Fort Devens, Mass. (UP) –
The captain said:
It had better be good.
…when Pvt. Charles Mitchell said he had good reason returning late after a three-day furlough.
Pvt. Mitchell explained:
Well, I was about to get on a bus when I heard a band playing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” I turned to stand at attention and face the direction of the music.
When it was over, the bus was gone.
The explanation was accepted.
Hollywood (UP) –
Hal Roach, movie producer best known for his comedies, today said he would report July 25 for induction as a major in the U.S. Army Signal Corps.
Rio de Janeiro –
The United States has ceded 12 merchant ships to Brazil under terms of the Lend-Lease agreement.
Detroit (UP) –
A court case to determine whether a union can blacklist a member for refusing to buy war binds because of his religious scruples was opened yesterday before Circuit Judge James E. Chenot.
Hodge Thurman filed the suit to regain his job at the Murray Corp. and named as defendants the corporation and Lloyd Jones, president of Local 2, United Auto Workers (CIO).
Counsel for the union officials said employees had to be in good standing to keep their jobs and a union member had to buy binds to stay in good standing, Mr. Thurman’s attorney told the court there is nothing in the Bill of Rights to make Mr. Thurman buy war bonds and that his client’s religious convictions were against it.
Naval Air Station, Boston (UP) –
Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, commenting on the sinking of United Nations; merchant ships in the Atlantic by Axis U-boats, said today that:
We are doing our best on the submarine situation.
In an interview, Secretary Knox said all he could add was that:
We are working hard on the problem.
Secretary Knox was told that some New England fishermen were disturbed because the Navy was seizing their new boats for patrol duty.
The Secretary grinned:
Yes, that’s right. We’ve been robbing them We are going to use every vessel suitable on submarine control… If we don’t stop the submarine menace, there won’t be any fishing industry.
U.S. merchant seamen can ‘take it,’ eyewitness says and describes bravery under attack
By Walter Klemme
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Waynesville, NC (UP) –
Five persons were reported killed, at least eight others were injured seriously and five houses were wrecked today by an explosion that destroyed a Standard Oil Co. bulk plant and 25,000 pounds of scrap rubber.
The blast came as workmen were unloading a gasoline tanker truck.
Barkley will prevent vote until absent members return
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Washington –
Rep. James V. Heidinger (R-IL) announced today that Edward B. Kerr of Metropolis, Ill., would enter the U.S. Military Academy tomorrow “to follow in the footsteps of his father,” Col. E. V. Kerr, who was killed or captured on Bataan.
Mr. Heidinger named the young man to West Point some time ago and received notice from the War Department yesterday that he had been accepted.
Col. Kerr graduated from the Academy in 1919 and had served in the Army ever since. He was in the Philippines when war started and was officially reported missing in the Bataan fighting.
Four additional sinkings are announced by Navy Department
By the United Press
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General MacArthur’s Headquarters, Australia –
Activity in the Australian zone yesterday was confined to aerial reconnaissance, a United Nations communiqué said today.
Measure grants President power to requisition cars, buses, trucks, tires and parts; owners’ reimbursements in cash or war bonds
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Washington (UP) –
Samuel A. Weiss (D-PA) yesterday introduced in the House a bill to provide monthly unemployment insurance for 12 months after demobilization at the end of the war to all members of the Armed Forces.
The bill, drafted as an amendment to the Social Security Act, would provide for the amount to vary so that the purchasing power of $100 during 1941 would be the determining factor in establishing the sum allowed.