Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 December 1941 — Page 1

SCRIPPS — HOWARD §

The

Ind

Tow

anapolis Times

FORECAST: Cloudy this afternoon becoming partly cloudy tonight; tem peratures slowly falling with lowest tonight 22 to 25.

VOLUME 53—NUMBER 250

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1941

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.

FINAL HOME

PRICE THREE CENTS |

BOMBERS FIRE-BLITZ MANILA, FLEEING CIVILIANS SHOT DOWN

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—_ a “NS

ONLY ESSENTIAL CARS GET TIRES

New Ones to Be Restricted. To Public Vehicles After Jan. 5.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 (U. P) —| If vou aren't engaged in medical

work, or if you don’t drive some sort of vehicle that is necessary to public health and safety, you might do well to be looking around for a first-class second-hand tire dealer. The Office of Price Administration today made public special groups who will be permitted to purchase new tires and tubes .beginning Jan. 5, but the average automobile owner won't fall in those] classifications.

Doctors, surgeons, visiting nurses, veterinarians, school bus operators and drivers of vehicles porta} to public health and safely among those who will be able buy new tires and tubes. But the large percentage of the estimated 32000000 American motorists who have been buying tires this year at a rate of 4000000 a month are going to have to depend on the supplies already available— or walk. i

Retreads Available No restrictions were placed on the

sale of used or retreaded tires or

tubes, Taxi drivers, delivery truck, traveling salesmen and others who fall into the Government's “less| essential” classification will have to get along without new supplies. Price administrator Leon Hender"#8n, who will administer the ratioping program through thousands of local boards, urged motorists not| listed to reduce their driving “im-| mediately,” to halt all unnecessary driving, to “double up” in driving to work, to operate cars at reduced speeds, to keep tires properly infiated and to avoid unnecessary injury to tires, “Only a very small supply will be available each month for civilian use and but few tires will be manu-

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TIMES FEATURES ON INSIDE PAGES

Churches ..... 6 Movies .......14 Clapper ....... 7 Music ........1 Comics .......13 Obituaries.. 3, 11 Crossword ....12 Pegler ........ 8 Editorials 8 Pyle ..... Sikes Mrs. Ferguson. 8 Questions ...7.8 Finangial ..... 9 Radio Forum oH Homemaking . § Serial Svory...13 In Indpls. .... 3 Side Glances.. 8 Inside Indpls., 7 Society ...... 45 Johnson «..... 8 Sports ........10

‘The Federal Government today took |

| tracts for imports of the 13 desig-

"| probably soon will be placed under

o| Finland.

Millett Asrasen Suae Deaths. .11

A weekly sizeup by the Washington staff of the Scripps-Howard Newspapers.

WASHINGTON,

Dec. 27.—Churchill’'s address has cleared the air,

given Congress and country generally much-needed perspective on

the situation.

American officials had already revised priorities for production of munitions, put defensive weapons at the head of the list, but were not

advertising it. is at least a year away;

Real fact, as Churchill disclosed, is that offensive war that losses, Anti-aircraft guns now head priorities list.

defeats, must be expected in 1942, Heavy bombers, prob-

able means to final victory, now fourth. Ammunition and explosives are second, naval combat vessels third. Merchant ships are last.

FIGURES for 1943 look good. Navy speed-up now promises com-

plete new battle fleet for U. 8, to be launched before 1943 ends.

OPM TAKES CONTROL

OVER VITAL IMPORTS

13 Materials Ne Needed for Defense Included. WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 (U.P) —

full control of all imports of 13! materials vital to the war effort,

including copper, tungsten and zinc. Imports of antimony, cadmium, ' graphite, kyanite (an aluminum | silicate used in electric furnaces). mercury, rutile (an iron mineral), vanadium and zircon (a semiprecious stone), also were placed under Government control by the OPM’s priorities division. Beginning tonight, all future con-

lead, chromite,

nated materials, available ptineipally in the Far East, will be handled by the Metals Reserve Co. or other Governmental unless otherwise authorized by the OPM. OPM Priorities Director Donald M. Nelson said that other materials

Government control. Imports of tin and rubber previously were taken over by the Government.

SEIZE 16 FINNISH SHIPS

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 (U.P) .— The Maritime Commission today formally took over 18 Finnish-owned merchant ships that have been tied up in United States ports since Great Britain declared war on

LOCAL TEMPERATURES . 81

| includes 6 battleships, 5 aircraft

carriers, 20 cruisers, 100 destroyers, 50 submarines. All these in addition to vessels now afloat. Navy construction now running three to six months ahead of schedule. = = = CHURCHILL'S visit, strategy conferences, and holidays have postponed streamlining of production machinery. No action likely for two weeks. President must turn next to annual message to Congress and budget

message. =

Daylight Saving | Drive

DAYLIGHT saving for large

| areas, perhaps entire country,

comes any day now. President has power to proclaim it, without Congressional action. West Coast business is having to stop an hour earlier than usual because of blackouts. Other coastal areas face same situation. Also important electric-power savings involved. = = » FIRST OF the year will bring unusual number of State legislative sessions. New laws are need(Continued on Page Two)

BRITISH IN CAUCASUS?

WASHINGTON, Dec.'27 (U. P.).—

JAPS VIOLATED HAGUE TREATY

Manila Bombing Justifies U. S. Attack, Capital Believes. By EDGAR ANSEL MOWRER

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27. — The| six-fold bombing of Manila after it|

was declared an “open” city justifies any attacks upon Japanese cities which the American authorities may or may not choose to make, according to the general feeling here. American military circles in Manila, as interpreted by American newspapermen and broadcasters there, were sure that the Japanese would respect Manila once it had been declared an object of no military interest and evacuated by the combined American and Philippine armies. Many people in Washington did not agree with the policy of declaring Manila: “open.” They pointed out that whereas the French had first declared they would defend Paris to the last stone, they then declared it an “open” city and abandoned it without resistance. But London and Moscow were admitted to be centers of defense. These people had hoped that the Filipinos would prefer the Russian and the British to the French tradition. But once it was declared open, the Japanese have once more astonished the ingenuous by their callousness to civilized standards of conduct. The bombing violated the “rules of warfare” to which Japan, along with all other civilized nations, agised at the Hague Conference in

All armed forces and their supplies, all anti-aircraft guns, and even the government were removed.

8 8 =»

® ® 8

City Helpless, Agere Filipinos Demand Revenge :

AXIS SOLDIERS LAND IN TRIPOLI

T0 AID ROMMEL

Nazi General Rushes West, Seeking Rescue With British in Pursuit.

On Inside Pages Other War Fronts ...... Page Pan-American Talks ... Kidney on Churchill Midway Still Holds .....

tress

SRA

TUNIS, French Tunisia, Dec. 27 (U. P.).—German and Italian reenforcements have been landed at Tripoli and are rushing eastwards along the North African Coast to the rescue of Gen. Erwin Rommel's | battered Africa Corps, hoping to| relieve him before the British finally cut off" his retreat from Cyrenaica, French military observers said today. French observers said that during the last 10 days a substantial Italian convoy succeeded in crossing the Mediterranean to Tripoli after a brush with the British fleet. The convoy, it was said, carried ___|men, munitions and equipment ~ |sorely needed by Rommel.

Benghazi Abandoned

The French said that operations in Libya had developed into a race by Rommel and the remnants of his 10 Italian and German divisions

On the War

Fronts

MANILA-—Japs fire-blitz defenseless city; U. S. forces battle desperately to stem enemy columns; enemy holds Lucena, 55 miles southeast of capital. LIBYA — Axis reinforcements reach Tripoli, rush east to join Libyan battle; British battle to cut off Axis retreat 100 miles south of Benghazi. BATAVIA — Dutch bombers sink another Jap transport off North Borneo. Also destroyed an enemy lighter. This makes a total of 17 Japanese ships sunk by the Dutch. SINGAPORE—The British rush reinforcements into the Perak River battle about 300 miles north of Singapore, turn back Japa nese at Enggor bridge with heavy losses. Jap offensive in Malaya seems to be slowed down. MOSCOW—-Red Army routs German forces in Volkov sector, killing ‘6000, in continuation of drive to relieve Leningrad. BERLIN — Germans report Nazi submarine has sunk nine British ships, totalling 37,000 tons, in the Atlantic, and” damaged two others. “Four Soviet transports reported sunk in Black Sea.

JAPS 55 MILES FROM CAPITAL

to join the re-enforcements rushing eastwards from Tripoli before the | British could drive a strong wedge | between them. | Rommel, it was said, decided to abandon Benghazi without a fight] in order to speed his retreat before the British could mass Indian]

[breaking through. French quarters believed the | British had not yet succeeded in| wholy cutting communications be- | tween Cyrenaica and Tripolitania | and that Rommel still had a chance | to break through and meet the! fresh troops. (A British General Headquarters) communique issued in Cairo today indicated that the British had caught up with the main Axis forces south of Benghazi where the Germans and Italians were under British artillery fire)

FIENDISH, HULL SAYS OF RAIDS ON MANILA

Compares Jap Barbarism To That of Hitler.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 (U. PJ. ——Japan is using on the Philippines the same fiendishness which she has been practicing in China, Secretary of State Hull charged today at his press conference. Hull's remarks were in response to a' question regarding Japan's failing to respect the American declaration that Manila is an open city. Japan has an entirely consistent record during recent years, especially since the invasion of China in July, 1937, Hull said, in the practice of the same barbaric methods of cruelty and inhumanity that Hitler practices, and has been practicing, in Europe.

American and Jap Naval

Losses So

By UNITED PRESS

Japanese naval losses in the war of the Pacific, as claimed by the to one battleship, five destroyers, five submarines, two

Allies, add up CRIES, 18 SunSOrts fod: Supplyséven miscellaneous ships.

The Japanese admis only thie loss of tires destroyers, five submarines

and one mine

sweeper. Admitted American losses are cne but salvegeable, three destroyers, one targét ship, one mine layer, one

Lg one gunbam. The Japanese, however, claim

tnelude seven battieships (two of them British) two cruisers, nine submarines, 10 destroyers, seven torpedo boats and six gunboats and mine

sweepers. The Japanese also claimed damage to numerous other naval

Far Compared

transports, one mine sweeper and

sunk and one capsized

that British and American losses

troops in sufficient quantity on the|

by The Indianapolis Times road to Tripoli to keep him from |EAST LUZON, Dec. 27.—The Jap- . | snese flag is

Tak Battle Southeast of Manila Looms; New Lines Formed to the North. By GEORGE TEODORE

United Press Staff Correspondent

WITH U. S. FORCES IN SOUTH-

tonight at southeast of

flying Lucena, 55 miles Manila. (This indicaled that the Tayabas Isthmus had virtually been cut by ithe enemy, isolating the peninsula that extends from Lamon bay to Legaspi in Southeast Luzon.) In Washington, a War Department communique reported that fighting in the Lamon Bay area, some 45 miles southeast of Manila, is “very heavy.” The communique said that the Japanese in the north are being “continually reinforced” from fleets of troopships in the Lingayen Gulf area. American tanks and Filipino defense regiments earlier had been moving in considerable force into the southeastern front to stem the Japanese advance m the Ati-monan-Mauban sector. A battle for control of the mountain roads was forecast. (Lucena, a commercial and lumber center, is an important railroad and highway junction. It lies south of Mauban and about 25 miles west of Atimonan. If it was reached by Japanese advancing from the Ati-monan-Mauban sector, thé enemy apparently was cutting southward toward Tayabas Bay and Batangas, imporant port and rail head south of Manila. This, however, would also open a good communications route toward the capital) Meanwhile, United States and

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RAFT REGISTRANTS T0 BE RECLASSIFIED

Boards to Reopen Cases of Men Above 28.

Reclassification of draft

Col. Robinson Hitchcock, state selective service director. All local boards in Indiana were directed to reopen cases of registrants deferred solely because they were past 28. Col. Hitchcock said one recent legislation now permits the classification of registrants without regard to age. Between 18,000 and 19,000 men in Indiana will be affected. They had been put in Class 1-H or Class gemn, os

ATTACK LASTS THREE HOURS; FEAR TOLL HIGH

Fiery Missiles Crash Historic Churches After Army and Air Force Withdraw ¥rom Island’s ‘Open City.’

By FRANK HEWLETT United Press Staff Correspondent

MANILA, Dec. 27.—~Waves of Japanese bombers blasted shipping, historic churches and colleges in

the defenseless city of Manila for three hours today. Huge fires reddened the sky late tonight over the 16th century intramuros, or walled city district, but firemen appeared to have overcome the danger of spreading blazes in the narrow, crowded streets. Earlier the flames had eaten through the walled city. and its ruined streets; blocked by stones, iron and tin roofing, glass and the wreckage of buildings—past a 20-foot crater in a churchyard filled with old graves. At least 37 persons were killed and 150 wounded by

Japanese pilots who dumped two big salvos of bombs and reportedly machine-gunned civilians as they fled for shelter. Many more casualties were believed unreported.

Cry the Filipinos: ‘We Can Take It’

The bombing attack was a grim Japanese answer to the action of American and Filipino officiais in declaring Manila an open and undefended city in an effort to save the 623,500 residents—including 100,000 in the walled city—. from bombing attacks. Tonight Filipinos stumbling through the glass and debris-strewn streets, fighting fires, caring for the wounded and preparing for another day of front-line war were fighting mad as they declared: “We can take it!” Everywhere there were demands that the Army and’ air force, which left Manila when it was declared an open city, return to make a bitter-end fight. And if there had been any question of the attitude of the Spanish population of Manila toward the Japanese, all doubt was removed by the attack on the churches of the old capital. There was no sentiment for the Axis tonight among even the most pro-Franco elements in the Spanish colony.

Retreat Yard by Yard

Nippon's devastating reply to the declaration that Manila was an open city, issued more than 24 hours before came as United States and Philippines forces, facing heavy odds, fought furiously intensified Japanese invasion drives on the Capital from north and south. The defense forces in the north were retreating stube bornly, fighting yard by yard with everything they had, to a new and stronger defense line in the Pampagna plains, onto which the Japanese had swept from the defiles of the Lingayen hills. In the south the Japanese had opened a savage drive after capturing Lucena, 55 miles distant. In both north and south, a Philippines command dis closed, thousands upon thousands of Japanese reinforces ments were swarming onto Luzon Island from transports. I watched the raiders—black-winged bombers flying in grim formation and totalling about 40 craft—come over the city just before noon (10 p. m. Friday Indianapolis Time).

No Answering Fire

For the first time there was no answering fire from the ground or air. No anti-aircraft thunder greeted the squads of planes as they circled over the bay. No fighters went up ! to challenge them. 3 The bombers struck first at the ships in the port area. Smoke billowed up from an oil fire in the Pandacan section, Standing nearby, I saw a vessel shudder and twist as bombs exploded around it. Slowly it went down although 1 did; not see any direct hits. The fire raged more fiercely—threatening the $1,00 000 Manila Catholic Cathedral as it swept westward thro the crowded, narrow streets lined by ancient buildir n little Chinese shops and Spanish stores. The flames around the historic college and church buil¢ figs at "one" tiie. appeared to be ‘nearing’ Santo: Tofip : Ee Co nce tle Amagticy ag,