America at war! (1941– ) (Part 1)

[NormanStewart]

Allein die wahre Gesinnung dieses Mannes enthüllt sich erst in einem Telegramm vom 15. Juni an den französischen Ministerpräsidenten Reynaud. Er teilt ihm mit, daß die amerikanische Regierung die Hilfeleistungen an Frankreich verdoppeln wird, vorausgesetzt, daß Frankreich den Krieg gegen Deutschland fortsetzt. Um diesem Wunsch nach Kriegsverlängerung noch besonders Nachdruck zu geben, gibt er die Erklärung ab, daß die amerikanische Regierung die Ergebnisse der Eroberung das heißt also die Rückgewinnung zum Beispiel der einst Deutschland geraubten Gebiete, nicht anerkennen werde. Ich brauche Ihnen nicht zu versichern, meine Herren Abgeordneten, daß es jeder deutschen Regierung gänzlich gleichgültig ist, ob der Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten eine Grenze in Europa anerkennt oder nicht, und auch in der Zukunft gleichgültig sein wird!

Ich führe den Fall nur zur Charakterisierung der planmäßigen Hetze dieses Mannes an, der von Frieden heuchelt und ewig nur zum Kriege hetzt. Denn nun Überfällt ihn die Angst, daß im Falle des Zustandekommens eines europäischen Friedens die Milliardenvergeudung seiner Aufrüstung in kurzer Zeit als glatter Betrug erkannt wird, da niemand Amerika dann angreift, wenn dieses nicht selbst den Angriff provoziert!

Am 17. Juni 1940 verfügt der Präsident der Vereinigen Staaten die Sperrung der französischen Guthaben. uni, wie er sich ausdrückt, sie dem deutschen Zugriff zu entziehen, in Wirklichkeit aber, um mit Hilfe eines amerikanischen Kreuzers das Gold von Casablanca nach Amerika abzuführen.

Vom Juli 1940 steigern sich die Maßnahmen Roosevelts immer mehr, um, sei es durch den Eintritt amerikanischer Staatsangehöriger in die britische Luftwaffe oder durch die Ausbildung von englischem Flugpersonal in den Vereinigten Staaten, den Weg zum Kriege selbst zu finden. Und schon im August 1940 erfolgt die gemeinsame Aufstellung eines militärischen Programms für die Vereinigten Staaten und Kanada. Um aber nun die Bildung eines amerikanisch-kanadischen Verteidigungskomitees wenigstens den größten Dummköpfen plausibel erscheinen zu lassen, erfindet er von Zeit zu Zeit Krisen, in denen er tut, als ob Amerika von einem Überfall bedroht sei, was er seinem – schon wirklich erbarmungswürdigen – Anhang dadurch einsuggeriert, daß er plötzlich Reisen abbricht, in höchster Eile nach Washington zurückfährt, um solcherart die Gefährlichkeit der Situation zu unterstreichen.

Im September 1940 nähert er sich dem Krieg noch mehr. Er tritt an die englische Flotte 50 Zerstörer der amerikanischen Flotte ab, wofür er allerdings militärische Stützpunkte in den britischen Besitzungen von Nord- und Mittelamerika übernimmt. Wie denn überhaupt eines erst die Nachwelt klären wird, nämlich inwieweit bei all diesem Haß gegen das soziale Deutschland auch noch die Absicht mitspielt, das britische Empire in der Stunde des Verfalls möglichst sicher und gefahrlos übernehmen zu können.

Nachdem nun England nicht mehr in der Lage ist, mit barem Gelde amerikanische Lieferungen bezahlen zu können, preßt er dem amerikanischen Volk das Pacht- und Leihgesetz auf. Als Präsident erhält er nun Vollmachten zur pacht- und leihweisen Unterstützung der Länder, deren Verteidigung ihm, Roosevelt, für Amerika als lebenswichtig erscheinen.

Allein im März 1941 geht dieser Mann, nachdem Deutschland unter keinen Umständen zu bewegen ist, auf seine fortgesetzten Anflegelungen zu reagieren, wieder einen Schritt weiter.

Schon am 19. Dezember 1939 haben amerikanische Kreuzer innerhalb der Sicherheitszone den Dampfer „Columbus“ britischen Kriegsschiffen in die Hände gespielt. Er mußte deshalb versenkt werden. Am selben Tage haben USA-Streitkräfte mitgewirkt bei dem Aufbringungsversuch des deutschen Dampfers „Arauca“. Am 27. Januar 1940 hat der USA-Kreuzer „Trenton“ wieder völkerrechtswidrig von Bewegungen der deutschen Handelsdampfer „Arauca“, „La Plata“ und „Wangoni“ die feindlichen Seestreitkräfte unterrichtet.

Am 27. Juni 1940 verfügte er vollständig völkerrechtswidrig eine Beschränkung der Freizügigkeit ausländischer Handelsschiffe in USA-Häfen.

Im November 1940 ließ er die deutschen Dampfer „Phrygia“, „Idarwald“ und „Rhein“ durch USA-Kriegsschiffe solange verfolgen, bis sich diese Dampfer selbst versenken mußten, um nicht dem Feind in die Hand zu fallen.

Am 13. April 1941 erfolgte die Freigabe des Verkehrs durch das Rote Meer für USA-Schiffe zur Versorgung der britischen Armeen im Nahen Osten.

Im Monat März war unterdes bereits die Beschlagnahme aller deutschen Schiffe durch die amerikanischen Behörden erfolgt. Deutsche Reichsangehörige wurden dabei in der entwürdigten Weise behandelt, ihnen gänzlich völkerrechtswidrig bestimmte Aufenthaltsorte angewiesen, Reisebeschränkungen auferlegt usw.

Zwei aus kanadischer Gefangenschaft entkommene deutsche Offiziere wurden ebenfalls entgegen allen völkerrechtlichen Bestimmungen gefesselt und wieder an die kanadischen Behörden ausgeliefert. Am 27. März begrüßt derselbe Präsident, der gegen jede Aggression ist, die durch eine Aggression in Belgrad nach dem Sturz der legalen Regierung ans Ruder gekommene Putschistenclique Simowitsch und Genossen.

Der Präsident Roosevelt schickte schon monatelang vorher den Oberst Donovan, ein vollständig minderwertiges Subjekt, in seinem Auftrag auf den Balkan, um dort zu versuchen, in Sofia und in Belgrad einen Aufstand gegen Deutschland und Italien herbeizuführen.

Er verspricht darauf im April Jugoslawien und Griechenland Hilfe auf Grund des Leih- und Pachtgesetzes. Noch Ende April erkennt dieser Mann die jugoslawischen und griechischen Emigranten wieder als Exilregierung an und sperrt im übrigen erneut völkerrechtswidrig die jugoslawischen und griechischen Guthaben. Von Mitte April ab erfolgt außerdem eine weitere Überwachung des Westatlantiks durch USA-Patrouillen und deren Meldungen an die Engländer.

Am 26. April liefert Roosevelt an England 20 Schnellboote und zugleich finden laufend Reparaturen britischer Kriegsschiffe in USA-Häfen statt. Am 12. Mai erfolgt die völkerrechtswidrige Bewaffnung und Reparatur norwegischer Dampfer, die für England fahren. Am 4. Juni treffen amerikanische Truppentransporte in Grönland zum Flugplatzbau ein, und am 9. Juni kommt die erste englische Meldung, daß auf Grund eines Befehls des Präsidenten Roosevelt ein USA-Kriegsschiff ein deutsches U-Boot bei Grönland mit Wasserbomben bekämpft habe.

Am 14. Juni erfolgt wieder völkerrechtswidrig die Sperrung der deutschen Guthaben in den Vereinigten Staaten. Am 17. Juni verlangt Präsident Roosevelt unter verlogenen Vorwänden die Zurückziehung der deutschen Konsuln und Schließung der deutschen Konsulate. Er verlangt weiter die Schließung der deutschen Presseagentur „Transocean“, der deutschen Informationsbibliothek und der deutschen Reichsbahnzentrale. Am 6. bis 7. Juli erfolgt die Besetzung des in der deutschen Kampfzone gelegenen Island auf den Befehl Roosevelts durch amerikanische Streitkräfte.

Er hofft dadurch nun bestimmt:

1. Deutschland endlich zum Kriege zu zwingen,
2. ansonsten den deutschen U-Bootkrieg genau so wertlos zu machen wie etwa im Jahre 1915-1916.

Zur gleichen Zeit schickt er ein amerikanisches Hilfsversprechen an die Sowjetunion ab. Am 10. Juli gibt plötzlich der Marineminister Knox bekannt, daß die USA einen Schießbefehl gegen die Achsenkriegsschiffe besitze. Am 4. September operiert der USA-Zerstörer „Greer“ entsprechend dem ihm gegebenen Befehl mit englischen Flugzeugen gegen deutsche U-Boote im Atlantik.

Fünf Tage später stellt ein deutsches U-Boot USA-Zerstörer als Geleitfahrzeuge im englischen Convoy fest. Am 11. September endlich hält Roosevelt jene Rede, in der er selbst den Befehl zum Schießen gegen alle Achsenschiffe bestätigt und neu erteilt. Am 29. September greifen USA-Bewacher ein deutsches U-Boot östlich Grönland mit Wasserbomben an. Am 17. Oktober bekämpft der USA-Zerstörer „Kearny“ im Geleitschutz für England fahrend, wieder ein deutsches U-Boot mit Wasserbomben, und am 6. November endlich kapern USA-Streitkräfte völkerrechtswidrig den deutschen Dampfer „Odenwald“, schleppen ihn in einen amerikanischen Hafen und setzen die Besatzung gefangen.

Die beleidigenden Angriffe und Anflegelungen dieses sogenannten Präsidenten gegen mich persönlich will ich dabei als belanglos übergehen. Daß er mich einen Gangster nennt, ist um so gleichgültiger, als dieser Begriff wohl mangels an derartige Subjekte nicht aus Europa, sondern aus den Amerika stammt.

Aber abgesehen davon kann ich von Herrn Roosevelt überhaupt nicht beleidigt werden, denn ich halte ihn so wie einst Woodrow Wilson ebenfalls für geisteskrank.

Daß dieser Mann mit seinem jüdischen Anhang seit Jahren mit den gleichen Mitteln gegen Japan kämpft, ist uns bekannt. Ich brauche sie hier nicht zur Sprache bringen. Auch hier sind dieselben Methoden zur Anwendung gekommen. Erst hetzt dieser Mann zum Krieg, dann fälscht er die Ursachen, stellt willkürliche Behauptungen auf, hüllt sich dann in widerwärtiger Weise ein in eine Wolke christlicher Heuchelei und führt so langsam, aber sicher die Menschheit dem Krieg entgegen, nicht ohne dann als alter Freimaurer dabei Gott zum Zeugen anzurufen für die Ehrbarkeit seines Handelns.

Ich glaube, Sie alle werden es als eine Erlösung empfunden haben, daß nunmehr endlich ein Staat als erster gegen diese in der Geschichte einmalige und unverschämte Mißhandlung der Wahrheit und des Rechtes zu jenem Protest schritt, den dieser Mann ja gewünscht hat und über den er sich daher jetzt nicht wundern darf.

Daß die japanische Regierung es nach jahrelangem Verhandeln mit diesem Fälscher endlich seit hatte, sich noch weiter in so unwürdiger Weise verhöhnen zu lassen, erfüllt uns alle, das deutsche Volk und, ich glaube, auch die übrigen anständigen Menschen auf der ganzen Welt, mit einer tiefen Genugtuung.

Wir wissen, welche Kraft hinter Roosevelt steht. Es ist jener ewige Jude, der seine Zeit als gekommen erachtet, um das auch an uns zu vollstrecken, was wir in Sowjetrußland alle schaudernd sehen und erleben mußten. Wir haben das jüdische Paradies auf Erden nunmehr kennengelernt. Millionen deutscher Soldaten haben den persönlichen Einblick gewinnen können in ein Land, in dem dieser internationale Jude Mensch und Gut zerstörte und vernichtete. Der Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten mag das vielleicht selbst nicht begreifen. Dann spricht dies nur für seine geistige Beschränktheit.

Wir aber wissen, daß dies das Ziel seines ganzen Kampfes ist: Auch wenn wir nicht im Bündnis mit Japan stünden, wären wir uns darüber im klaren, daß es die Absicht der Juden und ihres Franklin Roosevelt ist, einen Staat nach dem anderen allein zu vernichten. Das heutige Deutsche Reich hat aber nun nichts mehr gemein mit dem Deutschland von einst.

Wir werden daher auch von unserer Seite nun das tun, was dieser Provokateur seit Jahren zu erreichen versuchte. Nicht nur, weil wir Verbündete von Japan sind, sondern weil Deutschland und Italien in ihrer derzeitigen Führung genügend Einsicht und Stärke besitzen, um zu begreifen, daß in dieser historischen Zeit das Sein oder Nichtsein der Nationen bestimmt wird, vielleicht für immer.

Was diese andere Welt mit uns vorhat, ist uns klar. Sie haben das demokratische Deutschland von einst zum Verhungern gebracht sie würden das sozialistische von jetzt ausrotten. Wenn Herr Roosevelt oder Herr Churchill erklären, daß sie dann später eine neue soziale Ordnung aufbauen wollen, dann ist das ungefähr so, als wenn ein Friseur mit kahlem Kopf ein untrügliches Haarwuchsmittel empfiehlt.

Die Herren, die in den sozial rückständigsten Staaten leben, hätten, statt für Kriege zu hetzen, sich um ihre Erwerbslosen kümmern sollen. Sie haben in ihren Ländern Not und Elend genug, um sich dort im Sinne einer Verteilung von Lebensmitteln zu beschäftigen. Was das deutsche Volk betrifft, so braucht es weder von Herrn Churchill noch von einem Herrn Roosevelt oder gar von einem Mister Eden Almosen, sondern es will nur sein Recht.

Und dieses Recht zum Leben wird es sich sicherstellen, auch wenn tausend Churchills oder Roosevelts sich dagegen verschwören wollten. Dieses Volk hier hat nun eine fast zweitausendjährige Geschichte hinter sich. Es war in dieser langen Zeit noch nie so einig und geschlossen wie heute und wie es, dank der nationalsozialistischen Bewegung, für alle Zukunft nun sein wird. Es war aber auch vielleicht noch nie so hellsehend und selten so ehrbewußt.

Ich habe daher heute dem amerikanischen Geschäftsträger die Pässe zustellen und ihm folgendes eröffnen lassen:

Im Verfolg der immer weiteren Ausdehnung einer auf unbegrenzte Weltherrschaftsdiktatur gerichteten Politik des Präsidenten Roosevelt sind die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika im Verein mit England vor keinem Mittel zurückgewichen, um dein deutschen, dem italienischen und auch dem japanischen Volke die Voraussetzungen ihrer natürlichen Lebenserhaltung zu bestreiten. Die Regierungen Englands und der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika haben sich aus diesem Grunde nicht nur für die Gegenwart, sondern auch für alle Zukunft jeder berechtigten Revision zur Herbeiführung einer besseren Neuordnung der Welt entgegengesetzt.

Seit Kriegsbeginn hat sich der amerikanischen Präsident Roosevelt in steigendem Maße eine Reihe schwerster völkerrechtswidrige Verbrechen zuschulden kommen lassen. Gesetzlose Übergriffe auf Schiffe und sonstiges Eigentum deutscher und italienischer Staatsbürger verbanden sich mit der Bedrohung, ja der willkürlichen Beraubung der persönlichen Freiheit der Betroffenen durch Internierungen usw. Die sich auch sonst weiter verschärfenden Angriffe des Präsidenten der Vereinigten Staaten Roosevelt führte am Ende soweit, daß er der amerikanischen Marine den Befehl erteilte, entgegen allen Völkerrechtsbestrebungen, Schiffe deutscher und italienischer Nationalität überall sofort anzugreifen, zu beschießen und sie zu versenken.

Amerikanische Minister rühmten sich auch, auf diese verbrecherische Weise deutsche U-Boote veinirhtet zu haben. Deutsche und italienische Handelsschiffe wurden von amerikanischen Kreuzern überfallen. gekapert und ihre friedliche Besatzung in Gefängnisse abgeführt. Ohne jeden Versuch einer amtlichen Widerlegung von seiten der amerikanischen Regierung wurde aber darüber hinaus nunmehr in Amerika der Plan des Präsidenten Roosevelt veröffentlicht, spätestens im Jahre 1943 Deutschland und Italien mit militärischen Machtmitteln in Europa selbst angreifen zu wollen.

Dadurch ist das aufrichtige und von beispielloser Langmut zeugende Bestreben Deutschlands und Italiens, trotz der seit Jahren erfolgten unerträglichen Provokationen durch den Präsidenten Roosevelt eine Erweiterung des Krieges zu verhüten und die Beziehungen zu den Vereinigten Staaten aufrechtzuerhalten, zum Scheitern gebracht worden.

Deutschland und Italien haben demgegenüber sich nunmehr endlich gezwungen gesehen, getreu den Bestimmungen des Dreimächtepaktes vom 27. September 1940 Seite an Seite mit Japan den Kampf zur Verteidigung und damit Erhaltung der Freiheit und Unabhängigkeit ihrer Völker und Reiche gegen die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und England gemeinsam zu führen.

Die drei Mächte haben deshalb das folgende Abkommen abgeschlossen und am heutigen Tage in Berlin unterzeichnet:

In dem unerschütterlichen Entschluß, die Waffen nicht niederzulegen, bis der gemeinsame Krieg gegen die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und England zum erfolgreichen Ende geführt worden ist, haben sich die deutsche Regierung, die italienische Regierung und die japanische Regierung über folgende Bestimmungen geeinigt:

ARTIKEL 1
Deutschland, Italien und Japan werden den ihnen von den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und England aufgezwungenen Krieg mit allen ihnen zu Gebote stehenden Machtmitteln gemeinsam bis zum siegreichen Ende führen.

ARTIKEL 2
Deutschland, Italien und Japan verpflichten sich, ohne volles gegenseitiges Einverständnis weder mit den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika noch mit England Waffenstillstand oder Frieden zu schließen.

ARTIKEL 3
Deutschland, Italien und Japan werden auch nach siegreicher Beendigung des Krieges zum Zwecke der Herbeiführung einer gerechten Neuordnung im Sinne des von ihnen am 27. September 1940 abgeschlossenen Dreimächtepaktes auf das engste zusammenarbeiten.

ARTIKEL 4
Dieses Abkommen tritt sofort mit seiner Unterzeichnung in Kraft und bleibt ebenso lange wie der Dreimächtepakt vom 27. September 1940 in Geltung. Die hohen vertragschließenden Teile werden sich rechtzeitig vor Ablauf dieser Geltungsdauer über die weitere Gestaltung ihrer im Artikel 3 dieses Abkommens vorgesehenen Zusammenarbeit verständigen.

Abgeordnete! Männer des Deutschen Reichstags!

Wir sind uns schon seit der Ablehnung meines letzten Friedensvorschlages vom Juli 1940 im klaren, daß dieser Kampf bis zur letzten Konsequenz durchgekämpft werden muß. Daß sich die angelsächsisch-jüdisch-kapitalistische Welt mit dem Bolschewismus dabei in einer Front befindet, ist für uns Nationalsozialisten keine Überraschung. Wir haben sie im Innern stets in der gleichen Gemeinschaft gefunden, allein wir haben diesen Kampf im Innern erfolgreich bestanden und unsere Gegner endlich nach sechzehnjährigem Ringen um die Macht vernichtet.

Als ich mich vor 23 Jahren entschloß, in das politische Leben einzutreten, um die Nation aus ihrem Verfall wieder emporzuführen, war ich ein namenloser unbekannter Soldat. Viele unter Ihnen wissen, wie schwer die ersten Jahre dieses Kampfes gewesen sind. Der Weg der kleinen Bewegung von sieben Mann bis zur Übernahme der verantwortlichen Regierung am 30. Januar 1933 war ein so wundersamer, daß nur die Vorsehung selbst durch ihren Segen dies ermöglicht haben kann.

Heute stehe ich an der Spitze des stärksten Heeres der Welt, der gewaltigsten Luftwaffe und einer stolzen Marine. Hinter mir und um mich als eine verschworene Gemeinschaft weiß ich die Partei, mit der ich groß geworden bin und die durch mich groß geworden ist.

Die Gegner, die ich vor mir sehe, sind die bekannten Feinde seit über 20 Jahren. Allein der Weg, der vor mir liegt, ist nicht zu vergleichen mit dem Weg, auf den ich zurückblicken kann. Das deutsche Volk steht in der Erkenntnis der entscheidenden Stunde seines Daseins. Millionen von Soldaten erfüllen unter den schwersten Bedingungen gehorsam und treu ihre Pflicht.

Millionen deutscher Bauern und Arbeiter, deutscher Frauen und Mädchen stehen in den Fabriken und Kontoren, auf den Feldern und Äckern und schaffen im Schweiße ihres Angesichts der Heimat das Brot und der Front die Waffen. Mit uns im Bunde sind starke Völker, die von der gleichen Not gequält, die gleichen Feinde vor sich finden.

Der amerikanische Präsident und seine plutokratische Clique haben uns als die Völker der Habenichtse getauft. Das ist richtig!

Die Habenichtse aber wollen leben, und sie werden auf alle Fälle erreichen, daß das Wenige, das sie zum Leben haben, ihnen nicht auch noch von den Besitzenden geraubt wird. Sie kennen, meine Parteigenossen, meine unerbittliche Entschlossenheit, einen einmal begonnenen Kampf bis zum erfolgreichen Ende zu führen. Sie kennen meinen Willen, in so einem Kampf vor nichts zurückzuscheuen, alle Widerstände zu brechen, die gebrochen werden müssen.

Ich habe Ihnen in meiner ersten Rede am 1. September 1939 versichert, daß in diesem Krieg weder Waffengewalt noch Zeit Deutschland niederzwingen werden. Ich will meinen Gegnern auch versichern, daß uns nicht nur die Waffengewalt oder die Zeit nicht bezwingen werden, sondern daß uns auch kein innerer Zweifel wankend machen kann in der Erfüllung unserer Pflicht.

Wenn wir an die Opfer unserer Soldaten denken, an ihren Einsatz, dann ist jedes Opfer der Heimat gänzlich belanglos und unbedeutend. Wenn wir aber die Zahl all jener uns überlegen, die in den Generationen schon vor uns für des deutschen Volkes Bestehen und Größe gefallen sind, dann wird uns erst recht die Größe der Pflicht bewußt, die auf uns selbst lastet.

Wer aber dieser Pflicht sich zu entziehen beabsichtigt, der hat keinen Anspruch darauf, in unserer Mitte als Volksgenosse bewertet zu werden.

So wie wir mitleidlos hart gewesen sind im Kampf um die Macht, werden wir genau so mitleidlos und hart sein im Kampf um die Erhaltung unseres Volkes, in einer Zeit in der tausende unserer besten Männer, Väter und Söhne unseres Volkes fallen, soll keiner mit dem Leben rechnen, der in der Heimat die Opfer der Front entwerten will.

Ganz gleich, unter welchen Tarnungen jemals der Versuch gemacht werden würde, diese deutsche Front zu stören, den Widerstandswillen unseres Volkes zu untergraben, die Autorität des Regimes zu schwächen, die Leistungen der Heimat zu sabotieren: Der Schuldige wird fallen! Nur mit einem Unterschied, daß der Soldat an der Front dieses Opfer in höchster Ehre bringt, während der andere, der dieses Ehrenopfer entwertet, in Schande stirbt.

Unsere Gegner sollen sich nicht täuschen. In den 2000 Jahren der uns bekannten deutschen Geschichte ist unser Volk niemals geschlossener und einiger gewesen als heute. Der Herr der Welten hat so Großes in den letzten Jahren an uns getan, daß wir in Dankbarkeit uns vor einer Vorsehung verneigen, die uns gestattet hat, Angehörige eines so großen Volkes sein zu dürfen. Wir danken ihm, daß wir angesichts der früheren und kommenden Generationen des deutschen Volkes auch uns in Ehre eintragen können in das unvergängliche Buch der deutschen Geschichte!

---

Hitler Telegrams
December 11, 1941

To King Victor Emmanuel of Italy:

Aus Anlaß der Unterzeichnung des Vertrages, durch den die Achsenmächte sich mit dem Kaiserreich Japan zu gemeinsamer Kriegführung und Zusammenarbeit zur Sicherstellung einer gerechten Neuordnung verbunden haben, sende ich Euerer Majestät zugleich mir meinen aufrichtigsten Grüßen die herzlichsten Wünsche für den weiteren Kampf der nunmehr eng verbundenen Waffen der drei Mächte.

To Italian Premier Mussolini:

Am heutigen Tage des Abschlusses des Abkommens, durch das die Achsenmächte und Japan sich zu gemeinsamer Waffenbrüderschaft entschließen, sende ich Ihnen, Duce, meine herzlichsten Grüße. Ich weiß mich mit Ihnen einig in der Gewißheit, daß dieser Akt sich als sichere Bürgschaft des gemeinsamen Siegers der drei Mächte erweisen wird.

To Emperor Hirohito of Japan:

An dem heutigen bedeutsamen Tage, an dem sich die Achsenmächte mit dem Kaiserreich Japan zu gemeinsamer Kriegführung bis zum gemeinsamen Siege verbunden haben, sende ich Euerer Majestät mit den aufrichtigsten Grüßen meine Glückwünsche zu den bisherigen großen Erfolgen der japanischen Wehrmacht sowie meine und des deutschen Volkes wärmste Wünsche für den Sieg der japanischen Waffen.

To Japanese Prime Minister Tojo:

Aus Anlaß des heutigen Abschlusses des Abkommens zwischen den Achsenmächten und dem Kaiserreich Japan, durch das sich die drei Mächte zum gemeinsamen Kampfe, gemeinsamen Siege und gemeinsamen Aufbau in der Zukunft verbunden haben, sende ich Euerer Exzellenz meine herzlichsten Glückwünsche zu dem schon erzielten, so bedeutsamen Erfolge der japanischen Waffen und verbinde damit die wärmsten Wünsche für den weiteren Fortgang des nunmehr gemeinsam geführten Kampfes.

[NormanStewart]

German Declaration of War on the United States
December 11, 1941, 9:30 a.m. EST

The German charge d’affaires, Dr. Hans Thomsen, and the First Secretary of the German Embassy, Mr. von Strempel, called at the State Department at 8 a.m. EST. The secretary, otherwise engaged, directed that they be received by the chief of the European Division of the State Department, Mr. Ray Atherton. Mr. Atherton received the German representatives at 9:30 a.m.

The German representatives handed to Mr. Atherton a copy of a note that is being delivered this morning to the American charge d’affaires in Berlin. Dr. Thomsen said that Germany considers herself in a state of war with the United States. He asked that the appropriate measures be taken for the departure of himself, the members of the German Embassy, and his staff in this country. He reminded Mr. Atherton that the German government had previously expressed its willingness to grant the same treatment to American press correspondents in Germany as that accorded the American official staff on a reciprocal basis and added that he assumed that the departure of other American citizens from Germany would be permitted on the same basis of German citizens desiring to leave this country. He referred to the exchange of civilians that had been arranged at the time Great Britain and Germany broke off diplomatic relations.

The German charge d’affaires then stated that the Swiss government would take over German interests in this country and that Dr. Bruggmann had already received appropriate instructions from his government.

He then handed Mr. Atherton a note from the German government. Mr. Atherton stated that in accepting this note from the German charge d’affaires, he was merely formalizing the realization that the government and people of this country had faced since the outbreak of the war in 1939 of the threat and purposes of the German government and the Nazi regime toward this hemisphere and our free American civilization.

Mr. Atherton then said that this government would arrange for the delivery of Dr. Thomsen’s passports and that he assumed that we would very shortly be in communication with the Swiss minister. He added that Dr. Thomsen must realize, however, that the physical difficulties of the situation would demand a certain amount of time in working out this reciprocal arrangement for the departure of the missions of the two countries. The German representatives then took their leave.

The text of the note which the German representatives handed to Mr. Ray Atherton, chief of the European Division of the State Department, at 9:30 a.m., the original of which had been delivered this morning to the American charge d’affaires in Berlin, follows:

Herr Geschäftsträger! Nachdem die Regierung der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika von Ausbruch des durch die englische Kriegserklärung an Deutschland vom 3. September 1939 heraufbeschworenen europäischen Krieges an alle Regeln der Neutralität in immer steigendem Maße zugunsten der Gegner Deutschlands auf das Flagranteste verletzt, sich fortgesetzt der schwersten Provokationen gegenüber Deutschland schuldig gemacht hat, ist sie schließlich zu offenen militärischen Angriffshandlungen übergegangen.

Am 11. September 1941 hat der Herr Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika öffentlich erklärt, daß er der amerikanischen Flotte und Luftwaffe den Befehl gegeben habe, auf jedes deutsche Kriegsfahrzeug ohne weiteres zu schießen. In seiner Rede vom 27. Oktober 1941 hat er nochmals ausdrücklich bestätigt, daß dieser Befehl in Kraft sei. Gemäß diesem Befehl haben seit Anfang September 1941 amerikanische Kriegsfahrzeuge deutsche Seestreitkräfte systematisch angegriffen. So haben amerikanische Zerstörer, zum Beispiel die „Greer“, die „Kearny“ und die „Reuben James“, planmäßig das Feuer auf deutsche U-Boote eröffnet. Der Staatssekretär der amerikanischen Marine, Herr Knox, hat selber bestätigt, daß amerikanische Zerstörer deutsche U-Boote angegriffen haben. Ferner haben die Seestreitkräfte der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika auf Befehl ihrer Regierung deutsche Handelsschiffe auf dem offenen Meere völkerrechtswidrig als feindliche Schiffe behandelt und gekapert. Die Reichsregierung stellt daher fest:

Obwohl sich Deutschland seinerseits gegenüber den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika während des ganzen gegenwärtigen Krieges streng an die Regeln des Völkerrechts gehalten hat, ist die Regierung der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika von anfänglichen Neutralitätsbrüchen endlich zu offenen Kriegshandlungen gegen Deutschland übergegangen. Sie hat damit praktisch den Kriegszustand geschaffen.

Die Reichsregierung hebt deshalb die diplomatischen Beziehungen zu den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika auf und erklärt, daß sich unter diesen durch den Präsidenten Roosevelt veranlaßten Umständen auch Deutschland von heute ab im Kriegszustand mit den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika befindlich betrachtet.

MR. CHARGE D’AFFAIRES:

The Government of the United States having violated in the most flagrant manner and in ever-increasing measure all rules of neutrality in favor of the adversaries of Germany and having continually been guilty of the most severe provocations toward Germany ever since the outbreak of the European war, provoked by the British declaration of war against Germany on September 3, 1939, has finally resorted to open military acts of aggression.

On September 11, 1941, the President of the United States publicly declared that he had ordered the American Navy and Air Force to shoot on sight at any German war vessel. In his speech of October 27, 1941, he once more expressly affirmed that this order was in force. Acting under this order, vessels of the American Navy, since early September 1941, have systematically attacked German naval forces. Thus, American destroyers, as for instance the Greer, the Kearny and the Reuben James, have opened fire on German submarines according to plan. The Secretary of the American Navy, Mr. Knox, himself confirmed that American destroyers attacked German submarines.

Furthermore, the naval forces of the United States, under order of their Government and contrary to international law have treated and seized German merchant vessels on the high seas as enemy ships.

The German Government therefore establishes the following facts:

Although Germany on her part has strictly adhered to the rules of international law in her relations with the United States during every period of the present war, the Government of the United States from initial violations of neutrality has finally proceeded to open acts of war against Germany. The Government of the United States has thereby virtually created a state of war.

The German Government, consequently, discontinues diplomatic relations with the United States of America and declares that, under these circumstances brought about by President Roosevelt, Germany too, as from today, considers herself as being in a state of war with the United States of America.

Accept, Mr. Charge d’Affaires, the expression of my high consideration.

RIBBENTROP

[NormanStewart]

Italian Declaration of War on the United States
December 11, 1941, 2:30 p.m. CET

The Minister for Foreign Affairs Count Ciano received the charge d’affaires of the United States of America at the Palazzo Chigi today at 2:30 p.m. CET and made the following statement:

Sua Maestà il Re Imperatore dichiara che l’Italia si considera da oggi in stato di guerra con gli Stati Uniti d’America.

His Majesty the King and Emperor declares that from now on Italy regards itself as at war with the United States of America.

---

Statement by Italian Premier Mussolini
December 11, 1941, 2:45 p.m. CET

Camerali!

È questo un’altra giornata di decisioni solenni nella storia d’Italia e di memorabili eventi destinati ad imprimere un nuovo corso nella storia dei continenti.

Le Potenze del Patto di acciaio, l’Italia fascista e Germania nazionalsocialista, sempre più strettamente unite, scendono oggi a lato dell’eroico Giappone contro gli Stati Uniti d’America.

Il Tripartito diventa un’alleanza militare che schiera attorno alle sue bandiere duecentocinquanta milioni di uomini risoluti a tutto pur di vincere.

Né l’Asse né il Giappone volevano l’estensione del conflitto.

Un uomo, un uomo solo, un autentico e democratico despota, attraverso una serie infinita di provocazioni, ingannando con una frode suprema le stesse popolazioni del suo Paese, ha voluto la guerra e l’ha preparata giorno per giorno con diabolica pertinacia.

I formidabili colpi che sulle immense distese del Pacifico sono già stati inferti alle forze americane mostrano di quale tempra siano i soldati del Sol Levante. Io dico, e voi lo sentite, che è un privilegio combatte re con loro.

Oggi il Tripartito, nella pienezza dei suoi mezzi morali e materiali, è uno strumento poderoso per la guerra e il garante sicuro della vittoria. Sara domani l’artefice e l’organizzatore della giusta pace tra i popoli.

Italiani e Italiane!

Ancora una volta in piedi. State degni di questa grande ora.

Vinceremo!

[NormanStewart]

War Pact of the Axis Powers
December 11, 1941

In dem unerschütterlichen Entschluß, die Waffen nicht niederzulegen, bis der gemeinsame Krieg gegen die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und England zum erfolgreichen Ende geführt worden ist, haben sich die deutsche Regierung, die italienische Regierung und die japanische Regierung über folgende Bestimmungen geeinigt:

ARTIKEL 1
Deutschland, Italien und Japan werden den ihnen von den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und England aufgezwungenen Krieg mit allen ihnen zu Gebote stehenden Machtmitteln gemeinsam bis zum siegreichen Ende führen.

ARTIKEL 2
Deutschland, Italien und Japan verpflichten sich, ohne volles gegenseitiges Einverständnis weder mit den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika noch mit England Waffenstillstand oder Frieden zu schließen.

ARTIKEL 3
Deutschland, Italien und Japan werden auch nach siegreicher Beendigung des Krieges zum Zwecke der Herbeiführung einer gerechten Neuordnung im Sinne des von ihnen am 27. September 1940 abgeschlossenen Dreimächtepaktes auf das engste zusammenarbeiten.

ARTIKEL 4
Dieses Abkommen tritt sofort mit seiner Unterzeichnung in Kraft und bleibt ebenso lange wie der Dreimächtepakt vom 27. September 1940 in Geltung. Die hohen vertragschließenden Teile werden sich rechtzeitig vor Ablauf dieser Geltungsdauer über die weitere Gestaltung ihrer im Artikel 3 dieses Abkommens vorgesehenen Zusammenarbeit verständigen.

Zu Urkund dessen haben die Unterzeichneten, von ihren Regierungen gehörig bevollmächtigt, diesen Pakt unterzeichnet und mit ihren Siegeln versehen.

Ausgefertigt in dreifacher Urschrift in italienischer, deutscher und japanischer Sprache in Berlin am 11. Dezember 1941, im 19. Jahr der faschistischen Ära, entsprechend dem 11. Tage des zwölf Monats des 16. Jahres Showa.

DINO ALFIERI
JOACHIM v. RIBBENTROP
HIROSHI OSHIMA

Nella irremovibile decisione di non deporre le armi finché non sia stata portata a vittoriosa fine la guerra comune contro gli Stati Uniti d’America e l’Inghilterra, il Governo italiano, il Governo germanico e il Governo giapponese si sono accordati sulle seguenti clausole:

ARTICOLO 1
L’Italia, la Germania e il Giappone condurranno in comune la guerra imposta loro dagli Stati Uniti d’America e dall’Inghilterra con tutti i mezzi a loro disposizione, fino alla fine vittoriosa.

ARTICOLO 2
L’Italia, la Germania e il Giappone si impegnano a non concludere né un armistizio né la pace sia con gli Stati Uniti d’America che con l’Inghilterra senza piena reciproca intesa.

ARTICOLO 3
L’Italia, la Germania e il Giappone anche dopo la fine vittoriosa della guerra collaboreranno strettissimamente assieme, nel senso del Patto tripartito da loro stipulato il 27 settembre 1940, allo scopo di raggiungere un giusto ordine nuovo.

ARTICOLO 4
Il presente Accordo entra in vigore immediatamente all’atto della sua firma e resterà in vigore per tutta la durata del Patto tripartito concluso il 27 settembre 1940. Le Alte Parti contraenti si metteranno d’accordo al momento opportuno prima della scadenza di detto termine, per stabilire le ulteriori modalità della loro collaborazione prevista nell’articolo 3 del presente accordo.

In fede di che i sottoscritti, debitamente autorizzati dai loro Governi, hanno firmato il presente Accordo e vi hanno apposto i loro sigilli.

Fatto in triplice esemplare in lingua italiana, tedesca e giapponese a Berlino, l’11 dicembre 1941 XIX dell’Era Fascista, corrispondente all’11° giorno del 12° mese del 16° anno dell’Era Showa.

DINO ALFIERI
JOACHIM v. RIBBENTROP
HIROSHI OSHIMA

ドイツ政府、イタリア政府および日夲政府は、アメリカ合衆國およびイギリスに對する共同戰爭が成功裏に終結するまで武噐を捨てないという搖るぎない决意の下、以下の條項に合意した：

第一條
ドイツ、イタリアおよび日夲は、今後、合衆國およびイギリスによって課せられた戰爭を、その自由裁量に屬するあらゆる手段によって、敵對行爲の終了まで、共同して遂行する。

第二條
イタリア、ドイツおよび日夲は、各自のために、夲協定のいずれの當亊者も、完全かつ相互の合意なくしては、アメリカ合衆國との閒であれ、イギリスとの閒であれ、休戰または講和を締結しないことを約束する。

第三條
イタリア、ドイツおよび日夲は、この戰爭の勝利的終結後においても、1940年9月27日に締結された日獨伊三國同盟の精神に基づき、丗界における公正な新秩序を實現し確立するために緊密に協力する。

第四條
夲協定は、署名により直ちに發效し、昭和十五年九月二十七日に締結された日獨伊三國同盟の存續朞閒中效力を有する。この協定の上位締約國は、適當な時朞に、この協定の上記第三條を實施する手段について、相互に合意する。

この證として、下名は、それぞれの政府から正當に權限を與えられ、この協定に署名し、こ れに印を押す。

ファシスト時代第十九年、千九百四十一年十二月十一日、昭和十六年十二月十一日に相當する日、ベルリンにて、イタリア語、ドイツ語、日夲語の三ヶ國語により、三部作成。

DINO ALFIERI
JOACHIM v. RIBBENTROP
大島 洋

The German Government, the Italian Government and the Japanese Government, in their unshakable determination not to lay down their arms until the joint war against the United States of America and England has been brought to a successful conclusion, have agreed on the following provisions:

ARTICLE I
Italy, Germany and Japan will henceforth conduct in common and jointly a war which has been imposed on them by the United States of America and England, by all means at their disposal and until the end of hostilities.

ARTICLE II
Italy, Germany and Japan undertake each for himself that none of the parties to the present accord will conclude either armistice or peace, be it with the United States or with England without complete and reciprocal agreement.

ARTICLE III
Italy, Germany and Japan, even after the victorious conclusion of this war, will collaborate closely in the spirit of the Tripartite Pact, concluded 27 September, 1940, in order to realize and establish an equitable new order in the world.

ARTICLE IV
The present accord is effective immediately on its signature and remains in force for the duration of the Tripartite Pact, signed 27 September, 1940. The high contracting parties of this accord will at an opportune moment agree among themselves the means of implementing Article III above of this accord.

In witness whereof the undersigned, duly authorized by their Governments, have signed this Agreement and affixed their seals thereto.

Done in triplicate in the Italian, German and Japanese languages at Berlin, the 11th day of December, 1941, in the 19th year of the Fascist Era, corresponding to the 11th day of the 12th month of the 16th year of the Showa.

DINO ALFIERI
JOACHIM v. RIBBENTROP
HIROSHI OSHIMA

[NormanStewart]

Message by the President to Congress
December 11, 1941

On the morning of December 11, the government of Germany, pursuing its course of world conquest, declared war against the United States.

The long-known and the long-expected has thus taken place. The forces endeavoring to enslave the entire world now are moving toward this hemisphere.

Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty, and civilization.

Delay invites greater danger. Rapid and united effort by all of the peoples of the world who are determined to remain free will ensure a world victory of the forces of justice and of righteousness over the forces of savagery and of barbarism.

Italy also has declared war against the United States.

I therefore request the Congress to recognize a state of war between the United States and Germany, and between the United States and Italy.

[NormanStewart]

JOINT RESOLUTION

Declaring that a state of war exists between the Government of Germany and the Government and the people of the United States and making provisions to prosecute the same.

Whereas the Government of Germany has formally declared war against the Government and the people of the United States of America:

Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the United States and the Government of Germany which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Government of Germany; and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.

SAM RAYBURN
Speaker of the House of Representatives

HENRY A. WALLACE
Vice President of the United States and the President of the Senate

Approved —
December 11, 1941, 3:05 p.m. EST
FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT

---

JOINT RESOLUTION

Declaring that a state of war exists between the Government of Italy and the Government and the people of the United States and making provisions to prosecute the same.

Whereas the Government of Italy has formally declared war against the Government and the people of the United States of America:

Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the United States and the Government of Italy which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Government of Italy; and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.

SAM RAYBURN
Speaker of the House of Representatives

HENRY A. WALLACE
Vice President of the United States and the President of the Senate

Approved —
December 11, 1941, 3:07 p.m. EST
FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT

[NormanStewart]

U.S. State Department (December 11, 1941)

The Chargé in the Soviet Union to the Secretary of State

Kuybyshev (via Moscow), December 11, 1941 — 12 a.m.
[Received December 12 — 6:05 a.m.]

2040

With reference to the Department’s telegram No. 1261, December 6, 1 p.m., the Foreign Office has promised to investigate the question of Devenis’ alleged whereabouts and report its findings to the Embassy as soon as possible.

---

The Australian Minister to the Secretary of State

Washington, December 11, 1941
No. 269/41

SIR: I have the honour to convey to you the following message which I have received from the Australian Minister for External Affairs:

I desire to express the Commonwealth Government’s profound appreciation of the initiative[,] courage and patience displayed by the President of the United States and the Secretary of State in their endeavour to prevent war in the Pacific and in their objective of outlawing force as the instrument of national policy.

For the time being the attempt to maintain Pacific peace on the basis of law and justice has been checked by the sudden and treacherous attack of the Japanese forces while diplomatic negotiations were actually proceeding.

The Commonwealth Government is honoured to be associated with the United States in resisting the aggressors until they are finally overthrown and until the principles for which the President has so frequently declared are established not only in the Pacific but everywhere in the world.

I have [etc.]

R. G. CASEY

---

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Brazil

Washington, December 11, 1941 — 3 p.m.
1340

Please deliver following message from Professor Fenwick to Dr. Mello Franco:

Recommend Committee consider possible ways of extending functions to meet present emergency.

HULL

---

The Consul General at Algiers to the Secretary of State

Algiers, December 11, 1941 — 3 p.m.
[Received December 12 — 3 a.m.]

629

From Murphy. Your 474, December 2, 9 p.m., to Casablanca.

Vice Admiral Fenard, who returned to Algiers last night, tells me that during his visit to Vichy Darlan convinced him that there is no reason to fear a German intrusion in this area. Darlan told him that no major concessions in French Africa had been made to the Germans or are contemplated. Darlan and other Vichy officials, he said, now manifest the greatest interest in the continuation of the American economic plan for North Africa. They hope that American vessels will be used in the New York-Casablanca run. Fenard declared that many French officials now only begin to realize the importance of French Africa and the American plan which some were inclined to deprecate. He mentioned the increasing alarm felt by many regarding the local economic situation which is acutely unsatisfactory. He said that there is real apprehension over the problem of keeping millions of discontented Arabs in line. Fenard said that Darlan’s offer to sell us the Normandie is a gesture which proves the French desire to be friendly.

He intimated, as did another Admiral (who asked that his name be not mentioned) just arrived from Vichy, that Darlan is convinced of American naval supremacy and is positive that the United States will defeat Japan. Under present circumstances Darlan cannot publish these sentiments but my contacts seem certain that he will be guided thereby in whatever influence he has on French policy. Fenard and other French officials here have expressed to us their sympathy with the United States in its war with Japan and their wishes for our victory. I believe that sentiment is shared by the bulk of the North African population.

Fenard painted a gloomy picture of North African economy, saying if American supplies are not received industry will drop to 10% of normal, and urged that we take prompt action to resume shipments to this area. He handed me a memorandum regarding the official contracts made for the purchase of goods in the United States, credits opened and licenses delivered for about 200,000 tons of merchandise with a value of approximately $5,500,000. The memorandum inquires whether the orders given, the licenses and navicerts granted stand and whether the ships now in New York may be loaded. The reply will, of course, affect the movements of the ships now in Casablanca which would carry cargoes for New York. Goods sold f.o.b. once on board of course become the risk of consignee. The memorandum urgently requests the Department’s early comment.

Admiral Fenard who was obviously acting under Darlan’s instructions concluded with an urgent appeal that we make our influence felt in this area where he said we are most welcome by sending American goods and American ships “before it is too late.”

Repeated to Vichy. Copies to North African offices by courier. [Murphy.]

COLE

---

The Ambassador in France to the Secretary of State

Vichy, December 11, 1941 — 7 p.m.
[Received 11 p.m.]

1523

Department’s 898, December 6, 4 p.m., 903, December 8 [9], 6 p.m. and 908, December 10, 4 p.m.

At 6 p.m. conferred with the Marshal for a half hour with Admiral Darlan present and discussed the questions contained in cables referred to above, explaining to the Marshal that America’s formal involvement in war with Axis Powers may change the entire picture from the point of view of the United States.

The Marshal indicated a desire that we continue our economic relief in Africa and directed Admiral Darlan to prepare a memorandum reply to the specific questions contained in Department’s 898, December 6, 4 p.m., his first reaction apparently being that satisfaction could be given to our requests.

In regard to naval ships in French colonial ports in the Western Hemisphere, Admiral Darlan said they have no intention of leaving port and that they are disarmed. In reply to a categorical inquiry, he said he will issue instructions to Admiral and will inform me by memorandum in regard thereto.

In reply to a question as to any possible change in the attitude of the French Government toward this Embassy because of the declaration of war against us by Germany and Italy, the Marshal stated that he is most desirous of maintaining the existing understanding friendly relations between our two governments and that no demand has come from the Axis for France to change its attitude. He said, however:

If Germany should make such a demand, they can starve our civilian population and we are helpless.

He stated France intends to “remain neutral” and if Germany brings pressure to bear toward forcing a change, he will endeavor to find means to maintain our recent relations.

It is my personal opinion that no effective effort will be made by the Marshal’s Government in our behalf if Germany should ask that diplomatic relations between France and America be made difficult or interrupted. Such a request by Germany is expected by our friends in the Vichy Government and I believe it is also expected by the Marshal himself.

I told the Marshal that our formal involvement in the war caused by the German-Italian declarations of today changes the situation and makes any French assistance hereafter given to the Axis Powers a direct injury to the United States.

Both the Marshal and Darlan were particularly cordial during this interview and both expressed regret that America has become involved in the “World War.”

Repeated to Algiers.

LEAHY

---

The Latvian Minister to the Secretary of State

Washington, December 11, 1941

SIR: I have been deeply affected by the announcement which has been made today that war has been declared upon the United States by Germany, the power which at the present time is illegally and by force occupying my own country. It seems hardly necessary for me to state that every patriotic Latvian must consider that the welfare of his country depends upon the defeat of Nazi Germany and desires to do everything possible to aid in bringing this about.

There are at the present time in the waters of this hemisphere eight vessels flying the Latvian flag. Practically all of these vessels are operating at the present time. They are not, however, functioning with full efficiency since conflicts are continually breaking out among the operators, the masters, and members of crew. These conflicts are extremely difficult to mediate or settle in view of the absence of the owners or lack of clarity of ownership, and because of their inability to call at, or to receive directions from, Latvian ports.

It is my considered opinion that these vessels would be much more useful if they should be taken over by the Government of the United States. I also feel that the interest of the owners would be more carefully safeguarded as a result of their requisitioning by the American Government. In case the American Government should consider that it would be desirable to requisition these vessels, I wish to assure it that I am willing to lend cooperation in this matter in every way that is legal and proper.

Accept [etc.]

Dr. ALFRED BILMANIS

---

The Minister of Hungary to the Secretary of State

Budapest, December 11, 1941 — 9 p.m.
[Received December 11 — 4:41 p.m.]

703

I saw Prime Minister 8 o’clock this evening. He said because of Central European solidarity which he compared with solidarity of all American Republics, Hungary was obliged to sever relations with United States but not with intention of declaring war.

He presumed Rumania would follow suit and that all American officials from Hungary, Germany and Rumania would be sent home together.

He said he would have to consult Berlin about our method of departure and route.

PELL

---

White House Statement of Thanks to Republican and Democratic National Chairmen
December 11, 1941

Let me thank you both, personally and on behalf of our country, for the patriotic action you have in contemplation. The national organizations of the two great parties are capable of inestimable service in our present emergency. The nationwide quality of their personnel, the circumstance that their agents are men and women of eminence and respect in their respective communities will, I am sure, demonstrate that in time of war there can be no partisan domestic politics. There can be only a determined intent of a united people to carry on the struggle for human liberty to a victorious conclusion.

So, I am sure we appreciate – and the people will appreciate – that the political truce is for the period of the emergency and that the principles of our respective parties will continue to dominate our courses. When the war is over we will still be adhering to our historic method of settling our domestic problems which has made our country the great nation it is, and has shown the world that democratic freedom is a perfectly workable system of government.

My own thought, with which I hope you will agree, is that the two national party organizations can function to the best advantage in the field of civilian defense, but you will, of course, work out your own procedure and processes in carrying out your patriotic purpose.

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (December 11, 1941)

Auch Churchill erhielt Japans erste Antwort:
Englands Fernost-Flotte entscheidend getroffen

Die zwei schnellsten Schlachtschiffe ‚Prince of Wales‘ und ‚Repulse‘ versenkt; niederschmetternder Eindruck in London
Eigener Bericht des „Völkischen Beobachters“

vb. Wien, 10. Dezember - Ein furchtbarer Schlag hat Englands Flotte getroffen: ihr neuestes Schlachtschiff „Prince of Wales“ und der Schlachtkreuzer „Repulse“ sind an der Ostküste Malayas von japanischen Marineflugzeugen binnen 21 Minuten auf den Grund des Meeres geschickt worden. Das britische Fernostgeschwader, das erst vor kurzem durch diese kampfkräftigen Einheiten verstärkt worden war, verfügt über kein Schlachtschiff mehr. Die Japaner berichteten über diese einzigartige und bewundernswerte Waffentat, die selbst noch die Vernichtung der USA-Schlachtschiffe „West Virginia“ und „Oklahoma“ vor Honolulu übertraf, durch folgende Meldung:

Das Kaiserliche Hauptquartier gibt bekannt, daß die japanische Marineluftwaffe die Schlachtschiffe „Prince of Wales“ und „Repulse“ in der Nähe der Ostküste der Malaien-Halbinsel versenkt hat. Wie die Agentur Domei dazu weiter berichtet, wurde die britische Fernostflotte am Mittwoch um 11,30 Uhr japanischer Zeit in der Nähe der Ostküste der Malaienhalbinsel gesichtet. Japanische Flugzeuge traten sofort in Aktion. Die „Repulse“ wurde um 14,29 Uhr durch Bombenvolltreffer augenblicklich versenkt. Das Schlachtschiff „Prince of Wales“ erhielt nach einem Volltreffer Schlagseite auf Steuerbord und versuchte zu entkommen. Um 14,50 Uhr erhielt dieses Schlachtschiff jedoch weitere Treffer und sank.

---

Fünf USA-Offiziere vor ein Kriegsgericht:
Die Katastrophe von Hawai

dnb. Neuyork, 10. Dezember - Die Erregung über den japanischen Schlag auf Pearl Harbour hat nach Mitteilung einer USA-Nachrichtenagentur jetzt den Abgeordneten von Michigan veranlaßt, den Kongreß aufzufordern, fünf hohe Offiziere der USA-Armee und -Marine vor ein Kriegsgericht zu stellen. Unter ihnen befinde sich auch der Flottenchef der USA-Flotte im Stillen Ozean, Kimmel, der, wie die Agentur sagt, für die Katastrophe in Pearl Harbour verantwortlich sei.

---

Japans Operationen auf den Philippinen:
Die ersten größeren Kämpfe mit USA-Truppen

dnb. Tokio, 10. Dezember - Wie der japanische Militärsprecher in Schanghai zu der Landung japanischer Truppen auf den Philippinen ergänzend bekanntgab, ist es den Japanern gelungen, trotz feindlicher Gegenwehr auf der Hauptinsel Luzon Fuß zu fassen, und zwar bei Vigan an der Nordwestküste und bei Aparri an der Nordküste der Insel. Vermutlich sind noch weitere Landungen erfolgt, jedoch liegen hierüber noch keine Nachrichten vor.

Die Landungen wurden im Laufe des Dienstag durch Bodentruppen mit Unterstützung von Marine- und Luftstreitkräften durchgeführt. Wie aus Manila verlautet, sind seit Mittwoch die ersten größeren Kämpfe mit USA-Streitkräften im Gange, wobei die japanische Kriegsmarine in die Kampfhandlungen eingriff.

Wie das Kaiserliche Hauptquartier meldet, hat die japanische Luftwaffe wieder schwerste Angriffe auf den Flugplatz Nichols bei Manila und Davao durchgeführt. Hallen, Werkstätten und Rollbahnen wurden zerstört.

Wie aus einer aufgefangenen-Rundfunksendung hervorgeht, hat der Oberbefehlshaber der USA-Streitkräfte in Manila, MacArthur, in einer Rundfunkerklärung zugegeben, daß den japanischen Truppen im Zusammenwirken mit See- und Luftstreitkräften eine Landung „an einem gewissen Punkt“ im Norden von Manila gelungen sei.

Wie weiter aus Manila bekannt wird, haben japanische Flugzeuge am Mittwochmittag erneut die Hauptstadt der Philippinen angegriffen und Bomben auf das Hafengebiet in der Nähe von Fort Santiago sowie auf Schiffe im Hafen abgeworfen. Die letzten Augenzeugenberichte besagen, daß neun japanische Kampfflugzeuge unter starkem Flakfeuer in großer Höhe über der Funkstation gesichtet worden seien. Die Zahl der Opfer in Manila soll bereits auf 7000 angestiegen sein.

Die Filipinos. so wird von neutraler Seite mitgeteilt, seien durch die hohen Verluste der US-Truppen stark beeindruckt. Die amerikanische Polizei habe durch ein verstärktes Aufgebot Maßnahmen zur Aufrechterhaltung der Ruhe getroffen.

Auf den Philippinen befinden sich, wie Domei berichtet, schätzungsweise 38.000 Mann amerikanischer und philippinischer Truppen unter Befehl Generals MacArthur, davon 18.000 Mann regulärer Truppen. Die Philippinen seien in drei Wehrbezirke eingeteilt, nämlich in die Bezirke Nord- und Südluzon und Mindanao. Da die philippinische Luftwaffe durch die japanischen Bombenangriffe der letzten zwei Tage stärkstens geschwächt worden sei, sei anzunehmen, daß die Widerstandskraft gegenüber den japanischen Truppen, die heute Morgen erfolgreiche Landungen durchführten, gebrochen sei.

Mit der Präzision eines Uhrwerks

Das kaiserliche Hauptquartier bestätigte am Mittwochmittag die Meldung, daß japanische Armee- und Marinestreitkräfte in engem Zusammenwirken eine erfolgreiche Landung auf der Insel Guam und Wake durchgeführt haben.

Gleichzeitig gaben die Armee- und die Marineabteilung des kaiserlichen Hauptquartiers in einer gemeinsamen Erklärung bekannt, daß die Operationen der japanischen Truppen, die am Morgen des 10. Dezember eine Landung auf den Philippinen durchgeführt haben, in raschem Fortschreiten begriffen sind.

Der Sprecher betonte, daß die Durchführung der Angriffe auf Hawai, Guam, Wake, die Philippinen und Singapur trotz der Streckenausdehnung von 18.000 Kilometer uhrwerkmäßig geklappt habe. Die Angriffe seien genau zur gleichen Zeit erfolgt. Es sei unausbleiblich, daß an einzelnen Stellen ungünstiges Wetter für die Operationen geherrscht habe, doch seien die Ergebnisse auch in diesen Fällen zufriedenstellend gewesen. Die japanischen Überwasserstreitkräfte und die Unterseebootwaffe erlitten am ersten Kampftage keinerlei Verluste, teilte der Sprecher der japanischen Armee in Hongkong mit. Während allen Operationen dieses Tages hatte die Luftwaffe noch nicht einmal zehn Flugzeuge verloren.

---

Glodschey: Die Stärke der Flotten im Pazifik

Von unserem Marinemitarbeiter Erich Glodschey

Angesichts der weiten Entfernungen von jeweils mehreren tausend Seemeilen, die zwischen den Hauptstützpunkten der kriegführenden Mächte im Stillen Ozean liegen, kommt es bei einem Vergleich der Flottenstärken vor allem auf die Schiffe mit großem Fahrbereich an. Den Kern der Seestreitkräfte, die im Pazifik handelnd auftreten. bilden also die Schlachtschiffe, Flugzeugträger und Kreuzer.

Als Japan während des Weltkrieges 1914 bis 1918 seine Kriegsflotte gerade an schweren Schiffen erheblich verstärkte, erregte es bei den Vereinigten Staaten heftiges Mißfallen. Die Vereinigten Staaten ihrerseits hatten damals bereits den Bestand Englands an Großkampfschiffen überflügelt. Der englischen Diplomatie gelang es, die USA zur Anerkennung des Grundsatzes der Flottengleichheit zu bringen. Dieser Kuhhandel wurde auf Kosten Japans abgeschlossen. England verriet sein Bündnis mit Japan und unterstütze die USA auf der Flottenkonferenz von Washington 1922 in ihrer Politik, die japanische Kriegsmarine zurückzudrängen. So mußte sich Japan mit dem Verhältnis 3:5:5 in der Flottenstärke gegenüber England und den USA begnügen. Eine ganze Reihe von japanischen Schlachtschiffneubauten mußte damals verschrottet werden.

Amerikanischer Bluff…

Auf diese Weise gab es bis zum Ablauf des Washingtoner Abkommens im Jahre 1936 ein festes Verhältnis zwischen der japanischen und amerikanischen Flottenstärke, dass erst in den letzten fünf Jahren durch die Neubauten verändert worden ist. Agitatorische Stärkevergleiche aus Washington bringen jetzt die Zahl der fertigen, im Bau befindlichen oder gar erst geplanten Kriegsschiffe absichtlich durcheinander und kommen beispielsweise zu dem absurden Vergleich, daß 12 japanischen Schlachtschiffen 32 amerikanische gegenüberstehen sollen oder 6 japanischen Flugzeugträgern, 18 amerikanische, bzw. 38 japanischen Kreuzern 85 entsprechende Schiffe der Amerikaner. Dabei werden die Pläne, die Roosevelt durch den Bau der Zwei-Ozean-Flotte in den nächsten fünf oder zehn Jahren verwirklichen will, bereits als vollendete Tatsache gewertet. Die wirkliche Lage sieht anders aus, wie auch einige englische Flottensachverständige offen zugeben.

…und die Wirklichkeit

Beim Aufhören des Washingtoner Flottenvertrages besaß Japan neun Schlachtschiffe, darunter zwei der „Nagato“-Klasse mit 40,6-Zentimeter-Geschützen. Die Vereinigten Staaten halten 15 Schlachtschiffe, darunter 3 der „West-Virginia“-Klasse mit 40,6-Zentimeter-Geschützen. Die japanischen Neubauten sind unter strenger Geheimhaltung durchgeführt worden, aber man rechnet allgemein damit, daß das als Schulschiff benutzte Schlachtschiff „Hiei“ zusätzlich wieder aufgerüstet werden ist und daß mindestens zwei neue Schlachtschiffe von 42.500 Tonnen mit 40,6-Zentimeter-Geschützen gebaut worden sind. Weitere Neubauten werden vermutet. In den Vereinigten Staaten sind zwar eine Anzahl Schlachtschiffe im Bau, aber fertiggestellt sind nach eigenen USA-Berichten auch erst die beiden 35.000-Tonnen-Schlachtschiffe „Washington“ und „North Carolina“ mit 40,6-Zentirneter-Geschützen. Nach englischen Presseberichten sollen diese Schlachtschiffe aber noch nicht voll dienstbereit sein.

Da drei ältere USA-Schlachtschiffe auf der Atlantikstation Dienst zu tun pflegten, rechnet jetzt beispielsweise der Marinemitarbeiter des Londoner „Daily Telegraph“ damit, daß sich bei Kampfbeginn nur 12 USA-Schlachtschiffe im Pazifik befanden. wo sie der gleichen Anzahl von japanischen Schlachtschiffen gegenüberstanden. Inzwischen haben aber die ersten japanischen Schläge die Stärke der amerikanischen Schlachtschiffflotte im Pazifik fühlbar vermindert. Nach amtlicher japanischer Mitteilung sind zwei USA-Schlachtschiffe im pazifischen Hauptkriegshafen Pearl Harbour (Hawai) versenkt und vier weitere beschädigt werden, ein bedeutsamer Anfangserfolg im Sinne eines Kräfteausgleichs für die weiteren Kampfhandlungen. Die Rückwirkungen auf den Atlantik liegen ebenfalls auf der Hand.

Ein schwerer Verlust

Es handelt sich bei den USA-Verlusten einmal tim das Schlachtschiff „Oklahoma“ (29.000 Tonnen. zehn 35,6-Zentimeter-Geschützen), das 1914 vom Stapel lief, aber inzwischen mehrfach modernisiert worden ist. Wenn Roosevelt den Verlust damit bagatellisieren wollte, daß er ganz beiläufig vom „Kentern eines alten Schlachtschiffes“ sprach, so vermag das nichts an der Schwere dieses Verlustes eines vollwertigen Schlachtschiffes zu ändern. Inzwischen ist in einer Reuters-Meldung aus Washington auch der zweite Schlachtschiffverlust der USA zugegeben werden. Bei diesem Schiff handelt es sich nach japanischen Beobachtungen um die „West Virginia“, das neueste USA-Schlachtschiff von den jetzigen Neubauten. Die „West Virginia“ (31.800 Tonnen) war eines der drei USA-Schlachtschiffe, die mit acht 40,6-Zentimeter-Geschützen bewaffnet sind. Für die Seekriegführung im Pazifik ist ferner zu berücksichtigen, daß die japanischen Schlachtschiffe schon vor der jetzigen Neubauperiode an Geschwindigkeit die US-Schlachtschiffe sämtlich um zwei bis vier Seemeilen übertrafen. Offensichtlich sollte die Verlegung des neuesten schnellen Schlachtschiffs der englischen Flotte „Prince of Wales“ (35.000 Tonnen, zehn 35,6-Zentimeter-Geschütze) nach Singapore hier einen gewissen Ausgleich schaffen, um auf die japanischen Marinekreise Eindruck zu machen. Aber diese Stimmungsmache, die auf Kosten der englischen militärischen Bedürfnisse im Atlantik und im Mittelmeer erfolgte, hat das Zutrauen der japanischen Seeoffiziere zur Angriffskraft ihrer Flotte gegen die materielle Stärke der USA nicht vermindert.

Bei den Flugzeugträgern war ohnehin für Japan ein günstigeres Stärkeverhältnis gegeben. Sechs fertige japanische Flugzeugträger stehen in den Flottenlisten gegen sechs USA-Flugzeugträger, von denen sich nach dem „Daily Expreß“ vier im Pazifik befanden. Einer ist möglicherweise bereits versenkt worden. Durch Neubauten dürfte Japan in der nächsten Zeit schneller einen Zuwachs an Flugzeugträgern erhalten können als die USA-Flotte, deren Bauten später auf Stapel gelegt worden sind. Die USA-Hoffnungen auf den Einsatz von einem oder zwei englischen Flugzeugträgern im Fernen Osten dürften durch die Versenkung der „Ark Royal“ ein wenig gedämpft werden sein.

An fertigen schweren Kreuzern verzeichnete Japan vor Beginn der Neubauperiode 12 Schiffe gegen 18 amerikanische, an leichten Kreuzern 26 gegen 19 der USA. Nun haben die USA inzwischen ihren Bau von- leichten Kreuzern beschleunigt, aber auch Japan ist sicherlich nicht untätig geblieben, Japan hat nach den schon erwähnten eigenen Angaben insbesondere auf dem Gebiete der schweren Kreuzer für den Handelskrieg kräftigen Zuwachs erhalten. Ein Londoner Nachrichtendienst äußert die Vermutung, daß die neuen schweren japanischen Kreuzer ein stärkeres Kaliber als das sonst übliche von 20,3 Zentimeter trügen und sich die Erfahrungen der deutschen Panzerschiffe zunutze gemacht hätten, die ja heute ebenfalls als schwere Kreuzer bezeichnet werden.

Unterseeboote ernste USA-Sorge

Die gleiche englische Quelle rechnet mit dem Vorhandensein von 100 japanischen Zerstörern, wobei aber 41 kleinere Zerstörer nicht mitgerechnet sind. Ihnen stehen etwa 180 größere und kleinere USA-Zerstörer gegenüber, nachdem sich die USA-Flotte durch den Verkauf von 50 älteren Zerstörern an England erheblich geschwächt hatte. Nicht ohne Grund legt der USA-Marineminister Knox auf schnellere Fertigstellung neuer Zerstörer besonderen Wert, denn der weite Fahrbereich der japanischen Unterseeboote (darunter zahlreiche Unterseekreuzer nach deutschem Vorbild des Weltkrieges) ist bekannt. Londoner Berichte rechnen jetzt mit 74 fertigen japanischen Unterseebooten, die zusammen mit der japanischen Marineluftwaffe fortan eine ernste Sorge der USA-Marine sind, die nun im Pazifik sehr lange Seewege zu schützen hat.

---

U.S. War Department (December 11, 1941)

Communiqué No. 3

The Commanding General, Far East Command, confirms the sinking of a 29,000-ton Japanese battleship by the U.S. Army Air Forces north of Luzon. This battleship is believed to be the 29,000-ton HARUNA or a vessel of the HARUNA class.

Continued attempts by strong Japanese forces to establish themselves along the northern coast of Luzon were reported. Determined resistance has confined this action to the vicinity of Aparri, at the extreme northern tip of Luzon, where the Japanese attempted to establish a beachhead yesterday. Air activity continued in the vicinity of Manila, with intermittent attacks on airfields at Cavite and Nichols Field throughout the day.

---

U.S. Navy Department (December 11, 1941)

Communiqué No. 2

The Marine garrison on Wake Island has been subject to four separate attacks in the last 48 hours by enemy aircraft and one by light naval units. Despite the loss of part of the defending planes and the damage to material and personnel, the defending garrison succeeded in sinking one light cruiser and one destroyer of the enemy forces by air action. A resumption of the attack and a probable landing attempt is expected. The Marine garrison is continuing to resist. The above report is based on information received up until noon December 11.

Communiqué No. 3

The Navy Department announced that Adm. Thomas C. Hart, USN, Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Asiatic Fleet, has reported that Navy patrol planes scored bomb hits on a Japanese battleship of the KONGO class off the coast of Luzon. The ship was badly damaged. This is the second Japanese battleship to be bombed effectively by U.S. forces.

---

The Pittsburgh Press (December 11, 1941)

U.S. DECLARES WAR ON AXIS
Rome and Berlin first to issue hostile edicts

Battles rage in Philippines and Malaya; Hitler says Nazis will strike quickly
By Joe Alex Morris, United Press war editor

Democracy mobilized its might against the Axis today.

Germany and Italy formally joined Japan in the conflict against America today and Congress answered immediately with a declaration of war on Germany and Italy.

Completing mobilization of great powers, President Roosevelt promised that the strength and determination of free peoples would “ensure a world victory” over savage and barbarous forces now moving toward the western hemisphere in an effort to enslave peoples everywhere.

Congress approved within an hour his request for a declaration of war.

The turning of machinery that plunged five continents into unprecedented conflict was swift but the men on the fighting fronts were already in action. A 29,000-ton Japanese battleship sank in flames under American aerial bombs off the Philippines, and defense forces were opposing a Japanese landing force in the Aparri sector of Northern Luzon.

The fighting fronts also were aflame in Russia, on the Libyan desert, in Malaya and China.

But for the moment, the spotlight centered on the men in positions of leadership in America, Great Britain and the Soviet Union on the side of the Allies and in Germany, Italy and Japan on the side of the Axis.

Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini announced their formal declarations of war before cheering party groups in Berlin and Rome and Hitler asserted that the Axis would “always strike first.”

Spain was reported to have closed her frontier with France, preventing departure of Americans from Axis-dominated Europe, and there were increasing indications that Vichy France had made a deal to throw its naval strength to the side of Germany as a result of a conference at Turin between Vice Premier Adm. Darlan and Italian Foreign Minister Count Ciano.

A break between the United States and Vichy appeared more than ever likely, with the American seizure of French Martinique believed probable.

On the other side of the picture, it was believed that Germany was pressing France for use of the important port of Dakar, on the West African coast commanding the South Atlantic sea lanes. Axis bases at Dakar presumably would be a step toward control of the southern route to the Americas, including Azores Islands owned by Portugal.

Washington sources expressed belief that a “race” for the stepping stones of the Atlantic – particularly the Azores, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, Madeira and Dakar – might soon be in progress.

In London, Prime Minister Winston Churchill told the British nation that this was a life-or-death struggle and that “we will go forward to victory.”

In Berlin, Hitler declared that Axis-held Europe was “impregnable” and that Germany would break all opposition.

In Rome, Mussolini shouted that “we shall wage war to conquer.”

Significantly, Berlin, Rome and Tokyo were silent regarding possible Soviet participation in the Far Eastern war.

At Moscow, where Josef V. Stalin was a key figure in the world struggle, there was silence on the new phase of hostilities but the Red Army was on the offensive again and remained a vigorous factor in the Allied hopes of victory.

On the actual war fronts, Australian bombers attacked the Japanese air base at Pobra, in the East Indies, and American defense forces in the Philippines reported that they still were fighting off Japanese invaders.

The Japanese clung to a foothold in Northern Luzon province where they had landed after suffering severe losses, but war communiques issued at Manila said that the enemy was being mopped up near Lingayen and that the situation was under control.

Japanese losses in a number of attacks on Northern Luzon were described as heavy. Over Manila, the skies were clear again as American interceptor planes drove back new Japanese bomber squadrons and the wreckage of 15 enemy craft was scattered across the low hills behind the capital.

On the eastern coast of Malaya, British Imperials aided by British and Dutch fighting planes fought back against a Japanese invasion headed toward the great naval base of Singapore and reported that, after losing Kota Bharu airdrome near the Thailand border, they had prevented any farther advances. The Japanese still were hammering at the Kuantan area, 200 miles north of Singapore in an effort to gain a foothold there.

Two thousand survivors of some 2,700 men on the British dreadnaughts HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse reached safety and told how the two warships fought for three hours against attacks by 60 “suicide” Japanese bombers, shooting down at least seven of the enemy craft before they went down with guns still roaring.

Behind the barricades at Hongkong, besieged by Japanese warships, hammered by Japanese airplanes and assaulted from land by Japanese infantry, the British forces were reported holding their ground after having sunk two enemy transports and destroyed at least one company of enemy troops. The Japanese claimed that they had sunk two British gunboats near Hongkong.

Other claims broadcast by the official news agency from Tokyo included. Destruction of 197 American airplanes in two days, including 45 shot down and 71 destroyed on the ground at Iba, in the Philippines; sinking of an American destroyer, a submarine and a special service ship.

The German propaganda agency reported that the aircraft carrier USS Lexington of 33,000 tons had been sunk off Hawaii, but Tokyo made no definite claim in this connection.

The Japanese, however, did report the capture of Guam, where 350 Americans were taken prisoner, and called up the Dutch East Indies to surrender because Japan had “broken” British and American sea power in the Pacific and a fight would be useless. The Dutch replied by sending air reinforcements to British Malaya.

British fighting men replied to the Axis challenge in North Africa, too. The Imperial forces, now under a new 44-year-old commander, Maj. Gen. Neil M. Ritchie, crashed forward against the crack panzer divisions in the Libyan desert, driving them back from the Tobruk-El Adem sector toward their defense lines at Derna and raising the hope that they could be chased from all of North Africa.

Mr. Churchill, speaking to Commons, said that the goal of destroying all Axis armored forces in Libya might soon be within reach, and both Rome and Berlin acknowledged reverses.

On the Eastern Front, the Red Army continued to drive forward against the stalled Axis forces in bitterly cold weather, striking to regain all of the Donets Basin and recapture the important city of Kharkov.

British losses cut

In the Battle of the Atlantic, Mr. Churchill said that British shipping losses had been reduced to less than one-fifth of the losses suffered in four months ending last June 30. He acknowledged that American war supplies might be reduced as a result of the conflict in the Far East but he pledged Britain to keep up her supplies to the Russians and said that four-fifths of the human race was fighting against the “criminal” Axis leaders.

But, he emphasized, this is a war against tremendously strong military powers and it will be long war before victory is possible.

A short time later, the Berlin and Rome radios were carrying the speeches of Hitler and Mussolini. The Nazi Fuehrer’s speech as heard by the United Press listening post was so interwoven with an English text explaining what he said that it appeared to be a record, prepared to achieve the greatest possible propaganda effect in England and America.

All U.S. reporters in Berlin arrested

BERLIN (German broadcasts recorded by UP) – All American newspaper and Press Association correspondents in Berlin were arrested at midnight, in retaliation for the arrest of German correspondents in the United States.

---

Hitler, Il Duce go to Japs’ aid

They blame whole thing on United States

BERLIN (UP, German radio recorded in New York) – Germany and her Axis partner, Italy, today declared war on the United States.

Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop made the formal declaration on behalf of Germany at noon (5 a.m. EST) in a note handed to the American charge d’affaires in Berlin.

Adolf Hitler in a speech before the Nazi Reichstag, are honoring their obligations under the tri-power military alliance and coming to the aid of Japan “in the struggle forced upon her.”

Germany and Italy, Hitler told the Reichstag, are honoring their obligations under the tri-power military alliance and coming to the aid of Japan “in the struggle forced upon her.”

The association of Germany, Italy and Japan, proclaimed the Fuehrer, will last “at least as long as the war lasts.”

Simultaneously, Premier Benito Mussolini appeared on the balcony of Venice Palace in Rome and announced to the throngs in the square below that the Axis partners have gone to war against the United States.

Germany, Hitler assured his audience, has the power and foresight to take all necessary measures for the world conflict.

“We will always strike first,” he said. “We will always deal the first blow.”

Germany, Italy and Japan, he revealed, have bound themselves in a formal alliance of four articles.

They agree:

• To carry on to final victory the war against Britain and the United States with “every conceivable means.”

• Not to conclude a separate peace or armistice.

• To continue the closest collaboration and to establish a new and lasting order along the lines of the Tri-Partite Agreement.

• To effectuate the pact immediately.

“After peace has been won,” said Hitler, “the three countries will proceed in close collaboration to guarantee a lasting peace.”

Assails Roosevelt

President Roosevelt, charged the Fuehrer, has done “everything in his power” to prevent Germany and Italy from securing their right of existence.

“Our patience,” he shouted, “has come to the straining point. We had always tried to prevent a break with the United States.”

“But now, Italy and Germany, in loyal fulfillment of their obligations under the Axis agreement, associate themselves with Japan in the struggle against America and Britain.

Never before, said Hitler, has Germany been so united.

“No one will vanquish Germany,” he declared. “No one will destroy German unity. Germany is strong. Let us thank God that we can enter our names in the history of the

Singing solemn, sad

As Hitler concluded speaking at 4:33 p.m. (9:33 a.m. EST) after making his war declaration four minutes earlier, Reichsmarshal Herman Goering rose and said: “God bless our Fuehrer. God bless our Reich.”

The Reichstag, assembled in the Kroll Opera House, rose and sang “Deutschland Ueber Alles” and the Nazi Horst Wessel song.

The United Press listening post reported that the singing was solemn and sounded sad. The listening post believed that the German broadcast may not have been made direct from radio microphones but from a recording of Hitler’s speech. They reported that a Nazi announcer interrupted repeatedly to give an English translation – a practice never before employed. Hitler spoke in a low, emotionless voice until he neared the end of his address when his voice rose to the familiar shrillness.*

Hitler led up to his declaration against the United States with a lengthy attack upon President Roosevelt and his allegedly anti-German policy. He listed a long series of American attacks against Germany. His listeners cheered and laughed at his occasional bursts of satire. Once the broadcast was interrupted by a chorus of “pfui” from the Reichstag members.

Admits Libyan defeat

Hitler made these points:

• That Britain and the United States have ‘flagrantly violated” international law.

• That the United States “plans to take over the British Empire in the hour of its collapse as safely and with as little danger as possible.”

• That the Axis has suffered a temporary defeat in Libya due to British superiority in heavy tanks.

• That only winter has halted the Nazi attack on Russia and that it will be resumed but not before next summer.

• That the United States was preparing plans for an attack upon Germany in 1943.

“A year of historical events is ending,” said Hitler. “A year of the greatest decisions is coming. If Providence has decided that a struggle shall occur, I am thankful that I have been elected to lead this struggle which will decide our future for 500 or 1,000 years.”

Calls nation secure

He claimed Germany now stands secure behind a series of fortresses, air bases and naval bases which have been built from the Kirkenes in far northern Norway to the frontiers of Spain.

“It is my unshakeable determination to make this European Front,” he said, “unassailable and impregnable.”

Wants to ‘save’ Europe

He charged that America’s threat to Europe stems from “an inheritance of Jewish and Negro spirit.”

“Fighting was unavoidable,” he said. “Germany is the chief champion of this fight. The Germans are in the struggle to save the interests of the whole of Europe.”

Hitler said that “a blind man” could have seen that Russia was preparing to challenge Germany and that Soviet intentions became clear after Joseph Stalin instigated the coup d’etat in Yugoslavia which precipitated Germany’s campaign in the Balkans.

“We will always strike first,” he said. “We will always deal the first blow as we did with Russia.”

Charges conspiracy

Hitler again claimed that Britain and Russia secretly conspired to attack Germany in the summer of 1941 after which Britain would take the offensive. He said that these intentions were revealed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill at a secret mission of the British Parliament.

Hitler said that if Finland had joined with Germany “her own existence and that of the other Scandinavian states would rapidly have come to an end.”

Hitler claimed that Germany held 3,806,000 Russian prisoners up to November 28.

He placed German casualties in Russia up to December 1 at 573,415 killed, wounded and missing. He listed them as: 162,314 killed; 377,767 wounded; 33,334 missing.

Every step forward in Russia, he said, had been fought for – against Russian resistance, against Russian heat, Russian mud, Russian cold.

No ill will toward U.S.

Germany, Hitler insisted, never had any ill will toward the United States. Germany had no colonies or claims in North America; had never interfered in American affairs; had aided the United States in winning its war of independence; had never participated in any war against the United States.

He said the United States went to war against the Reich in 1917 for “reasons wholly spurious.”

He said differences of government between the two countries were not sufficient as a cause for bad feeling.

“There are two persons responsible for relations between the United States and Germany,” he said. “They are Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Wilson broke a pledge to Germany.”

[NormanStewart]

Mussolini announces war declaration

ROME (UP, via Buenos Aires) – Italy declared war on the United States today when Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano summoned U.S. Charge d’Affaires George Wadsworth to the Foreign Office and handed him his passports.

“His Majesty, the King-Emperor of Italy, declares that Italy considers herself in a state of war with the United States of America from today,” Ciano said in a communication to Wadsworth.

Italy’s war declaration was proclaimed by Premier Benito Mussolini in a speech before a vast assemblage of cheering Italians from the balcony of Venice Palace.

Mussolini said that “one man alone” is responsible for “this new war because by his continued provocations he has prepared for war day by day with diabolic persistence.” (The reference presumably was to President Roosevelt.)

Promises victory

“Italian men and women will be worthy of this great hour,” he added.

“Fascist Italy and National Socialist Germany have allied themselves with Japan in a war against the United States of America,” he said.

“We shall bring you victory.”

“This is a great day in the history of the continent of Europe,” Mussolini continued.

“Italy and her ally Germany together with Japan enter the war against the United States.

“One hundred and fifty million men are resolute to do everything to reach final victory.

“We shall wage war in order to conquer.

“After an infinite series of provocations, the Japanese have struck in the Pacific and have achieved great victories.

“It is a privilege to fight at their sides.

“The Tripartite Pact [the German-Italian-Japanese alliance, now brought into active force] is a sure guarantee of victory and a powerful instrument for a just peace for the nations.”

The approximately 100,000 persons who crowded the Venice Square and overflowed into nearby streets called Mussolini back to the balcony nine times to acknowledge their cheers.

---

ARMY BOMBERS SINK JAP BATTLESHIP
Planes blast Jap vessel in Luzon action

Stimson confirms report of success – invasion continues

Where fighting rages in Philippines

U.S. forces fought off the Japanese from Manila to the top of Luzon Island today. (1) A Japanese battleship was set afire and sunk off the north coast. (2) An invasion thrust was beaten back at San Fernando. (3) Mopping-up operations against Japanese landing parties was in progress at Lingayen, 100 miles north of Manila. (4) Japanese planes continued to raid the great Cavite Naval Base and the Army air base at Nichols Field.

WASHINGTON (UP) – Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson today confirmed the sinking of the 29,000-ton Japanese battleship Haruna off the northern coast of Luzon yesterday by U.S. Army bombers.

Mr. Stimson told a press conference that the Office of Naval Intelligence had just “confirmed the sinking by Army bombers of the 29,000-ton Japanese battleship Haruna off Luzon.”

He made the announcement just before the War Department issued a 10:30 a.m. communique on Philippine operations in which the sinking of the battleship was reported.

The Haruna (a vessel of 29,330 tons) was built in 1913 and carried 980 officers and men. The ship was armed with eight 14-inch guns, 16 6-inch guns and lesser arms. The Haruna carried three aircraft, which were added to her equipment in 1927. The ship was refitted between 1926 and 1930.

Thus the United States has revenged at least in part the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Sunday in which the loss of one old U.S. battleship has been officially announced and other losses reported.

The War Department communique said that there were continued attempts by strong Japanese forces to establish themselves along the northern coast of Luzon.

“Determined resistance has confined this action to the attack in the vicinity of Aparri, at the extreme northern tip of Luzon, where the Japanese attempted to establish a beachhead yesterday,” the communique said.

“Air activity continued in the vicinity of Manila, with intermittent attacks on airfields at Cavite and Nichols Field throughout the day.”

Mr. Stimson said that Aparri is just a “small landing place,” which is shut off from the main part of the island by mountains, and that if the Japanese attempt to transport an army through the passes, it will “be a slow job.”

Mr. Stimson said that he had sent a message to Lt. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of U.S. Far Eastern forces, congratulating him on the sinking, his defense against “great odds” and the conduct of the U.S. Army and Philippine troops.

Heavy loss of planes

Mr. Stimson predicted the ultimate triumph of the United States cause over the “autocratic” powers.

He said there was a “heavy loss” of planes in Hawaii as a result of Sunday’s surprise raid, but said that it “can and is being made good at the present moment.”

He also said that full details of the attack are not yet known, but that the principal concern of the War Department is getting defenses strengthened everywhere.

“We do not believe in recrimination of placing of the blame on anybody at this time,” Mr. Stimson said. “We believe that is a sign of immaturity. The investigations can come later. Now we are stressing preparedness.”

Praises aviators

He said that one incident had given him great encouragement during the attack on Hawaii. While the bombing was in progress, he revealed, a flight of Flying Fortresses arrived at Hawaii from San Francisco. Mr. Stimson said that the first of these planes was shot down, but the others were able to land safely at other airports. Of these, he said two suffered slight damage which has been repaired.

He said that this showed the ability of American soldiers to keep their heads and take care of themselves.

Mr. Stimson told newsmen that we must expect initial reverses but that it is “the last shots and not the first that count.”

Early reverses seen

He said the American people should be careful never to underestimate the ability of the Japanese seamen, because “I’ve seen enough of them in the Far East to know.”

“The American people have been put through a very heavy test during the past few days,” Mr. Stimson said. “When we survey the situation cold-bloodedly, we must expect initial reverses.”

He said that history shows there are three periods in a war. He said that the first is the so-called “unset” during which governments of free peoples are at a distinct disadvantage. The others are the periods when the drag begins to weigh down on the nations involved, and the finish.

“It has almost been proved a fact that the free people win because of their endurance,” Stimson said. “Such governments have a momentum from the people that no one man can possibly have.”

---

Army beats off Luzon invaders

By Frank Hewlett, United Press staff writer

MANILA, Philippines – An Army communique announced today that the situation was completely in hand in the fight against a Japanese attempt to invade the Philippines.

Later communiques, indicating an increasingly favorable United States position, said a Japanese detachment which landed near Lingayen on the west coast of Luzon Island was being disposed of in mopping-up operations and that interceptor planes had driven off a Japanese bombing formation which brought a noon air raid alarm to Manila.

The Army reported the sinking of the Japanese battleship Haruna off the northern coast of Luzon and said it was set afire by three direct hits from a bombing plane. Beside the direct hits, the plane dropped two bombs close to the ship’s sides.

As regards the fight against the Japanese attempt to invade Luzon, the main island of the Philippines, in a threat to Manila, the great Cavite Naval Base and the Army airfields, the communique asserted that a Philippine Army division had beaten back light Japanese troop attacks near Lingayen, in Pangasinan Province, 100 miles north of Manila.

This point is the closest to which the Japanese had come to Manila in their invasion attempts, which previously had been reported as centering farther north on the west coast and on the north coast. Lingayen, an important trade center, is on the Gulf of Lingayen. A direct mainline railroad connects it with Manila.

The Army communique:

“The situation is completely in hand. There have been no major developments since yesterday with the one exception of light attacks by ground troops in the vicinity of Lingayen which were repulsed by one Filipino Army division.

“One of our Army bombers late yesterday attacked a Japanese battleship of the Hiranuma 29,000-ton class, a capital ship, 10 miles northeast of northern Luzon and scored three direct hits and two very close alongside.

“When the bomber left, the battleship was blazing fiercely.”

The Manila Tribune reported that an American tank ship was sunk during yesterday’s Japanese raids on Manila and that one American and one British freighter were damaged. Several seamen were killed and at least 24 wounded, the Tribune said.

The Tribune said 15 Japanese planes were shot down in yesterday’s raids, the Bulletin nine.

Deaths reported

The Tribune reported 30 civilians killed and 250 wounded in all. The Bulletin reported 37 killed and 46 wounded in the Pasay suburb alone and said at least 140 wounded were brought to Manila from the Cavite Naval Base.

The Bulletin reported that two priests had been arrested in San Fernando, Pampanga Province, for alleged fifth column activities.

San Fernando, mentioned in the War Department communique as a zone of Japanese invasion attempts, is on the west coast of Luzon, north of Lingayen Gulf.

The Bulletin also asserted that in Manila, a signal line between Nichols Field and an air raid tower was cut, supposedly by fifth columnists, and delayed the alarm when the Japs raided the Manila Bay area yesterday.

Gas instruction given

Air Raid Chief Warden Alfredo G. Eugenio issued detailed instructions to the public for procedure in event of gas attacks.

The Tribune reported that a Filipino air squadron under Capt. Jesus Villamor chased a superior force of 20 enemy planes from Zablan Field, near Manila, yesterday and hit and possibly downed one.

An anti-aircraft gun crew at Zablan Field was credited with downing another bomber.

Both Nichols Field and nearby Nielson Airport were reported damaged slightly.

Reliable informants said Lt. Andrew Krieger of the U.S. Army Air Forces parachuted to safety from his plane during yesterday’s raids after seeing three Japs parachuting from a plane.

One raid alarm

Philippine Army men fought off one low-flying Japanese plane with machine guns, and it was believed that the plane crashed in the hills near Manila.

Radio Mexico, quoting Manila advices, reported that the Japs lost 54 planes yesterday in Philippine operations.

There was a one-hour air raid alarm in Manila during the night, ending at 1 a.m.

Japanese reconnaissance planes were reported to have flown over the city, circled the Cavite Naval Base, and to have flown off westward.

Maj. LeGrande A. Diller, Army spokesman, said a checkup showed that there was no truth in a report that a German pilot had been shot down in a Japanese plane.

---

WAR BULLETINS!

U.S. ambassador and Petain meet

VICHY – Adm. William D. Leahy, U.S. ambassador to Vichy, conferred with Chief of State Marshal Henri Philippe Petain for 30 minutes tonight.

British commander missing

SINGAPORE – Sir Tom Phillips, commander-in-chief of Britain’s Far Eastern Fleet, is missing in the HMS Prince of Wales-Repulse disaster, an official communique said tonight. Capt. John Leach of the Prince of Wales is also missing, the communique said.

Autos on Turnpike searched

SOMERSET, Pennsylvania – All autos entering the tunnels on the Pennsylvania Turnpike are being searched by State Motor Police against any possible acts of sabotage.

British hold in northern Malaya

SINGAPORE – A British communique reported today that Japanese air and sea forces still appear to be engaged in raiding operations over wide areas of the Pacific. The communique said that British defenses in northern Malaya are holding firmly against Japanese attacks and that “there appears to be no change in the enemy’s plans.”

No further Japanese efforts to land in the Kuantan area, north of Singapore, were reported.

18-64 draft ages suggested

WASHINGTON – Brig. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, director of Selective Service, said today that it might be desirable eventually to register all men between the ages of 18 and 64, inclusive, for military service, civilian defense and other purposes.

Roosevelt praises ‘political truce’

WASHINGTON – President Roosevelt today expressed his appreciation to leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties for their “political truce” invoked for the duration of the emergency and suggested that the facilities of the party organizations be used in civilian defense.

Casualty list received

WASHINGTON – Chairman David I. Walsh, D-Massachusetts, of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee said today that the Hawaiian casualty list was received by the Navy this morning but will not be made public for two or three days so that next of kin can be notified first.

Foreign service approved

WASHINGTON – The Senate and House today swiftly passed legislation permitting President Roosevelt to use U.S. troops anywhere in the world in prosecution of the war against the Axis. The measure also extends the term of service for selectees to six months past the duration of war.

Honolulu evacuation plans ready

WASHINGTON – Plans have been completed to evacuate 60,000 civilians from the city of Honolulu if it is threatened with sea or air attack again. The program provides for the movement of 40,000 civilians to camp sites scattered over the island of Oahu, and another 20,000 to small villages on the lee side of the island.

Attack on Jap base reported

BATAVIA, NEI – The official Aneta News Agency today reported that Australian bombers have attacked a Japanese air base on the island of Pobre, between the Celebes and the Japanese island of Palau. Pobre is southeast of the Philippines.

Nazis execute 11 Frenchmen

VICHY – German authorities in Brest have executed 11 Frenchmen for illegal possession of arms. The executions bring to a total of 199 the number of persons executed in occupied France in reprisal for anti-German activities.

Americans seek way home

LONDON – The Exchange Telegraph Agency reported from Lisbon today that many Americans had arrived there from France in hope of getting passage to the United States.

Filipinos to ‘do part to the end’

MANILA, Philippines – President Manuel Quezon, replying to President Roosevelt’s “heartening message,” today asserted that the Philippines “will do their part to the end.” The Malacanan (Philippine White House) announced that Quezon is reorganizing the Civilian Emergency Administration to enable its more efficient operations.

U.S. correspondents restricted

LONDON – The United Press listening post heard the official German news agency report that American press correspondents in Paris have been banned from press conferences there and ordered to remain in their homes.

Trading in Axis dollar bonds suspended

NEW YORK – Trading in Italian and German dollar bonds was suspended by the New York Stock Exchange today following the declarations of war on the United States by both those countries.

Writer hits Axis hard

LONDON – German soldiers “cry like children” and Italians “die like flies” in the severe cold on the Russian front, Radio Moscow said today.

Taft predicts unlimited support

WASHINGTON – Sen. Robert A. Taft, R-Ohio, said today that President Roosevelt will have the unlimited support of every American in the all-out war which he predicted will last at least five years.

---

Radio advised to be careful

Avoid ‘horror and undue excitement,’ it is told

WASHINGTON (UP) – President Neville Miller of the National Association of Broadcasters advised radio stations today to use “unusually careful editorial judgment” in selecting war news.

Mr. Miller said it was equally important that announcers and newscasters report war news “calmly, slowly and deliberately, so as to avoid horror, suspense and undue excitement.” He agreed with the War Department that definite periods should be established for handling of war news “except for news of transcendent importance.”

Chairman James Lawrence Fly of the Federal Communications Commission, meanwhile, assured the radio industry that their facilities generally would remain in private hands. He said censorship was not being undertaken.

An order signed by President Roosevelt yesterday gives the Defense Communications Boad authority to designate radio facilities for the “use, control, inspection or closure” by the War or Navy Department or other government agency. It was explained that the order mainly affected stations used for point-to-point broadcasting of messages which could be used to augment the communication facilities of the Army and Navy.

---

Raid closings hamper coast defense work

Four aircraft plants are forced to shut in new blackout
By the United Press

Southern California’s defense industries, including aircraft plants building $1 billion worth of warplanes, sought today to bolster defense precautions to prevent costly shutdowns during air raid alarms.

Four aircraft plants were closed last night, their production of vital planes and parts halted, because of a three-hour air raid alarm during which the Army said an enemy plane was overhead.

Consolidated Aircraft, building $750 million worth of heavy bombers, Ryan Aeronautical and Solar Aircraft, building training planes, and Rohr Aircraft, manufacturer of equipment, were told by the Army to order their 17,000 night-shift workers home because their planes could not be completely blacked out.

Shipyards hampered

Shipyards, where most of the activity is outdoors, were also hampered by the blackouts and production was delayed.

The Army said it would cooperate to prevent delays when possible and ordered elimination of all practice blackouts. The alert signals will also be dispensed with and henceforth warnings will be flashed only when aircraft is approaching and immediately full blackouts are necessitated.

The alarm last night was spread throughout Southern California from Bakersfield to the border town of Tijuana, Mexico, and the southern tip of Nevada where Boulder Dam is located, when the Army heard an unidentified plane “over and south of Los Angeles.”

Planes sent up

Planes of the Interceptor Command were sent up, anti-aircraft units were ordered to blast the plane if it were spotted, and the entire area was blacked out. Army searchlights pierced the night.

Col. Harry S. Fuller, air raid warning official here, said that “by a process of elimination” the Army concluded the unidentified plane was an enemy craft.

The blackout through the area was “near perfect” with the exception of Los Angeles where it was “spotty,” he said.

The Pacific Northwest, from Roseburg, Oregon, to Alaska and west of the Cascade Mountains, underwent its third night of blackout. Radio stations closed down at 7:30 p.m. (10:30 p.m. EST), although lights were not turned off until 1:30 a.m. (4:30 a.m. EST) in Washington and Oregon. British Columbia, blanketed by a heavy fog, went on a complete blackout basis at dusk.

Perfect ARP systems

Prodded by New York Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, director of Civilian Defense, Pacific Coast cities began perfecting their air raid warden systems. He said San Francisco, and all other exposed cities, needed gas masks, more firefighting equipment, more air raid wardens, more auxiliary firefighters, more drills.

LaGuardia said he was “not satisfied with civilian defense forces anywhere,” but that the United States, after three days of war, was ahead of Great Britain at a corresponding period of the European war.

In Portland, Oregon, the city council passed an ordinance providing $500 fine and six months’ imprisonment for violation of blackout regulations.

Has third alarm

Metropolitan New York had its third alarm in 24 hours yesterday.

The eastern alarm was attributed, as were the two before it, to overzealousness on the part of warning signal operators. Planes were spotted, but they turned out to be U.S. naval craft. Tuesday’s two alarms were traced to a “phony tip.”

The latest New York alarm caught the city’s millions during the morning rush hour. Air raid wardens herded crowds off the streets, stopped children en route to school and sent them home.

Lasts 12 minutes

The alarm lasted 12 minutes in Manhattan, longer in other boroughs and counties on Long Island, where the sirens first began shrieking.

All patients who could be removed were ordered evacuated from the U.S. Veterans Hospital near San Francisco’s Golden Gate.

Canadian and U.S. military planes scoured the fog-shrouded Pacific coastal waters from Vancouver Island to Alaska for Japanese aircraft carriers and other enemy craft.

RCAF authorities refused to comment on the results.

---

Senator halts vote to allow troops abroad

Johnson says AEF sought; draftee age minimum slash opposed

WASHINGTON (UP) – Immediate congressional approval of legislation authorizing use of selectees and National Guardsmen outside the Western Hemisphere was blocked today by Sen. Hiram W. Johnson, R-California, because he understood “it’s for an AEF.”

The House was prepared to pass the legislation, but deferred action pending Senate approval.

Mr. Johnson objected after there developed a parliamentary tangle requiring unanimous consent to bring up the proposal in advance of action on the chamber’s “unfinished business” – a tristate river compact.

He told reporters later that his maneuver gave him time to study the measure.

The legislation was called up by Chairman Robert R. Reynolds, D-North Carolina, of the Military Affairs Committee, who believes that an AEF of millions of men will be needed to crush Japan and defeat Germany if formal hostilities with that nation begin.

In the House, Chairman Andrew J. May, D-Kentucky, of the Military Affairs Committee announced he would oppose any proposal to lower the minimum draft age from 21 to 18 years. He said the War Department had sent the committee no request for legislation to broaden the present age limits of 21-28 to 18-44, but that such a proposal would be given “fair and impartial hearings” if offered.

“I am ready to do whatever is necessary to help this country win,” he said, “but I don’t want to go below the age of 21.”

Rep. Hamilton Fish, R-New York, who returned recently from active duty with the Army, said he would support the bill eliminating hemisphere restrictions on use of troops because “it is very proper in time of war.”

---

Mexican troops rushed to defend Pacific Coast

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (UP) – All Mexican troops, airplanes and gunboats “that can be spared” were moving west today and it was revealed that Gen. Lazaro Cardenas, former Mexican president, had been named commander of Mexico’s entire armed forces on the Pacific from the American border to Guatemala.

President Manuel Avila Camacho designated Gen. Cardenas to coordinate the nation’s emergency defense plans in cooperation with the United States against a possible invasion threat by Japan.

In a special presidential decree, President Camacho consolidated 12 western military zones and two naval zones to be commanded by Gen. Cardenas from headquarters at Ensenada, Baja California.

Meanwhile, six generals and one admiral of the Spanish Republic, now refugees in Mexico from the regime of Gen. Francisco Franco, offered President Avila Camacho the service of hundreds of other refugees with military and technical training.

The Defense Ministry did not reveal the exact number of troops or planes to be concentrated on the Pacific. The force would admittedly be limited since first-line troops under arms now total less than 60,000 men and the air force can count on less than 100 planes.

Nevertheless, the concentration will be of inestimable value in strengthening vigilance against surprise attacks along the 4,574 miles of Mexican coastline in the Pacific.

---

May be fighting Japs in Philippines

The picture above and the one immediately below, just received from the Philippines, are among the latest showing U.S. defense forces in the islands. A battery gun section is shown above in action during maneuvers. It was made just before the war started. This unit may be in actual combat with the Jap invaders today.

Men of the Coast Artillery are shown loading a 10-inch gun during Army maneuvers in the Philippines.

This telephoto shows a battleship of the Haruna class of Japanese warships, one of which was sunk by a U.S. Army plane off the Philippines.

---

197 U.S. airplanes lost in Philippine fighting, Japs say

Prisoners, ships seized at Guam, submarine and service vessel sunk off Hawaiian Islands, Tokyo radio reports – Lexington sunk, Berlin says
By the United Press

Japan asserted officially today that its forces had destroyed 197 U.S. planes in two-day operations in the Philippines and had sunk an American destroyer, a submarine and a special service ship in operations off the Hawaiian Islands.

A German broadcast quoted Tokyo as claiming the sinking of the 33,000-ton aircraft carrier USS Lexington off Hawaii.

Imperial Headquarters at Tokyo asserted that Japanese troops, landing on America’s outpost islands of Guam, had taken about 350 prisoners, captured much material and seized key points in the harbor without loss.

A 3,000-ton American oil tanker was captured in the harbor, Tokyo asserted, and its captain and crew of 30 made prisoner.

Plane losses listed

It was asserted further that five of a formation of seven American planes had been shot down in air attacks on Wake Island and that numerous “military objectives” had been destroyed.

Tokyo claimed that 45 American planes were shot down and 71 destroyed on the ground in Japanese attacks on Iba and other airfields in the Philippines Tuesday against the loss of five Japanese planes.

Imperial Headquarters claimed that in big-scale attacks on the Manila zone yesterday, 45 American planes were shot down and that 36 grounded planes were destroyed.

Tell of suicide attacks

A later communique asserted that in the Manila attacks, a transport was heavily damaged and that an arsenal was exploded at nearby Cavite Naval Base.

Loss of five Japanese planes was admitted. Two of the planes, it was said, dived headlong into their objectives in suicide attacks.

It was said that two British gunboats were sunk by direct bomb hits in an attack on Hong Kong.

Admit ‘warship’ lost

It was asserted that only three Japanese planes were lost in the attacks by which the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse were sunk, and Japanese naval planes, attacking the Kuantan Air Base in Malaya, destroyed 10 British planes. It was asserted that other Navy bombers destroyed a 7,000-ton British freighter off eastern Malaya.

Radio Vichy reported a Japanese naval admission that “a warship” had been sunk yesterday. Germany reported from Tokyo the admission that a submarine chaser had been lost in Philippine landing operations.

Radio Vichy said Tokyo “confirmed” that attacks on U.S. warships had been made by torpedo-carrying planes, none of which was lost.

Fleet supremacy claimed

Radio Vichy quoted the Japanese that considerable numbers of troops had landed on Luzon Island in the Philippines and that the position of the American troops was “gravely endangered.”

A Tokyo Navy spokesman said Japan was determined and prepared to assume control of the air over the Pacific and the Indian Oceans.

“Contrary to Anglo-American expectations,” the spokesman said, “the qualitative strength of the Japanese fleet increased after the Washington Naval Conference of 1928. The United States and Great Britain forced Japan to have a weaker fleet as compared with theirs, believing thus to prevent the Japanese fleet from maintaining supremacy.

“The unexpected naval victory off Hawaii reversed completely the proportion established by the Washington Conference.

“The Japanese fleet will now let the facts talk, showing the entire world its supremacy.”

Indies surrender seen

Another Japanese broadcast suggested that in view of “tremendous Japanese success,” the Netherlands East Indies would soon surrender “to prevent needless sacrifice.”

Tokyo said that it had concluded a defensive and “offensive” pact with Thailand today (Thursday), “similar to that with French Indochina.”

It was added that the Thai government had proclaimed “a state of war” – possibly martial law – and asked its public to respect order.

The Japanese government information board said that 270 Americans and Britons had been detained in Tokyo “as a precaution for their protection and well-being.” Three to four newspapermen were included.

[NormanStewart]

Casualty list

By the United Press

The War Department today made a new list of three officers and 87 enlisted men killed in the Japanese air raid on Hawaii Sunday.

The list brought to nine officers and 115 enlisted men killed and two wounded, the number thus far announced.

The department said the next of kin had been notified.

Dead:

NAME	AGE	UNIT	HOMETOWN
Pvt. Garland C. Anderson	24	HQ Squadron, 18th Bombardment Wing	Omega, Georgia
Pvt. Manfred C. Anderson	23	HQ Squadron, 18th Bombardment Wing	Houghton, Michigan
Cpl. Robert L. Avery	20	HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group	Lincoln, Nebraska
Pvt. Gordon R. Bennett Jr.	21	HQ Squadron, 18th Bombardment Wing	Clio, Michigan
Pfc. Edward F. Bernick			San Francisco, California
Pvt. Arthur F. Boyle	23	22nd Materiel Squadron	Lowell, Massachusetts
Staff Sgt. Billy O. Brandt	24	22nd Materiel Squadron	Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania
Cpl. Harold W. Borgelt	23	7th Air Corps Squadron, Weather	Scribner, Nebraska
Pvt. Robert S. Brown	26	HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group	Chatham, Massachusetts
Pvt. William J. Brownlee	19	22nd Materiel Squadron	Corpus Christi, Texas
Pvt. Brooks J. Brubaker Jr.	20	22nd Materiel Squadron	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pvt. Donal V. Chapman	27	HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group	Wheeler, Illinois
Pvt. Jack W. Cox			Culver City, California
Pfc. William Coyne Jr.	20	42nd Bombardment Squadron	Kansas City, Kansas
Pvt. Russel C. Defenbaugh	20	19th Transport Squadron	Peoria, Illinois
Cpl. Richard A. Dickerson	22	HQ Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group	El Paso, Texas
Pvt. Joseph R. Drisner	23	HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group	East Chicago, Indiana
Tech. Sgt. Daniel A. Dyer Jr.	30	7th Air Corps Squadron, Weather	Beverly, Kansas
Pvt. Lyle O. Edwards	20	HQ Squadron, 18th Bombardment Wing	Leslie, Michigan
Staff Sgt. Harold C. Elyard	28	18th Air Base Squadron	Parsons, West Virginia
Pvt. Malcolm W. Fairchild		Hickam Field	Chicago, Illinois
Pvt. Jack H. Feldman	19	22nd Materiel Squadron	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Tech. Sgt. Homer E. Ferris	50	18th Air Base Squadron	Patoka, Indiana
Pvt. Stuart H. Fiander	27	18th Air Base Squadron	North Quincy, Massachusetts
Staff Sgt. George K. Gannam	22	17th Air Base Squadron	Savannah, Georgia
Cpl. Robert R. Garrett	26	42nd Bombardment Squadron	Galesburg, Illinois
2nd Lt. William Grover			Needles, California
Staff Sgt. Elwood R. Gummerson	39	26th Bombardment Squadron	Uniontown, Pennsylvania
Pvt. Albert Hays	25	HQ Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group	Wyaconda, Missouri
Pvt. John P. Holloway		24th Bombardment Squadron	Green Bay, Wisconsin
Pvt. Robert Hull Jr.	19	72nd Pursuit Squadron	Wheeling, West Virginia
Pvt. James R. Johnson	26	22nd Materiel Squadron	Springfield, Illinois
Pvt. Marion E. King Jr.	29	22nd Materiel Squadron	Hunter, Kansas
Pfc. Conrad Kujawa	21	Battery A, 98th Field Artillery, Coast Artillery Corps	Hammond, Indiana
Cpl. Theodore J. Lewis	21	63rd Field Artillery Battalion, 24th Infantry Division	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pvt. Richard E. Livingston	24	HQ Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group	Westerville, Ohio
Pvt. Howard N. Lusk	25	23rd Bombardment Squadron	Lynwood, California
Pvt. Lawrence P. Lyons Jr.	20	HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group	Chelsea, Massachusetts
Pfc. Harrell K. Mattox	21	50th Reconnaissance Squadron	Shawnee, Oklahoma
Pvt. Herbert E. McLaughlin	31	HQ Squadron, 17th Air Base Group	Shawano, Wisconsin
Pfc. William W. Merrithew	28	HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group	Onenota, New York
Pfc. Horace A. Messam	22	22nd Materiel Squadron	Barberton, Ohio
Pvt. George A. Moran	25	HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group	Somerville, Massachusetts
Pvt. John F. Morris	23		Greensburg, Pennsylvania
2nd Lt. Louis G. Moslener Jr.	23	88th Reconnaissance Squadron (H)	Monaca, Pennsylvania
Pvt. Victor L. Myers			Hendley, Nebraska
Pfc. Charles W. Narehood		42nd Bombardment Squadron	Pine Glen, Pennsylvania
Sgt. Roth J. Narramore		HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group	Elmdale, Kansas
Cpl. LaVerne J. Needham	29	HQ Squadron, 18th Bombardment Wing	Walla Walla, Washington
Pvt. William H. Offutt	21	50th Reconnaissance Squadron	Connersville, Indiana
Pvt. Hal H. Perry Jr.	20	42nd Bombardment Squadron	Newellton, Louisiana
Pfc. Thomas F. Philipsky	21	22nd Materiel Squadron	Horicon, Wisconsin
Pfc. Charles P. Porterfield		42nd Bombardment Squadron	North Platte, Nebraska
Pvt. George Price	23	72nd Bombardment Squadron	Lake Arthur, New Mexico
Tech. Sgt. Herman C. Reuss	33	HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group	Menominee, Michigan
Cpl. Thomas E. Roberts		HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group	Westminster, California
Pfc. Ruperto B. Rodrigues		HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group	Del Rio, Texas
1st Lt. William R. Schick	31	38th Reconnaissance Squadron	Chicago, Illinois
Pvt. William F. Shields	24	22nd Materiel Squadron	Bisbee, Arizona
Pvt. Harry E. Smith	19	HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group	Harvey, Illinois
Pfc. Ralph S. Smith	20	22nd Materiel Squadron	Essington, Pennsylvania
Pvt. Elmer W. South	23	18th Air Base Squadron	Indianapolis, Indiana
Pfc. J. B. Sparks	22	22nd Materiel Squadron	Fort Worth, Texas
Pvt. Julian C. Stultz			Zionsville, Indiana
Pfc. Jerome J. Szematowicz	21	22nd Materiel Squadron	Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania
Cpl. Antonio S. Tafoya	25	26th Bombardment Squadron	Albuquerque, New Mexico
Pfc. Anderson G. Tennison	22	HQ Squadron, 18th Bombardment Wing	Canadian, Texas
Pvt. Ernest M. Walker Jr.	20	22nd Materiel Squadron	Shelocta, Pennsylvania
Pvt. James I. Wells			Browder, Kentucky
Pfc. Marlon H. Zaczkiewicz	26	HQ Squadrpn, 11th Bombardment Wing	Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Pvt. Joseph S. Zappala	21	23rd Materiel Squadron	Mattapan, Massachusetts

Two more soldiers added to district’s casualty list

Two more Pittsburgh District soldiers were added today to the growing list of known dead in the Japanese air raid on the Hawaiian Islands Sunday.

They were:

• Pvt. John F. “Jack” Morris, son of Mr. and Mrs. Calvin F. Morris, of Greensburg.
• Pvt. Ernest M. Walker Jr., 20, son of Ernest M. Walker, RDL, Shelocta, Indiana County.

Parents of both men have been notified. Both were in the Air Corps, stationed at Hickam Field.

Pvt. Morris was 23 years old, a graduate of Greensburg High School, and enlisted in the Army Air Corps on November 10, 1939. He was a bombardier.

His parents heard from him Friday last week when he wrote that he had passed examinations to become a Flying Cadet. Besides his parents, young Morris leaves four brothers and two sisters, all of Greensburg.

In Wheeling, West Virginia, today, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hull was notified by the War Department that their son, Robert Jr., had been killed in the raid on Hawaii.

Three others from the district were reported among the casualties yesterday. They were 2nd Lt. Louis G. Moslener Jr. of Monaca, Sgt. Elwood R. Gummerson of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and Pvt. Brooks J. Brubaker Jr. of Altoona.

Sgt. Gummerson was serving his fourth enlistment in the Air Corps and was stationed at Hickam Field. He is survived by his mother, a widow, two sisters and a brother.

The death toll for Western Pennsylvania now stands at eight.

---

Atlantic losses down –
Victory over all of Axis predicted by Churchill

Prime minister calls German march on Russia one of outstanding blunders of history
By Edward W. Beattie, United Press staff writer

LONDON (UP) – Prime Minister Winston Churchill, addressing the House of Commons today as Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, said the British Empire, America, Russia and China were fighting for their lives “and will go forward to victory – not only Japan alone but over the Axis and all its works.”

In a sweeping review of the war, he said Adolf Hitler in attacking Russia had made one of the outstanding blunders of history, that the German and Italian forces in Eastern Libya most probably faced complete destruction, and that in the battle of the Atlantic net shipping losses were now much less than one-fifth of those for the four months ending June 30.

Discusses Libya

Starting off one of the major speeches of a war which now extends to all the continents, he said of the Libyan situation:

“On November 18, Gen. Claude Auchinleck set out to destroy the entire armed forces of the Germans and Italians in Cyrenaica [the eastern part of Libya]. Now, on December 11, I am bound to say, that it seems very probable he will do so… the German army in Libya is stubborn and in every way worthy of the tomb prepared for it.

Turning to Russia, he said:

“We can already see after six months of fighting in Russia that Hitler has made one of the outstanding blunders of history and the results so far realized constitute events of cardinal importance in the final decision of the war.”

Of the sinking of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Repulse off Malaya, he said Prince of Wales was sunk by repeated attacks of bombing and torpedo-carrying planes and there was no reason to suppose that any new weapons or explosives had been employed.

Seven of the attacking planes were destroyed, he said.

Commander missing

He announced that Adm. Sir Tom Phillips, commander-in-chief of the Far Eastern Fleet, who was aboard his flagship Prince of Wales, was missing, and added: “I regard Sir Tom Phillips as one of the ablest and bravest men in the naval service.”

There were two high-level attacks by three waves of planes on Prince of Wales and Repulse, he said, and commented: “The loss of life was less heavy than was first feared.”

It had been announced at Singapore that more than 2,000 of the normal complements of 2,700 of the two ships had been saved.

He emphasized that Germany had been brought to a standstill everywhere in Russia.

Tells of retreat

“On large portions of the front they are in retreat,” he said. “Their losses have been enormous.”

He said he could not discuss yet the results of the Far Eastern and Pacific situation to date or measures which must be taken.

“It may well be that we shall have to suffer very considerable punishment but we shall defend ourselves everywhere with utmost vigor and close cooperation with the United States and the Netherlands Navies,” he said.

No one can underrate the gravity of the losses inflicted on the United States or underrate the length of time it will take to marshal the great forces necessary in the Far East for absolute victory, he said.

“The Japanese government or the ruling elements of Japan made a cold-blooded, calculated, violent, treacherous attack on the United States and ourselves.

“It seems to me quite certain that Japan when she struck her treacherous blow at the United States counted upon the active support of the German Nazis and the Italian Fascists.

Loss is grave

“The naval power of Great Britain and the United States is largely superior to the combined forces of the three Axis powers, but no one could underrate the gravity of the loss which had been inflicted in Malaya and Hawaii or the power of the new antagonist who has fallen upon us.

“We must expect that the volume of American supply reaching Britain and the degree of help from the United States Navy will be reduced… I cannot doubt that the 130 million people of the United States have bound themselves to win this war and once they get settled down to it and bend themselves to it as their main purpose in life, that flow of munitions and aid of every kind will vastly exceed anything that could have been expected up to the present.”

Regarding Germany and Italy aiding Japan, he said:

“…I know that I speak for the United States as well as for the British Empire, when I say that we would all rather perish than be conquered.

“Not only the British Empire but the United States are fighting for their lives.”

He said that the attacks on Prince of Wales and Repulse were delivered with skill and determination.

“In my whole experience I do not remember any naval blow so heavy or so painful,” he commented.

He said it was impossible for shore-based British planes to support Prince of Wales and Repulse. Attacks were made by shore-based planes.

New commander

Of the situation in Libya, he disclosed that Sir Alan Cunningham, 54, commander of the Eighth Army, had been succeeded by Maj. Gen. Neil Methuen Ritchie, 44, “a much younger man,” November 26.

He said Cunningham had been granted sick leave.

“Although the battle is not yet finished, I have not the slightest hesitation in saying that for good or ill it is Gen. Auchinleck’s [Gen. Sir Claude Auchinleck, commander-in-chief in the Middle East] battle.”

He admitted that British losses in tanks had been a good deal heavier than expected. But he said the British had maintained air superiority.

“The enemy, stripped largely of its armor, is now retreating to defensive positions west of Tobruk,” he said. “Substantial reinforcements are available to us close at hand.

“In no other way than an attack in Libya could a second front have been brought into action under conditions costlier to the enemy and more favorable to ourselves…”

Infantry weaker

He said Britain had never been able to place in the desert infantry forces numerically equal to those of the enemy.

Britain was superior in numbers of armored vehicles and tanks in Libya, he said, but he suggested that the somewhat heavier tank losses than had been expected were partly due to some German tanks being armed with six-pounder guns.

But numerical superiority had gradually given the British mastery in the first phase of the battle, he said.

“It may well be that in the second phase we shall gather more easily the fruits of the first,” he said.

Of the battle of the Atlantic, he said that the November figures for shipping losses “fully maintained the great recovery of the previous four months.”

He pledged the fulfillment of Great Britain’s engagements to Russia regarding supplies.

Nazi losses immense

“Hitler everywhere has been brought to a standstill – on a large portion of the front he is in retreat and the sufferings of his troops are indescribable,” he continued.

“Their losses have been immense.”

He said that winter, guerillas, the Russian army and air force and the stubborn unyielding resistance of the Russian people “have inflicted on the German armies and the German nation bloody losses almost unequaled in the history of war.”

In his review of the battle in which Prince of Wales and Repulse were lost, he said that Sir Tom Phillips proceeded in the action on the basis that the clouds, which were very low, would afford effective protection for an offensive stroke which was being made.

“At a certain period, a lift of the clouds enabled the movements of ships to be discerned,” he said.

He said Phillips acted on sound naval lines.

---

White House Statement on Wartime Labor Policy Conference
December 11, 1941

The President today issued invitations for a conference to be held between industry and labor to consider the problem of labor disputes during the war.

The President invited the Presidents of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations each to designate six representatives from different unions affiliated with their organizations. He also invited the Chairman of the Business Advisory Council of the Department of Commerce to choose, after appropriate consultation, twelve representatives of industrial management. He will later appoint someone to serve as Moderator and Associate Moderator.

The conference will be held at Washington and will commence during the early part of the week of December 15.

The first and essential objective of the conference will be to reach a unanimous agreement to prevent the interruption of production by labor disputes during the period of the war. It is not expected that there will be any hesitation on the part of either labor or industry to accept this basic condition of the nation’s safety.

The conferees doubtless will find it necessary to agree upon machinery by which these disputes may amicably and finally be settled. It is thought this machinery might include appropriate procedures for adjusting disputes, for mediation, and for resort in defense industries to some tribunal whose decisions will be binding by agreement on all parties. But it is for the conferees to decide what form the machinery shall take so long only as an agreement is reached. Since the efficacy of that agreement will depend upon the voluntary cooperation of all concerned, emphasis is placed on the fact that it must represent a unanimous accord.

The agreement, it is pointed out, might include or be followed by an agreement defining appropriate practices for both labor and management to secure maximum production for war needs. In view of the gravity of the emergency now confronting this country, the President urges that the conferees reach a conclusion, at least upon the primary agreement preventing interruptions to production, and report to him within a very few days after convening.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (December 11, 1941)

Food supplies of nation high; prices to rise

Rationing unlikely next year with record 1941 crop gathered

WASHINGTON (UP) – There will probably be no rationing of food supplies in the United States at least for another year and then only in the event 1942 crops are short.

Food will cost more – prices are already higher. Officials said “proper measures” are being prepared to prevent profiteering and control speculative trading.

President Roosevelt told the nation Tuesday that there is plenty of food for everyone and enough left over for our allies. The 1941 crop as a whole was the largest on record. Secretary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard said reserve food supplies are the largest in history and that shipments to Great Britain would be increased and total about $1 billion next year.

Staple foods stored

Farm officials urged consumers to forego hoarding. They expect some shortages of luxuries such as prices, teas and oils customarily imported from the Far East, but promised substitutes for most of them.

Large quantities of staple foods have been stored under the ever-normal granary program and they will not have to be drawn upon during 1942, officials believe.

Here is the situation with respect to principal food items:

WHEAT: The 1941 crop of 961,194,000 bushels was more than 200 million bushels above the 1930-39 average and was one of the largest on record. Including reserves of 350 million bushels, the total supply of 1,311,000,000 bushels is sufficient for two years of domestic consumption.

CORN: The 1941 corn crop of 2,675,000,000 bushels gave the nation a record total supply of approximately 3,200,000,000 bushels.

DAIRY PRODUCTS: Milk production on December 1 averaged eight percent above a year ago and was the highest on record. The production of eggs was at the highest rate on record. Cheese stocks are exceptionally high despite heavy shipments to Britain.

VEGETABLES: Those grown for canning and processing set new high records this year for corn, peas and tomatoes. The total for all principal kinds is more than 20 percent above previous records.

FRUIT: Production at a near record.

MEAT: Supplies are exceptionally large.

SUGAR: Officials are taking every precaution to prevent a shortage such as set prices to 35 cents a pound during the First World War. Supplies on hand are near a record high.

---

Hawaii attack kills admiral

Isaac Kidd commanded battleship division

Adm. Kidd

WASHINGTON (UP) – The Navy announced last night that Rear Adm. Isaac Campbell Kidd was killed during the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Sunday.

The Navy said he was in command of a battleship division of the Pacific Fleet. It did not disclose the name of his flagship which he was presumably aboard.

Adm. Kidd was born in Cleveland March 26, 1884. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1906. On February 3, 1940, he was assigned as chief of staff and aide to the commander of battleships of the battle force. He held the Cuban Pacification Medal, the Mexican Service Medal and the Victory Medal of the Atlantic Fleet class.

His home was in Washington, D.C.

---

Pershing volunteers; Roosevelt accepts

WASHINGTON (UP) – Despite his 81 years, Gen. John J. Pershing today offered to serve his country again in a letter to President Roosevelt, and the president replied that “your services will be of great value.”

The commander of the 1917 AEF wrote:

“All Americans today are united in one ambition – to take whatever share they can in the defense of their country.

“As one among millions, I hasten to offer my services, in any way in which my experience and my strength, to the last ounce, will be of help in the fight.

“Will supreme confidence that, under your calm and determined leadership, we will retain our balance, despite foul blows, I am faithfully yours.”

The president replied:

“You are magnificent. You always have been – and always will be. I am deeply grateful to you for your letter of December 10.

“Under a wise law, you have never been placed on the retired list. You are very much on the active list and your services will be of great value.”

---

Audience reaction brings cancellation of ‘Mikado’

WASHINGTON (UP) – The National Theater has cancelled three scheduled performances of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado,” an operetta about the court of a Japanese emperor.

The theater management said that in Baltimore, where the operetta was staged Monday, the audience received the production coolly, particularly the opening line, “We are gentlemen of Japan.”

Capital’s cherry trees become war casualties

WASHINGTON (UP) – The capital’s famed Japanese cherry trees, mecca of tourists from all over the world, were today a casualty of the war in the Far East.

Four were chopped down last night. The vandals attached to one stump a note saying, “To hell with those Japanese.”

---

Economists draw outline for long, hard-fought war

Although average American will have to tighten his belt as never before, experts say he will be vastly better off than Axis civilians
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer

WASHINGTON (SHS) – Here’s a blueprint for the battle on the home front, as it is seen by economists and experts who are drawing the broad outlines for a long, hard war:

The average American will have to tighten his belt as never before.

His taxes will be the highest ever, and the government will appeal for more and more of his income to buy bonds for bombers and bullets.

He will work longer hours, but advancing living costs – despite control attempts – may more than offset his paycheck bulge.

He will have plenty of food and clothing – at much higher prices. Living costs are already up 12 percent, with some wholesale advances not yet translated into retail increases.

He and his family will get along without most of the frills and some of the modern “necessities.”

Excess food stored

If he lives within bombing distance of a coast, he will probably give part of his spare time to civilian protection programs.

As Washington is planning it, this is to be everyone’s war.

With all the belt-tightening, your average American will be vastly better off than people in the Axis countries. We go to war with enough cotton in warehouses for a normal year’s consumption; excess wheat for nearly a year, and 600 million bushels of corn. But there must be expansion, and the American farmers are already signing up for it.

The government is planning an increasing of eight billion pounds in milk production, 300 million dozens in egg production, eight million more slaughter hogs, three million more slaughtered cattle, 70 million more chickens. Wheat production – much of the wheat export market has been lost with the war, of course – is to be cut seven and a half million bushels.

In fruit production, which cannot be expanded in a single year’s planting, the emphasis will be on better distribution so that millions of tons of edibles do not rot in fields and orchards. The housewife will be asked to eliminate kitchen waste.

But on civilian supplies that come from the factories, the problem to be met by the average American will be almost the reverse. Piling a war program of $150 billion or more on the industrial structure, the economists agree, means drastic curtailment of civilian production.

Hardly any metal household articles will escape curtailment. And substituting plastics may be difficult for two reasons – plastics will be used increasingly in war goods, and they require chemicals which will be needed for munitions.

Items will be scarce

Scores of small items will be scarce or unobtainable. Interruption of imports from the Pacific may mean less soap, for lack of copra and coconut oil; less cold cream, for lack of cocoa butter; less of many products using glycerin; less camphor and other medicines; less spice from the East Indies; less tea from China.

Already cuts of 50 percent in auto production mean the average citizen will make his car last another year, or maybe three or four; and despite large rubber stockpiles, new tires may be hard to get. The auto owner is likely to have his tires retreaded.

One official said: “It isn’t possible to list everything the average citizen to going to find scarce or is going to have to get along without. But I believe we must be extremely pessimistic about it. We’ve been coasting in both raw materials and manufactured goods.”

Government planners are looking to Latin American possibilities for offsetting shortages in both raw materials and manufactured goods.

Fiscal leaders to meet

Congress turned back a recent bid by Secretary Morgenthau for sharply increased taxes. But that was before Pearl Harbor. Mr. Morgenthau and congressional fiscal leaders take the first step on a conference tomorrow toward deciding what taxes must be levied for next year.

The average citizen, especially in urban areas, will probably go to the volunteer office of the local civilian defense unit to offer his services. He may be an air-raid warden, a firewatcher to guard against incendiary bombs, a member of a rescue, bomb or demolition squad, a guard at a public utility plant, an auxiliary policeman or fireman.

He may become responsible for perhaps 500 persons in the area in which he lives – the man who instructs in proper conduct during air raids, and who knows where the water-heater pilot lights must be turned off during a bombing. He may have the less dramatic task of improving community health, nutrition or recreation.

The average American, say the men planning war on the home front, must get ready for America’s own blood and sweat and tears. No one here doubts that he will.

---

Stokes: Here’s how Roosevelt flashed Jap attack on Hawaii

By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer

WASHINGTON – Steve Early was lolling at home, reading the Sunday papers. The telephone rang.

“Steven,” said President Roosevelt, “I have a bulletin here I want to give you to give the newspapers. Got a pencil?”

Steve got one, and slowly took down the message as the calm voice came over the wire:

“The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor from the air and all naval and military activities on the island of Oahu, principal American base in the Hawaiian Islands.”

It was enough to raise the hair even of an ex-newspaperman who covered the last war here and who for more than eight years has sat in the midst of big events at the president’s right hand; but no time to get excited.

Typical Roosevelt touch

Then the calm voice again, after the message had been checked back carefully.

“Have you got any news, Steve?”

The typical Roosevelt touch. Steve smiled.

This little incident tells the whole story of the orderly atmosphere which had prevailed at the White House since the war broke out.

Four days later, everybody at the White House, from the president down, is about caught up on the sleep lost those first two nights. You’d never know a war was on, except for the appearance of many new faces in a greatly increased Secret Service staff about the White House and executive offices, a few more reporters in the Press Room, a new, white sentry box for the enlarged police detail at the only gate which is open now, and the brisk military guards at the entrances of the two streets which flank the White House grounds.

Message in error

Most of the excitement at the White House those first hectic hours was brought in from outside – by the horde of newspapermen who rushed to the center of things. By radio newscasters who, that first night, set up their equipment on spare desks.

For that first flash from Steve Early’s home telephone set them in motion on the double-quick. Before Steve could get dressed and out of the house, the president had called back with another message, about the attack on Manila – which was in error, but only in being premature.

Soon Steve was behind the desk in his office, and there he sat until 1 a.m., only to go home and answer the telephone there all night long, and also the next night. Calls came not only from reporters and officials, but from people far away offering their services.

Reporters come and go

The president, likewise, was on the phone far into that first night, getting reports on developments, after his earlier conferences with State, War and Navy officials, his Cabinet and congressional conferences. He was up early the next morning, and ready for a long day that included his speech to Congress.

The president has been dividing his time between his office in the executive offices and his study in the White House proper, a cozy and homelike room where some of the conferences of the last few days have taken place.

Crises are nothing new for the White House personnel, not even war crises.

Steve Early was a reporter during World War I, covering the State, War and Navy Departments – whose top personnel was in the present State Department building across from the White House. There started his friendship with Franklin D. Roosevelt, assistant secretary of the Navy.

“He’s moved 100 yards in 28 years,” Steve remarked today.

Secretary sees 3 wars

William D. Hassett, Steve’s assistant today, was covering Congress as a newspaperman during the last war. Marvin McIntyre, another of the president’s secretaries, was also a newspaperman here during World War I.

Maj. Gen. Edwin M. Watson, another secretary, was overseas during the last war with the 12th Field Artillery in the second division, and fought in all of that famous outfit’s engagements.

Rudolph Forster, executive clerk at the White House since March 1897, has seen three wars from the mansion. He goes about his business these days with perfect equanimity.

---

Martial law is proclaimed in Honolulu

Military rule for Hawaii is running smoothly, Army reports
By Frank Tremaine, United Press staff writer

The following is the first dispatch received by the United Press from Honolulu since late Sunday.

HONOLULU, Hawaii (Dec. 10, 12:10 p.m.) – Martial law has been proclaimed for the Territory of Hawaii with the full approval of President Roosevelt.

It is reported to be functioning smoothly and the method of operation and results to date have been reported directly to the president.

An Army announcement today said the military government of Hawaii is functioning well according to plan. The population of the territory (which includes many thousands of Japanese) is generally cooperating with the military authorities and is well behaved.

No attacks against the islands have been reported since Sunday.

A blackout was enforced throughout the islands last night and was intended to safeguard civilians as well as military installations, according to an official statement.

Results of the blackout were described as “impressive.”

There have been few cases of non-cooperation (on the part of the civilian population) and these have been “severely dealt with,” military authorities said.

A provost court, presided over by Judge James L. Coke, has been established and has disposed of 15 cases. Fifteen more cases are under investigation. Two persons who failed to obey the blackout regulations were fined $10 each. Two other cases, described as more flagrant, were also disposed of and the persons convicted were fined $100 each and sentenced to 100 days at hard labor as enemies of the territory. The sentences to hard labor were suspended but the fines stood.

---

Roosevelt approves Honolulu evacuation

WASHINGTON (UP) – President Roosevelt has approved a plan for the emergency evacuation of 60,000 civilians from Honolulu City, Delegate Samuel W. King, Hawaii’s representative in Congress, disclosed today.

Mr. King emphasized the plan does not contemplate immediate evacuation, but will provide facilities for an exodus if sea or air attack again threaten the island fortress. Although civilian casualties from Sunday’s air blitzkrieg were comparatively small, Mr. King said tremendous carnage was possible if the Japanese should launch an all-out attack against civilian centers.

Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, as assistant director of Civilian Defense, sent a message today to the people of Hawaii, praising their courage.

---

---

War zone air chief in States

Manager of Manila stations here on vacation
By Si Steinhauser

George J. Vogel, for seven years manager of radio stations KZRM and KZRF in Manila arrived in the United States for a vacation shortly before the Japanese bombed the Philippines. Naturally, he is a greatly perturbed visitor.

His stations broadcast in Chinese, Spanish and English beside five dialects used by the natives. Time signals are broadcast every hour in native jingles, including such phrases as “time to go to school,” “time to eat” or “time to go to bed.”

On Thursday nights, reports Mr. Vogel, the natives make almost a national holiday of an amateur hour awarding musical educational scholarships to winners.

Even the beleaguered islands have their “soap operas.” The outstanding daytime serial is about a native family whose members believe themselves to be movie stars. This, explains Mr. Vogel, is in keeping with the fact that American movie magazines are largest sellers on the islands.

Ironically enough, one of the most popular programs of recent weeks has been a national defense hour staring native actors. Mr. Vogel claims an audience of 500,000 for his stations and adds that there are some 300 movie houses on the island group.

Heavy guards now watch visitors to New York studios. Special passes are provided even for stars of the highest rank Nobody save engineers are permitted on Radio City’s fifth floor control room, where bulletproof glass is now replacing the heavy plate glass is now replacing the heavy plate glass windows through which several million tourists have inspected the nerve center of radio. Studio tours detour from the control room floor.

Transmitters are impossible to approach except by those who really have business there.

Electric eyes are located at many points in radio stations and transmitters just in case someone tries to enter with something he shouldn’t have around. The photoelectric cells will set off alarms, detecting metals at a distance of 1,000 feet.

The Columbia Network has banned studio audiences from its main building on Madison Avenue in New York.

As you listen to broadcasts from the other side of the world pause to recall that 40 years ago tomorrow, December 12, Marconi transmitted the letter “S” from England to Nova Scotia. That was the first wireless message.

Dorothy Maynor, Negro soprano of world fame, will sing with the Philadelphia Orchestra over WCAE at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon.

Jack Oakie will add to the bedlam provided by Joan Davis on tonight’s Rudy Vallee Hour.

Bing Crosby’s guests will include the blond bombshell, Veronica Lake; Paul Robeson, great Negro baritone, and Robert Coote, former screen actor now a member of the RAF.

Edward G. Robinson, star of radio’s “Big Town,” has named his California ranch “Little Town.”

“Service With a Smile,” the network show in which boys in training try their luck at answering quizzers, will be broadcast from Indiantown Gap one week from tonight. It’s at Camp Devens, Massachusetts, tonight. On Christmas night, the first 13 weeks conclude at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station. The Pittsburgh sponsor has already extended the contract for a second 13-week period.

Roger Pryor will give his own life orders Sunday night when he directs Ann Sothern and William Powell in the Screen Guild play, “My Life with Caroline.”

Maestro Al Kavelin’s heart is really skipping beats for sheer happiness. His little daughter Edythe has completely recovered from infantile paralysis. The Kavelin twins, isolated from their sister, escaped the scourge.

Shannon Day, who pens many “Shadow” stories, will go on the air as lead in her own (that’s right, the author is a girl) stories, a once-a-week mystery series.

Walter Kinsella joined the Mr. Meek cast yesterday, as a conductor.

Starring in Edna Ferber’s “So Big,” starting on the air January 12, will be nothing new to Joan Blaine. She played the same role in a Connecticut little theater group.

America’s Town Meeting of the Air will go on the air at 9 p.m. instead of 9:15, starting January 1.

Kay Kyser has been chosen grand marshal of the Rose Bowl floral parade.

Pert Kelton, comedienne of the Frank Fay broadcasts, got her start on the stage in musical comedy.

Ellery Queen returns to radio January 10 via KDKA.

Radio’s “School of the Air” will take a Christmas vacation just like other schools. It leaves the air after the December 19 broadcast, returning after the holidays.

They’re saying it with musical flowers. “Orange Blossom Lane” and “Magic of Magnolias” were the most played tunes on the networks last week.

[NormanStewart]

War declaration on Berlin, Rome is voted quickly

Members of both houses unanimous on resolutions against Axis; race for seizure of neutral Atlantic islands anticipated
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

WASHINGTON – The United States today went to war against Germany and Italy, making it an all-out battle against the Axis, including Japan.

President Roosevelt sent to Congress his second war message within 70 hours and the legislators snapped through resolutions recognizing existence of hostilities with Germany and Italy.

Notification of German and Italian declarations of war against the United States reached the State Department, respectively, at 9:25 and 9:50 a.m. today.

Acts quickly

Congress received Mr. Roosevelt’s message at 12:34 p.m. and adopted appropriate war resolutions by 1:04 p.m.

“The long known and the long expected has thus taken place,” the president told Congress in a message read separately by clerks in each House.

“The forces endeavoring to enslave the entire world are now moving toward this hemisphere.”

Vote is unanimous

We went to war unanimously this time. There were no dissenting votes to either war resolution, although Rep. Jeannette Rankin, R-Montana, voted “present” instead of “yea” or “nay.” She voted against the Japanese war resolution Monday.

The Senate jig-timed the German resolution through 88-0 and voted 90-0 for war with Italy. The House vote on Germany was 393-0, with Miss Rankin voting “present.” On Italy, the House voted 399-0, with Miss Rankin again “present.”

May race for islands

The first move in the Atlantic may be a race for seizure of neutral islands which Germany or Italy could use as bases for aerial attack against the richest and most populous seaboard in the world – the Atlantic Coast of the United States.

The formalities to be completed after action by Congress include only signature of the resolution by Speaker Sam Rayburn and Vice President Henry A. Wallace before submitting them to the White House for Mr. Roosevelt to sign.

But the war wheels were moving with the first word from abroad that Germany and Italy had come in to help Japan.

Cools heels

At the State Department, German Charge d’Affaires Hans Thomsen had to cool his heels for over an hour in order to deliver his nation’s war declaration.

Before going to the department, Thomsen had called Secretary of State Cordell Hull by telephone to advise him of the German announcement in Berlin.

Mr. Hull, however, did not hurry to the department. When Thomsen arrived there about 8:30 a.m., he had to wait one hour and 10 minutes before he was received – not by Mr. Hull but by Ray Atherton, acting chief of the European Division, who was handed the declaration.

Prince Colonna, the Italian ambassador, arrived at the State Department at about 10:30. His mission apparently was to confirm the declaration delivered by Count Ciano to our charge d’affaires at Rome.

The German note, signed by Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, placed the blame for outbreak of the war on President Roosevelt.

Copy given to envoy

The note, an identic copy of which was handed to American Charge d’Affaires Leland Morris in Berlin this morning, charged the United States with “having violated in the most flagrant manner and in ever-increasing measure all rules of neutrality in favor of the adversaries of Germany” and of being guilty of the “most severe provocations” ever since the outbreak of war in 1939. It asserted the United States has “finally resorted to open military acts of aggression.”

Officials took the bad news with the good and waited patiently for more – probably of both.

Early today they were cheered by announcement of the sinking of a 29,000-ton Japanese battleship. It followed by only a few hours the War Department’s second communique revealing that a strong Japanese attack against the west coast of Luzon in the Philippine Islands had been repulsed “with apparent heavy enemy losses.”

The bad news, which President Roosevelt told the nation Tuesday night it must be prepared to receive, still came from Hawaii – the scene of the first Japanese attack upon American territory.

The only additional information of that “serious naval setback” was the Navy’s announcement that Rear Adm. Isaac Campbell Kidd was killed in action at Pearl Harbor Sunday. He was in command of a battleship division of the Pacific Fleet but the Navy did not reveal the name of the vessel which was his flagship.

There were these other developments in the capital:

• Gen. John J. Pershing*, commander-in-chief of the AEF during the First World War, offered his services to President Roosevelt – “to the last ounce.” The president accepted in a letter saying: “You are magnificent. You always have been – you always will be.”

• *Chinese Ambassador Dr. Hu Shih notified the United States officially of China’s declaration of war against Germany, Italy and Japan.

• President Roosevelt messaged China’s Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek that he is “wholly confident” of ultimate and complete defeat of Japan, but he repeated his earlier warning that it will be a long, hard war.

• The State Department announced that the foreign ministers of the 21 American republics would meet at Rio de Janeiro the first week in January to mold a solid hemispheric front against the aggressors.

• The Army revealed that signal fires in the form of arrows and pointed toward Seattle were found by Washington State Police last night near Port Angeles, Washington, and were extinguished.

• The commanding general of the Ninth Corps Area said an extensive search for fifth columnists is underway.

---

Senator keeps Hawaii inquiry demands alive

Ouster of any ‘negligent’ officers asked; Allies retain supremacy

WASHINGTON (UP) – Sen. Styles Bridges, R-New Hampshire, today called for removal from command of naval officers who may have been “negligent” in the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The new criticism came after Congress clamped the lid on its inquiry into the cause of Sunday’s setback at Hawaii.

The House Naval Affairs Committee, after hearing Rear Adm. Ross T. McIntire testify that “the Navy is physically OK,” closed up shop indefinitely on its inquiry, and Chairman David I. Walsh of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee said his committee would seek no further information.

Meanwhile, naval experts ridiculed Japanese claims of naval supremacy as a result of the U.S. losses and the sinking of two British capital ships.

Asks thorough inquiry

Mr. Bridges, who has supported President Roosevelt’s entire defense program, said he spoke as a member of the Senate Military Affairs Committee and as a ranking member of the War and Naval Appropriations Subcommittee. He asked for a thorough investigation.

News of the British losses had the possible effect of forcing revision of the grand naval strategy mapped by the Allies.

Naval experts here said the U.S. Navy had geared its operations to a worldwide strategy plan in anticipation of an outbreak of formal hostilities with Germany. It was understood the plan envisaged linking of American, British, Dutch and other Allied naval forces into a vast combination of seapower.

Allies still superior

Sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse appeared to confirm belief that the Japanese strategy is to try and knock out as much of the Allied Pacific fleet as swiftly as possible and force the rest to disperse over a wide area.

Before the Japanese attack the British and American navies combined had 33 battleships and 13 aircraft carriers as against the combined Axis seapower of 16 modern battleships, two 26,000-ton lighter battleships and two 25,000-ton pre-World War battleships.

On the basis of confirmed Anglo-American losses, the combined Allied battleship strength has been reduced to 30, since the United States acknowledged the loss of an “old battleship” at Pearl Harbor.

Naval experts said that in spite of the losses the coordinated operations of the Allied naval forces over the seven seas and now concentrating in the Pacific, reduces Japanese claims to naval supremacy to absurdity.

---

2,303 nationals of Axis seized in Hawaii, U.S.

Government takes steps to break potential ‘fifth column’

WASHINGTON (UP) – Federal agents today pressed their drive against “fifth column” threats in American territory as the Justice Department revealed that 2,303 Axis nationals had already been seized in a roundup of potential spies and saboteurs.

Attorney General Francis Biddle said the suspects were taken during a three-hour raid by military intelligence agents in Hawaii, and in a two-hour sortie by FBI men in the continental United States.

They included 1,291 Japanese, 865 Germans and 147 Italians, most of whom will be confined in Army concentration camps.

Three steps taken

The government simultaneously took these three more counter-Axis steps:

• The Justice Department suspended for the duration citizenship applications filed by German and Italian nationals (Japanese nationals are not eligible for American citizenship).

• A new division was set up in the department to deal with patents and other property of Axis nationals. It will be headed by Leo T. Crowley, present director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The agency will be comparable to World War I’s alien property custodian office.

• Congressional leaders conferred on a plan to require every American to be fingerprinted and to carry an official card of identification. Rep. Sam Hobbs, D-Alabama, said this would “go a long way toward discouraging saboteurs.”

‘Free movements’

The State Department made clear that the United States looks with disfavor on any activity designed to divide the allegiance of American residents. Its statement of policy was made in connection with the so-called “free movements” in which political leaders from other nations engaged in organization activities in this country.

Mr. Biddle said some of the aliens would be granted their freedom while others would be given permanent paroles, a system used successfully by the British.

The aliens seized, he said, represent only a small number of the 1,100,000 in the United States, and those still at liberty would be treated fairly so long as they comply with government orders.

The roundup brought a demand from Rep. Leland M. Ford, R-California, for the arrest of Harry Bridges, Australian-born West Coast labor leader.

Princess Stephanie seized by FBI

PHILADELPHIA (UP) – Princess Stephanie Hohenlohe-Waldenbourg-Schillingfurst, friend of Adolf Hitler, has been seized by the FBI and locked in the detention home of the Gloucester, New Jersey, immigration station, The Philadelphia Inquirer said today.

Stephanie, who was believed to have been in Mexico, reportedly slipped across the border recently and secluded herself “somewhere in the East” to write a book.

Friend of many high-placed Nazis, she was revealed in the hearing of a suit in England to have been one of the chief promoters of the Munich pact.

File reveals names of Japs in U.S.

NEW YORK (UP) – Files of the Japanese Associations of New York, containing the names of 15,000 Japanese nationals in United States territory, were seized today by New York police.

In the files of the association were found communications from the Japanese intelligence, marked with the admonition “burn immediately,” police said.

The list was believed to include the most ardent Japanese nationals in the United States and its possessions.

---

U.S. ship docks safely after 3 days on Pacific

San Francisco, California (UP) – The SS Lurline, caught between Honolulu and San Francisco when the Japanese attack began, arrived here yesterday with 500 passengers after a three-day zigzag run to safety.

The Lurline was 1,000 miles from Honolulu when ship’s officers learned of the outbreak of war. Most of the passengers refused to believe the news until the ship was blacked out, portholes were painted blue and all passenger radios were confiscated.

---

Pledge against separate peace –
Simms: Five-power pact expected among anti-Axis nations

Alliance would unite countries engaged in hostilities against Nazis, Italians and Japs
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor

WASHINGTON – A formal five-power alliance pledging the members not to sign a separate peace with the Axis powers and setting up a supreme war council with an Allied general staff is expected.

Included would be the United States, Great Britain and the Dominions, Soviet Russia, China and the Netherlands – that is to say all the nations now engaged in actual hostilities against Germany, Italy and Japan.

The purpose of the step would be unity of counsel and unity of action. Without it, team play would be a hit-or-miss and eventual victory problematical.

It is believed that the formula will follow somewhat along the lines laid down in the First World War. Throughout the first three years of that conflict, the Allies felt the need of some central planning authority in general and a unified command in particular. National jealousies, however, stood in the way. If there was to be unified command, who would be the generalissimo? Would he be French or would be he British? So the idea of an inter-allied supreme war council remained on ice for a long time.

Agree on council

The events of 1917, however, forced the die-hards to change their minds. The Allied offensive had failed materially to alter the military status quo on the vital Western Front. The Italian campaign had wound up with the debacle of Caporetto. Rumania had been knocked out 12 months earlier, and Russia, after two revolutions, was suing for a separate peace.

Thus it was that on November 9, 1917, the prime ministers and chiefs of staff of Great Britain, France and Italy conferred at Rapallo and agreed to create a supreme war council. It was composed of the prime minister and one other member of the government of each of the great powers whose armies were then fighting on the Western Front. Said its first communique:

“The Supreme War Council… is to supervise the general conduct of the war, prepare recommendations for the consideration of the governments, keep itself informed of their execution and report thereon to the several governments.”

U.S. not represented

The council’s first act was to appoint an inter-Allied general staff. The members were Generals Foch of France, Wilson of Britain and Cadorna of Italy. Though President Wilson had long insisted on some such inter-Allied cooperation, the United States was not represented at Rapallo. We had declared war against Germany but were still without an army on the battlefield.

In December, the council created an inter-Allied naval board. By this time, the United Sates and other allied and associated powers had representatives present. All, that is, except Russia, then negotiating with the Kaiser for an armistice.

Even at this late day, however, the Allies could not agree on absolute unity. They had got as far as unity of counsel and unity of action but not unity of command. It took the German breakthrough in March 1918 to scare them out of their stubborn pride. Foch was not named generalissimo until the invaders were again at the gates of Paris and defeat stared the Allies in the face.

Integration intimated

Today there is reason to believe that President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill will not allow the present every-man-for-himself situation to continue indefinitely. There are the battle of Britain, the battle of the Atlantic, the battle of the Pacific, the battle of the Far East, the battle of Russia and the battle of North Africa, with innumerable problems in between.

The president has intimated that he regards it as imperative that the efforts of Britain, Russia, China, the Netherlands and the United States be integrated. War materials have to be allocated. Mutual assistance is to be thought of. And as soon as the enemies of the Axis can manage it, they will pass to the offensive. When that time comes, each blow, if it is to be really effective, will have to be timed carefully to make it fit into the picture as a whole.

---

Clapper: Build planes!

By Raymond Clapper

WASHINGTON – Don’t think for a minute that we can’t do the job.

How have the Japanese won their victories?

They have won them with airplanes.

What nation can outfield any other nation in planes?

The United States.

Then let’s go. Build planes. Build planes. Build planes. They can avenge Pearl Harbor and the Prince of Wales and the Repulse.

We are building more Navy and all that. Everything will be needed, more ships for hauling, more Navy for convoying, more guns, tanks and trained men to handle them. But none of it will be of much use without control of the air. We can get that. Once we do, then the power of everything else we have will be multiplied automatically. Without it the rest of the stuff will be as useless as were those ships in Pearl Harbor when there wasn’t enough in the air to protect them.

U.S. must continue shipbuilding

We don’t need to revive that feud between the battleship and the plane. Each has its uses. We lost some of our heavy ships because they were poorly protected against the air. We would be fools to quit building battleships until we have more than anybody else in either ocean. Perhaps we should have used them differently. I don’t know. Some expert opinion undoubtedly would have preferred to keep the fleet along the coast rather than at the Hawaiian outpost, exposed on all sides. Nobody thinks they should have ganged up for a weekend in Pearl Harbor.

But it is too late to bother about that now. Capital ships lost cannot be replaced for a long time. The question is how to deal with the new situation. It can be dealt with, and the announcement by William S. Knudsen of OPM shows that we are proceeding to do so. Our present heavy-bomber program calling for 500 a month will be doubled, with the intention to produce 1,000 four-motored bombers a month by the end of next year. That, plus the necessary proportion of fighter planes, is what we must depend upon. The plane is the quickest weapon to produce in quantity. Individual losses are the easiest to replace. Enormous damage can be inflicted and the way opened for the sustaining follow-up attacks, whether by land or sea.

Singapore vital to Allied position

As the problem is seen here, Singapore must be held at all costs. Everything we can spare needs to be thrown in. Planes and submarines are the most effective contributions we could make now. If they are made in sufficient quantity, we will have good news out of Singapore. That will be good news indeed. Because then the Pacific can be held and our sources of materials maintained. I am saying nothing here that your own common sense doesn’t tell as you as you look at the map. None of this can be news to the Japanese.

We may have to lengthen our shipping routes by going around under Australia. That would add several thousand miles to the haul. Convoying probably will be necessary in the Pacific, which means slower traveling. Japanese raiders will get some ships. But when you see how the Germans have been unable to cut off shipping to England with their enormous numbers of submarines operating over comparatively small areas and congested routes, it is impossible to believe that the Japanese can cut off the Pacific, in spite of the position they have achieved this week.

So if Singapore can be held, the Pacific is not a hopeless loss at all and we can continue to obtain supplies necessary for war production. When we begin to have planes swarming into the air from Singapore, we can push back the Japanese advance and turn the tide.

P.S. Planes cost money. Buy defense bonds and stamps.

---

Editorial: So what!

So we’ve lost the first round? So what!

American and British capital ships have been lost at Pearl Harbor and off Malaya? We apparently still have more than the enemy. And today we hear of a Japanese battleship sunk by our planes.

Bombers have proved their superiority over battleships? We presumably have more planes than Japan. More oil and gas to fly them. More factories, more machine tools, more skilled workmen to produce them.

Hawaii, our western Gibraltar, has been knocked out? So goes another rumor. It is strong enough that the Japanese have not dared approach it since their surprise blitz in the Sunday dawn before the declaration of war.

Our fleet is at the bottom of Pearl Harbor? Another panicky exaggeration. Most of the fleet is said to have steamed out to its battle stations, where it is relentlessly stalking the enemy.

Where is the fleet now and what is it doing? Tokyo would like to know.

The Army and Navy were caught napping? The Panama Caal, our vulnerable lifeline in the midst of Japanese spies and wreckers, was so closely guarded enemy agents could not get started. In the Philippines our Army and Navy were not surprised – the Asiatic fleet was not resting in port but sweeping the sea, the Army coped with the largest and hardest alien-fifth-column movement in the world, and both Army and Navy air forces are battling superior attacks on widely scattered fronts.

Why doesn’t the president get rid of the high admirals, who are sleeping in the pre-plane age; and the bespurred generals, who think they won the air battle when they butchered Billy Mitchell, and whose idea of a tank is something to swim in? The president knows more about the Army and Navy, their strong men and their incompetents, than we civilians do. And he has learned more since Sunday. He will handle the problem.

But why doesn’t he act quickly? He has been reorganizing quietly for several months. The Army commander of the Caribbean-Panama area is a flier. The commander of the Atlantic Fleet is a flier. The favored Army services now are the modern ones – aviation, anti-aircraft, tank, paratroops and flying infantry. There has been much Army and Navy reorganization, and there will be a great deal more – steady and constructive; instead of the indiscriminate head-lopping, goat-sacrificing holiday desired by the hysterical.

Yes, we have lost the first round. And we shall lose many more rounds unless we have learned our lesson. But, if we have learned, we still have the superior strength, actual and potential, to start winning.

---

Ferguson: Hollywood’s challenge

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

In what has been called the best book ever written about Hollywood, Leo C. Rosten, after careful analysis, sums up his findings in these words:

“It seems self-evident that Hollywood represents a challenge to the sovereignty of Church, School and Family.”

Mr. Rosten proves with facts and figures what his column has long held to be true – that the movies exercise a more powerful influence over our people than any other institution.

Now children comprise a part of the people – the most important part – the part we are forever spouting off about and trying to guide. Our expenditures to educate them are vast. We pay heavy sums to keep our churches so that they may learn to walk in righteous ways. And surely you can’t have forgotten all the lovely platitudes about the American home and about mother, its ruler and queen. The “hand-that-rocks-the-cradle” cultists still hold the nation that, if only mother is good, all will be well.

But it isn’t. For, by the time little Jack and Jennie turn six, they’re devouring comics and quivering with excitement over gangsters and wild westerns. Add a few more years, and their gods and goddesses dwell, not upon Olympus, as did those of the little Greeks, but in Hollywood.

---

Allies steel output twice that of Axis

U.S. industry alone can produce 12½ tons for each ton by Japan

NEW YORK (UP) – The United States’ war effort is backed by a steel industry that can turn out three tons of steel for every two tons produced by Japan, Germany, Italy and all the Axis-dominated nations combined, the American Iron & Steel Institute asserted today.

On the basis of a survey, the institute also declared that the combined steelmaking capacity of the United States, the British Empire and Russia is more than twice that of the Axis powers. The United States steel industry alone can produce 12½ tons of steel for each ton turned out by Japan, the institute added.

Even if the vulnerable two-thirds of Soviet capacity which is located in central and southern Russia should fall into German hands, the institute added, the United States and her allies still could produce 60 percent more steel than Germany and the rest of the world.

The institute estimated that total U.S. capacity at the end of 1941 will be 88,000,000 net tons of steel annually, compared with approximately 60,600,000 tons for Germany, Japan and continental Europe steelmaking countries except Russia.

Steelmaking capacity of the British Empire was placed at 20,600,000 tons a year and that of Russia at 21,800,000 tons, giving the three nations a combined steel potential of 130,400,000 tons.

The institute’s estimate of Axis-dominated steel facilities included all the European countries defeated and occupied last year on the basis of the highest production ever attained by them – a figure which probably could not be equaled at presented under German control.

In the Axis lineup, the institute calculated steelmaking capacities as follows:

	Tons (annual)
Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland	29,600,000
Japan	7,100,000
Italy	3,000,000
Luxembourg	3,000,000
France	10,700,000
Belgium	4,500,000
Hungary, Spain and Sweden	2,700,000

---

18 Jap planes rake island with gunfire

Clipper chief gives eyewitness account after rescue

SAN FRANCISCO (UP) – Eighteen Japanese planes raked Wake Island with machine gun bullets and bombs last Sunday as part of Japan’s surprise attack against the United States, Capt. John H. Hamilton, commanding officer of Pan American Airways’ Philippines Clipper, said today in a graphic eyewitness account.

Japanese surface vessels shelled Midway at about the same hour, Capt. Hamilton reported.

The Clipper was refueling at Wake at the time. Capt. Hamilton later rescued Pan American’s entire ground personnel on Wake and flew them safely to Honolulu.

Camp machine-gunned

“One squadron (of nine planes) started machine-gunning the construction camp,” Capt. Hamilton’s report said. It was released jointly by Pan American Airways and the 12th Naval District Public Relations Office after Capt. Hamilton returned to San Francisco with his ship from Honolulu. It omitted any reference to possible casualties.

“The other squadron,” the report said, “immediately launched the attack which I saw. They were over the island for five minutes, dropping what I judged to be fairly small bobs, about 150 pounders.

“The bombs fired the hotel, destroyed other Pan American buildings and the docks, but did not hit the Clipper.

16 bullet holes in ship

“However, there were 16 bullet holes in the wings and fuselage. By good fortune, no bullet struck a vital spot.

“The attacking planes left the vicinity then and we prepared immediately for departure. We rounded up Pan American ground personnel. We felt it was imperative to take the aboard with us.”

Thirty-seven persons, including 11 crew members, were aboard the Clipper when it left Wake. All but the crew and one company official were left at Honolulu.

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (December 12, 1941)

Das Reich und Italien an Japans Seite:
Kriegszustand mit USA

Leidenschaftliches Bekenntnis des Führers: ‚Gemeinsamer Kampf mit allen Mitteln bis zum Endsieg‘

In einer Stunde weltgeschichtlicher Entscheidungen sprach der Führer zum deutschen Volk und zur Welt. Während im Pazifik seit vier Tagen die Waffen Japans dem Kriegsbrandstifter Roosevelt die einzig mögliche Antwort geben, versammelten sich am Donnerstag im Reichstag die Abgesandten des deutschen Volkes, um eine Erklärung der Reichsregierung entgegenzunehmen. Sie ist so ausgefallen, wie sie dem Wesen, der Ehrauffassung und der Mission des deutschen Volkes entspricht: Das Reich und Italien treten mit ihren gesamten Machtmitteln an die Seite Japans, um Roosevelts und Churchills Weltbrand zu ersticken. Die Waffen werden erst ruhen, wenn der Endsieg erfochten ist.

---

Leitartikel: Zweiweltenkampf

Die angekündigte und nicht nur vom deutschen Volk, sondern von der ganzen Welt mit größter Spannung erwartete Regierungserklärung im Deutschen Reichstag wurde durch die große Führerrede zu einer geschichtlichen Kundgebung von einmaliger Größe. Nachdem im Pazifik die von der plutokratischen Herrschsucht und Überheblichkeit in die Enge getriebene und gepeinigte tapfere japanische Nation in kühnem Entschluß Roosevelt die einzig mögliche Antwort mit scharfen Waffen erteilt und den Schleier der pazifistischen Heuchelei des Hauptkriegsschuldigen zerrissen hatte, ging offenbar der Kampf zwischen zwei Welten seinem Höhepunkt entgegen.

Der Führer hat ihn in seiner großen Rede vor den Männern des Deutschen Reichstages bis in seine letzten jüdischen Wurzeln hinein allseitig und mit erschütternder Eindringlichkeit aufgezeichnet. Er stellte seinen Lebensweg und sein Werk als das eines schlichten und ehrbaren Arbeiters und Soldaten symbolhaft gegen den Werdegang dieses typischen Plutokratensohnes und Schiebers Roosevelt, der die Welt und die Völkerschicksale nur unter dem Gesichtspunkt des Geldverdienens kennt. Wie noch nie zuvor sprach der Führer im Namen Europas und bekannte sich zu seiner alten stolzen Kultur und zu der Ehrauffassung seiner Völker. Er zeichnete ein leuchtendes Bild von den opfervollen und kühnen Leistungen des deutschen Heeres und seiner Verbündeten im Ostfeldzuge, wo sie die alles zu verschlingen drohende Gefahr des jüdischen Bolschewismus siegreich gebannt haben.

Mit großem Jubel nahmen die Männer des Deutschen Reichstages die Meldung des Führers auf, daß soeben in Berlin zwischen den drei Mächten Deutschland, Japan und Italien ein Abkommen getroffen wurde, in dem ihre verschworene Kampfgemeinschaft gegen den jüdisch-plutokratisch-bolschewistischen Weltfeind zum Ausdruck kommt. Er zeichnete in großen Linien und mit einer glühenden Leidenschaft diesen Zweiweltenkampf, den die nationalsozialistische Revolution in 16jährigem Kampf schon im Innern Deutschlands gegen den gleichen Feind siegreich bestehen konnte. Die Vorsehung habe diesen Kampf bisher in sichtbarer Weise gesegnet, und wir haben allen Grund, zu glauben, daß sie ihn auch jetzt, nachdem er auf dem weltweiten Höhepunkt angekommen ist, weiterhin segnen wird.

Die deutsche Nation ist in dieser geschichtlichen Stunde sich der Größe ihres geschichtlichen Auftrages voll bewußt. Wie ein granitener Block steht sie Schulter an Schulter in Front und Heimat geschlossen in diesem größten und ehrenvollsten Kampf ihrer Geschichte. Noch nie war ihr die Notwendigkeit ihres Kampfes klarer Und noch nie ihre Entschlossenheit, Opferfreude und Gläubigkeit so groß wie heute.

Der Kriegszustand mit Roosevelts plutokratischer Weltdiktatur ist nur die äußere Bestätigung einer schon längst tatsächlich von der Gegenseite systematisch herbeigeführten Lage. Er wirkt auf das deutsche Volk wie eine Befreiung von einer unerträglichen Belastung. Herr Roosevelt hat nun seinen Krieg! Mag er sehen, wie er damit zurechtkommt!

K. N.

---

81 USA-Flugzeuge über Manila vernichtet:
Flugzeugträger ‚Lexington‘ versenkt

dnb. Tokio, 11. Dezember – Die Marineabteilung des Kaiserlichen Hauptquartiers gibt bekannt, daß die japanische Luftwaffe am 10. Dezember auf nordamerikanische Armeestreitkräfte auf den Philippinen einen großen Angriff durchgeführt hat. Bei einem Luftkampf über Manila wurden 45 feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen. 36 feindliche Flugzeuge wurden am Boden zerstört. Bei Hawai wurden ein USA-Zerstörer, ein U-Boot und ein weiteres Spezialschiff durch direkte Treffer vernichtet. Der japanische Generalstab gab außerdem bekannt, daß der 33.000 Tonnen große nordamerikanische Flugzeugträger „Lexington“, über den wir bereits in unserer gestrigen Ausgabe berichteten, in den Kämpfen um Hawai versenkt worden ist.

Die „Lexington“ ist ein Schwesterschiff der „Saratoga“. Beide Flugzeugträger sind die größten, die die Vereinigten Staaten besitzen. Sie können 90 Flugzeuge befördern. Sie sind bewaffnet mit acht 20,3-Zentimeter-Geschützen, zwölf 12,7-Zentimeter-Flakgeschützen, vier 5,7- und acht 4-Zentimeter Flakgeschützen. Beide Flugzeugträger sind im Jahre 1925 vom Stapel gelaufen und 1926 in Dienst gestellt. Die Besatzung beträgt 1400 Mann.

Luftabwehr erfolglos

Aus Manila hier eingetroffene Berichte bestätigen im Übrigen die Wirksamkeit der japanischen Bombenangriffe und die Erfolglosigkeit der philippinischen Luftabwehr, wobei die Tatsache ausdrücklich betont wird, daß lediglich militärische Anlagen das Ziel der japanischen Luftangriffe waren. Das Hauptziel der japanischen Luftangriffe sei Cavite, der Flugplatz Nicholsfield, der Nilson-Flugplatz, das Fort McKinley und das Fort William gewesen. Auf die Stadt Manila seien keine Bomben abgeworfen worden.

Die japanischen Flugzeuge flogen, wie weiter berichtet wird, in geordneter Formation teilweise in großer Höhe unbekümmert um die Flugabwehr zurück, deren Geschosse zwar den Himmel mit kleinen Wolken punktierten, jedoch viel zu kurz lagen. Die Fliegerabwehr wurde stark behindert einerseits durch das grelle Sonnenlicht, andererseits durch die riesigen Rauchwolken, die die Ziele der japanischen Bomben umlagerten. Jeder der vier Angriffe wurde in mehreren Wellen durchgeführt. Die Angriffe galten vor allen Dingen dem USA-Stützpunkt Cavite, wo Augenzeugen die gewaltige Wirkung von mehreren hundert Bomben beobachtet haben. Die dortigen Öllager wurden offensichtlich in Brand geworfen. Auch die in der Bucht von Manila liegenden Schiffe wurden mehrmals mit gutem Erfolg angegriffen. Die nordamerikanischen Flugzeuge waren außerstande, die japanischen Flugzeuge vor Ende des Bombenangriffs zu erreichen, nur einmal wurde ein Luftkampf beobachtet.

Die japanische Landoffensive auf der größten philippinischen Insel Luzon ist amerikanischen Rundfunkberichten zufolge in vollem Gange. Die Japaner, die ursprünglich am Nordende von Luzon, bei Aparri, zur Landung ansetzten, konnten weitere Truppen landen und beherrschen zurzeit fast das gesamte Nordende der Insel sowie das zwischen San Fernando und Vigan gelegene Gebiet an der Westküste Luzons. Die japanischen Landungen erfolgten in einer Küstenausdehnung von etwa 250 Kilometer.

---

U.S. State Department (December 12, 1941)

The Danish Ministry for Foreign Affairs to the American Legation in Denmark

PJIA Journal Nr. 84 B.2.a.
Copenhagen, December 12, 1941

NOTE VERBALE

The American Chargé d’Affaires in Copenhagen has been good enough to leave with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs a copy of the note which the State Department in Washington recently transmitted to the former Danish Minister there, M. Kauffmann, concerning his status and authority particularly with regard to Greenland.

The Royal Danish Government has taken notice of this document with the greatest anxiety as it appears to indicate that M. Kauffmann has now obtained recognition in relation to the United States of America as an organ competing with the lawful Danish Government having been invested with all the Danish Government’s authority with regard to Greenland and Danish property in the United States of America and in Greenland.

This is the regrettable result of a development in which M. Kauffmann himself appears to have been the impelling force; for according to the information available here, there is nothing to indicate that the Government of the United States of America would itself have taken the initiative to bring about the status which M. Kauffmann has gradually succeeded in obtaining, if he himself on April 9, 1940, had loyally followed the lawful Danish Government like Denmark’s other Ministers in foreign countries.

M. Kauffmann has achieved this status after an usurpation in explanation of which he merely states that the Danish Government is acting under duress as a result of the occupation and that it is therefore incompetent. In this respect, however, he has evidently acted as early as on April 9, 1940, in the expectation of developments in Denmark under the occupation of an entirely different nature to those which actually ensued. His attitude is based on illogical reasoning; Denmark is certainly under the occupation of German troops, but this does not prevent the lawful Danish Government, which is composed of representatives of all the great political parties from directing all affairs in the country. In all essential respects, Danish social life is continued normally, the powers of State – legislative, judiciary and executive – carrying on their functions independently and without interference from the occupying power.

M. Kauffmann was Denmark’s Minister in Washington and had no function beyond that. A diplomatic agent cannot be or become anything different or more than what his Government has entrusted him to be, and neither under international law nor under Danish constitutional law can he acquire any independent political authority without a special mandate. The Danish people is represented by its King, Government and Parliament, and how can the authority of these lawful instances with any justification be transferred to a chance diplomatic agent by a mere act of usurpation?

To the extent to which M. Kauffmann is in a position to act on the basis of his being recognized by the Government of the United States of America the anomalous situation is now in fact established that there are so to speak two Danish “Governments,” one being the lawful Government appointed by the King, recognized by the people, and domiciled in Denmark, at which foreign powers (including the United States of America) maintain legations, the other being the “Kauffmann usurper Government” which on the basis of certain ideas of duress and negotiorum gestio has obtained the authority which the lawful Government in Copenhagen would normally be able to exercise through its (law-abiding) Minister in Washington.

It should be remembered that the position of Denmark is quite different to that of States whose Governments after the failure of their resistance against German military power have left their country and established themselves abroad. In Denmark, the King and Government remained in the country on April 9, 1940, and resolved by constitutional means “to direct the affairs of the country in view of the occupation which has taken place”. From the outset, the King and Government have thus had and still have the direction of all the affairs of the country, and the conditions, as far as Denmark is concerned, for establishing anything analogous with the exile Governments of the aforesaid countries are therefore entirely missing.

M. Kauffmann has undoubtedly himself felt the weakness of having no mandate from the people whose interests he claims to defend. He has therefore endeavoured to obtain the adherence of Danes living abroad, but even if this adherence may be felt as a moral support by M. Kauffmann personally, it is evident that it is of no significance from the point of view of constitutional law; for how can the attribution to M. Kauffmann of Government authority, the exercise of which presupposes all the elements which according to universally-recognized opinion enters into the conception of a State, be based on the mere presence of a strictly limited number of partisans or adherents? These adherents are, moreover, largely persons who have acquired another nationality and who are not only under a formal obligation to their new country, but may also be presumed to share the sympathies prevalent there.

The fact that M. Kauffmann has felt the weakness of acting without any mandate from the King of Denmark appears clearly from the surreptitious inclusion, on his initiative, in the preamble of the so-called Greenland Agreement of April 9, 1941, of a passage to the effect that he acted “on behalf of His Majesty the King of Denmark in His quality of Sovereign over Greenland.” This passage was inserted by M. Kauffmann not only without the existence of any trace of authorization, but even directly against his better knowledge of being guilty of an abuse of the King’s name. By this action it became clear that M. Kauffmann from the occupation of Denmark on April 9, 1940, had adopted an attitude directly contrary to the policy laid down by the King and Government.

M. Kauffmann having no other authority than that which he had received from the State Department, it was a fiction to speak of “negotiations” in connection with the conclusion of the Greenland Agreement. Article 10 in particular of the Agreement concerning its duration has evidently been drafted in such a way that the Government of the United States of America will be in a position unilaterally to decide, and therefore indefinitely postpone, the date of an eventual conference for the amendment or termination of the Agreement.

The Agreement having thus been concluded without the participation of the Danish Government it has been a reassurance to this Government to receive – directly irrespective of the Agreement – the promise of the American Government that Greenland will be restored, but the fact that Denmark has to see its policy and its interests, insofar as the United States of America and Greenland are concerned, placed in the hands of a man whose only title is based on his own act of usurpation, fills the Danish Government with profound anxiety as to future developments.

The Danish Government fails to understand that the American Government, in spite of all that has taken place, not only does not refuse its recognition of M. Kauffmann but even considerably extends that recognition.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs requests the American Chargé d’Affaires in Copenhagen to communicate the above to the State Department in Washington.

---

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France

Washington, December 12, 1941 — 2 p.m.
914

Your 1523, December 11, 7 p.m.

We have noted the statement made by Admiral Darlan to you to the effect that with regard to naval ships in French colonial ports in the Western Hemisphere the Admiral stated that they have no intention of leaving port and that they are disarmed.

You should see Marshal Pétain or Admiral Darlan immediately and say that your Government has taken note of this statement and that in view of the fact that the United States is at war, all necessary measures must accordingly be taken by this Government, particularly in the defense areas off our shores and in the Caribbean region. This Government will undertake to safeguard the French colonial possessions in this area as part of our general defense operations. Because of the necessity of carrying out our defense plans, we cannot permit the movement of other than American or associated naval or air units operating in these areas. We must, therefore, request, as an evidence of the friendly attitude of France toward this country, that the measures of disarmament of naval or air units, which are now being undertaken by the French Government with respect to any ships or aircraft now stationed in the Caribbean or French colonial territories, be carried out to an extent satisfactory to the United States. In order to insure this degree of demobilization of naval or air units, we request that American naval survey parties be permitted to inspect the state of disarmament and immobilization which has been or is to be carried out with respect to the naval units and aviation units in these areas. Inspection parties have already been organized and are ready to proceed and we request that the French authorities in the Antilles and French Guiana be duly informed and authorized to grant the necessary facilities to the American inspection parties.

HULL

---

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom

Washington, December 12, 1941 — 5 p.m.
5842 

The Thai Minister here received this morning a telegram from the Thai Foreign Minister at Bangkok, stating that Thailand and Japan had entered into an offensive and defensive alliance. It is understood that the Thai Minister here is today making public a repudiation on his own responsibility of the above mentioned alliance. Yesterday the Minister stated to the press that he intended to work for the re-establishment of an independent Thailand.

You may wish to communicate the above to the British Foreign Office and, in your discretion, to your Thai colleague.

Further developments will be telegraphed to you.

HULL

---

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France

Washington, December 12, 1941 — 11 p.m.
920

The following press release is being issued today:

“As a measure of necessary protection to the crews and vessels, arrangements have been made to remove the French crews of all French vessels now in United States ports. This action does not preclude return of the crews to any vessel the resumption of service of which may be determined.”

It has been explained to the French Embassy that this measure was determined as necessary for the safety not only of the ships but of the crews themselves and that it does not apply to any of the vessels which may be engaged in supply service to the French West Indies. It was further pointed out that should the North African service be resumed, the crews of the LEOPOLD L. D. and the ÎLE DE RÉ could promptly be returned to that vessel.

You may wish to convey the foregoing promptly to the French Foreign Office.

HULL

---

The Ambassador in France to the Secretary of State

Vichy, December 12, 1941 — 11 p.m.
[Received December 13 — 11:30 a.m.]

1531

My 1523, December 11, 7 p.m.

We called on Rochat this evening who officially delivered to us three memoranda containing the replies to the question [s] I delivered yesterday [to] Marshal Pétain in the form of three memoranda. He said that “the Marshal has been happy to give you complete satisfaction and assurances on all the questions which you raised.”

The following is a translation of the first memorandum dealing with the points raised in Department’s 898, December 6, 4 p.m.

“Referring to the note handed by Admiral Leahy to Marshal Pétain and Admiral Darlan on December 11 the French Government renews the assurances that the French Fleet will not be utilized against Great Britain except in the case of hostile action on her part and that French territory will not be used as a base for operations by German armed forces.

It also renews the assurance that the departure of General Weygand did not entail any change in the political position of France in North Africa or any modification of the status governing these territories.

On the other hand it confirms the agreement concluded on March 10 between the Embassy of the United States at Vichy and the French Government on the basis of the memorandum drawn up following the conversation of February 26, 1941, between General Weygand and Mr. Murphy.

It hopes that the renewal of these assurances will cause the American Government to resume the program of supply for North Africa. It would be happy to receive confirmation thereof.”

The second memorandum dealing with the question of the carrier BEARN and other Naval vessels reads as follows:

“The President of the United States has asked the Marshal to issue orders to Admiral Robert not to allow the departure of any French Naval ship from Martinique or from any other port in the Western Hemisphere.

The French Government has the honor to inform the Government of the United States that it is sending the said order. These instructions, moreover, are but a confirmation of those which were sent last year to Admiral Robert following the agreement reached between the two Governments in order to maintain the status quo of French possessions in the Western Hemisphere. The French Government does not doubt that the American Government continues to give, under present circumstances, its full value to this agreement. It would be happy to receive confirmation thereof.”

The third memorandum states that, “As a result of the declaration of war by Germany and Italy against the United States, the French Government intends to maintain an attitude of neutrality during this conflict.”

After handing us these notes, Rochat said that he was particularly glad that we had brought up the possibility of continuing our economic assistance to North Africa at this time. While he understands that as a result of our entry into war the possibility of our giving economic assistance to North Africa, as originally envisaged, may have to undergo drastic change, he said that the continuation of our economic assistance to North Africa will strengthen at the present time France’s hand in resisting German demands there. He went on to say that if we resume sending supplies to North Africa, the French will be in a position to argue with the Germans that any additional material concessions to them insofar as North Africa is concerned will lead to the discontinuation of our program and will create a “serious situation very disadvantageous to the Germans insofar as North Africa is concerned.”

We asked him whether he really believed the French Government could resist a German demand or ultimatum for the withdrawal of code privileges and the departure of our consulates from North Africa. He replied with embarrassment that he could not answer this question. He went on to say that France would resist German demands in this regard with every possible argument but only the future can tell what the final decision will be. He stated that up to the present time no demands have been received from the Germans insofar as this mission or any of our consulates are concerned.

Repeated to Algiers for Murphy.

LEAHY

---

Press Release

December 12, 1941

An exchange of telegrams between the President of the United States and the President of the Philippine Commonwealth follows:

December 9, 1941

I have just arrived from Baguio the summer capital of the Philippines where I was when the war between the United States and Japan was declared. I have covered the country by automobile and I am happy to report that everywhere the people are loyal to America and determined to stand by her in testimony of their gratitude to you, to the Government of the United States and to the American people and because of their devotion to the cause of Democracy and freedom. I am proud therefore that the reiterated assurance I have given to you: to the effect that you can count upon us was no empty word.

MANUEL L. QUEZON

December 11, 1941

Your renewed assurances of the devotion and loyalty of the Philippine people to the United States and to democracy are particularly appreciated in this grave hour. The hearts of all Americans are deeply touched by the fortitude and gallantry being shown by your people in this present ordeal. We are at one with you in our faith in the ultimate triumph of our common ideals.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

---

U.S. War Department (December 12, 1941)

Communiqué No. 5

PHILIPPINE THEATER – The Commanding General of the Far Eastern Command reports the Japanese are making a series of concentric thrusts on the island of Luzon. Enemy concentrations are reported at Legazpi and off the west coast of Zambales. The enemy is augmenting its forces at Aparri and Vigan.

HAWAII – No operations reported.

WEST COAST – No change in the situation.

---

U.S. Navy Department (December 12, 1941)

Communiqué No. 4

Naval forces continue to coordinate their efforts with the Army on land, sea and in the air against heavy Japanese attacks on the island of Luzon. There is no confirmation of the alleged occupation of Guam by the Japanese. The resistance of Wake and Midway continues. No further air activity over Hawaii has been reported. The situation in the Atlantic remains unchanged.

The above is based on reports up to noon today.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (December 12, 1941)

U.S. Navy routs Jap fleet

Enemy threats at Luzon from 3 sides, meets fierce resistance
By Joe Alex Morris, United Press war editor

Japan attempted to tighten a steel circle around the island of Luzon today, but met sturdy opposition from American airplanes, land forces and warships which chased an enemy battle fleet from the Philippines coast.

Sinking a battleship, a cruiser and a destroyer and blasting a second 29,000-ton battleship out of control, the defenders of the Philippines and of the little island of Wake appeared to be holding their ground against strong enemy assaults.

A Japanese battle fleet fled to avoid a clash with American warships, Adm. Thomas C. Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet, said at Manila.

The enemy appeared to be putting his main effort into the offensive against Luzon, striking at three main coastal sectors with still undisclosed results and heavily bombing our main naval, air and military bases in an effort to disrupt the defense system.

Losses on both sides were vague, but the Japanese apparently paid heavily for such progress as they have made so far in attempting to carry out concentric attacks designed to find a soft spot in our defenses in the Nazi manner.

Developments on Luzon

The strategical situation, which favors the Japanese and puts a heavy burden on the outnumbered and outgunned defenders, showed these developments on Luzon:

NORTH: Japanese forces landed in the Aparri sector, reportedly using parachute troops, and later were reinforced.

The Aparri attack apparently was designed primarily to get an air base for bombing attacks against the southern areas.

WEST: Japanese forces made their most important attacks at two coastal points – Vigan and the Zambales province – in an attempt to flank and seize the main U.S. defense bases and win control of roads and railroads over which they might drive toward Manila.

These enemy concentrations appeared to be directed against such bases as Iba and Olongapo, both in Zambales Province, and against the Lingayen Gulf sector, where they might hope to reach the coastal highway and the railroad leading south.

SOUTHEAST: Japanese forces landed at Legaspi, on the extreme southeastern tip of the island, presumably attempting to seize a small Marine station and open a road over comparatively flat country toward Manila.

Difficult to defend

The trend of these operations and the success of the defense forces in breaking up attacks remained t be clarified, but it should be emphasized that strategists have regarded the Philippines as difficult to defend and that the American forces there are fighting an unequal battle.

According to Manila dispatches, they appeared to be holding their ground and putting up strong aerial opposition to the swarms of Japanese planes – one estimated said 113 were overhead in one wave - that struck at Cavite, Iba, Batanga, and other targets.

In Northern Luzon, the enemy “is augmenting its forces at Aparri and Vigan,” communique No. 5 issued at Washington, said. German reports said that Japanese parachutists were landing along a 155-mile coastal sector, apparently between Vigan and Aparri.

Dispatches and communiques began to make clear that the Japanese were using large sea, air and land units in a campaign designed to cut off and attack Luzon from all sides, seeking to divide the defense forces at the same time that aerial attacks pounded at our main military bases on the island.

Bases considerably damaged

Official statements at Manila acknowledged considerable damage to such bases as Cavite, adjacent to Manila, as a result of air attacks which continued against stiff American opposition today. But there was no definite indication of the extent of enemy penetration of the coastal areas, most of which present formidable obstacles such as mountain ranges and narrow passes.

Adm. Hart gave no details of the American attempt to engage the Japanese fleet except that the action was off Manila.

Details of the sinking of the Japanese battleship Haruna, however, brought the first American aerial heroes of the war into the picture. They were Capt. Colin Kelly, 26-year-old Army flier from Florida, who dived to his death in blasting at the Haruna; Lt. Boyd D. Wagner, who downed two enemy planes and destroyed a dozen on the ground at Aparri; and Lt. C. A. Keller, who shadowed a battleship of the 29,000-ton Kongo class and led an aerial attack that damaged it.

Marines hold Wake

A Marine garrison that held out against four Japanese air and sea attacks on little Wake Island was believed to be still in action, although it was presumed that new enemy assaults had been made. The Wake defenders already had sunk a Japanese light cruiser and a destroyer by aerial action.

The Japanese, in broadcasts from Tokyo, claimed that they were making progress in landing operations against the Philippines, but gave no details. They claimed to have destroyed 238 of 250 American planes which Tokyo said were known to be in the Philippines when war started.

The Japanese reported they were continuing heavy air attacks on Philippine targets and at Manila it was acknowledged that the Navy’s base at Cavite had been hard hit as was Batanga, 50 miles southeast.

On other fronts:

• MALAYA: Patrol fighting continued against the Japanese offensive toward Singapore, which has been held in the extreme northern part of the Malaya States near Kota Bharu and also on the west coast. Japanese attempts to land at Kuantan were repulsed and Japanese air raids seemed to be decreasing.

• HONGKONG: Chinese forces, reported to have wiped out 15,000 enemy troops, were attacking strongly against the Japanese rear lines in an effort to relieve pressure on Hongkong. The British defense lines were withdrawn slightly to improved positions but there was no indication of a heavy assault.

• AUSTRALIA: An air raid alarm was sounded in the Port Darwin area.

• LIBYA: British forces attacked in the Ain El Gazala sector, 40 miles west of Tobruk, in a new attempt to wipe out Axis armored strength in North Africa and prevent a retreat to the Derna defense line.

• RUSSIA: Red Army attacks continued to gain ground in the Yelets sector, southeast of Moscow, where about 100 villages were reported retaken near Kalanin, where heavy casualties were inflicted on the Germans and in the Volokolask region, west of Moscow. On the Northern Front, the Finns claimed to have wiped out three Russian divisions.

• WESTERN EUROPE: The Royal Air Force heavily attacked Western and Northwestern Germany, striking hardest at Cologne, where fires were started. Brest and Le Havre also were bombed.

• ATLANTIC FRONT: The Berlin radio claimed that four British ships totalling 27,000 tons had been sunk.

Russia clarified stand

Of greatest importance in developments outside the fighting fronts was a partial clarification of the positions of the Soviet Union toward the Far Eastern war.

The newspaper Pravda, according to dispatches from Kuibyshev, bitterly attacked Japan, taunted Hitler because of the collapse of the great Axis offensive against Moscow and declared that Russia would never make peace with Germany until Britain and the United States agreed and Hitler had been overthrown.

The pledge not to make a separate peace did not directly involve the Soviet Union in the Far Eastern war but it seemed to leave no doubt as to the solidarity of Russia, America and Britain in the war against all of the Axis powers, including Japan.

The question of direct Russian aid in the war against Japan was left in abeyance for obvious geographical and strategical reasons. The United States eventually may want bases in Siberia for bombing attacks on Japan but at present the Allies are fighting defensively and presumably would not want to invite a Japanese Army thrust from Manchukuo against the Soviet’s Siberia strongholds.

---

WAR DEPARTMENT OFFERS 18-64 DRAFT BILL
Women ‘deferred’ – Full survey of manpower in U.S. asked

Only those from 19 to 45 face actual call, Rayburn says

WASHINGTON (UP) – The War Department today presented to Congress legislation that would require all men in the United States between the ages of 18 to 64, inclusive, to register with the Selective Service System.

Only those from 19 to 45, Speaker Sam Rayburn said, will be liable for military service.

The broad registration will be for the purpose of getting an accurate survey of American manpower.

Chairman Andrew J. May, D-Kentucky, of the House Military Affairs Committee introduced the War Department’s legislation shortly after the House convened at noon.

Reviewed at conference

The legislation was reviewed in a conference at Mr. Rayburn’s office also attended by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson; Selective Service Director Lewis B. Hershey; House Majority Leader John W. McCormack, D-Massachusetts; Rep. James Wadsworth, R-New York, co-sponsor of the original Selective Service Act; Rep. Walter G. Andrews, R-New York, ranking minority member of the Military Affairs Committee, and War Department and Selective Service aides.

Men who have already registered will not be required to do so again.

The new registration will take in all unregistered men who have reached the age of 18 and have not reached the age of 65.

New registrants may be called up for military service ahead of those who were entered in the past two registrations.

The bill provided that alien residents of the United States holding citizenship in neutral nations may apply for exemption for registration for military service under the American flag but if they do, they are forever barred from becoming citizens of this nation.

Mr. May announced that hearings in the bill will start tomorrow and that Gen. Hershey will be the first witness.

Selective Service officials said they had no intention at this time of seeking authority to register women.

Mr. May said his bill will not change the existing system of classifying Selective Service registrants.

Mr. Hershey disclosed that a proposal was now under consideration to establish some sort of government support if married men and other with dependents, who are now deferred, were found to be needed.

Million already available

Mr. Hershey told the conferees that an additional million men can probably be combed out of present registrants between 21 and 27 and that 1,200,000 men reach the age of military service annually.

“We may need a lot of men,” he said, “and we’ve got to find out now where we can get them.”

Gen. Hershey told reporters yesterday that he favored a long-range registration of the 40 million men between 18 and 64 years. He estimated that 10 million could be made available to the Army and Navy for actual service. Registration of women, he said, would be handled by such agencies as the Office for Civilian Defense.

The first phase of the program probably will be to draw upon the 17,500,000 men in the already registered 21-35 age group. Only about 800,000 inductions have been made to this class, but Gen. Hershey believes this could be increased to four million men.

Immediate reclassification of the 10 million registrants in the 21-27 age bracket is possible and legislative action may be sought to make available the 7,500,000 men in the 28-35 age group.

Gen. Hershey suggested that lowering selection standards in the 21-27 group would yield more than a million men to the current million in Class 1-A, and that “fully a million able-bodied men” might be obtained from the 28-35 group, now exempted.

The Army is expected to notify Selective Service headquarters at once of its needs for January and February quotas. They have been averaging about 65,000 per month recently. Gen. Hershey indicated that they would be “doubled or tripled.” That might mean that 500,000 men would be called to the colors during the next two months.

Loopholes sought

Authorities are seeking to close loopholes on occupational deferments. Conferences with defense manufacturers have been held recently, and Gen. Hershey believes 200,000 men may be made available for military service from defense industry workers.

Selective Service headquarters have notified local draft boards to reclassify ex-servicemen who were deferred in Class 4-A. They were told that the provision permitting deferment from service in peacetime no longer applies.

Men who had served three years in the Army, Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps, National Guardsmen with two years’ service in the militia and one in federal service, National Guards with six years’ service, the reserve officers with six years’ service were in that category.

---

WAR BULLETINS!

British, Reds to map strategy

LONDON – Important British-Russian negotiations, it was learned tonight, will be held shortly to deal with political collaboration and the grand strategy of the war against the Axis.

Japs gain near Hong Kong

SINGAPORE – British forces held off the Japanese attack on Malaya today but Hong Kong reports admitted some Japanese penetration of the outer mainland defense of that island fortress. British reports said the Japanese strengthened their hold on the Kota Bharu Airdrome close to the Malaya-Thailand border. Japanese artillery was reported to be shelling Stonecutters Island which lies off Hong Kong Island.

Chiang offers all-out aid

WASHINGTON – Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, in a message to President Roosevelt has offered on behalf of China “all we are, and all we have, to stand with you until the Pacific and the world are freed from the curse of brute force and endless perfidy.”

Planes strafe Jap barges

LONDON – The Air Ministry reported today that Royal Air Force and Australian Air Force planes attacked and set afire to between 50 and 60 Japanese power-driven boats and barges in the first stages of the Japanese attack on Kota Bharu, Malaya.

British sub hits cruiser

LONDON – The Admiralty said today that a British submarine torpedoed and probably sank an enemy cruiser in the Central Mediterranean. The date of the attack was not given.

Marines still hold Wake Island

WASHINGTON – The small U.S. Marine garrison is still holding Wake Island against Japanese attacks, President Roosevelt said today. He told his press conference that the Marines at Wake Island – a lonely station in the mid-Pacific – is small and has done a magnificent job in withstanding Japanese assaults. Last night, it was announced that the Marines had sunk a Japanese light cruiser and a destroyer in air action from Wake.

Japs seize 1,000 American workmen

WASHINGTON – The American Federation of Labor said today it has been advised by the Navy that more than 1,000 American workmen were “captured and taken prisoner” at Midway and Guam Islands in the Pacific. The men were all members of the AFL’s Building Trades Union, and were sent to the island to construct military facilities. The Navy did not specifically say whether Midway or Guam had fallen into the hands of the Japanese.

Haiti joins U.S. against Axis

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haiti today declared war on Germany and Italy. A declaration of war against Japan was made last Monday.

Slovakia declares war on U.S.

LONDON – The official German news agency broadcast a Bratislava dispatch today saying that Slovakia had declared war on the United States and Great Britain.

Indian leader arrested

NEW DELHI, India (Dec. 11, delayed) – Sarat Chandra Bose, brother of Subhas Chandra Bose, former mayor of Calcutta and former president of the All-India Nationalist Congress, has been arrested at Calcutta because of his “recent contacts with the Japanese,” it was announced today. Subhas Chandra Bose fled last January and is reported in Germany.

Nazis claim four sinkings

BERLIN (by Berlin radio) – German submarines in the Atlantic have sunk four British ships totaling 27,700 tons, the High Command said today.

The ships included a tanker. In addition, two patrol vessels and a tanker were damaged by torpedo hits.

Vichy declares neutrality

LONDON – Radio Tokyo said this morning that the Vichy government has informed the Japanese ambassador that France will maintain strict neutrality in the war between the United States and Japan.

San Diego blacked out

SAN DIEGO, California – San Diego was blacked out for an hour early today and Los Angeles was placed on “alert” when the Fourth Interceptor Command reported unidentified aircraft offshore.

Here the command said the planes were heard off Point Loma at the entrance to San Diego Bay. At Los Angeles, the command said merely that they were “probably offshore.”

Australia has air raid alarm

NEW YORK – The British radio reported today that Port Darwin on the north coast of Australia had an air raid alarm during the night, the first in the commonwealth. No details were given.

Japan, Indochina sign pact

LONDON – The official German news agency reported from Tokyo today that Japan and French Indochina concluded a military alliance Monday.

The Berlin broadcast attributed the report to Japanese Imperial Headquarters.

Brussels University closed

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – The newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported from Berlin today that German military authorities had closed the University of Brussels to its 3,000 students and arrested 10 of its officials. The university board refused to accept five German appointments to the faculty.

---

Uncle Sam hits back –
U.S. aircraft begin to even Pacific score

Second Jap battleship hit; Axis satellites may declare war
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

WASHINGTON (UP) – Further war declarations or ruptures of diplomatic relations with the United States by Axis satellites were likely today as American airmen began to even the naval score with Japan in the Pacific.

The successful bombing of a second Japanese capital ship cheered the capital.

The nation is at war on two points – Atlantic and Pacific. But the Western Hemisphere is becoming more solidly aligned by the minute against the Axis and the period of disunity at home seems to have ended with the first bomb explosion in Hawaii.

Good news starts

Against Germany, Italy and Japan is being thrown the force of the world’s most perfectly machined and industrialized nation. And the good news is beginning to come in.

First word is awaited from the Atlantic front, where war began yesterday with declarations of hostilities by Rome and Berlin which were immediately acknowledged by the United States. Whether the Axis will attempt a “morale” air raid on Washington, New York or some other seaboard city is not known. The fighting forces hope to stop it offshore if it comes.

Bombs of Army, Navy or Marine fliers have already sunk one Japanese battleship, one cruiser, one destroyer and badly damaged a second battleship.

Seek to restore balance

At that rate, it appears the American flying men shortly will be able to restore the balance of naval power in the Pacific as it existed before Japan sank the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales, the battlecruiser HMS Repulse and inflicted unrevealed damage on our own fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was announced by the Hawaiian governor that 20 Japanese planes were lost in Sunday’s attack on Hawaii.

The last “good news” came in the Navy Department’s communique No. 3, which said:

“Adm. Thomas C. Hart, commander-in-chief of the Asiatic Fleet, reported that Navy patrol planes scored bomb hits on a Japanese battleship of the Kongo class off the coast of Luzon. The ship was badly damaged.

“This is the second Japanese battleship to be bombed effectively by U.S. forces.”

Haruna sunk

The first battleship attacked by U.S. forces was the 29,000-ton Haruna. It was sunk. The second, Adm. Hart reported, was believed to be the 29,300-ton Kongo.

Earlier in the day, the Navy has revealed that a small garrison of Marines were making a valiant stand to defend Wake Island, the tiny outpost between Hawaii and Guam. That garrison sunk one cruiser and one destroyer which had tried to attack.

Sufficiently accurate information on what was lost in Pearl Harbor is now common knowledge here – although unpublishable – and the rate at which American fliers are reducing the Japanese fleet is encouraging.

Remains less favorable

But the balance of naval power remains considerably less favorable to the United States than it was before Sunday’s attack. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox arrived in Honolulu last night for a personal survey of the damage which the public will scarcely minimize after White House emphasis upon its seriousness.

Hungary is almost in step with the Axis today with the formal announcement in Washington that diplomatic relations with the United States have been broken. Hungary explained here that she was not declaring war.

Radio Berlin broadcast that Hungary has declared war against the United States.

Rumania may follow

Rumania is another subordinate European state which may follow that course.

The course of the neutrals – Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and Portugal – remains to be seen, nor is it known here what Germany may demand of that part of France governed from Vichy.

Finland, already at war with the Soviet Union and with Great Britain, is seeking to avoid involvement in the general war flaming throughout the world. The situation is further complicated by Great Britain’s recent declaration of war against Hungary and Rumania.

Greece, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway are captive countries, seized forcibly by Nazi arms, and Albania fell early to Italy.

Meets in January

The Western Hemisphere was rapidly falling in line with the anti-Axis powers in a worldwide choose-up-sides for battle and there will be a conference in Rio de Janeiro in January among the 21 American republics.

Here next week, Mr. Roosevelt has called a conference of management and labor to agree on a changeover from war to peace production efforts which must adopt a seven-day production week, and without strike or lockout interruptions, too. The accomplishments of the conference are expected to take the place of drastic anti-strike legislation which was roaring through Congress when Japan struck.

The congressional isolation bloc has vanished as though bombed and it is the present intention of Congress to vote all the funds and authority the administration and its military advisers ask to prosecute the war. Restrictions against sending National Guardsmen and selectees outside the Western Hemisphere were voted away unanimously yesterday and the Senate turned immediately to consideration of a $10 billion supplemental national defense appropriation. The sum of the bill was increased by about two billion dollars by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Taxes will rise

Taxes are going up soon and far. Congressional leaders agreed that the burden will increase tremendously and other officials are arranging simultaneously to reduce the number of variety of things the public may buy with what is left over from the paycheck after taxes are paid.

National Selective Service headquarters are pondering plans for registration of practically everyone for such essential service as may be necessary and draft deferment lists are already being revised to make more men immediately available for the armed services.

Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Maxim Litvinov, the Soviet ambassador, conferred and predicted increased collaboration against the common enemy. But there is no word here about bases for our planes in Siberia so that they may shuttle back and forth between the Philippines and the Asiatic mainland, dropping their bombs on Japan as they cross each way. The Soviet Union and Japan are not at war. Instead, they have a mutual non-aggression pact.

---

Mowrer: Keep a close eye on Hitler for surprise

Nazis still main show, and Atlantic may be next background
By Edgar Ansel Mowrer

WASHINGTON – Repel the Japanese but keep your eye on Hitler – this is the policy being followed today by the American administration, the Army and the Navy.

The sinking of a Japanese battleship, a cruiser and a destroyer makes it just that much easier. People here are convinced that in preparing for Japan the magnificently audacious plan that the Nipponese carried out so effectively (and treacherously) last Sunday, the Germans wanted to create a diversion serious enough to force the American authorities to strip the Atlantic and rush to repair the damage in the Pacific and avenge it.

Since the work of avenging has begun without any reinforcements from the Atlantic, for the main route to the Philippines is now largely in the hands of the Japanese, there will be less temptation to forget that, outside of the main area of Singapore, Hitler and his Nazis are still the main show.

In order to induce the Japs to go all out and risk their precious material, Hitler, it is believed here, must have promised them powerful support. What people here intend to find it – and expect Hitler to reveal soon – is what form this support is going to take.

Several things are open to the Nazis, now that they have admitted they cannot take Moscow this winter and must wait until spring. A Russian announcement claiming that they now have control of the air over the front suggests strongly that the Germans have withdrawn a portion of their air force from that region. This might take the form of a new air onslaught against Great Britain, and/or an intensified airplane, plus submarine, plus surface, campaign in the Atlantic.

Defeated in his frantic effort to reach the oil of the Caspian, Hitler’s marshals, by shortening their lines and withdrawing divisions from Russia, may amass a powerful mass for a campaign all along, or in special parts of, the Mediterranean.

This might mean a smash at Turkey, with the idea of reaching the Caucasus along the southern shore of the Black Sea, or turning down toward Iraq and eventually Iran, or driving straight south on Syria, Palestine and the Suez Canal. It may mean an intensified effort to cross the Mediterranean and get into North Africa in time to reinforce Gen. Erwin Rommel’s battered divisions before they have to give more ground. For this purpose, Hitler desperately needs the French fleet.

Pessimists in Washington believe that Japan’s success at Pearl Harbor may have been the final argument in convincing the men of Vichy that Americans are blunderers anyway. Without this fleet, and a fine French base like Bizerte or Oran to land at, the Germans and Italians will have some difficulty sending reinforcements across the British-controlled Mediterranean.

Spain a pushover

They can, however, take over Spain and Portugal anytime they choose. A somewhat sinister statement from Madrid that Spain will soon announce its position toward the war with the United States leads people here to believe that the Franco Spaniards, despite more than generous handling from the United States, have decided to proclaim non-belligerence favorable to the Axis and allow German troops to pass freely.

This would mean a siege of Gibraltar and the unquestioned crossing of the straits there by at least some German troops. It would mean the taking over of French Morocco, probably of Algeria as well. It might mean an attempt to take over Dakar, though Dakar is a long walk from the straits.

In any case, many possibilities are open to Hitler, and those who have given most attention to studying the man and his works are convinced that he will not wait long to act.

---

U.S. bans casualty lists as giving aid to enemies

WASHINGTON (UP) – No more casualty lists will be issued by the War and Navy Departments.

President Roosevelt explained to his press conference today that the Army and Navy felt that publication of lists of men killed or wounded in action would provide information of aid to the enemy, enabling the enemy to determine where and when large numbers of American soldiers and sailors suffered losses.

He said the Army and Navy would notify next of kin of the casualties immediately by telegram. The government will release for newspaper publication only total figures on casualties.

The president asked that press associations, newspapers and radio stations refrain from compiling their own casualty lists from the notices sent to next of kin.

Newspapers, he said, should confine themselves to brief stories that the next of kin – wife, mother, or whatever the case may be – of a given man in the paper’s individual areas has been notified by Washington. This information from next of kin, the president felt, should not be made into the form of lists covering even a given community.

All belligerents in the war, prior to the outbreak of hostilities between Japan and the United States, followed the policy of not making casualty lists public, the president said. They have notified next of kin, and from time to time made public figures on total casualties.

The War Department has issued three casualty lists – one each Wednesday, yesterday and today. The Navy had not released any casualty list up to the time of today’s decision. The Navy is now preparing figures on the dead and seriously wounded to date.

A Navy announcement said:

“The Navy Department today announced that for military reasons no list of names of casualties will be released to the public. The next of kin and dependents of naval casualties are being notified and are being asked not to divulge the names of the ship or station to which the relative was attached.”

To requests for additional information on the Japanese attack against Hawaii, the president replied that further statements must await the return or report of the Secretary Frank Knox, now in Honolulu.

The president said strongly that no one should publish anything about the Hawaiian attack or present conditions there until the government has heard from Mr. Knox. He added, in response to a question, if such stories are published the government will remember well the people who did it.

He was asked about the propriety of reporting statements made in Congress, giving purporting details of the situation in Hawaii. Correspondents referred particularly to statements made in the Senate yesterday and told the president they had no choice but to print them.

The president agreed that such reports from Congress could not be ignored, but said they should be characterized as not entirely factual.

The president said one senator yesterday made certain statements about Hawaii with knowing a thing about the situation.

This senator, the president said, reported somebody’s gossip and made his report as a statement of fact which he had no right to do.

Sen. Charles W. Tobey, R-New Hampshire, told the Senate yesterday that there had been a “debacle” at Pearl Harbor and charged that the defenses of Pearl Harbor were unprepared.

[NormanStewart]

Latin America rallies to U.S. support in war

War declarations and assurances of solidarity are issued

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (UP) – Latin America rallied strongly to the support of the United States today with four nations having already declared war against Germany and Italy and others expected to follow soon.

Nine Latin American countries declared war on Japan after Sunday’s attack on Hawaii and four followed yesterday with declarations against Germany and Italy.

Cuba went to war with the three major powers at midnight, when President Fulgencio Batista signed a declaration that had been passed by the Senate, 50-0, and by the House of Representatives, 222-0. Cuba declared war on Japan Tuesday.

Mexico breaks relations

Costa Rica, the first Latin American nation to enter World War II with a declaration against Japan, declared war on Germany and Italy yesterday. Guatemala and Nicaragua, both already at war with Japan, also declared war against Germany and Italy.

Mexico broke diplomatic relations with Germany and Italy, severing all ties with the Axis powers and becoming an ally of the United States in everything short of an actual war declaration.

Mexico ordered the freezing of German and Italian funds, as it had frozen Japanese funds, and continued movement of troops to its west coast to protect Baja California.

Solidarity reaffirmed

Argentina reaffirmed its solidarity with the United States and sent a message to the American Congress condemning the “treasonable” Axis action. It was expected to proclaim the United States “non-belligerent” as regards Germany and Italy today, paralleling a similar declaration as regards Japan. The action permits U.S. warships to enter Argentine ports without risking internment under neutrality regulations.

Sources at the Foreign Office said German and Italian funds would probably be frozen today.

San Salvador, already at war with Japan, and Bolivia have already blocked Axis funds. The Bolivian order was regarded as a major blow to Axis operations in Latin America, because most Bolivian business is controlled by German, Italian or Japanese interests. The Bolivian decree also applies to non-belligerent Axis allies, the Finance Ministry said.

Will buy arms from U.S.

In Uruguay, which had also declared the United States non-belligerent in its war with Japan, the Senate passed a bill authorizing a $17 million purchase of arms in the United States.

President Getulio Vargas of Brazil reaffirmed his nation’s solidarity with the United States in view of the spread of the war. He ordered six infantry companies to guard strategic air bases.

Peru, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic also assured the United States of their support.

President Manuel Prado of Peru cabled President Roosevelt a few moments after the German and Italian declarations: “I reaffirm the principle of solidarity which emanated from the inter-American pacts. Peru reiterates at this opportunity, its firm decision to omit no effort in favor of common defense of the continent.”

Oil lines protected

In Venezuela, the world’s third largest petroleum producer, President Isaias Medina said “the aggression against the United States places a tragic threat at the very doors of America and makes it imperative that each country of the New World fully assume its responsibilities.”

He said the government was “cooperating fully” with petroleum companies for the protection of oil fields, pipelines, refineries and other facilities.

In Washington, Generalissimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, strongman of the Dominican Republic, said his country, already at war with Japan, would declare war against Germany and Italy. He said the “land, sea and air of the Dominican Republic are available to the land, naval or air forces of the United States at any time they may desire to use them.”

---

‘Mikado’ to be given despite Pacific war

WASHINGTON (UP) – Performances of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, “The Mikado”, will be presented here next week as scheduled, it was announced today, but the printed program will carry an explanatory note, saying, in part: “Almost three-score years have passed since William Gilbert wrote this, depicting the Japanese in the light that history now records – sly, wily and deceitful, unconscionably corrupt and treacherous.”

The operetta satirizes British characters who are given Japanese names.

An employee of the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company yesterday announced that three local performances at the National Theater had been cancelled because Baltimore audiences Monday received the production coolly, particularly its opening song, “We Are Gentlemen of Japan.”

---

U.S. and Axis reporters expected to return home on ‘truce’ ships

By the United Press

American newspapermen in Axis countries were under arrest or police supervision today and were unable to communicate with the United States.

It was understood that the U.S. State Department was arranging for the exchange of the newspapermen for Axis reporters under arrest in this country. The correspondents would leave Axis countries with U.S. diplomatic personnel and would return to America on a “truce ship” guaranteed safe passage of the Atlantic. Axis diplomats and reporters would return home by the same method.

German and Italian journalists detained in America were being kept in hotels rather than locked up, and were being well treated. Information from abroad indicated that American correspondents were receiving the same treatment. They were barred from filing news dispatches since early Wednesday.

When American correspondents in Berlin appeared at the Foreign Office press conference Wednesday, they were asked to leave the room and go to their apartments because Axis correspondents in the United States had been arrested. Wednesday midnight, they were rounded up and placed under arrest. They were first taken to Alexanderplatz Police Station and then confined in a private villa.

The offices of American press associations and newspapers were closed Thursday afternoon, according to a Berlin dispatch of the Swedish newspaper Tidningens of Stockholm, after the heads of the bureaus had been allowed to cable the U.S. State Department protesting against the arrest of German correspondents in Washington and New York.

It was understood, Tidningens said, that this cable was approved by the charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy.

A broadcast of DNB, the official German news agency, said the American correspondents in Paris were barred from official press conferences yesterday and asked to go to their homes. Later, they were also placed under arrest.

DNB said that, in Rome, working American newspapermen were put under police surveillance or arrested. The agency said that four American correspondents were arrested and two others ordered to remain in their apartments.

It was not revealed whether any action was taken against employees of American press associations or newspapers who are citizens of Axis countries.

The names of American correspondents arrested were not announced by the authorities, but the only exception reported was Guido Enderis, Berlin correspondent of the New York Times. Tidningens said that he had been exempted and allowed to remain at the hotel. In New York, the Times said it knew of no reason why an exception was made in the case of Mr. Enderis, but that he was not being allowed to work.

Tokyo reported that three or four unidentified British and American newspapermen were detained “as a precaution and for their protection and well-being.”

---

Connally shies from phrase in war resolution

‘World conquest’ allusion deleted from draft of State Department
By Marshall McNeil, Scripps-Howard staff writer

WASHINGTON – If the State Department suggestion had been followed, Congress would have acknowledged formally that Germany and Italy are working together on a plan for world conquest.

But at the insistence of Sen. Connally, D-Texas, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the declarations of war against the Axis powers contained no such preambles as the department suggested.

Confusion over whether to accept the State Department version accounted for the interruption in Senate proceedings between the reading of the president’s war message and the Senate’s unanimous vote to declare war.

Confer on floor

During this interruption, Sen. Connally conferred on the Senate floor with Rep. Bloom, D-New York, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and House Majority Leader McCormack, D-Massachusetts.

“Sol and Tom are having a joint session of Congress right here on the floor,” said one senator in a stage whisper.

Before calling the Foreign Relations Committee to meet at 11:30 a.m. yesterday, Sen. Connally had conferred with Secretary Hull. He went back to the Capitol, and said the State Department was drafting a proposed war resolution. At the same time, his office put the legislative drafting service to work on a similar resolution.

Preamble opposed

The department’s proposal made known both to Sen. Connally and House leaders, started this way:

“Whereas Germany is pursuit of a plan of world conquest has committed repeated acts of war against the government and the people of the United States, and has now declared war on the United States…”

Sen. Connally wouldn’t accept this. He said it was true the Nazis have a plan of world conquest, and that they have committed repeated acts of war against us. But we have known these things for months, he said, without declaring war. Moreover, he wanted the full support of his committee on both resolutions of war.

So, he and the committee deleted this preamble.

House leaders agree

Rep. Bloom and McCormack, who were prepared to accept the State Department preamble, heard that the Senate was not, and hurried over to find out the facts. The Senate, without formality, suspended its business; Messrs. Connally and Bloom held their “joint session” in the center aisle; the House leaders were informed the Senate was not accepting the State Department preamble; they agreed and the war declarations were speedily approved.

Following the signing of the declarations by the president later in the afternoon, Sen. Glass, D-Virginia, related how Mr. Roosevelt commented to legislators at the signing ceremony that some members of the Connally Committee had wanted to phrase the declarations in a manner to spare the feelings of Axis civilians.

“Hell, we not only want to hurt their feeling, we want to kill them!” Mr. Glass told the president.

---

Plane-vs.-ship case reopened by sea losses

Reappraisal of value of aircraft and vessels due in Congress
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer

WASHINGTON – The destruction of naval vessels by airplanes in the Pacific appeared likely today to bring a reappraisal by Congress of the relative importance of aircraft and warships.

Sen. Walsh, D-Massachusetts, chairman of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee, commented that this week’s events seemed to indicate a new shift of strength from surface vessels to aircraft.

He pointed out that he had stressed repeatedly the importance of aircraft in naval warfare, and expressed a belief that his committee would reexamine the old controversy of plane-vs.-battleship in the light of the new developments.

Sinkings provide test

Sen. Wiley, R-Wisconsin, a member of the Walsh Committee, went further. “Recent events,” he said, “show that the navies of the air are more significant than the navies of the sea.”

Mr. Wiley said the record of Norway and Crete, as well as this week’s news from the Pacific, had demonstrated the growing supremacy of aircraft.

Sen. Lucas, D-Illinois, also a committee member, said: “I certainly would think that some more emphasis should now be given to the bombing plane.”

He said the sinking of British capital ships by the Japanese, and of Japanese ships by U.S. fliers, presented a much fairer test than the Honolulu engagement Sunday, where planes attacked ships which were apparently tied up in harbor.

Too early for answers

There was less inclination among members of the House Naval Affairs Committee to accept the plane-battleship tests on the Pacific as indicating a need for greater emphasis on aircraft.

Rep. Maas, R-Minnesota, the committee’s ranking minority member, warned against jumping at conclusions. He said a navy must be strong both in the air and on the surface, and pointed out that German aviation had not been able to bring defeat of England.

But Rep. Cole, R-New York, also a Naval Affairs Committee member, said that “developments have caused all of us to question the military usefulness of the battleship.” But it is still too early to get a final answer, he said.

---

$10 billion war bill placed before Senate

Congress moves to gear U.S. Armed Forces for long, hard struggle

WASHINGTON (UP) – The Senate votes today on a $10 billion supplemental national defense appropriation – the first step since the declaration of war against the Axis to gear the armed forces for a “long, hard war.”

The Senate Appropriations Committee will send the bill to the floor at noon after adding nearly two billion dollars in cash and contract authorizations, including $500 million for naval warplanes, to the House-approved version.

The bill, boosting the war program to more than $69 billion, was approved by the committee yesterday only a few hours after the declaration of war against Germany and Italy.

Called first in series

Acting Committee Chairman Kenneth McKellar, D-Tennessee, said the bill was the first of what may be an extensive series “necessary to supply the implements and arms for a long and hard war against three foes.”

Rear Adm. John H. Towers, chief of the Bureau of Naval Aeronautics, asked the committee to increase funds for naval fighting planes from a House-approved total permitting construction of an additional 2,020 airplanes. McKellar did not reveal the type or number of fighting craft to be constructed from the $500 million fund.

Votes power program

In an effort to provide power necessary “to make aluminum needed for the defense of the country,” the committee added a power facility program embracing four additional dams in Tennessee. Initial construction costs provided in the bill total $25 million for the dams located on the Watauga River, near Elizabethtown; the Holston River near Bristol; at Dole Hollow on the Obed River, and at Center Hill on the Caney Fork River.

Other items added by the committee include: Another seven billion dollars for Army and Civil Aeronautics Administration land fields raising the total for this purpose to $57 million; $100 million for the president’s emergency blank check fund, and increased appropriations for government buildings in the District of Columbia.

Transfers funds

The committee transferred $1,500,000,000 of funds set aside by the House for lend-lease purposes to the general War Department account. McKellar declared that this move indicated no innovation in lend-lease administration, adding that it was considered advisable by War Department officials to lump the lend-lease monies with general War Department appropriations “to free the department’s hands in spending.”

Other expenditures include $742 million for feeding and clothing Army personnel; $269 million for vessel construction and machinery; and $33 million for the Interior Department for defense construction purposes.

[NormanStewart]

Today’s developments in the war in the Pacific

U.S. subs hunt near Manila; Japanese lose 27 planes

By Frank Hewlett, United Press staff writer

The Philippines battlefront

U.S. forces reported heavy fighting against the Jap invaders in the Philippines today at points indicated on the map above.
1) U.S. admits Japs land in large numbers in north. Aparri area reported recaptured by U.S.
2) U.S. Navy admits heavy damage at Cavite; Manila has two alarms, no bombs. Jap battleship knocked out of control by Navy planes.
3) Americans fight Jap landing parties in Legaspi region.

MANILA, Philippines (UP) – Adm. Thomas C. Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet, revealed today that a Japanese battle fleet fled to avoid battle when American warships approached.

Official communiques reported that American warplanes have taken a heavy toll of Japanese planes and ships.

Adm. Hart said a 29,300-ton Japanese battleship of the Kongo class had suffered one heavy hit and two lighter hits when bombed by a naval plane. The bombs put the warship out of control. This success was in addition to the sinking of 29,300-ton Haruna, Adm. Hart added to information released in Washington last night.

Adm. Hart said the American fleet “contacted” the Japanese war fleet a considerable distance off Manila. The enemy ships sheered off to avoid battle.

Developments today:

• American submarines are ranging the narrow seas of the war zone and are expected to report major success when they communicate with their home bases.

• American and Philippine planes have struck hard at the Japanese Air Force; Filipino pilots were credited with shooting down two Japanese planes in action and the Americans bagged 25.

One American Army aviator singlehandedly accounted for 14 of the Japanese planes, shooting down two in the air and knocking out 12 on the ground at Aparri on the northern tip of Luzon this morning.

Japs’ attacks heavy

The Japanese Air Force continued its heavy attacks, raiding Batangas, capital of Batangas Province, 50 miles southeast of Manila, twice and causing two more air raid alarms in Manila.

An NBC reporter in Manila said it had been officially confirmed that the Kongo-class battleship hit by U.S. bombs was the Kongo itself. He reported that the Japanese sent at least 113 bombers over the Philippines today, attacking various objectives including an airfield at Batangas.

The attack on Batangas was carried out by two flights of 27 Japanese bombers each, the Philippines Constabulary reported. There were a number of casualties, it was reported.

To decide on Spaniards

In Manila, all Axis aliens were placed in protective custody and a decision was being pondered concerning action against Spanish nationals and members of the Falange Fascist Party.

U.S. pilot killed

The Army announced that Capt. Colin Kelly Jr., 26, who scored the three direct hits which sank the first battleship, had been killed in action.

Lt. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commanding the American forces in the Far East, replied today to a message from President Roosevelt, congratulating the American forces on their defense: “The Far Eastern Command appreciates deeply your message. We shall do our best.”

Heavy damage at Cavite

U.S. and Philippine forces were reported to be fighting Japanese landing parties in the Legaspi area, at the southeast tip of Luzon Island, 210 miles from Manila, and it was admitted that Japanese troops were now in greater force in Northern Luzon.

Adm. Hart said the Navy’s Cavite base, eight miles southwest of Manila, had been hit by a powerful Japanese airplane attack. There were extensive fires and great damage was done, he said. Small ships lying at the yard were also damaged.

One bomb directly hit a dispensary, Adm. Hart said, and everyone in it was killed, including nurses and doctors. He emphasized that the dispensary was in the center of a fortified area.

Await subs’ reports

He said that loss of life figures had not been completed but that it was known most of the dead were civilians.

Adm. Hart said that submarines of the Asiatic Fleet had not yet reported.

“But we expect big results,” he added. “When a torpedo hits a ship, it stays hit.”

The submarines were the big game hunters of the fleet and they used only elephant guns, not shotguns, Adm. Hart said.

He announced that Lt. H. A. Utter had been attacked by three Japanese fighters. He shot down one, Hart said, and then made a forced landing, taxied his seaplane to the coast, repaired minor damage and took off next morning, returning to his base.

Filipinos win air victory

Describing the attack on the second Japanese battleship, Adm. Hart said Lt. C. A. Keller sighted it off Northwestern Luzon and held contact with it for a long time despite anti-aircraft fire, guiding the attack of bombers led by Lt. Cmdr. J. V. Peterson.

The Navy fliers then pressed their attack despite heavy gunfire, he said.

Adm. Hart said that the Navy had lost two large planes in the Gulf of Davao Monday, approximately one hour after a Pearl Harbor attack. One pilot was lost and some members of the crews were wounded, he said.

Since Monday, he added, one large Navy plane had been shot down at Laguna de Bay, 30 miles from Manila, and all members of the crew were killed.

He said Navy pilots had been most active and that several planes had suffered minor damage. Some fuel tanks had been punctured, he said. One pilot landed successfully with one of his two motors burning, he commented.

Philippine town raided

Discussing naval operations, Adm. Hart said that no Japanese battleship had yet approached within sight of the Philippine coast, and he deprecated reports which “always call every craft a battleship.”

An Army communique said a small Japanese force was reported to have pushed ashore at Legaspi, on Albay Bay.

Despite the improved position of the Japanese at the northern end of Luzon, the Army communique said the situation there had not changed materially.

BBC, heard by CBS, quoted a Manila dispatch as saying that U.S. forces in Northern Luzon had recaptured the Aparri region on the north coast.

BBC said: “United States troops are reported to have smashed every Japanese effort yesterday to set invading forces firmly ashore and it is reported that the enemy is even being driven back at Aparri, where they had established a temporary foothold. The region around Aparri is said now to be back in American hands.”

Seven thousand civilians held to be non-essential were evacuated from the walled area of Manila, which contains the general headquarters of U.S. forces in the Far East, Fort Santiago and other military establishments.

The Philippine National Assembly, at a special session, approved an emergency powers bill which authorized President Manuel L. Quezon to spend all available unexpended public funds for national defense and civilian protection.

---

U.S. pilot dives into Jap ship’s guns, vanishes

Battleship goes down in blast; ex-Pitt student wrecks 14 planes

Capt. Colin Kelly Jr., vanished in explosion

MANILA, Philippines (UP) – Three daredevil American aviators flew to fame – and one to death – today against the Japanese.

Terse statements from military and naval sources in Manila told the story of how U.S. and Filipino aviators struck back against powerful enemy assaults. The name of 26-year-old Capt. Colin Kelly Jr. of Florida, who was killed in action, heads the roll of the heroes.

His diving airplane vanished in a roaring explosion that sank the 29,000-ton Japanese battleship Haruna off the coast of Luzon Island as the pilot plunged his craft straight down at the enemy and released a stick of high explosives almost into the mouths of flaming Japanese guns.

Capt. Kelly was only one of the defense fliers and who made American skill and daring in the air felt against the invaders.

Around the air bases, they told of blows struck by Lt. Boyd D. Wagner of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, who like Kelly flew an Army Air Corps plane. Lt. Wagner raced northward to the tip of Luzon Island as the Japanese sought to land reinforcements under aerial protection in the Aparri sector.

Half a dozen enemy craft tackled him and two of them went down after a fierce dogfight. Lt. Wagner then streaked on toward the enemy landing field and dropped down until his plane was skimming treetops, his machine guns spattering bullets against Japanese craft on the ground. A dozen planes were wrecked when, his fuel running low, he turned back toward his home base.

Lt. Wagner is a former University of Pittsburgh student.

They were talking, too, of Lt. C. A. Keller of the U.S. Navy Air Force, and how he “shadowed” a Japanese battleship of the Kongo class northwest of Luzon despite steady and fierce enemy anti-aircraft fire. Lt. Keller kept his plane within sight of the 29,000-ton enemy craft until naval bombers led by Lt. Cmdr. J. V. Peterson arrived and pressed home an attack that put the vessel out of action.

But the American fliers were not the only ones who stood out in the battle against invasion forces.

Adm. Thomas C. Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet, told how Filipino fliers in the defense forces had shot down two Japanese planes out of 11 bagged since early this morning. Hart also said that Lt. H. Tutter of the U.S. Navy Air Force, had been attacked by three Japanese fighter planes at sea. He shot down one and then made a forced landing on the water, taxiing his plane to the shore where he repaired minor damages. The next morning, he returned to base.

Capt. Kelly was 26. He graduated from the University of Florida, and then went to West Point, from which he graduated four years ago. He was married and had one son.

In 1938, he finished the Primary Flying School of the Army, and the Advanced Flying School bombardment course in 1939.

He was accepted as a combat pilot in September 1940 and served in Hawaii until he was assigned to the Philippines.

Hero always wanted to be a soldier

MADISON, Florida (UP) – Capt. Colin Kelly Jr., who died in successfully dive-bombing the 29,300-ton Japanese battleship Haruna off Luzon, his father said today, “always wanted to be a soldier – ever since he was about 12 years old.”

“He always had talked about aviation. Sometimes, I thought he was almost too crazy about it,” the father said.

“But I’m proud that he did his part for our country. He was a fine specimen of manhood and I guess fairly bright. That’s how he got an appointment to West Point.”

Capt. Kelly visited his home here last February. His father said he was stationed at March Field, California, before being transferred to Honolulu. He was a graduate of Madison High School and attended the Marion Military Institute in Alabama for one year.

Hero’s mother has busy day

JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania – As it had been every day since the war began, the Wagner home was quiet and unmoving this morning.

Boyd D. Wagner Sr., the father, had gone to work. Mrs. Wagner, herself a clerk in a store here, sat at the breakfast table, her thoughts wandering to the far-off Philippines.

If only there would be some word of their son…

To be sure, they had received a radiogram Tuesday from Lt. Boyd D. Wagner Jr., saying he had received the Christmas gifts, thanks, and everything is all right.

Radiogram sent Friday

But the radiogram had been sent out Friday – and since then the Japanese had attacked the Philippines and the very air base at which their son was stationed as a commander of the 17th Pursuit Squadron.

If only…

Then suddenly the radio boomed. It was Manila coming in.

“Among the first heroes of the war announced by the Navy today,” it said, “was Lt. Boyd D. Wagner, who accounted for 14 enemy planes singlehandedly.”

“I just can’t explain the feeling I got then,” Mrs. Wagner said. “I was happy enough just to hear he was alive. But to be a hero – my!”

Breakfast was forgotten.

Mrs. Wagner grasped a phone to call her husband, an electrician, and tell him of the good news. But the line was busy.

“And it’s been busy all day,” she said.

“All of Johnstown – and more – has been calling me. I haven’t been able to get a bit of work done. I guess it’s the same with Mr. Wagner.”

And so it’s been here all day long – ever since the Navy first announced that Lt. Wagner had earned a hero’s rating by downing two Japanese planes in dogfights above the Philippines and destroying 12 others on the ground at Aparri, in northern Luzon, where the Japs are fighting to gain a foothold.

Studied at Pitt

Only 25, Lt. Wagner is a native of Emeigh, near here, and a graduate of Nanty Glo High School. He studied aeronautical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh for three years, joining the Flying Cadets in 1937.

He was commissioned a second lieutenant July 17, 1938, after completing his course at Randolph and Kelly Fields, in Texas, then ordered to active duty at Selfridge Field, Michigan.

Promoted to a first lieutenant September 9, 1940, he was shifted to Manila three months later. He was made commander of the 17th Pursuit Squadron four months ago.

---

Soviet Union, U.S. pledge rising war collaboration

Russia leaves no hint on possible aid in fight against Japan; Litvinov announces ‘full understanding’ reached in talk with Hull

WASHINGTON (UP) – The Soviet Union and the United States are informally pledged to increased collaboration against their common enemy, the Axis, but there has been no hint as of today whether the Soviet plans to offer this country the use of Siberian air bases for its war against Japan.

The Soviet Union and Japan are not at war. They have a mutual non-aggression pact.

Diplomats here have felt that the Soviet Union would probably continue its present status with Japan unless attacked, because of the necessity of concentrating all efforts on the front threatened by Germany.

However, air and naval bases along the eastern Siberian coast would be strategic points for U.S. bombers to start raids over the Japanese mainland.

Nothing was mentioned about such aid yesterday after a conference between Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Soviet Ambassador Maxim Litvinov.

Litvinov said after the conference that the Soviet Union and the United States had reached a “full understanding” on their common struggle.

Soviet ‘to do share’

Mr. Hull said in a statement earlier that the Soviets “will do their full share” in the all-out fight against the Axis. He also pointed out that when Litvinov arrived here Monday – the day the United States declared war on Japan – President Roosevelt assured him of his “firm determination” to continue aid to the Soviets.

The Hull and Litvinov remarks came amidst reports from Europe that the Soviets had rejected Nazi proposals for peace. Some reports speculated that the halting of the German drive on Moscow might be a preliminary to a Russo-German peace. But Litvinov said: “I have no doubt whatever that we will continue resistance against the Germans to a final complete victory.”

Mr. Hull’s statement – given out before he met Litvinov – appeared to be designed to refute reports that Russia was reluctant to move in the Far East lest she becomes involved in war with Japan.

Litvinov sidestepped all inquiries as to what assistance the Soviet Union might give this country.

“We shall see,” was his only answer to specific questions about bases.

“Naturally we have a common cause and a common enemy. We are fighting Hitler more than anyone else. We fully understand each other.”

Litvinov’s conference with Mr. Hull was one of a series which included a talk with Harry L. Hopkins, lend-lease supervisor, and Lord Halifax, British ambassador.

---

Nazi peace feeler spurned by Russia; Japan denounced

‘We shall see,’ Litvinov says about Soviet plans for bombing Tokyo after he confers with Roosevelt; Reds rap Nipponese treachery
By the United Press

Russia’s official Radio Kuibyshev broadcast today that the Soviet Union would never sign a peace treaty with Germany except in agreement with the United States and Britain and added: “By that time, there will no longer be a Hitler in Germany.”

There was as yet no official announcement from Russia as to what action it will take in the Pacific war.

But in Washington, Maxim Litvinov, the new Russian ambassador, the one man among great European statesmen who for years had said that joint defense by the democracies against aggressors was the sole hope of civilization, said to questioning newspaper correspondents: “Naturally we have a common cause and a common enemy. We are fighting Hitler more than anyone else. We fully understand each other.”

Litvinov sees Roosevelt

Mr. Litvinov conferred yesterday with President Roosevelt, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Lord Halifax, the British ambassador.

Asked as to the extent of assistance Russia might give in the Pacific, such as bombing Tokyo from its Siberian bases, he said, “We shall see.”

“Fine!” he exclaimed when informed that a Japanese cruiser and a destroyer had been sunk off Wake Island.

Henry Shapiro, United Press correspondent in Kuibyshev (temporary Russian diplomatic headquarters), reported that Pravda, the official Communist Party organ, bitterly denounced Japan today, saying it had attacked the United States and Great Britain treacherously and obviously after long preparation.

See defeat for Japs

“The Japanese aggressor has plunged into a very hazardous adventure which bodes him nothing but defeat,” Pravda said.

“And if he counted on the possibility of a ‘lightning victory,’ he is in for a disappointment no less than that suffered by the bloodthirsty Hitler as the result of his bandit attack on the Soviet Union.”

In Washington, denying reports of a possible Russo-German peace, Mr. Litvinov said: “I have no doubt whatever that we will continue resistance against the Germans to a final complete victory.”

Reds cite ‘powerful front’

Asked regarding the possibility of a firm American-British-Chinese-Dutch-Russian alliance, he said: “We shall see. Naturally we have a common cause and a common battle. I cannot make any statement about Japan.”

Radio Moscow quoted an editorial in Pravda, which, in discussing the Pacific situation, mentioned the United States, Britain and China as constituting a “powerful front.”

“The first partial successes by Japan in the Pacific are not decisive,” the editorial said. “The fact that Germany and Italy have declared war on the United States does not alter the position materially.”

“The Japanese wanted a quick victory, but they will be disappointed. They are confronted by a powerful front of the United States, Britain and China.

Expect long war

“The opening of a new front in the Pacific will mean increased activity on the Chinese front.

“The United States, which was already against the Hitler front, has used the interval before the war declarations to increase its production of war materials. Its production is not on full scale so far, but that will soon be made up.

“The war in the Pacific will be long and difficult. The colossal superiority of manpower and the possession of raw materials by the United States will prove decisive.”

A CBS correspondent in Kuibyshev said that the Russian government was advised officially of Japan’s declaration of war on the United States only yesterday when a State Department message reached the American embassy.

‘Dreams buried in snow’

He quoted Pravda as saying in substance:

“Hitler hoped to capture Russia up to the Ural Mountains in one or two months. Now his dreams are buried in snow.

“Hitler is ready to talk peace with Russia tomorrow if Russian leaders are willing to talk peace with him. Hitler is now dangling peace proposals before the Soviet Union, hoping that they will nibble. But the Soviet Union will sign a peace treaty with Germany only in common with Britain and the United States.”

It was added that the article was written before the German declaration of war on the United States yesterday.

---

Walsh raps Tobey’s plea for inquiry

If Navy was derelict, Roosevelt will act, senator says

WASHINGTON (UP) – Sen. David I. Walsh, D-Massachusetts, in a stirring rebuttal to renewed demands for a congressional inquiry into Sunday’s Hawaiian setback, said yesterday that if the Navy high command in Hawaii was derelict in its duty, President Roosevelt will act “in such a manner as to retain the confidence of the American people.”

The Senate Naval Affairs Committee chairman pledged he would make every effort to “strike a blow against inefficiency, against anyone derelict in his duty, against anyone slackening in the defense of our country.”

“But,” he pleaded, “at least in these early days of war and said disaster, let us have confidence in our president and trust he will lead us to victory.”

His impassioned oration was in reply to Sen. Charles W. Tobey, R-New Hampshire, who demanded to know whether Mr. Walsh’s committee contemplated an investigation of the initial “disaster.”

Former isolationists

Mr. Tobey’s question pitted against each other two men who only a week ago had been eye-to-eye as members of the isolationist bloc.

The “time is past” for criticism that is not constructive, Mr. Walsh told Mr. Tobey, who only a few minutes before had voted for the declaration of war against Germany and Italy.

“We must have confidence in our war president – not a Democratic president, not a New Deal president, but a war president serving in a new role which will mark his place in history; and I hope and pray it will be a high place.”

He told Mr. Tobey, “It is not always possible to obtain accurate information of a naval encounter immediately after it has happened.

Two questions

“Every man there in the service had to ask himself the question, ‘Are they [the Japanese] coming back and what can we do to meet them?’ rather than ‘Gather all the details, find out what has happened and report to Washington.’”

“Every man out there in the service must know the facts – they cannot be kept silent,” Mr. Walsh said.

He pointed out that a war president must check “his natural impulse” to reveal all the facts; he must remember that “we cannot disclose too much that will comfort the enemy.”

“I think we should wait,” Sen. Walsh concluded, “until the commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy thinks it is his solemn duty – to retain the confidence of the American people – to speak for our information.”

Tobey insistent

Mr. Tobey had insisted earlier that “the people in this crisis want the truth” and said he had “listened in vain” to Mr. Roosevelt for information on the Hawaiian attack.

His remarks came after Mr. Walsh had told the Senate the Navy had just received the Hawaiian casualty list, but that it would not be made public for two or three days so the next of kin could be notified first.

They were countered by Sen. Millard E. Tydings, D-Maryland, World War veteran, who told Mr. Tobey the president “would be wrong” to disclose the facts of the naval engagement to the Japanese.

Mr. Tobey then read from a Christian Science Monitor article of December 9 and, emphasizing such phrases as one asserting that the Navy had been “caught napping,” said he had been told by two senators that “the mechanical listening devices [at Hawaii] were not in working order.”

Sen. Scott W. Lucas, D-Illinois, accused Mr. Tobey of being willing to “indict all those men in Pearl Harbor on information of a newspaper article and two senators.”

Mr. Tobey shouts

“Why wasn’t the steam up?” Mr. Tobey shouted. “I could ask a thousand questions. I wouldn’t want to tell all I heard.”

Mr. Lucas labelled Mr. Tobey’s remarks as “billingsgate and harangue,” based on admittance of a lack of facts.

“You may think you can run the war from the floor of the Senate,” Mr. Lucas said angrily, “but you can’t. When you come to the Senate and give to the world such information, you do an injustice to your country and your people.”

Sen. Arthur H. Vandenberg, R-Michigan, said, “The one consolation in this affair to me is that the distinguished senator from Massachusetts is chairman of our Naval Affairs Committee. I have confidence that he is on guard and that he will move with courage and effectiveness whenever it is necessary.”

---

Newspapers assure Roosevelt of support

NEW YORK (UP) – The American Newspaper Publishers Association said today that the nation’s newspapers had assured President Roosevelt of their support and “await your call for any service we can render.”

Press Secretary Stephen Early said in reply that Mr. Roosevelt “is most appreciative of the pledge of active support for the defense of the American way of life which you give on behalf of the newspapers of the United States.”

Italians urged loyalty

NEW YORK – The supreme duty of six million Americans of Italian origin is loyalty to the United States, Generoso Pope said today in a signed editorial in his daily newspapers, Il Progresso Italo-Americano and Corriere d’America.

---

Roosevelt says ore supply is adequate

WASHINGTON (PWB) – President Roosevelt, in a press conference announcement today, showed optimism over the winter supply of iron ore for defense manufacturing.

Noting that the Great Lakes ore traffic has now been closed down by ice, the president said that during the past season, ore deliveries had been boosted to 86 million long tons, in contrast to 60 million last year and the 66 million record in World War I.

Mr. Roosevelt said the result is that ore stockpiles contain two million more tons than at this time last year.

Additional ore boats will go into service next season, he added.

---

‘Dangerous’ aliens will be interned

WASHINGTON (UP) – Enemy aliens will be interned for the duration of the war only in cases where there is “strong reason to fear for the internal security” of the United States, the Justice Department announced today.

This announcement, however, was not expected to save from detention camps the bulk of the 2,303 Germans, Japanese and Italians already seized as “dangerous” aliens. They will be given hearings by review boards in each judicial district. Altogether there are more than 1,100,000 German, Italian, Japanese nationals in the country.

Attorney General Francis Biddle informed U.S. attorneys and the Immigration and Naturalization Service that aliens seized were to be permitted to see attorneys and their families. They may also send and receive censored letters and use telephones under supervision.

---

Companies reject air raid insurance

NEW YORK (UP) – Insurance companies refused today to insure property in the United States and its territories against air-raid damage although demands were heavy and increasing.

The companies could not agree on a standard rate.

To determine what course to take, the Executive Committee of the General Brokers’ Association of the Metropolitan District, Inc., appointed a committee to confer with federal and state authorities.

Another group of insurance men was reported to be already in Washington, trying to find out whether the government is willing to take complete assumption of war risks as the government of Britain did when the Germans were air-raiding the British Isles.

---

Practice blackouts urged

CHICAGO – Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia of New York, director of the Office of Civilian Defense, said today he believed Chicago and all major cities of the United States should have practice blackouts soon.

ABCD means JIG is up for Axis bloc

MEXICO, Missouri (UP) – Col. C. R. Stribling of Missouri Military Academy, when informed of America’s declaration of war, said: “It’s as plain as ABCD [America-Britain-China-Dutch East Indies] that the JIG [Japan-Italy-Germany] is up.”

[NormanStewart]

I DARE SAY —
They love America

By Florence Fisher Parry

Yesterday, Hitler’s voice screamed to his people that Germany had declared war on the United States of America. The little people of Italy had heard the news from their dictator just a few moments before.

A little while later all the people of the world heard the fateful news; and I am thinking of those little people now and what their hearts must hold. For this news is very apt to bore right through the layers and layers f conditioning to which they have been subjected for a long, long time.

This news, more than any other that they have yet received, strikes right to the core. Never mind their protestations, never mind the automatic reflexes that years and years of servitude and fear have imposed upon them. This news strikes them like a knell.

“Do not ask for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee,” they know.

Rising tide

Picture them today, these people of the continent of Europe. Picture their secret thoughts.

They have been told to hate America, but they have not been able to hate America.

They have been told not to fear America, but they fear America.

There is not one – not one – who, could he make a choice, would not prefer to be right here.

In the factories of Germany, in the fields of Italy, who is not now envying that son, that cousin, that brother, who years ago came to America and found a new life here? There is not one who would not now relinquish every human possession to be in the shoes of their Americanized brothers.

Not even Hitler has been able to stamp out that spontaneous affection that is felt for America by the little people of Europe. America has always been Utopia to them, the paradise of free men moving freely about and enjoying the privileges of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

They have been taught in recent years hard lessons in hate and contempt, and they have tried hard to believe this lesson, but in their hearts they do not believe it.

Land of promise still

In their hearts America is still the indestructible land of promise. And yesterday, as they heard that this land is against them, you may be sure they quaked, they paled, and the last vestige of hope ebbed from their hearts. They know they are doomed. They cannot win. Not against freedom. They cared not – do not – want to.

Thus it is that America finds a sudden new ally, more formidable than all the implements of warfare that the combined democracies can devise – that gaunt fifth horseman, FEAR, that is riding over the terrain of Italy and Germany today!

And by the same token, in every conquered country, the fading spirit of its people is fanned into new life. Bowed heads are lifted up again, and flagging hearts are pounding. In Czechoslovakia, in Poland, in Norway, and in France, in all the other beaten countries, the word has gone forth – America is in the war! So help us God, they are saying.

---

Reds claim gains as British bomb Nazi territory

Empire forces in North Africa check withdrawal of German and Italian troops westward for Tobruk; quick victory predicted
By the United Press

Russia claimed gains at several points today as Germany made little comment on the campaign against the Soviets but admitted that some damage was inflicted by British planes which had carried the war into Nazi territory.

British mobile columns in North Africa are impeding a German and Italian withdrawal westward from Tobruk in Libya, reliable London reports said. British forces have captured guns, prisoners and transport, it was learned.

Russia reported that its forces were pursuing the Germans beyond Yelets, 240 miles southeast of Moscow, and cavalry detachments had pushed to River S (probably the Sosna), after routing an enemy regiment and taking 20 guns.

‘Heavy success’ reported

NBC heard the BBC say last night that the Russians had retaken 100 villages after their occupation of Yelets in an advance extending over 12 miles.

The Russian radio said the Russians had scored a “heavy success” in the Volokolamsk sector, having, after three days’ fighting, driven the Germans fro important, strong positions.

The radio said another unit had recaptured Point K, and the Germans had lost 16 guns, 11 heavy machine guns, 11 motorcycles and 10 cars in the engagement.

As regards loot, the Moscow radio said the retaking of Tikhvin had yielded 42 German guns, 27 tanks, 17,000 mines, many lorries and a large amount of ammunition.

‘Lies’ ridiculed

The Moscow radio ridiculed “German lies” that bad weather was responsible for shelving the Moscow offensive for the winter. The weather is not so bad now, the dispatch said, and real winter is to come: “The truth is the Red Army stopped the German offensive.”

The Russian communique last night said the enemy had been engaged on all fronts and the Russians had engaged in fierce battles in a number of sectors on the western and southwestern fronts. It said six German planes were shot down Wednesday, against two Russian aircraft losses.

Russian aviation was reported to have destroyed or damaged 20 German tanks, 420 lorries loaded with troops and supplies, 40 field and anti-aircraft guns, 140 carts loaded with supplies and dispersed a regiment of infantry.

Nazis admit damage

Germany reported that British planes, resuming their aerial offensive, had bombed several places in North and Northwest Germany during the night.

High explosives and incendiary bombs caused “some damage to dwelling houses and some civilian casualties,” Radio Berlin said. It added that one British plane was shot down.

A British Air Ministry communique said RAF planes raided Cologne and “elsewhere in Western Germany” and bombed the docks at Le Havre and Brest in Occupied France. Other planes sowed mines in enemy waters.

Three planes were reported missing.

Finland, now as an Axis partner, aligned against the United States, said its troops had “dispersed and almost annihilated” three Russian divisions in “bitter fighting in the last few weeks.”

Italy’s contribution to the Axis war, according to its official news agency, was a bombing attack during the night on Britain’s naval base at La Valletta, Malta.

Declaration denied

Axis news reaching the United States now in devious ways by means of radio broadcasts and dispatches from the few remaining neutral countries, notably Sweden, indicated a letdown after the German and Italian declarations of war on the United States yesterday.

The German official news agency said Hungary declared war on America last night, that the American minister in Budapest was given his passports and that the Hungarian minister in Washington had been ordered home.

The Hungarian minister in Washington said his country had not declared war.

British forces made penetrations beyond Ain El Gazala, 40 miles west of Tobruk, and captured hundreds of prisoners, British general headquarters for the Middle East said.

“New Zealand troops from Tobruk yesterday reached a point just east of Gazala,” the communique said. “Indian and British troops from the southeast reached the escarpment south of Gazala, capturing about 500 German and Italian prisoners. They then pressed on west of Gazala, where another 120 prisoners were taken.”

Clear path seen

The report from British headquarters in Cairo that Ain El Gazala had been encircled by imperial forces was interpreted in London to mean that the British now have disposed of or are in hand of remaining enemy mechanical forces in the Western Desert. The British, it was said, now had started rolling across Cyrenaica.

Since Gazala is 40 miles west of Tobruk, the Tobruk defenses now apparently are clear of the enemy.

There appeared to be no evidence that the Germans possess mechanical reserves anywhere nearly sufficient to block a British westward advance. It was said that one German mechanized force, badly beaten southwest of Tobruk, had been disposed of. It was expected now that the British conquest of Libya would unfold with increasing speed.

---

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

WASHINGTON – The storm of criticism over the Navy’s tragic failure at Hawaii broke privately, and before the public knew any details, at the president’s Sunday night session with Cabinet and congressional chiefs.

Sen. Tom Connally of Texas, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, was particularly insistent in asking blunt questions as to why our forces were caught unprepared.

As the Cabinet and congressional advisers filed into the large red room on the second floor of the White House, the president greeted them grimly, saying he supposed they had all been listening to the radio reports and knew what had happened; that there was little to add except to say, of course, that he would ask Congress to declare war.

“But Mr. President,” spoke up Sen. Connally, “what in the world was wrong with our forces at Hawaii? Apparently, they weren’t on the job. How did they get caught like that?”

The president replied he was unable to answer, as complete reports had not been received, but on the basis of reports which had come in, the damage to manpower and equipment was pretty heavy.

Pressed by Sen. Connally for details, the president said that on the basis of information received up to then, at least one battleship and one destroyer had been sunk and about 1,500 killed.

“It’s amazing to me that our Army and Navy forces weren’t prepared for an attack,” said Sen. Connally. “I can’t understand how that Japanese airplane carrier and those submarines could have approached so close without someone being aware of them.”

Spat with Knox

The plain-talking Texan also turned his quiz guns on Navy Secretary Knox, demanding sharply: “What’s the matter with those commanders of yours out there?”

Mr. Knox defended the officers, contending they were brave and conscientious.

“I didn’t question their courage or integrity,” retorted Sen. Connally. “What the country wants to know is why our forces were caught napping.”

Republican congressional chiefs, Charles McNary of the Senate and Joe Martin of the House, said nothing until the conference broke up. Then, both warmly shook the president’s hand and assured him of their wholehearted support henceforth.

“The die is cast, Mr. President,” said Sen. McNary gravely. “We’re all shoulder to shoulder until we see this thing through.”

“Yes, from now on you can count on 100 percent support for your foreign policies from our side of the aisle,” added Mr. Martin.

“Thanks,” replied the president, with an affectionate grin. “I always knew I could count on both of you in the showdown.”

Annapolis admirals

On the night Japan caught American forces napping in Hawaii, Gov. Charles Edison of New Jersey, formerly secretary of the navy, was being entertained in Washington. Very few details of the attack had trickled in at that time. But immediately Mr. Edison remarked:

“Judging by the news so far, they have used the strategy we had always suspected. By this time, I would say the Japanese had taken Guam, Wake and Kodiak Bay (in the Aleutian Islands).”

What ex-Secretary of the Navy Edison referred to was the fact that the Navy many times has staged its Pacific maneuvers on the theory that Japan would make a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. In fact, just two years ago, the Army and Navy staged war games around Hawaii, and the Army “sank” the Navy by using exactly the same strategy of the Japanese – getting up early and taking them by surprise.

Furthermore, even if U.S. Armed Forces had not rehearsed these tactics, everyone knew that it was this same strategy of surprise and flank attack which has won Hitler victory after victory. His bombers wiped out Polish airdromes before Polish planes could get off the ground. His troops picked out the one spot in the French Maginot Line, the Meuse, which no Frenchman ever thought he would try.

The fact that U.S. admirals ignored these lessons is now coming under congressional scrutiny. But the explanation is no hard to find. It is in the Annapolis clique of admirals who are the real rulers of the Navy.

For instance, the commander of the Scouting Fleet in the Pacific is Adm. Walter S. Anderson. As commander of the Scouting Fleet, it was his job to scout for and detect any enemy approaching Honolulu.

However, Adm. Anderson was once commander of the 4th Cruiser Division, and during naval maneuvers in the Caribbean in 1938 his entire fleet was “sunk.” He had permitted his ships to come within the direct line of fire of the big guns of the opposing fleet.

This was a blunder which most officers could not easily live down. However, Adm. Anderson was an Annapolis classmate of Adm. Harold Stark, now chief of Naval Operations and a power in the Navy. Later, to the surprise of almost everyone, he was promoted to the key command of the Scouting Fleet in the Pacific, where he was supposed to ward off enemy attacks.

Congress flashes

While awaiting the appearance of the president, the Republican and Democratic sides of the House presented a striking contrast. The Republicans seemed to have something weighing on their minds – maybe their America First voting records… Charley West, former congressman and undersecretary of the interior, who is suing a defense contractor for some $600,000 in commissions, besieged Speaker Sam Rayburn’s office for a pass to the packed galleries… Mrs. Roosevelt took a seat behind one of the temporary steel girders in the gallery reserved for her. She gave the better seats to members of her staff.

---

McLemore: Pacific Montana congressman would make a perfect ‘enemy wife’ for any American male

By Henry McLemore

NEW YORK – It’s a shame that Miss Jeannette Rankin is Miss Jeannette Rankin.

She should be Mrs. Somebody-or-Other.

The Montana congresswoman, who voted against a declaration of war by this country against Japan, is in many ways every man’s dream girl.

She has qualities which would make her close to an ideal wife.

Despite Japan’s treacherous attack on this country Miss Rankin said that she did not believe we had been a victim of aggression. She dismissed the bombing as she would a run in her stocking.

Now, any woman who is that full of sweetness and light, and who has such a complete inability to see what is going on, would be a fine catch for any man. Miss Rankin’s husband would escape all the declarations of war that go on in so many American homes.

He could come rolling in from the club in the middle of the night, knock over a piece of furniture here and there, and still be assured that the former Miss Rankin would greet him with a sweet Montana drawl and thank him for getting home so early.

No fear of ‘enemy’

He could leave the ice box door open without having the “enemy” move on the attack the next morning. He could throw his clothes around and be confident that they would be picked up for him quietly and not with the usual accompaniment of “I certainly have enough to do around here without hanging up YOUR clothes. Why don’t hang them up as you take off, I’ll never know.”

Miss Rankin would be the sort of wife, I feel sure, who wouldn’t object to a little friendly rifling of her purse. There comes a time in every husband’s life when he needs to tap the reserve deep in his wife’s pocketbook.

The same spirit that made her overlook the “naughtiness” of the Japanese bombers would undoubtedly cause Miss Rankin to forgive and forget the countless other “acts of aggression” that the average wife won’t stand for.

Could object to cooking

Her husband would never be attacked for not liking what she served for dinner. He could turn up his nose at the meal without having her sever pleasant relations and say: “I have asked you time and again what you would like for dinner and you never will tell me. So I have to give you what I think you’ll like. Why don’t you try planning the meals for a week?”

Also, the congresswoman from Montana doesn’t sound like a woman who thinks that ashtrays are the only places to put ashes. She probably would understand that the floor, the fireplace, the pockets of suits, the cuffs of trousers, potted plants and the window still are handy and natural receptacles for ashes and cigarette butts.

Can you imagine a woman who wasn’t disturbed by invaders’ bombs being bothered by a setback at a poker game? Can you imagine her raising a fuss because shaving soap and razors weren’t put away?

You know the more I think about it, fellows, the more I know that if the laws against bigamy weren’t so strict, I would be on my way to Washington now to offer my hand to Miss Rankin. What were the men of Beaverhead, Broadwater, Deer Lodge, Silver Bow, Flathead and the other counties which go to make up the first congressional district which she represents, thinking of to let her slip through their fingers?

Candidate for ‘Miss Tokyo’

Here is a woman who is so pacific that she can’t even see the trouble in the Pacific. You couldn’t only pull the wool over her eyes – you could pull an entire flock of sheep without her being conscious of it.

And here’s something else to remember:

Even when she says “no,” as she did in Congress this week, it doesn’t mean anything.

And here’s something else to remember too:

The chances are she’ll go on to even greater fame by being voted Miss Tokyo of 1941 by the Japanese.

---

‘I’ll go where my husband goes,’ says U.S. citizen wed to Nazi naval attache

American wife of German envoy declares ‘I won’t go home’
By Evelyn Peyton Gordon, Scripps-Howard staff writer

WASHINGTON – I telephoned the California-born wife of Vice Adm. Robert Witthoeft-Emden, German naval attache here.

A solemn but pleasant admiral answered the phone personally.

“Darling,” I heard him summon his wife.

“Are you an American citizen?” I asked her.

“Yes,” said Frau Witthoeft.

“What will you do when members of the German staff start for Europe?”

“I will go where my husband goes. Wouldn’t you?”

At Warrenton, Virginia, is the Countess Caracciolo di Melito, visiting her father, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Oscar T. Crosby.

Miriam Crosby married her handsome Italian count at Naples in 1915, a few days after Italy declared war on Germany. She is an Italian citizen. Her husband is in Unoccupied France on a repatriation commission, and their son, Ludovico, is in the Italian Navy. She has been in this country nearly two years.

For some weeks, the countess has been consulting the State Department and the Italian embassy about her status, and both have advised her not to worry. But today the situation is more complex. Will she return to an Italy which at the moment is empty of both her husband and son? Can she remain at her father’s estate? Can she be interned?

Up in New York are Signore Lais and her daughter, Edna. Signora Lais is the American-born wife of a former naval attache of the Italian embassy. When Adm. Lais was recalled to Italy months ago because of a “leak,” his wife and daughter remained in New York. But they are Italian citizens, or were at least until recently.

In a beautiful villa in Florence, Italy, is Signora Rosso, the former Frances Wilkinson Bunker of Washington and Chicago. When she was married in Paris a few years ago to the then Italian ambassador at Moscow, she became an Italian citizen, and eventually her assets in this country were impounded. Her ex-husband, Arthur Bunker, an OPM dollar-a-year man, has had no word from her. Neither has their daughter, Adele, who is selling Christmas books at Brentano’s.

Frau Thomsen, wife of the German charge d’affaires, was not answering the telephone. Some time ago, when there was a threat that diplomatic relations would be broken, she said, “I won’t go home – ever. I won’t go back to that place.” Nobody believed that she felt as she often said she felt about Hitler. These next days will tell whether the titian-haired Hungarian Bebe Thomsen was only acting a part.

---

British estimate Jap fleet strength

LONDON (UP) – The Press Association, a British news agency, giving “reliable approximations” of the strength of the Japanese fleet, said today that the most recent information credited Japan with 15 aircraft carriers “not taking into account ships sunk by the United States Navy.”

The Japanese craft were said to include six seaplane carriers and nine other aircraft carriers.

Japan’s naval strength, which has been one of the world’s most closely guarded secrets, was believed to include 10 battleships, twelve 8-inch gun cruisers, six 6-inch gun cruisers, 14 cruisers armed with 5.9-inch guns, about 126 destroyers and 86 submarines, the Press Association said.

The Japanese were also said to have a force of destroyers and small craft used in northern waters for the protection of the fishing industry and in the mandated islands.

The strength of the Japanese fleet air arm was estimated at about 1,550 planes, about 500 of which were embarked on carriers and other ships. The rest were reported shore-based in Japan, Formosa, Indochina and the mandated islands.

There is no separate Japanese air force. The army and the navy each has its own. The Press Association gave no estimates of Japanese army air strength.

Hitler nervous, Swiss paper says

ZURICH (UP) – The newspaper Die Tats reported today from Berlin that although Adolf Hitler spoke calmly in yesterday’s war speech to the Reichstag, definite nervousness could occasionally be detected in his voice.

Die Tats said that once while slowly approaching one theme, Hitler broke a match or pencil and at another time tore a scrap of paper to bits.

[NormanStewart]

Ford to extend UAW contract to bomb plant

At least 60,000 men will be employed at Ypsilanti, Michigan

DETROIT (UP) – An agreement, under which provisions of the Ford Motor Company’s union shop checkoff contract with the United Automobile Workers (CIO) would be extended to employees of the firm’s vast $58,500,000 bomber plant near Ypsilanti, Michigan, was disclosed today.

Ford personnel director Harry Bennett said no new contract would be required but that the 60,000-70,000 men eventually to be employed at the plant will be blanketed under the existing agreement with the UAW-CIO. Union sources confirmed the plan.

Extension of the agreement which already embraces 120,000 Ford workers throughout the country followed disclosure by CIO President Philip Murray last month that he had conferred with Ford officials on the matter during the CIO national convention.

Although present orders call for Ford to turn out 75 completed bombers and 100 complete sub-assemblies a month, they are expected to be stepped up considerably in view of the war against Japan, Germany and Italy. The bomber plant, which with the airport cover 975 miles, can be geared to build a four-motored bomber every hour.

---

U.S. to recruit closed plants as arms works

Government will utilize factories shutdown by shortages
By John W. Love, Scripps-Howard staff writer

WASHINGTON (SHS) – Until the government gets a better slant on the present supplies and future flow of vital materials from the Far East, severe reductions will be applied to all the civilian industries using them. That appears to mean practically all metal industries.

The new case of factory shutdowns thus created, it is disclosed, will be utilized to turn over still more of these plants to armament manufacture. The emphasis is now definitely swinging to such conversion. Though a number of new plants are yet to be erected, the transformation of existing works is to be the main order of expansion in arms production for winter and spring.

Certainties of heavy disemployment in any circumstances for intervals of weeks to months, plus an imperative need for every tool which can be utilized are ending the long argument over whether planes and tanks should be turned out in revamped old plants or in specially designed new ones.

Auto rationing seen

For these reasons, members of the auto industry here would not be surprised to see the manufacture of passenger seats cease altogether by March, if not sooner. Rationing of new cars is expected in any event, with buyers required to have priority tickets.

Makers of cars were notified yesterday they could produce 102,000 passenger models next February, or a little more than a fifth of last February’s output, but the order temporarily stopping the sale of tires at retail impressed them more.

This order is expected to be followed by others which would husband the strategic metals derived from Chinese, East Indian and Philippine sources. Though all of these, except tin, can be obtained from American or nearby sources, time is needed to open new mines and enlarge others, and the risks are regarded as too great to permit chances to be taken until the whole story is known.

Agencies study supplies

Half a dozen agencies in Washington have been going over the American outlook for supplies which have been interrupted by the Pacific war, and in today’s meeting of the Supply, Priorities and Allocations Board, under the management of Donald M. Nelson, all this information was being brought together.

Orders similar to that applied to tires would remain in effect either until the naval situation cleared somewhat or the government determined the assured American supply.

May centralize purchasing

Out of the present uncertainties may come a centralized importing agency under RFC management, government takeovers of warehouse space for storing the materials it is about to acquire, and general standardization of the civilian goods still allowed to be made, from refrigerators on down.

Another upshot may be centralized purchasing by the Army, Navy, Maritime Commission and Lend-Lease.

Machinery adaptable

The uncertainty is partly the result of incomplete reorganization of the OPM and its related supply agencies. Further moves in this process are expected next week or the week after.

In the movement to convert existing plants to the production of arms, defense agencies have collected a quantity of information on the mechanical resources of these plants. It is understood that in the Chevrolet works in Buffalo, now being converted to make airplane engines, about 30 percent of the machinery is adaptable.

In a typical Detroit assembly system, about 40 percent of the machines and machine tools can be used to make bomber engines; about 50 percent can be used to make tanks; for machine guns, the proportion is lower. The rest of the tools would be greased up for storage.

Known as the Reuther Plan – for the officer of the United Auto Workers who proposed it – the conversion movement has not been so enthusiastically supported by workers in the industry in recent months because of the layoffs required during the changeover, and the discovery that fewer men would be employed afterward than before. This number may be increased, however, by running the plants day and night.

---

CANDIDLY SPEAKING —
Women needed for defense jobs, but not as wardens

They can be ‘much more valuable’ in other posts, officials say; work categories listed
By Maxine Garrison

WANTED – 500 First Aid Instructors.
Five hundred volunteer housing canvassers.
Two hundred ambulance attendants.
Two hundred water safety guides.

As many stenographers, typists and file clerks as are available.

NOT wanted: Women air raid wardens.

There, in a classified ad nutshell, is the story of Pittsburgh’s Civilian Defense needs at the moment.

The great preference of women applicants for air raid warden posts, coming on top of the fact that there have been 3,000 applicants (both men and women) this week alone, complicates matters at Civilian Defense offices in the City-County Building.

Men are preferred

It is explained that air raid wardens are not the most immediate need and, besides, men are preferred for those posts.

But that women need not feel slighted… […]. Instructors are needed for the primary first air course (an instructor must have completed the first two courses).

There is an immediate call for canvassers to compile lists of available houses, apartments and rooms for defense workers. There is a shortage of ambulance attendants (who require first aid training in such matters as lifting a patient from stretcher to ambulance).

Rush of clerical work

Water safety guides will be those people who can swim well and can handle small river craft in case of emergency.

The 3,000 applications within a week makes it clear why stenographers, typists and file clerks are wanted.

In brief, say Civilian Defense authorities, “We do want women – lots of them.

“But we don’t want women air raid wardens, and we hope they’ll understand how much more valuable they can be in other capacities.”

For efficiency’s sake, Pittsburgh’s Civilian Defense organization next week will inaugurate a method used here, as far as is known, for the first time in such work. To facilitate the enrollment of thousands of department store workers, registration centers will be set up in four downtown department stores.

---

America First set to disband; victory urged

National directors’ action approved ‘in advance’ by Lindbergh

CHICAGO (UP) – The America First Committee, pre-war foe of administration foreign policy, prepared today to disband its organization.

In a final statement announcing dissolution plans, national directors of the committee reaffirmed their belief in its principles but said the nation’s only wartime goal was “victory.” The statement said the committee’s objectives had been “an impregnable defense for our nation and avoidance of involvement in the European and Asiatic war.”

“Our principles were right,” it said. “Had they been followed, war could have been avoided. No good purpose can now be served by considering what might have been, had our objectives been obtained…

“We are at war. Today, though there may be many important subsidiary considerations, the primary objective is not difficult to state. It can be completely defined in one word: Victory.”

Gen. Robert E. Wood, national chairman, said the national directors’ action had been approved “in advance” by Charles A. Lindbergh, one of the committee’s principal spokesmen.

The statement appealed for preservation of “fundamental” American rights during the war and expressed hope that “secret treaties committing America to imperialistic aims or vast burdens in other parts of the world shall be scrupulously avoided.” It also urged its members to support the nation’s war effort.

---

Spain closes border points

Move isolates Americans fleeing to Lisbon

MADRID (UP) – Spanish authorities today closed the frontier at Port Bou and La Junquera for entry and exit from this country except for persons having special permission from the government.

Normally a Spanish exit visa is sufficient to leave, while a consular visa is sufficient for entry. Now a traveler must in addition have a special document.

The frontier at Irun was not affected.

There was no explanation of the action, which came as Spain anxiously awaited a definition of its position in the new extension of the war.

Vichy dispatches said that Americans in Europe attempting to reach Lisbon to embark on the last American ship today were isolated by action of the Spanish government in closing the French-Spanish frontier. Hundreds of Americans were halted at Perpignan and Hendaye.

Observes believed the government would determine the ultimate position of Latin America before reaching its final attitude on the war. The new World War was the major conversational topic in Madrid with the people indicating a desire for peace.

If Spain enters the conflict, the evacuation problem will be increased. There are from 250 to 300 American nationals in Spain, aside from a considerable number of Filipinos and Puerto Ricans. Many of these, however, have relinquished their American citizenship.

---

Poll: War with Japan fails to surprise American public

Voters consistently favored strong policy in Pacific throughout last two years, despite risk of hostilities, analysis of polls reveals
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion

PRINCETON, New Jersey – With the outbreak of war against Japan, one of the pertinent questions of interest is this: Did the common people of the United States make a realistic appraisal of Japanese-American relations as those relations developed over the past few years?

In matters relating to defense and foreign policy the point is sometimes made that public opinion is of less importance than in matters of domestic concern, because the public is not familiar with all the facts behind diplomatic moves. Now that war has finally come, it is possible to evaluate objectively the views of the common people regarding Japan, as revealed in some 40 surveys by the American Institute of Public Opinion over the last six years.

Such an analysis indicates that the public has consistently during the past two years favored stronger measures against Japan than any put into effect previous to the summer of 1941.

In the summer of 1939 – after the Chinese-Japanese war had been in progress two years, but before the general war broke out in Europe – an overwhelming majority of voters, 82 percent, were in favor of a strict embargo on the shipment of war materials to Japan.

Willing to risk war

By October 1940, the embargo sentiment had increased to 90 percent. It was not until 10 months later that the U.S. government froze Japanese credits and put a strict embargo into effect.

Moreover, ever since July of this year a majority of voters have been in favor of taking definite steps to curb Japanese expansion even if it meant risking war. This sentiment increased sharply when the Japanese invaded Indochina in July. From that moment institute surveys found two-thirds or more of the American people willing to take the risk of war in order to stop Japan from becoming more powerful.

The week before war broke out, the vote stood at 69 percent in favor of curbing the Japanese at the risk of war, 20 percent opposed and 11 percent undecided.

The public’s desire for stiffer measures did not develop in the early days of Japanese expansion.

Complacency jolted

When the Japanese-Chinese war broke out in 1937, the majority of voters, surveys showed, were not willing to take sides. Even after the war had been going on for several months, the institute found 55 percent saying they were “neutral” or without a choice regarding the outcome of the war between China and Japan.

From this early attitude of indifference, the country was soon jolted by a sequence of events which brought the Japanese threat closer to American interests. Japanese forces moved deeper into China, bombed the gunboat USS Panay, signed a pact with the Axis powers, moved nearer the Philippines, threatening the great rubber, oil and mineral resources of the South Pacific, and finally invaded French Indochina.

Many expected war

In less than two years from the outbreak of the Chinese-Japanese war, a substantial majority of Americans came to favor a boycott of Japanese goods, and in addition, a strict embargo on war shipments to Japan.

Although the particular time and place of the outbreak of hostilities came as a surprise, war with Japan was not unexpected by the public.

Only last week the institute completed a survey which showed that among persons who had given any thought to the possibility of war, a substantial majority felt that some clash was inevitable in the near future.

---

Simms: Neutrals face Axis squeeze in Nazi outbreak

Hitler expected to seek ‘collaboration’ of non-combatants
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor

WASHINGTON – Fast and furious sashes, both diplomatic and military, are expected now on the part of Adolf Hitler – in Western Europe, in the basin of the Mediterranean, and in North Africa.

That the Fuehrer will put the squeeze on France, Spain, Portugal and Turkey to “collaborate” with the Axis is regarded as certain. His system always has been to strike while the iron is hot. He can quote Japanese claims to supremacy in the Pacific, his own “victory” over Russia, and the Nazi-Fascist declarations of war against the United States, as “proof” of Axis might.

If France surrenders, all North and West Africa will be turned over to the Axis as French Indochina was turned over to Japan.

If Spain succumbs, the Nazis will be planted on both sides of the Straits of Gibraltar and the British fortress there will be boxed in.

To bellow at neutrals

If Portugal gives up, the strategically placed Azores and Cape Verde Islands will become German air and naval bases. Pan American Clipper planes regularly make the Azores-New York flight non-stop, carrying huge loads.

The hop from the Cape Verdes to Martinique and Guadeloupe, France’s islands in the West Indies, is shorter still. And from these to Puerto Rico, Guantanamo Bay, the Panama Canal and other American bases, the distances become negligible. French Dakar, on the African West Coast, is only 1,800 miles from Brazil.

Accordingly, Hitler is now expected to thump his chest and bellow at the remaining neutrals and would-be neutrals in an effort to frighten them into tossing all this into the Axis balance – promising them a great and happy future if they will, and threatening them with annihilation if they won’t.

Hitler eyes Turkey

Turkey will be told that President Roosevelt’s recent promise of lend-lease aid was an empty gesture. The war in the Pacific, Hitler will argue, will eat up all the munitions the United States can turn out. Even Britain, Russia and China will have to do with less. Moreover, he will doubtless say, with the Pacific blocked by the Japanese and the Mediterranean by the Axis, the only way the American goods could reach Turkey would be via Cape Town. And once the Nazis are at Dakar, American ships will find it difficult to round the Cape into the Indian Ocean.

Hitler’s puzzling moves in Russia also appear to fit into this general picture. By straightening out and somewhat shortening the line from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea,

Flareup imminent

All signs, therefore, point to an imminent flareup of intense activity – in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. Sensational, even desperate, Axis moves may be expected for the simple reason that few believe Hitler’s present setup can last long. Italy is known to be virtually out as an active fighting partner. Japan is said to have about a year’s supply of certain basic war stocks, after which her efforts will begin to lag.

As for Germany, the problem is how long she can carry the hod along for the Axis in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Atlantic Ocean and hold down the turbulent occupied areas at the same time.

Hitler, therefore, is widely believed to be desperately eager to make hay while the sun shines.

---

Donate Christmas boxes early, Henderson urges

WASHINGTON (UP) – If you’ve received any packages marked “Don’t Open Until Christmas,” please ignore that injunction.

That appeal was made today by Price Administrator Leon Henderson who asked that gift boxes and wrappings be contributed to the national waste paper collection campaign.

Mr. Henderson explained that paper board is in great demand to package war materials and the “raw material” from which it is made is used paper and cardboard cartons and boxes.

U.S. in seventh war

By the United Press

The United States was engaged in its seventh war today. They are:

War	Started	Ended
Revolutionary War	April 19, 1775	January 14, 1784
War of 1812	June 18, 1812	February 17, 1815
War with Mexico	April 25, 1846	May 30, 1848
Civil War	April 15, 1861	August 20, 1866
War with Spain	April 21, 1898	April 11, 1899
World War I	April 6, 1917	July 2, 1921
World War II	December 11, 1941

[NormanStewart]

Oriental says he exposed attack plan on U.S. Pacific possessions last year

December thrust by Japs predicted by Sino-Korean league – Second-rate men and equipment used in China, leader says
By Helen Buchalter, Scripps-Howard staff writer

This map, taken from a Japanese naval textbook, shows the triple route of attack in the Pacific. The symbols at the right read, ‘Imperial Japanese Naval Attack.’

WASHINGTON (SHS) – A map, extracted from a Japanese naval textbook and showing the plan of attack almost exactly as it occurred Sunday, was turned over to the American Naval Intelligence a year ago last October.

Information gathered from secret sources, suggesting that Japan would attack our Pacific possessions either in December 1941 or February 1942 was sent to the State Department more than a month ago.

The warnings were sent by an underground information-gathering organization known as the Sino-Korean People’s League, which set up a Washington office in 1939.

The most frustrated man in Washington today is Kilsoo K. Haan, 40-year-old Korean representative of the league, whose scrapbook is a tragic memento of warnings aimed desperately at putting the United States on the alert for just such an attack as shocked the nation December 7.

Letter to Hull

The letter, sent to Secretary Hull October 28, 1941, reads in part as follows:

“Hirota, former foreign minister, now the ‘big stick’ of the Black Dragon Society, in their August 26 meeting, told of the news that War Minister Tojo has ordered a total war preparation to meet the armed forces of the United States in this Pacific emergency. Tojo is said to have told him of the Navy’s full support of his policy against America.

“He also spoke of Tojo giving orders to complete the mounting of guns and rush supplies of munitions to the Marshall and Carolina group [mandated islands] by November 1941. Hirota and others present in the meeting freely discussed and expressed opinions as to the advantages and consequences of a war with America. Many expressed the most suitable time to wage war with America as December 1941 or February 1942. Many said:

“‘Tojo [now Premier] will start the war with America and after 60 days Tojo will reshuffle the cabinet and become virtually a great dictator.’ ”

In line with Axis

“NOTE: Based on this information dated August 16, 1941, Japan’s recent and sudden change of cabinet was a planned one, stalling for time for closer collaboration and more effective cooperation in the interest of the Axis powers.

“Mounting of guns and rushing of munition supplies to the mandated islands is a significant sign.”

The letter was withheld from the public by Mr. Haan pending the State Department’s permission for its release.

“For eight years our organization has been gathering this information,” said Mr. Haan, “We have sent truckloads of it to officials here. Always we received official acknowledgments. But what happened to our reports? Were they filed away and forgotten? I have been called a fool. They have asked me, ‘How do you get information our men can’t?’ But I can’t reveal my sources, obviously.”

Map shows plan

The Japanese map shows a three-arched naval attack stretching from the Aleutian Islands to the south coast of Australia.

Mr. Haan said the Japanese war plan aims at splitting up the American Navy by diverting it to widely scattered spots, so as to leave Japan a free hand with British and Dutch possessions. Once they are taken, the major attack on the American West Coast will come.

He said the attack was originally scheduled for last spring but was postponed because of the Nazi attack on Russia, Japanese warlords deciding to await developments in that war theater before striking at the United States.

Use inferior offense

He said Japanese officials had said two years ago that the oil tanks in Hawaii could be blown up “easily” and that Japanese war games in the Pacific had long ago theoretically captured the islands of Kauai and Hawaii and damaged Oahu.

“I have heard American Navy men say the Japanese can’t shoot, that their torpedoes are no good,” said Mr. Haan. “But the Japanese did not show them their best forces. Japan used second-line en and material on China. These best she saved for the United States.”

He said several hundred German technicians were aiding the Japanese War Office.

The Sino-Korean League was formed in 1933 with the goal of preserving democracy in the Pacific in the belief that only American supremacy would guarantee democracy for the Korean and Chinese people. Its chief function, he said, is to counteract Japanese propaganda and supply the United States with inside information.

Mr. Haan joined the Japanese consular service in Hawaii in 1935 specifically to get information. He resigned in June 1937 to turn over the information to American congressmen conferring in Hawaii.

---

Jap treachery adds Thailand to Axis camp

Nation, sincere in hope to remain neutral, bows to reassure
By David S. Waite, Singapore Free Press editor

SINGAPORE – Japanese treachery enmeshed ill-fated Thailand like a blanket while bland-faced Nipponese envoys carried on their “peace negotiations” in Washington.

When Japan was amassing great concentrations of troops on the Thailand-Indochina border, power politics were going full blast behind the scenes.

At the very moment when Kurusu was talking peace in the United States capital, Thailand was taking the brunt of diplomatic pressure, economic pressure, propaganda pressure, and even military pressure on her frontier.

Forced to succumb

So great was this pressure, according to a British Foreign Office statement, that Thailand was forced to succumb to Japanese demands even before open warfare broke out in the Pacific, putting up only “token” resistance when Japan finally blew the lid off the Pacific war pot.

From here, it seemed obvious that Japan’s “peace negotiations” in the United States were a sham, while she continued a Thailand policy that, at its logical conclusion, could only mean war in the Far East on a very big scale.

The Japanese first turned on the heat by increasing their garrisons on the Thai-Indochina frontier. There were “exercises” designed to impress the Thais with the unwisdom of resisting Japanese demands. Then followed the demands which, according to well-informed opinion, amounted to suggestions that Japan should take over entire responsibility for the defense of Thailand.

Buy up everything

Concurrently, the Japanese increased economic pressure on Thailand. They continued to buy up everything they could put their hands on in Bangkok, offering inflated prices to impress the Thais. They sent to Thailand Japanese-manufactured goods, which by rights, should go to Indochina.

They increased their propaganda blitz by circulating imaginary stories of the Anglo-U.S. “threat” to Thailand, and by spreading foul slanders about prominent Thai statesmen who did not appear sufficiently pro-Japanese.

In the Japanese Embassy in Bangkok, with over 40 officials, special sections were formed to deal with diplomatic affairs, economic, problems and propaganda. Mr. Koh Ishii, the former spokesman of the Japanese Foreign Office, was sent to Bangkok as chancellor of the embassy to take care of the political propaganda.

Thais watch closely

Since Mr. Ishii was known to have pronounced pro-Axis feelings, he was regarded as a good man to work with the Italians and Germans in Bangkok, who were also doing their share of anti-British and anti-American work.

The Thais closely watched all that went on in their own country and all that happened on their frontiers; and they drew certain conclusions. Their interpretation of the duties of neutrality prevented their statesmen from saying openly that Japan was a potential – indeed, an actual – menace to the independence of their nation.

But that is what they meant when the Bangkok radio nightly warned its listeners to be on their guard against fifth columnists, foreign spies, saboteurs, and so on.

Not pro-Japanese

One sometimes heard stories about the Thais being pro-Japanese. They are nothing of the sort. The Thais were really sincere when they declared their intention to remain neutral.

Japan wants Thailand’s rubber, tin and rice, which she needs. She might hope to occupy the country and go on immediately to threaten the Burma Road, which she might think it would be easier to cut by advancing into Burma or through Northern Thailand. The Japs took the second alternative – advancing down the Thai peninsula toward Malaya and Singapore.

---

Flashes on alarm boards warn of impending raids

WASHINGTON (UP) – A man in mufti watches the colored pawns on the big horizontal board.

The course is shaping up. Now a line of markers points the direction unmistakably.

The man in mufti barks into the telephone transmitter: “San Francisco yellow.”

It really happened in San Francisco. They thought it happened in New York. It may happen here.

On the day when a civilian air raid warden in an information center of the Air Defense Command says “Washington yellow” to the operator at her special switchboard, the capital will have 15 minutes to get set for the blow.

Meaning of ‘yellow’

For “yellow” in the lexicon of air defense means: “Enemy planes 15 minutes – or 60 miles – away.”

“Great Britain’s experience,” Lt. Allen Settle said at Bolling Field today, “has shown that a 15-minute warning is about right.”

Not until the raiders are 15 minutes from a possible objective is it safe to assume that they are headed for that objective.

A split second after the warden in the information center says “Washington yellow,” yellow lights gleam on alarm boards in the city.

At the district fire alarm headquarters a crew of four men awaits the signal that may come. Two watch the board. Two handle the alarm system.

Causes lights to flash

One plug by the operator at the information center – which may be in Norfolk, Virginia – causes the alarm lights to flash in the threatened city.

Five minutes after “Washington yellow” the warden may signal, “Washington blue” – the enemy is now 10 minutes away.

The final warning, after which the issue is in the lap of the gods, is “Washington red.”

“Red” means “five minutes away – or less.”

Or the light that flashes may be white, for all-clear. Raider flights frequently change course abruptly, to confuse the spotters.

Many on duty

The Air Defense Command’s First Interceptor Area, from Maine to North Carolina, has 40,000 observers on duty. What they report from their advanced posts determines how the pawns at the information centers are placed on the big horizontal board.

In the Washington metropolitan area alone, there are 13,000 volunteer civilian air raid wardens. In New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, there are more.

For alarm purposes the warning is 15 minutes. But the local office of civilian defense may receive word that an enemy fleet is hours off the coast.

By the time the public alarm was sounded, an organization would be in action, getting ready for the bombs – demolition, fragmentation, gas, or incendiary.

---

Japan denies warship loss at Philippines

Americans flee in North Luzon, Tokyo says, claiming 238 planes
By the United Press

Japan denied today that it had lost two battleships off the Philippine Islands and asserted that in a combined naval and military operation it had landed a new force of invasion troops in Southern Luzon.

It said, in an Imperial Headquarters communique, that since the start of the Philippines action, one Japanese light cruiser had been slightly damaged off Luzon, that one minesweeper had been sunk and that another had been severely damaged.

Apparently, the communique said, the light cruiser was mistaken for the battleship Haruna, which the U.S. reported sunk.

Claim Americans flee

The minesweeper which was damaged, it said, was struck by a bomb after capturing an American merchant ship in a Luzon harbor.

Tokyo asserted that in Northern Luzon, U.S. forces were fleeing southward, destroying roads behind them.

It asserted that the Vichy government had assured Japan of its “strict neutrality” in the Pacific war.

Shanghai dispatches asserted that the people of Rangoon, capital of Burma, had started to evacuate the city.

Claim Singapore damage

Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo was quoted as saving of the German-Italian war declaration on the United States: “This event, following the outstanding success of the Japanese forces, opens up a shining perspective for the Japanese empire, which will definitely further the building up of a new order in the world.”

The United Press listening post in London heard the Japanese Domei News Agency broadcast from Tokyo that a Japanese air raid on Singapore had caused extremely heavy damage to an airfield.

Make threat against Reds

Domei said Japanese aircraft attacked a British convoy near Penang off the west coast of Malaya Tuesday. It claimed that one vessel was sunk and four were damaged seriously and that harbor installations were attacked.

Japanese newspapers at Shanghai quoted Tokyo circles as showing “a certain amount of skepticism regarding the sincerity of Russia in its neutral attitude toward Japan.”

Tokyo radio, in a broadcast heard by the United Press in San Francisco, asserted that 167 U.S. planes had been shot down in the Philippines Wednesday and that “of a total of 250 American planes known to be in the Philippines 238 have been destroyed, including Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and Consolidated long-range bombers.”

Japanese shipping companies announced that they would continue their activities despite the Pacific war because ‘the Japanese Navy has absolute control of Chinese waters.”

---

British happy as war issues are clarified

‘All in same boat,’ they say, see greater Allied unity and power
By Helen Kirkpatrick

LONDON – “We’re all in the same boat now and nothing in the world can keep us from beating them.” That was one Englishman’s comment on news of the Axis declaration of war against the United States.

Few people here have doubted the imminence of war or questioned the final outcome but, like ourselves, the British prefer to see things signed, sealed and delivered. The fact that everyone’s relations with everyone else are clarified brings relief, greater confidence and a feeling of oneness such as has not existed since the last war.

There is no one in Europe, and certainly no one in Britain, who has not a tremendous admiration for American fighting ability. American industry is regarded here as the height of efficiency and American manpower is believed almost inexhaustible.

Sure of Allied victory

These factors, linked with the fighting spirit of the British and the productive capacity they have reached, plus the tremendous resources of Russia and China, are seen to be absolute guarantees of Allied victory.

As one cartoonist expressed it yesterday in cricket language, it is now “the gentlemen versus the others.” In other words, the British see all the peoples in the world who stand for law, order and decency ranged against all the gangsters and thugs.

In the initial stages, the decent people suffer from the handicap of their decency which has prevented them from stealing a march on the others. Thugs and gangsters suddenly attacking an innocent passerby are bound to have the advantage. But when the law-abiding citizens band together, the downfall of the thugs is certain.

Relieve British of blame

The British have for long totaled the numbers of anti-Axis citizens in the world and the resources they control and decided that when all those citizens mobilized to meet the Axis menace, the Axis would be doomed. Today the begin to see an end to the long night which began to draw in on the world 10 years ago when the Japanese invaded Manchuria.

While the clash between the United States and the Axis has been inescapable, a majority of the British are delighted that the issues have been so presented to the United States. Never, they feel can Americans accuse the British or having dragged them into war. Hitler and his satellite, Mussolini, have taken care of that and have guaranteed that the unity of the United States, achieved through the Japanese attack, will be sustained and, in fact, probably increased.

---

Fort Shafter guns speak quickly during Jap raid

By Francis McCarthy, United Press staff writer

HONOLULU (UP) – Fort Shafter, one of the Army’s oldest posts on the Island of Oahu, got its baptism of fire Sunday, it can now be revealed.

Raiders dumped loads of bombs apparently at random and climbed rapidly as they were greeted by a torrential hail of anti-aircraft and machine-gun fire.

Despite the suddenness of the assault, the Army functioned magnificently in this first test of Pacific warfare.

The “Rising Sun” – balls of fire – on the wingtips of the raiding planes, signifying their nationality, were clearly discernible in the brilliant sun.

From the floor on which I was ordered to sprawl at the first menacing roar, I watched the approaching raiders.

The building in which we huddled rocked to the roar of explosions. Glass windows trembled. The noise was deafening. Not only the crash of the bombs outside, but the incessant rumble of anti-aircraft guns and the chatter of machine guns almost obliterated the sporadic crack of rifles.

Individual soldiers had grabbed their weapons and, crouching behind every conceivable shelter, took potshots at the diving bombers in true Kentucky mountain style.

---

Lopez has war tips via stars

Maestro’s preview startling in accuracy
By Si Steinhauser

**We’ve pooh-poohed Vincent Lopez’s astrological predictions but seen many of them – made months in advance – come true. We have reported his predictions and they worked out and here we are to recount some more.

In the November issue of American Astrology, Lopez wrote under a paragraph headed “Japan”:

“Japan finds herself in a very ticklish position as she can hardly withdraw her demands for greater influence in Far Eastern affairs. She is unwilling to withdraw to her own island kingdom and remain an important nation, therefore the hot heads who have been agitating for war at any price will become unmanageable, with December highly explosive and a great possibility of them having their own way.”

Of the United States, he wrote in the December issue of the same magazine:

“December 13 through the 20th may see grave disasters and losses at sea and dissatisfaction in Army and Navy circles, especially where our new island bases and colonies are concerned, which are in some danger of attack.”

He predicts peace proposals around the end of December, to be rejected by the United States and England and a most critical period for America around March 16, 1942.

For Russia he promises the Soviet will not be beaten. But he says Stalin will be less active as new leaders come forward.

In the same December issue, he predicts:

“The Philippines and Singapore are points of renewed activity with a possibility of new outbreaks in this corner of the world.”

For Italy, he sees possibility of bombing and actual invasion, sabotage, discontent and grumbling and finally overtures for separate peace by way of Switzerland.

He promises that in France a new leader will arise and lead the nation through revolution back to freedom.

In November, Vincent wrote that Boston and Los Angeles would be much in the news as the center of vast espionage activities and property damage by the hand of man and also by natural forces.

Other writers in the Astrology magazine also see December as a fateful month for all nations but they put Hitler right behind the eight ball predicting his inevitable downfall.

Church leaders and laymen are loud in their praise of Arthur Harlan Ware of radio’s “The Bartons” script.

Every time the “Bartons” are seated at the table the grandmother portrayed by Kathryn Card says grace in this manner: “Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for all our blessings and we ask Thy mercy for less fortunate people the whole world over.”

Ware explains: “The custom was observed by my parents and has been continued in my own home. It was natural that I would have ‘The Bartons’ do the same. If they were real people, I feel sure they would insist upon it.”

Everyone who admires Fritzie Zivic – and who doesn’t – will want to listen to his scrap with Kid McCoy on WCAE at 10 o’clock tonight.

Kay Kyser promised to double the number of Christmas seals on any letter sent him. A Desmoines fan sent him a letter bearing 200 seals. Kay replied with three envelopes bearing 600.

Naturalist Walter Sewell, who can “talk like a dog”, will headline tomorrow night’s (WJAS at 8:30) “Hobby Lobby.”

The America First Committee has canceled a scheduled talk by Charles Lindbergh set for 10:30 tonight over the Columbia network.

Rev. Warren W. Wiant, pastor of Emory Methodist Church, will speak on KDKA’s Religious Message period, Sunday at 9:30.

George Damerel, son of Myrtle Vail of Myrt and Marge, is portraying the part of Ralph Peters, a soldier, on his mother’s program.

Kenny Baker will make a return visit to the Kostelanetz program on Sunday, December 28, at guest soloist.

Edmund Gwenn, starred on Broadway in “The Wookey,” will headline the Mutual network Christmas Carol series. Jack Smart will be the Mutual Santa Claus.

Phil Spitalny’s girl musicians have organized their own Red Cross sewing-knitting unit.

Nat Cantor, the radio stooge, once fired his partner, Archie Leech, to make a place for his brother, Charlie. Leech isn’t very angry about the affair since he went from there to the screen. You know him as Cary Grant.

Congress having proclaimed Monday as Bill of Rights Day, radio will join in celebrating the 150th anniversary of the signing of the historical document. Special features beginning tonight are scheduled as follows:

FRIDAY

8:00: KQV – Mayor Scully, Civilian Defense Director E. C. Stone and Judge Ralph H. Smith, chairman of Bill of Rights Celebration, in forum.

8:30: KQV – Charles Laughton reads “Bill of Rights.”

9:00: WJAS – Franchot Tone and Rita Johnson in “Petrified Forest,” the story about a man who stands up for his rights.

SUNDAY

12:00 noon: WCAE – Bill of Rights birthday observance.

1:30: KDKA – University of Chicago Roundtable discusses civil rights.

5:00: WJAS – Baritone Ross Graham sings song, “The Bill of Rights,” composed by Jay Gorney and Henry Myers.

10:00: WCAE – Sen. Joseph Guffey speaks.

10:30: WJAS – Columbia Workshop presents drama, “In Abraham’s Bosom,” revolving around old Negro preacher who explains Bill of Rights to his flock.

Midnight: KDKA – Mayor Scully’s proclamation of Bill of Rights Day, document is read and national anthem will be sung.

MONDAY

3:00: WJAS – Attorney General Biddle speaks from exercises in Capital.

7:30: KDKA – Orson Welles in “Cavalcade of America” presentation, “The Great Man Votes.”

10:00: All network stations – President Roosevelt speaks and screen stars presents Norman Corwin dramatization of Bill of Rights. Cast will not be identified until end of broadcast, to carry out illusion that Washington and other early Americans are speaking. However, Lionel Barrymore, Edward G. Robinson and Walter Huston will definitely participate.

Former Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes will speak and Helen Hayes will read the Bill of Rights.

---

Pegler: A proposal for unions

By Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK – Ray Clapper closed his column of Thursday with the postscript: “Planes cost money. Buy defense bonds and stamps” and soon after reading this I got a wire signed. “Vincent F. Callahan, Chief of Radio and Press Sections, Defense Savings,” asking me to spread the same message. This I am glad to do and at the same time I will offer a suggestion which, if agreeably received, should realize for the Treasury certainly as much as five million dollars not as a loan but as a free windfall. The amount could be much more. It might come to $10 million.

My proposal is that those unions, particularly the American Federation of Labor, which have been maintaining control stations at so many of the war projects all over the country and collecting initiation and transfer fees from all workers applying for jobs, should now do the handsome thing. I suggest that they donate to the Treasury as a gift all such fees collected at these jobs at the rate of from $19 to $300 per man. Or, if some expense has been involved in the collection of these fees, a certain discount could be agreed upon.

Unions profited from war program

Now this idea is advanced in no spirit of bitterness. The local unions which received the bulk of the money do not need it and some of them have grown so rich they don’t know what to do with it. I will avoid the question whether they deserved it of those many workers who paid complainingly and under compulsion, because I want to avoid raking a wound.

But the fact can be stated without arousing any justifiable anger that these union treasuries did skim a creamy profit off the war program of the nation as a special privilege. The hod-carriers, alone, claim to have enrolled 100,000 new members since President Roosevelt, with brave and farsighted wisdom, sounded the first national call to arms after the invasion of the Low Countries in 1940.

At an average rate of $20 per man, which would be scant, they would seem to have collected two million dollars in initiation fees alone, most of which was retained by the locals. These locals have negligible legitimate expenses and I am convinced that almost all those who paid these initiation fees would gladly vote that they be given to the national Treasury to pay for planes, inasmuch as it seems impossible for them to get back their own individual payments.

The carpenters and electricians also have collected tremendous revenues from men who had no choice but to pay or stay idle and this money, too, was pure gravy, minus some problematical but very small discount for administration expenses.

Of course, some of the unioneers and some really sincere citizens outside the union movement will instinctively point to the war profits of the big industrialists and ask why I don’t propose that they, too, kick back their gains. The answer, as I see it, is that they are kicking back much of this money in taxes of various kinds and that their profits are limited at the outset. At least, I think their profits are limited but, even if they are not, the higher the profit the higher the tax to a point at which the incentive to profit is almost extinguished and replaced by the incentive to get the vital job done well and fast.

CIO advertised modesty of fees

If I am in error on this point, you can put it down to sheer ignorance of business big and little. But I claim to be an authority on the initiation and transfer fees that have been collected on the war jobs and I am most sure-footed when I know what I am talking about. Union income, from whatever source derived, is subject to no tax at all.

I hope you will notice that I have not once mentioned goons, gorillas or extortioners in this piece, the reason being that I want to advance this proposal in a spirit of sweet and appealing reasonableness. Perhaps it would have a better chance of success if it came from someone who would be less likely to be suspected of attempting to put the affected unions on a spot, but if it is a good idea, it needn’t necessarily be denounced just because it comes from me.

A basic policy of all the CIO unions supports my contention that the unions mentioned here do not need all this money, for the CIO has advertised widely as one of its most attractive virtues the modesty of its initiation fees and condemned the fees of the AFL unions as unreasonable and a cause of hardship to the workers. And you can just imagine the delightful effect on public opinion of a sudden, gratuitous and patriotic decision by all these locals and the internationals to donate, outright, this unexpected war profit which will not be worth anything anyway unless the war is won.

[NormanStewart]

Clapper: Congress acts

By Raymond Clapper

WASHINGTON – When Congress was put to the test this week, it came through. Congress has been calm and efficient. It has been businesslike and has not wasted time in idle words. To everyone it was obvious what had to be done, and it was done in the simplest, quickest way.

During this week at least, we have shown that democratic government can meet an emergency without lost motion and without grandstanding. It has been a most heartening experience and it will do much to revive public confidence in the legislative branch.

The war resolutions against Germany and Italy were put through without debate. In the Senate, not a single word, aside from the routine mechanical formalities, was uttered. The whole business was finished in less than half an hour. The House was equally prompt. Without anything more than a clarifying question, the Senate voted unanimously to permit the president to send American troops of any kind anywhere,

Debate unnecessary, out of place

The fact that there was no debate only gave more force to the action. For it was the silent action of free men. No one was shut off from debate. Senators could have talked by the hour. But they knew that words were unnecessary and out of place in the presence of such compelling events. Both Houses have set a high example. They won’t be able to live up to it, and in time will fall back into floundering, wandering, irrelevant talk. But by acting without needless words now, Congress will be in better standing when the time comes, as it surely will, that calls for frank and hard-hitting criticism.

Somewhat lost in the rush of bigger actions was the unprecedented political truce, declared Just before we declared war on Germany and Italy. This truce was declared in an exchange of telegrams between Chairman Flynn of the Democratic National Committee and Chairman Martin of the Republican National Committee. The truce also was registered in the resolution unanimously adopted at a conference of Senate Republicans. They pledged their full support to the prosecution of the war. The resolution was offered by Sen. Lodge of Massachusetts.

This means, it is hoped, an end of the bickering which has hampered the administration during the last two years in dealing with the dangers created by the war. It will not end criticism and should not. But hereafter criticism presumably will be devoted to making more effective the adopted policy of the government, whereas before much of the criticism was intended to obstruct and reverse the government’s policy,

The only unfortunate incident that has occurred since Japan’s attack is Sen. Tobey’s attempt to force disclosure of military secrets about the damage at Pearl Harbor. Around Congress they know Tobey. He is cantankerous but is not taken seriously. He embarrasses his own fellow Republicans more than he does the administration.

Commons doing good job in England

Eventually details of Pearl Harbor will be exposed and the blame fixed. Congress is determined to do that. But the responsible Republicans know there is risk of giving information to Japan by going into this now. They are ready to wait until the affair can be hauled out into the open and discussed freely.

In these times there is little for Congress to do but to vote appropriations and scrutinize the conduct of the war. Commons does a good job of it in England. On one occasion, Churchill spent a whole evening with an American official being coached to meet questions expected in Commons the next day about the lease of bases to the United States. I found in England that after two years of war there was still free criticism of the government. It was regarded as healthy and stimulating and one of the prerogatives of a free country.

American solidarity behind the war does not mean blind, unquestioning resignation to everything that is done. Our unanimity means that we are all participating in the effort. We are sharing the decision, not merely accepting it. We have a right to know what happens and to pass judgment on it. but we must use better judgment in timing than Sen. Tobey is showing. Fortunately, most members in both houses of Congress, by waiting until a safe time before demanding military information, are showing a patriotic sense of time.

---

Maj. Williams: Effective signs!

By Maj. Al Williams

I guess I flew 18.000 miles to do the research on this one. We are using mules traveled instead of the orthodox reference method for research nowadays, you know. It was over a cup of hot “java” on a cold morning at a well-known airport. A personable chap sidled down on the perch alongside me. “Java,” he said to the short-order man behind the counter. I looked up. The guy must have been around, “java” being the tipoff to being around. Mutual nods accompanied “hellos,” and then we recognized one another. “Say,” I began…

“Oh, I know what you’re goin’ to ask me,” he interrupted. “You see it was like this. You know my business – photographic work for a magazine.” I nodded. “Well, here’s how it happened:

“I had disembarked from a taxi at the airport intending to take the next airliner west I checked my bags and telephoned my home office. The office ordered me to come back right away. Well, ‘right away’ in our business means anything. This time it meant two days in a city tar east of where I had checked my bags and farther east than where I had intended to go.” I chucked in a couple of nods to indicate interest. “Well,” he continued, “when I returned to the airport they told me that the airport manager wanted to see me. I found him sitting broadly in the only chair in the office and with a mighty serious expression on his face.

“‘Are you an American citizen?’ he asked through his lips that cracked just far enough to let the air and the words out. ‘Am I an American citizen?’ I exploded. ‘Say, what’s the idea? Am I an American citizen – what’s goin…’

“‘Well, now don’t get all het up and boilin’ over,’ the Airport Manager replied coolly, But I continued with, ‘Say, what’s goin’ on here. Get it off your chest.’

Manager asks unusual question

“With that the A. M. pursed his lips and looked at the floor before answering. ‘Where’s your baggage?’ he finally asked.

“‘Where’s my baggage?’ I answered questionably. ‘Why it’s downstairs in the baggage checking room.’

“‘That’s what you think, feller,’ he replied. By this time, I was getting short on patience.

“‘Oh, it ain’t, hey? Well, where the devil is it, if it isn’t down in the baggage room?’

“‘Well, Smart Guy,’ said the Airport King, ‘it’s out in the middle of the airport and it’s been there the last two days.’

“With this I settled down into my shirt collar and the top rim of my coat. Out in the middle of the airport and it’s been there the past two days… and it’s been rainin’ here harder than buckshot, too.

“‘Bud,’ says the Airport Manager, ‘when those bags of yours were checked in the baggage room, nothing happened until someone took the time to examine them. And then there was a near-panic. All hands streaked out of the baggage room and didn’t stop until they got outside the building, and by that time they were going fast enough to ‘takeoff.’ There was a helluva commotion, with a lot of talk about sabotage, spies, and fifth columnists and all. 1 finally got into the baggage room and started looking around. I saw nothing worth bothering about until an extremely brave fellow yelled from around the most distant corner and suggested that I look at them bags in the bin. I did and there were four, square, leather cases – all with red tags marked ‘EXPLOSIVE – DYNAMITE – Don’t Drop.’

A. M. decides on his action

“‘I sneaked up alongside those bags,’ the A. M. continued, ‘and put my ears to them to see if there was any ticking inside. But there wasn’t a sound.

“‘Then I thought, well, I’m the airport manager, and if I don’t do something the police may come in and blow up the whole place with some fast and fancy bungling and blow my job along with the dust. So I lifted one bag and tiptoed out of the door and kept going until I reached the absolute center of the field. I put the bag down softly – gentle enough to keep from bending the grass – on account we spent $22,000 seeding that field. I got the other bags and the tiptoe business was repeated until the whole bunch of bags were right where you can see them now. Here, look out the window,’ he concluded.

“There in the distance, in the very center of the soggy field, were my bags, with expensive cameras in them, plastered with the dynamite signs which, in turn, were plastered with mud.

“That, my friend,” said the Java lad, “is just why I didn’t bother sending you those explosive and dynamite signs for your luggage. It’s a good idea, except it works too well.”

---

German official predicts: ‘We’ll probably meet soon’

**WASHINGTON (UP) – “We will probably meet again in a few months.”

With those words, Baron Ulrich E. von Gienanth, second secretary of the German Embassy, left a group of reporters gathered around the entrance to the embassy.

He let the reporters draw their own conclusions as to where and how he would meet them. But he had just told them that he was a reserve officer in Adolf Hitler’s Elite Guard, SS (Schutzstaffel – crack German troops), and that he was going to the front when he gets back to Germany.

Since the declaration of war by Germany against the United States, all has been quiet at the old red brick buildings which house what was a German diplomatic staff.

A girl in her teens walked along the sidewalk carrying a sack of groceries late yesterday.

“There’s your mob,” said an FBI man to a disappointed newspaper photographer who had expected “action.”

The only unusual outward signs were the special guards. Two policemen, one a Jew and the other the same man who guarded the building in 1917, and two FBI agents passed their time during most of the first day of war between the United States and Germany by chatting with reporters.

Once during the afternoon Charge d’Affaires Hans Thomsen came out of the Chancery and climbed into his shiny limousine. The chauffeur who had driven him to the State Department in the morning to deliver Germany’s official notification of war was missing.

“Are you leaving Washington?” he was asked.

“Oh, no,” he said. “We have to pack first.”

“Are you going to the State Department?”

“No, not anymore,” he said, smiling.

---

Editorial: ‘Too little and too late’

Hitler’s all-out war against us did not start yesterday with his declaration. It began in the Hawaiian dawn last Sunday. At Pearl Harbor and Manila, he struck with the only major force available for direct attack against us – the treacherous Japanese. So his belated declaration is anticlimax.

President Roosevelt made this clear in his Monday message to Congress and in his public address: That we were attacked by Hitler’s Axis, that we are defending ourselves in a world war.

The Berlin-Rome declarations help us more than hurt us. The Axis will do all it can to sink our Atlantic and Near East shipping and naval forces; but that has bee its effort for many weeks.

Germany and Italy have been losing the Battle of the Atlantic, against us as well as against Britain, not because of restraints imposed by their “peaceful” relations with Washington but because of their relative shortage of naval and air forces for the Atlantic. That unfavorable Atlantic balance now is shifted, not by the Berlin declaration but by the Battle of the Pacific, requiring transfer of some U.S.-British strength to the Far East.

The Berlin-Rome declarations help us by simplifying and formalizing a state of war which has existed in fact since Sunday morning. They enable us to handle the Axis fifth-column problem in this country as a unit, instead of ineffectively piecemeal. They unable us to bring all of our war laws, including use of troops abroad, up to the requirements in a stroke. They force us now to increase all our production and defense plans to global size, which might have been disastrously delayed.

No less important, Hitler’s declaration strengthens the Pan-American solidarity stimulated by his Japanese attack on Hawaii. The extraordinary Latin American response to our defense of the Pacific will now be reinforced by the direct self-interest and danger of large South American countries on the Atlantic, who were not directly menaced by Japan.

Now that Hitler and Mussolini in alliance with Japan have formally started war against the United States, it will not be so easy for the large Nazi and Fascist movements of Latin America to find followers or to receive aid from fifth-column plants within some of the governments. The significance of Latin American cooperation with Washington’s defense plans for the Atlantic cannot be exaggerated.

This cooperation enables us to move against certain Atlantic bases which, if taken first by the Axis, would threaten South America even more than North America.

No American is fool enough to underrate the peril to our nation of the Axis attack. Never since Valley Forge have we been in such danger. Never have we suffered such defeat as at Pearl Harbor. The virtual unanimity of the Congressional votes and the public response witness that fact.

Yet we can be thankful that our peril is not graver. However narrow may be our margin in the Pacific and elsewhere today, it was worse – much worse – a short time ago.

If Hitler had succeeded in forcing Japan to attack four months ago, as he tried to do, there would have been little chance of defending Singapore and Manila. Indeed, the most important British and American reinforcements arrived in the Far East only last week.

Four months ago, one month ago, Hitler was on top in Russia and Libya. Every ounce of Russian strength was going out at home, while Britain was rushing all available land, sea and air reserves to the Middle East. And we were sending everything we could get our hands on.

What would have happened to us and to the world if Hitler could have used his Japanese arm then, as he used it Sunday, is terrible to contemplate.

Since then, the Russians and British have held Hitler in Russia, Africa and the North Atlantic, sufficiently to allow important American and British diversions to the Far East.

Now in the very moment of Pacific attack the Axis forces actually are retreating in Russia and Libya – at least temporarily. And now we have hundreds of new planes, intended for the Middle East, which we can – and are – putting into the air over the Pacific.

Hitler’s timetable is not working. It failed to work in Russia – by his own confession. It is failing to work against the United States, because we and our Allies are immeasurably better placed than we were a year ago, a month ago, a week ago.

“Too little and too late” is Hitler’s jibe at his victims. We believe history will record that he and all his hordes were too little and too late to defeat the United States alliance.

---

Ferguson: The best discipline

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Some people say that if the Selective Service System lasts 10 years the new generation will have absorbed enough discipline and respect for constituted authority to prove the law a genuine blessing.

Decidedly, discipline of the proper sort is an essential need of our time. Self-control is sadly lacking. And insofar as Army discipline tends to turn out men who know how to command as well as obey, the argument may be sound.

Even so, the greatest lack in the world today is not a dearth of obedient people – it is the lack of those who know how to led with sanity, intelligence and honor. And let’s not forget that our chief criticism of the Germans is that they were so willing to follow Hitler. It seems stupid of us to overlook that fact.

Since 1929, we’ve advised the young on how o get and hold obs. But that date is significant because it marks the beginning of an era of depression. Something was wrong with political and business leadership before 1929, or some of the worst phases of what has followed would have been foreseen and avoided.

A new concept of the relationship between the boss and his worker is forming. It is based on cooperation and confidence, instead of authority and subservience.

But no matter how far those changes may go, the nation will always need more men and women who know when to obey and when not to obey. If our idealism endures if what we are arming to save is saved, there must emerge from this democracy more intelligent cooperation between men of high and humble rank. The people do not govern themselves by learning to be disciplined and obedient; they manage their affairs well only when they know how to discriminate between good and bad leadership. Then they are their own bosses in every sense of the word.

---

Background of news –
Wartime state labor legislation

By Editorial Research Reports

Sixteen states this year have adopted the Model Sabotage Prevention Act recommended by the Federal-State Conference on Law Enforcement Problems of National Defense, and others are expected to do so as soon as their legislatures meet. This measure was strongly opposed by organized labor in most of the industrial states.

The model act provides penalties ranging up to $10,000 fine and 10 years’ imprisonment for willful damage to real or personal property “with reasonable grounds to believe that such action would impede the nation’s preparations for defense or prosecution of a war.” The same penalties apply to intentionally defective workmanship, or conspiracy toward either of the above ends.

The act also provides: Penalties of not more than 10 days and $50 fine for unauthorized entry onto premises engaged in defense work; for detention and questioning of all persons on such premises by watchmen, peace officers and supervisory employees to determine their right to be there; for closing or restricting the use of highways adjacent to such premises.

The model act specifically provides that none of its provisions shall be construed to curtail the rights of employees and their representatives to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, or to bargain collectively.

The sixteen states which have enacted anti-sabotage legislation patterned on the model act are: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin.

---

Chinese will wear buttons to bar mistaken identity

Many may mark them as Japs, Tong leader here declares
By Douglas Taylor

William Yot, Tong leader in Pittsburgh’s miniature Chinatown on Third Avenue, looked puzzled.

He had been asked a question that is puzzling all Americans today: How to tell the difference between the Chinese and the Japanese.

The puzzle is becoming a serious matter. Yesterday, a Chinese tea merchant took a package of Chinese tea into the City-County Bldg. He planned to present it as a gift to friends in the Welfare Department. A frightened policeman mistook the friendly Chinese for a Japanese with a bomb, and dashed toward the suspected saboteur. who was more scared than the cop.

People stare at him

Although Mr. Yot hasn’t taken any chances by carrying packages into public buildings, he said that people are beginning to stare at him, and wonder on which side of the picture he fits.

Just imagine how embarrassing that must be to Mr. Yot, long-time and much respected leader among Pittsburgh’s Chinese residents, and secretary of the On Leong Tong, a business organization that has been compared to a chamber of commerce.

“When I was going home the other night on No. 42 streetcar,” he said, “the passengers took me for a Jap.”

Willing to forgive

But he readily admitted the mistake should be forgiven, for he said: “In a mixed group of Chinese and Japanese, if they were all strangers to me, it would be awful hard to pick them out, to tell which is which.”

When asked to itemize any differences that may exist, Mr. Yot said: “There isn’t much difference in appearance. We both belong to the same race.

“Most of the Japanese are a little bit smaller. The average Japanese are around five feet or a little over, and the Chinese maybe one or two inches taller.

“Most important difference are the eyes. The Japanese have an upper eyelid that is what you call puffed out more than the Chinese people.

“The Japanese are more round in the face. The Chinese have a longer face.”

To wear buttons

Since it really is impossible to be sure which is which, the Chinese are going to start wearing buttons stamped with the Chinese flag. They planned to order the buttons today, about 500 for the Pittsburgh district. They were to be ordered by the Chinese National Defense Association, of 518 Third Ave., of which Yee Tong is chairman. Chicago Chinese have ordered 6000 buttons, said Mr. Tong.

One Pittsburgh Chinese did not wait for a button. He is Dock Hing Wong. who sent to California for a tiny metal Chinese flag for his lapel. He claims to be the first Chinese in Pittsburgh to wear the Chinese flag.

Flag is red

The modern Chinese flag is red. In the upper, inside corner is a white sun with rays, on a background of black.

Mr. Yot explained how the buttons would save trouble for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“We are not wearing the buttons for the benefit of the public,” he said. “The public won’t bother us. The buttons are to be worn so the FBI and local police can tell us.”

---

British troops fight off Japs in Malaya area

Air raids by enemy are called highly ineffectual
By Harold Guard, United Press staff writer

SINGAPORE (UP) – British forces defending northern Malaya fought off the Japanese attackers today and optimism rose as naval and air reinforcements from the Dutch East Indies and other points arrived.

Japanese air raiders appeared less active although Penang, the key point off the western shores of the Isthmus of Kra, was emerging from the worst air attack suffered by any point in Malaya, delivered yesterday.

Singapore, itself, the hub of Far Eastern defense hardly has felt the war thus far except for the activity of the military forces for which the island is the main base of operations in progress hundreds of miles away.

Attack ineffective

The first surprise Japanese air attack on Singapore was highly ineffective. Debris has been removed and the streets appear normal.

In Singapore, there was a feeling that the democratic powers have begun to hit back. News of the sinking of several Japanese warships by U.S. bombers cheered this base as did news that the fighting is going well in the north.

“There has been no change in the general situation in Malaya and at Hongkong during the past 12 hours,” said a communique. “Considerable damage was done to civilian property in yesterday’s raid on Penang, but no military objective was hit.”

Four quiet nights

Singapore has had four nights in a row without air raids.

The impression prevailed here that there had been a slowing up of Japanese blitz tactics. Singapore hardly has been touched since the first surprise raid of the war.

The situation on the peninsula was regarded as in hand with the repulse of Japanese landing attempts at Kuantan. The imperials fighting near the Thailand border, south of Kota Bharu, were reported resisting the Japanese fiercely after having received reinforcements.

Chinese troops aiding British

By the United Press

HONG KONG – Chinese troops, developing a powerful offensive, are striking at the flank and rear of Japanese forces attacking Hongkong and have caused a temporary weakening, at least, of the Japanese drive, it was said officially today.

The Chinese offensive, directed personally by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek with the aid of British advisers, according to wireless and other reports from China, has assumed big proportions already.

Not only are the Chinese attacking throughout the canton some 90 miles west of Hong Kong, according to reports, but are moving masses of men toward the coast to attack the Japanese north of the colony.

The Chungking radio asserted that the drive was aimed directly at aiding the Canadian and British forces defending Hongkong against overwhelmingly more numerous Japanese forces.

The Chungking radio, in a broadcast today, quoted reliable information that the Japanese had started to evacuate their troops and civilians from all central China east of Nanking because Japanese forces were needed “elsewhere.”

British withdraw in Hong Kong area

LONDON – News of tactical British withdrawals in the Hong Kong area reached London today.

Owing to Japanese pressure some of the British advanced positions in Hong Kong were abandoned. The troops withdrew in the direction of Kowloon. There are known to be Chinese troops “in the vicinity” of Hong Kong.

In northwestern Malaya and in the Kedan frontier area, the Japanese are pressing forward and have infiltrated in several places.

---

French desire to keep peace with the U.S.

Majority wants to stay ‘neutral’ as conflict spreads
By Paul Ghali

VICHY – “The game is clear now… at last. America is in it and in {t to the hilt.” This is what your correspondent heard here this morning as the people of Unoccupied France learned for the first time of the latest expansion of the conflict.

Many Frenchmen whose sympathies for America can hardly be shaken by the latest expansion of the war, remember the days when France still sided with the democracies.

The question at stake from the French point of view as everybody here realizes is what will be France’s attitude now. Hungary broke off diplomatic relations with America yesterday afternoon less than two hours after the Reichstag meeting. A visit to various French officials this morning leaves your correspondent with the clear feeling that above all the French want to remain neutral and to maintain with America the status quo and the centuries-old friendship.

Speeches edited

An indication of France’s desire to be objective and fair to both sides was seen in today’s papers in which the Hitler and Mussolini speeches were published, deprived of some of their disagreeable comments on President Roosevelt.

Soon after yesterday’s Reichstag meeting, United States Ambassador Adm. William D. Leahy was received by Chief of State Petain. Adm. Jean Darlan was present at the interview in his capacity of minister of foreign affairs.

After the interview a rumor circulated hereabouts that Adm. Leahy had been recalled to take over a command in the United States and that this was “audience de conge.” This rumor was strongly denied in both French and American authoritative circles.

Indochina discussed

It was stated that the meeting had been devoted to a survey of the new situation especially the position of Indochina. After the meeting Adm. Leahy went straight back to the embassy and sent a long dispatch to Washington. The official spokesman of the information office described Germany’s war declaration as recognition of a state of affairs already existing.

At the same time rumors spread among the American correspondents here to the effect that it was in Germany’s interest to break off press and diplomatic connections between the two continents and that France was the most important country on the list of “European neutrals.” This increased the feeling that France was above all determined not to alter Franco-American relations.

From now on Vichy will undoubtedly be even more between the anvil and the hammer. The collaboration with the Axis policy was once more apparent in the enthusiastic communique issued after Adm. Darlan’s return from Turin, where on Monday and Tuesday he met with Italian Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano.

---

One killed, five lost in Navy plane crash

WASHINGTON (UP) – The Navy announced last night that an officer was killed, two officers and three enlisted men are missing, and five other enlisted men injured in the crash of an Atlantic Ocean patrol bomber.

The crash occurred during the takeoff for a routine patrol flight.

Ens. Paul H. Alter of Fort Plain, New York, was killed.

Listed as missing were:

Lt. (jg.) Richard B. Hughes of Long Beach, California; Ens. Robert W. Dereamer, of Griffith, Indiana; Cleo Wells, aviation machinist mate first class and naval aviation pilot, of Norfolk, Virginia; Harry H. Sheep, radioman third class, of Elizabeth City, North Carolina; Carl W. Pierce, aviation machinist mate third class and aviation pilot, of Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

Listed as injured were:

John R. McIntyre, aviation machinist mate first class, of Columbus, Ohio; Robert E. Dearen of New York City: Robert M. Smith, 20, aviation machinist third class, of Chicago; Oliver L. Lawhead, radioman third class, of Indianapolis, Indiana; George J. Brown Jr., radioman first class, of Portsmouth, Virginia.