Hitlerism as the first condition, peace discussions are impossible tril!irO^ -- so says Hitler^ ■) IgPS-afflfeS? BELGIUM iocuy in Brussels a whole political party walked out of tii.e Belgian Parliament - seceded from the session. T'he Flemish party — which reminds us once again of the lack of unity in King Leopold's realm. Belgium is divided into two groups, the French-speaking Walloons, and the more German Flemings, who talk a Teutonic sort of language, /rhey've been at odds for a long time — with an address by the speaker - an address In French. Today the leader of the Flemish group demanded that the speaKer^s address be kept other deputies from talKing - had the place in an uproar. It all ended with a motion to expel the Flemish leader. The Walloon majority carried the day and voted to have the obstreperous Fleming tossed right out. Tnereupon the entire Flemish minority walked out - seceded. with Flemish demands for autonomy, and the use of their own The present session of the Brussels Parliament was opened All this is a ratner usual sort of thing in Belgium The Germans are talking ominously about taking restrictions off* their submarine warfare. The hazis are contending that because Britain is arming merchant ships, the U-boats have the right to sink them without warning. Today a German navy spokesman declared that hereafter if an armed merchant craft made any attempt to escape or resist a submarine, it would be sunk without further ceremony. Any move to get away or uncover a gun would be regarded as resistance. And Berlin newspapers are demanding that the British arming of cargo vessels should be answered by unrestricted torpedoing - axKsxid the World War way, spurlos gersenkt. \ SHIPS The North Sea is a cheerless place these days. Even in the brightest of siamraeTy that turbulent body of water is no blue and luminous Mediterranean. The North Sea, gray and grim - especially at this time of year, as winter comes on, chill and blustery, with blasting, frosty gales. And now;, with v/ar on the ocean, there could be hardly any more forbidding space of water on this globe - than the North Sea. the dayfs catch. They saw a destroyer of the blockade patrol. It was speeding along a couple of miles away. Suddenly they heard “ — 4 ^--------------- struck a German mine, and was sinking. The fishermen hurried to the rescue, and here*s how one of them describes what they saw:- "The destroyer was surrounded by oil," he relates, "and men were plunging into the sea from the decks. Some clung to debris and spars* Others swdm, and we saw some sinking. Many were exhusted when we pulled them into our coat, A number refused help until we had picked up weaker swimmers." a hardy British jack tar who certainly had a sense of humor. As he Today, some fishermen were out in a motor trawler, seeking a loud explosion, and saw the destroyer writ&q. in smoke. It had One of those who refused help until others were saved was SHIPS - 2 sv.<*12 in tjut; icy wEitsi* a-rid the oil , ne Scing a cheery song f a niocKing maminy song. It had this refrain, which he chanted loudly:- "Even Hitler had a mother." The fishermen worked lustily, hauling in one survivor after another, survivors half frozen by the icy sea, half smothered by the oil. And from the water rang out tne ironical song - "Even Hitler had a mother," They saved seventy men of the crew of the sunken destroyer, only half a dozen men missing - remarkable that so many were rescued. One fishing boat, crowded with survivors, was on its way to port - when another startling sight was spied. And herers how one of the fishermen describes it:- "En route to shore with our survivors," says he, "we saw an explosion under the bow of a British cargo boat. Great fountains of water were blown around her. All the members of her crew," the fisherman continues, "escaped in the ship's boats." Yes, the fury of war is playing havoc on the »rim North Sea, iH ri niil f rnvi-1 —r rir in J it SHIPS _ 3 a Norwe^fan freign1 hey hj han t'nxfty hour softer h^eir shvfhad mor U-boa Anothej^boatl of su^ivor torpe as sought in Londo^nrepor osiojar in the British HATHA/- what ^ort ojjrexplos^on wejfire not ^bld sank fty liv^s savj Today we get a story of amazing misadventure. The very devils of the worth Sea appear to have been active at one point off the east coast of England. There, two weeks ago, a steamer was sunk. Then last Saturday, a distress call came from a freignter at that same place. A rescue boat found the steamer had struck the wreckage, and she sank. The next day, the lifeboat got a call from another ship, once more at that ill-omened locationsecond ship had hit the wreckage and was sinking. The rescue boat picked up eignteen survivors and was on its v/ay to shore when still again the raoio began crackling with distress signals. At the same place, a third steamer held run into the wreckage! Three vessels lost in three days, hitting the same submerged hulk of a sunken ship! il t Vf." - ' ___ . ■ ■ i |; : SHIPS - 4 On that arm of the iorth Sea, the Gulf of Finland, a Soviet aviation disaster is reported. In bad wintry weather a squadron of nine Bed planes flew out from the Esthonian coast. Caught in clouds and storm, seven had to make forced landings and were badly damaged. Two of the Soviet war planes are missing - presumably lost. K> /.. • - - """■'s ROOS il VLLT PrsEiGent; Roossvglt indicated prstty strongly todciy tnat the goveimnent wouldn’t stand Tor the plan to put American ships under the flag of Panama - thereby enabling them to sail legally to the war zones. Tne President tola the White House press conference this afternoon that he in part agreed with the contention of Secretary of State Cornell Hull - that the transfer of American ships to foreign flags would be a violation of the TZ h T spirit of the neutrality Bill. President frooseve?* added that A he himself didn’t favor anything that would put any of the Pan-American nations out of line with the neutrality policy of the United States. i i rr tn-fftf- j. ro.iuoon PnriB^iTT'Trrwr^m — fiMfi wa ^ert^4n~iy in 1 that——irf—7~gl alXovi'Pdi Amti fcan t n use—t rte - pfinnntam rm f 1 fryp navirgatlT,g—the war zones,—whicii’ our own nftatrai.*ty--.. The President wouldn’t say positively that he’d veto the idea, but he told the newspaper men - they could see how the wind was blowing. o long ago that singers of popular m I ..vr^cR songs were crooning "I Kiss Your Hand, Madame, " but of course there1 ■ a difference between a hand and a foot. Hovrever, If Qenerrl Francisco Franco chooses to Ignore the difference -- ••ell,, he’s the Dictat r Y Spain. That Has pointed out today by hrs. Sdith Rogers Dahl. She's the wife of American Aviator Dahl '.'ho flew and fought with the Left-hingers in Spain and vae captured by F -.noo. He’s still a Franco prisoner; irrnte no telling when he'll be turned loose. One of the Spanish Civil ¥ar incidents that made headlines was when theAneriean aviator's beautiful blonde wife wrote to Franco to save her husband's life -- and enclosed a photograph of herself for the G-eneralissimo to gaze upon. A parentip the very blonde picture '*as good to looh at, for IvirP or Dahl's Vfe ■ a ' spared. In fo.ct, Mrs. Dahl got a re Ip '' m Franco, s=c^tyt in which the G-eneralissimo concluded: "Your obedient servant hisses your foot." Today M .Dahl landed in tile United States and the reporters immediately asked her about the foot pari of it. “Yes, of course it's true, “ she said. “But it's ridiculous - . ■ AVIATOR - C to . .-i1 n fuss over that. It inoans the same as ve say ever A here •Cordially yours,1 11^ Yes, it just depends upon usec^e. Cordially yours. Kiss Your Hand I-Iadame, or Your obedient Servant kisses your foot. Mrs. Dahl vas ind' p-nant that there should have been any e aciteaent about the foot. It didn’t do her husband any * ;ood, she i. .' lied. "The reporters picked it up. and it did a a fool _of Franco." Ho it doesn’t — -particularly in Spain, preat deal cf vrrcnp, M she said she. HIt does no pood to make ANNEWBi.HG ittt i)MpOI''ticrf»4>'— <• i’f crir 1 st : C l IJUC*1 l U—-0-fl-^:—t OQ-6 y-} T^w tshET^M. L. Annenberg, prorainent publisher, dissolved his nationwide service giving news about the races. This was announced by the United btsites District Attorney in Chicago, who says that kUPTE Annenberg had informed him that he would, ipjxfc forever quit the A N /V business of providing race information through the wires to gamblers and bookies END WUOTE. There has been a lot of litigation about the Annenberg business connected with racingthe government getting injunctions against telephone and telegraph companies - forbidding them to transmit data about the running of the horses and the betting. All of which now ends with annenbergfs announcement that O he is dissolving his news service SNOW CKUISgR Y>6113 they finally got the snowmobile aboard ship toQ&j — the giant PliiM^UIN in v^hxch Admiral Byrd will gad about on trie south polar ice pack. Tne snowmobile, with, its tires ten feet tall, arrived at boston nineteen days late - after various misadventures on the overland route from Chicago. Then they had nev; problems to solve to get it on the ship. The cruiser for the ice fields was too large, no way of navigating it aboard - as it was. They had to slice away a ten foot section down to the Antarctic continent. go snowmobiling on the ice^ of the P£NQUINTS tail, which some longshoremen did with acetylene torches. Then, with its tail cut short, the snowmobile was able to roll Is on to the ship under its own power. The vessel dropped a foot deeper into the water - from the weight of that monster vehicle of exploration, a house and a laboratory on wheels. Now all that remains is for Admiral Byrd to take it ■DQT jp A l L Down in Texas they’re Jwing an epidemic of - Rose Bowl fever. From the Panhandle to the Rio Grande, from the Red River to the Gulf, the cry is universal - "the Aggies for the Rose B0wltf! In the statewide paean of praise for the Aggies, there are not a few raspberries,-razzing Tennessee. borne football fans other A, than Texans might tr.ink the pile-driving Tennessee team a likely Bose Bowl candidate, unbeaten and untied. - a wonder outfit of football. Many experts consider Tennessee one of those .teams of all time*. But the Texans are making fun of tne Tennessee schedule he eleveruthat Tennessee has played have^^*ojr^<i»&ieedly^rafiiorthy of Tennessee power. The only Texan who seems not to be at all infected by the Rose Bowl fever, is the coach of the Aggies, homer hoiton. When he hears somebody roar, "The Aggies for the Rose Bowl", Norton merely remarks ixx with sober realism - that his WW&- I FOOTBALL - 2 ■ a \ Afegies still have two ^ames to play, with Kice and Texas ftUM, and he remarks that they might lose either game or both, i-t doesnft seem likely, but then football coaches are not distinguished for rosy optimism. They take too many hard knocks for that. Coaches AvjtX-v are immune from \Ar^y>