Fires burn long after Tokyo raid
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Truman brings capital new political era
Cabinet shakeup called inevitable
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Saturday, April 14, 1945
WASHINGTON – The dawning of a new political era was marked here today as this capital said a sorrowful farewell to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Despite President Truman’s invitation to Roosevelt Cabinet members to “stay on,” the time is near after more than 12 years for new faces in high places.
Mr. Roosevelt’s last appearance in the capital he so long dominated marked an end and a beginning, like the midnight minute of a century’s turn. In the final hours of this day, the late President went away.
To return tonight
Mr. Truman was aboard the Roosevelt funeral train. He will be back tomorrow night moving briskly beyond the shadow of mourning. Great business of stale and war will not wait for tears. When Mr. Truman turns back from Hyde Park, New York, tomorrow en route to Washington it will be the President’s special train which he rides. The Roosevelt train will have made its last run.
Political Washington expects plenty of action. Roosevelt intimates predict a clean – or almost clean – sweep of top White House personnel. Maurice Latta, the venerable chief clerk, and perhaps Secretary William D. Hassett will remain.
Mr. Hassett’s forte is handling presidential correspondence, writing letters for the presidential signature. He performs it with the humor and grace bubbling from a full mind.
Shakeup inevitable
A Cabinet shakeup within a few months is almost inevitable. The so-called Roosevelt Palace Guard – the unofficial advisers variously on and off the government payroll – is expected to be packing shortly. Or if they have significant and permanent positions here, they will spend more time on their official cuties and considerably less, if any, giving the President advice. There is, for instance, Associate Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter.
For the time being, however, Mr. Truman will carry on about as is. His first formal declaration of policy comes Monday when he addresses a joint session of the Congress in the House chamber.
All major networks will broadcast Mr. Truman’s address at 1 p.m. Monday ET.
The world will listen to that address with more than usual interest.
To address troops
Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Marshal Joseph V. Stalin will want to know with what kind of a man they now have to deal. In the broadcast will be their first opportunity to begin forming a judgment.
On Tuesday the President will address the armed forces. He is already committed to the Roosevelt policies and in his Missouri lingo says, simply, “We have to lick ‘em and lick ‘em good.”
His associates say that he has decided not to attend the United Nations Conference m San Francisco. It meets April 25 to formulate a world security pact. His opening address will be broadcast from here.
There is speculation, however, that a new Big Three meeting may be coming soon. The war has gone well but Big Three diplomacy has had its troubles since the Yalta Conference.
If an adjustment is necessary, perhaps Mr. Truman, Mr. Churchill, and Marshal Stalin will find that they must make it themselves.
Senators and representatives may expect to be consulted and already high on the list of advisers is James F. Byrnes, former director of the Office of War Mobilization.
Invited by Truman
Mr. Byrnes has been invited to accompany Mr. Truman to the Hyde Park funeral. For the moment, at least, he seems to be the Harry L. Hopkins of the Truman administration. Whether he will continue in that role cannot be determined now.
Mr. Hopkins is being counted out hereabouts. He was the closest of Mr. Roosevelt’s advisers. He is ill and will return to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota after the Roosevelt funeral. Today, Mr. Truman conferred with Mr. Hopkins. Chances are he asked Mr. Hopkins to “stay on,” too. If so, it scarcely can be for long.
If Mr. Byrnes takes over the Hopkins duties, he may well succeed in time to the Secretaryship of State. That speculation could be unfair to Secretary Edward R. Stettinius except for one explosive fact.
The 44-year-old, personable Stettinius is next in line for the White House should anything happen to Mr. Truman. He might make a good President but regular Democrats would shudder at the thought of Mr. Stettinius as party leader.
Mr. Stettinius is not an organization man. The regulars had enough of non-organization irregularity under Mr. Roosevelt.
Simms: No foreign policy change, Allied nations are assured
Diplomats busy explaining that plans of Roosevelt will be pushed by Truman
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
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Congress due to iron out G.I. Bill flaws
Cutting of loan red tape tops changes
By Ned Brooks, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Murray, Green pledge support
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Russian flags black-bordered
Moscow pays tribute to Roosevelt
Saturday, April 14, 1945
MOSCOW, USSR (UP) – Black-bordered Russian flags fluttered from all official buildings today in accordance with an official Soviet decree ordering two days of mourning for President Roosevelt.
It was the first time in Soviet history that black-bordered flags have flown for a foreign statesman. Hitherto such an act was reserved for only the highest national leaders, such as Lenin.
The official government newspaper Izvestia said:
The Soviet people will always cherish the memory of the great American statesman, President Roosevelt, who has done so much to strengthen Soviet-American friendship.
All freedom-loving nations will remember him as the great organizer of the struggle of free nations against the common enemy, as the most outstanding battler in the cause of democracy and progress.
A memorial service was held at U.S. Ambassador Averell Harriman’s residence attended by Soviet Foreign Commissar Vyacheslav Molotov and other high Soviet officials.
Izvestia reviewed the President’s career, stressing his foresight and wisdom in foreign affairs. It highlighted his pre-war speeches and acts intended to check aggression, prepare America for war, his Lend-Lease policy and his aid and encouragement to the Soviet Union.
Hopkins attends Roosevelt funeral
Flies from hospital ‘to say goodbye’
Saturday, April 14, 1945
WASHINGTON (UP) – Harry L. Hopkins, for years one of President Roosevelt’s closest personal advisers, flew here from the Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota, today “to say goodbye to a great friend of mine.”
In addition to attending his old boss’ funeral, he spent 90 minutes with President Truman. When he left the President, he was surrounded by reporters.
He looked thin and shaken. He said he would go back, immediately to Rochester, where he has been under treatment for several weeks. He said he talked to Mr. Truman “about a number of things, but chiefly about Mr. Roosevelt.” Asked if they discussed any part he might play in the new administration, he replied:
Oh, no. I’ve just come back to say goodbye to a great friend of mine. Those of you who know me know what’s in my mind and heart today. Nothing else but that matters.
Mr. Hopkins said he would confer again with the new President as soon as he is able to leave the hospital.
He said:
At that time, I will acquaint him with any information that I might have about the government and that I might have acquired in my relations with Mr. Roosevelt.
Perkins: Truman rated friendly but firm on labor
Rail brotherhoods chief supporters
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
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Roosevelt tribute paid by House
Saturday, April 14, 1945
WASHINGTON (UP) – The House held a brief session today, adjourning after five minutes in respect to the late President Roosevelt, whom it called an “illustrious statesman and leader in the nation and in the world.”
After receiving a Senate resolution expressing regret over Mr. Roosevelt’s death, the House adopted one paying its tribute to the late President and expressing sorrow over his death. The Senate had expressed itself yesterday.
The resolution also extended sympathy to the Roosevelt family and instructed Speaker Sam Rayburn to appoint 15 members to attend the funeral services.
Open with prayer
The House originally had planned today’s session as an observance of Pan-American Day but cancelled that program because of Mr. Roosevelt’s death.
The session opened with a prayer by Msgr. Patrick J. McCormick, rector of Catholic University. House members and the half-filled galleries bowed solemnly as Msgr. McCormick began his eulogy of Mr. Roosevelt with the traditional Roman Catholic prayer of the dead – the “De Profundis,” or “Out of the Depth.”
Plea for forgiveness
Out of the depths, I have cried into Thee. O Lord, Lord, hear my voice, Almighty and merciful Father, who in Thy inscrutable Judgment and unsearchable way has called unto Thyself the soul of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Thy faithful servant… we bow in humble submission to Thy holy will.
In this hour of national sadness and grief we turn to Thee, the God of all consolidation and hope and we plead for him, for with Thee there is merciful forgiveness and plenteous redemption.
Jap leader sends ‘sympathy’ to U.S.
‘Can understand great loss,’ premier says
Saturday, April 14, 1945
WASHINGTON (UP) – Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki expressed his “profound sympathy” today to the American people upon the death of President Roosevelt.
In a broadcast recorded by the FCC, a Domei representative said he was “almost taken aback by the unexpected reaction, but quickly realized that it was not strange coming from a man of large caliber as the new premier is.”
Leadership effective
The enemy broadcast quoted the new premier as saying:
I must admit that Roosevelt’s leadership has been very effective and has been responsible for America’s advantageous position today. For that reason, I can easily understand the great loss his passing means to the American people. My profound sympathy goes to them.
Suzuki added that he did not believe America’s war effort would change because of the President’s death.
The premier said:
On Japan’s part there will not be any letup in her determination to continue fighting for the coprosperity and coexistence of all nations as against Anglo-American power politics.
Truman ‘too good-natured’
The Tokyo radio told the Japanese people that President Harry S. Truman “especially exerted his efforts in bettering the conditions of the lower classes. but is a little too good-natured and not good in politics.”
The broadcast quoted a Miss Shio Sakanishi, who was called the former head of the American Library of Congress research department. Miss Sakanishi knew President Truman, the broadcast said.
Miss Sakanishi was quoted as saying:
Differing from Roosevelt, Truman does not know diplomacy and he is not good in politics. It must be the worry and concern of the American people who wonder how he will hurdle the many international problems he is bound to meet, but there is a group of people who will be able to give him guidance.
Adm. Kichisaburo Nomura, Japanese Ambassador to the United States when Pearl Harbor was bombed, said in a Tokyo broadcast that the late President should be given credit “with respect to his internal policy.”
Nazi leader put to work mining coal for U.S. Army
Fuel vitally needed, so Germans operate under guard despite past connections
By Henry J. Taylor
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200 freed French women totter down Paris streets
De Gaulle greets heroes who went to Nazi prison for resisting during occupation
By Dudley Ann Harmon, United Press staff writer
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Americans hold half of Okinawa
Marines push north – attack beaten off
GUAM (UP) – U.S. infantrymen on Southern Okinawa beat off another small Jap counterattack Saturday Marines in the north pushed ahead against negligible resistance to bring almost half of the important island under American control.
Army and Marine field artillery, naval gunfire and carrier and land-based aircraft plastered Jap positions along the southern Naha defense line as the 96th Infantry Division easily repulsed the small enemy attack.
Carrier planes in attacks
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz reported the carrier aircraft of the U.S. and British Pacific Fleet units struck again at the Sakishima Islands, southernmost of the Ryukyus, and at Formosa Saturday without opposition.
Almost all of the large Motobu Peninsula jutting out from Okinawa’s western coast is now controlled by Marines of the III Amphibious Corps.
Other Marines driving northward on Okinawa pushed to the vicinity of Momobaru Town on the west coast and Arakawa town on the east coast.
Momobaru is within 10 miles of the northern end of the island.
The American-controlled area now extends some 50 miles from north to south. The northern line is being extended northward daily against the slightest resistance, but 60,000 Jap troops massed in the southern sector of Okinawa have held the U.S. Army forces to a standstill for 10 days.
Pillboxes bar way
The three U.S. infantry divisions in Southern Okinawa were using demolition charges and flamethrowers as they battered against steel-armored Jap pillboxes barring the wav to Naha, capital city of the island.
Nine enemy planes were shot down off Okinawa during the day by combat air patrols, Adm. Nimitz said.
The U.S. carrier aircraft raiding the Sakishima area hit airfields on Ishigaki and Miyako Islands, destroying seven planes on the ground and damaging 25 others.
British carrier planes attacked Matsuyama and Shinchiku on Formosa without opposition. Many planes were damaged on the ground and hangars, barracks, buildings, a railway bridge, a tram and other targets were hit.
Jap ships sunk off Burma coast
British destroyers shell shore points
CALCUTTA, India (UP) – British destroyers, harassing the south shores of Burma, have sunk a number of coastal vessels and bombarded shore installations on Great Coco Island, it was announced today.
The British ships suffered no damage or casualties, a Southeast Asia Command communiqué said.
At the northern end of the 14th Army front in Burma, Lt. Gen. W. J. Slim’s troops stormed into Hlaingdet, which is tactically important because it commands the main Jap escape route leading eastward from Central Burma to the Shan States. It is eight miles east of the Rangoon-Mandalay rail town of Thazi.
It was reported that one 14th Army force killed 2,900 enemy troops, destroyed six medium tanks and captured 44 guns, 70 motor transports and 28 prisoners during the week ending Wednesday.
To the south and southwest, armored and infantry forces expanded their positions south of Meiktila and consolidated newly-won positions in the oilfield town of Kyaukpadaung, captured Thursday.
In the northern combat area, where Chinese and British troops have been engaged the last six weeks in flushing out isolated enemy groups and clearing roads, there was patrol activity south of Kyaukme, Hsipaw and Mongyai.
Long-range fighter planes attacked road, rail, river and coastal supply lines in Thailand and South Burma yesterday.
Allied drive underway for Italian city of Bologna
Eighth Army tightens noose on gateway town – Germans say Fifth Army joins in offensive
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Poll: Public leans to retention of pay control
Many, however, favor changes
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
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