PULVERIZING BARRAGE OPENS 9TH ARMY OFFENSIVE
Yanks utilize rockets taken from enemy
Even machine guns join in bombardment
By C. R. Cunningham, United Press staff writer
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PULVERIZING BARRAGE OPENS 9TH ARMY OFFENSIVE
Battle for Manila virtually ended
Only three buildings still held by Japs
MANILA, Philippines (UP) – The battle for Manila virtually ended today as U.S. troops captured all but three of the enemy-held buildings in the devastated ancient wall city.
U.S. troops were attacking the last Jap positions in a church and small sections on the west and south sides of the Intramuros area.
The final assault on the Japs in Manila followed a combined land and amphibious attack by the 37th Infantry Division which breached the ancient wall around Intramuros.
Cross Pasig River
Following in the wake of a thunderous artillery barrage, which virtually flattened the old Intramuros section, the American troops stormed through and over the medieval wall from the east and across the wide Pasig River on the north.
The double attack, which was joined inside the walled city, was expected to end organized Jap resistance in Manila quickly, although it may be several days before the last fanatical enemy is mopped up.
Seize another island
Gen. Douglas MacArthur also announced that U.S. forces had seized Biri Island at the eastern end of San Bernardino Strait to complete U.S. domination of the water passageway at the southeastern end of Luzon. The Americans first opened up the strait with the occupation of Capul Island at the western end of the waterway.
Reports of Jap brutality in Manila reached a new mark with the disclosure that more than 3,000 American civilian internees at Santo Tomas were subjected to several days of heavy artillery fire.
The enemy deliberately shelled the face of the main building at Santo Tomas and the front entrance.
Casualties light
Although the number of dead and wounded among the civilians was not announced, the communiqué said the casualties “fortunately were very light.” The shelling occurred several days after Santo Tomas was occupied by the 1st Cavalry Division.
Units of the 1st Cavalry and 6th Infantry Divisions further secured the eastern side of the capital with the capture of San Mateo and Taytay in the foothills of the Marikina watershed.
Entrance of the 6th Infantry Division into the Manila campaign brought to a total of five divisions now operating under Maj. Gen. O. W. Griswold’s XIV Corps.
Visits front lines
Gen. MacArthur visited the front lines again today and entered newly-captured Manila Hotel while the 1st Cavalry Division raised the Stars and Stripes over the high commissioner’s building.
Mopping-up of Corregidor continued steadily and it was announced the entire western part of the fortress had been cleared.
The Japs set off an ammunition dump inside big Malinta tunnel inside the rocky fort, blowing themselves to bits rather than fight it out with the Americans.
Japs on Iwo firing half-ton rockets
ABOARD ADM. TURNER’S FLAGSHIP OFF IWO JIMA (UP) – The Japs on Iwo are using half-ton rocket-mortar shells for the first time in the Pacific war.
Marines believed they were launched by rocket-mortar propulsion from platforms on northern Iwo.
Background of news –
Pan-Arabia and Palestine
By Bertram Benedict
Following President Roosevelt’s conference with two Arab leaders, Kings Farouk of Egypt and Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, the Pan-Arab conference at Cairo resumed its meetings. At Cairo, foreign ministers of seven Arab states are trying to lay the groundwork for a later meeting to organize an actively functioning Pan-Arab Federation.
The so-called Arab states are Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. To these may be added Palestine, although Zionists would dispute the listing; Transjordan, which is a British mandate; and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, which is a co-dominion of Great Britain and Egypt. Altogether they have a population of about 30 million, more than one-half of it in Egypt.
The term “Arab” is a loose one, sometimes denoting race, sometimes religion, sometimes language. Some of the nine states listed above as Arab are independent, while Egypt is semi-independent, and others are British or French mandates.
Many if not most of the Lebanon Arabs are Christians. Also, there are many Arabs in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and French West Africa. If an effective Pan-Arab Federation should be organized, Italy and France might have on their hands a revolt of their Arabs demanding affiliation with their brethren, under the principles of the Atlantic Charter.
Importance to U.S.
The Pan-Arab movement affects the United States because of the strategic importance of the Arab states for air bases and the considerable oil deposits of Saudi Arabia. A dispatch to The New York Times quotes with approval a prophecy that “except for the Philippine Islands, Saudi Arabia may well prove to be the most interesting foreign area to the United States in this century.”
The Arabian states in conference at Cairo naturally tend to give support to the Arabs in Palestine hostile to further Jewish immigration to that country. It is probable that the problem of Palestine was discussed in President Roosevelt’s conference with Farouk and Ibn Saud. Last month, the Emir of Transjordan called Palestine the “key to the cooperation of the Arab states with the Western democracies and therefore the key to peace.”
Both the Republican and the Democratic platforms of 1944 called for unrestricted Jewish immigration to Palestine. The Republican platform condemned President Roosevelt for not having insisted that Great Britain carry out the provisions of the Balfour Declaration and of the British mandate over Palestine “while he pretends to support them.”
Three weeks before the 1944 elections, the President publicly endorsed the Democratic plank on Palestine and added: “If reelected I shall help to bring about its realization.”
The Jewish immigration issue
In Washington, it is believed that American Zionists are planning to interview the President immediately after his return on what, if anything, was agreed about Palestine at the Crimea Conference and at the talks with Farouk and Ibn Saud. If the Zionists remain dissatisfied, Congress probably will see a new drive for the passage of resolutions supporting Jewish immigration to Palestine and condemning British restriction of such immigration.
At the close of World War I, the Arabs outnumbered the Jews in Palestine by more than eight to one, now by less than two to one. The Arabs, to whom Palestine is as holy as to the Jews, claim that their long settlement and their numerical superiority there make it an Arab state, with as much right to restrict or prohibit immigration as has the United States or any other state.
The Zionists, calling Palestine an international responsibility because of its sacredness to three great faiths, point out that the distressed Jews left in Europe have no other haven of refuge, and insist that the Arabs themselves have prospered, and will continue to prosper, from the impressive economic advance of the Holy Land as a result of Jewish immigration.
Religious meetings policy unchanged by ODT
Applications still necessary for gatherings of over 50 persons
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Editorial: Church members must provide support
By the Religious News Service
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Servicemen ‘import’ world styles
Costumes of once-strange lands are now play clothes for little folk
By Maxine Garrison
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Gracie Allen Reporting
By Gracie Allen
Well, that new 12 o’clock curfew is really stirring up a hornet’s nest. People are saying: “If they close the nightclubs and theaters, at midnight, where will we go?”
Well, I have a suggestion. It may seem terribly old-fashioned, but how about going home and getting some sleep?
Of course, I do see a problem if they close the movies promptly at the stroke of 12. Maybe the picture won’t be ended, and it would be awful to have the screen go dark just as Charles Boyer was about top reach his objective, or to leave Errol Flynn with two Japs still alive.
Now I have a suggestion for Mr. Byrnes, too, if the nightclub proprietors raise too much fuss. Since this is a fuel conservation measure, he could allow them to stay open if they didn’t use any heat.
But no, that wouldn’t work. The cocktails on the tables would freeze solid. And if you’re about to say that the alcohol in them would keep them freezing, then you haven’t been to a nightclub lately.