Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 January 1942 — Page 1

The Indianapolis Times

VOLUME 53—NUMBER 269

Battle For Singapore Roars To Climax As Japs Gain

FORECAST: Continued mild temperature this afternoon and tonight.

MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 1042

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

HOME

FINAL

P

RICE THREE CENTS

| 3D TANKER TORPEDOED, 23 DIE

DRAFT BOARDS | END ENLISTING AT ZERO HOUR

Put Ban on Volunteering After Registrant Passes

Final Army Exams.

By EARL RICHERT The widespread practice of rushthe armed forces have passed

ing to enlist in

Cs examinations ered by their local draft boards State Selective

ora

opped by

quart

has been st ers 5 “Ri pbin Hitchcock, lective Service director, has to all local draft that the reranis to enlist after they had sed their Army examinations with the draft calls and shou iid be stopped.

Difficult te Meet Calls

hundreds of until they minations

Son

lease of re

rfer es

Since Pearl Harbor, registrants have waited Army exa definitely classified in one branch of the

inj

.

i . rticularly the Navy, ne Corps and Air Corps. draft officials said The practice has made it very difficult for local beards to. meet their draft calls, they added. For example, one local board last! The board sent 10 men to the ‘Army examining board and all 10 passed. On that same dar, six of the 10 reappeared at their local board offices asking for relehses because they had enlisted in the armed services. The draft board then had to send six more men to Ft. Harrisen for examination,

May Enlist Before Final Exam

Col. Hitehcock pointed out that uber the rts are placed’ in Class 1-Af afte er a cursory examination by the Jocal boar physic the regis-| still have plenty of time] if they choose to, before] ther are sent to the Army board for the final physical examination. We are glad to see men enlist” dr ait official said, “but we 1k they should enlist before they] e final physical examination z ® end available for call in

> draft.”

URGES NAME BE PUT ON NEW CAR STICKER

Auto owners were advised today by Secretary of State James Tucker to write their names and acJdresses| across the face of the Federal use| stamps which must be displayed on! cars after Feb, 1. That precaution will prevent the pesling off of stickers by] thieves, Mr. Tucker said

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enti st

to

the

Postal officials said there is no| to writing names and ad- conditions the two factions would

objection dresses on the stickers, which are on sale for £2.08 each at postoffices

CHRISTENBERRY 0. KD

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (U. Pd

— Senate judiciary committee today formally recommended confirmation of Herbert W. Christelberry as) Pe States attorneg for eastern Louisiana, asserting that "charges g inst him were “based on concjusions and inferences rather than on

3

NOW IT CAN. BE TOLD—

Devid M. Nichol, war-tossed foreign correspondent, has returned to the

PEACE REVIVED

HOPE OF LABOR

Green Accepts Lewis Offer

To Debate Merger of

Warring Factions.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (U.P) — The prospects for labor peace were brighter today than at any time

new system by oie lines the C. 1. O-A. F. of Ln. nego-

tiations broke off in April, 1939. It was believed here that & peace conference would resume this week {looking toward fulfillment of former {C. I. O. President John IL. Lewis’ jrequest for a merger of the two warring abor factions. Mr. Lewis called for a ption of efforts to end the lab war Saturday. A. F “of L. President William Green accented immediately. President Philip Murray of the {C. I. O. said that such & move “will necessarily hate to be initiated through ‘the office’ of the president of the C. iL. GO Spotlight on Meany: Meanwhile, informal -speculation centered on the possibility of George. Meany, AF. of L. secretary- | treasurer, to become the new head of any reorganized labor movement. He has been in ascendancy in power in the A: F._ of L. and more than any other A. F. of IL. official, has been able to work with the C. I. O. There was no indication yet what

place, if any, on the formation of a united labor movement But it was recalled that during previous peace talks Mr. Lewis insisted that Mr. Green retire before the C. 1. O. would agree to a united labor organization. Mr. Green always has insistzd that any united labor peacs riovement be made on the basis of €. I. O. unions returning to the

{A F. of-L. fold.

Thomas Hopeful Neither Mr. Green nor Mr. Lewis were available over the week-end for comments on reports that Mr. Green would retire from the A. F.

lof L. to help further thé peace

moves, or the various reports that Mr. Meany would become president

Jof the new organization, Mr. Mur-

ray secretary-treasurer and Mr. Lewis. possibly, to become a vice president.

U. S. after 16 months in Central Europe.

He has reams of inside information “lands and peoples looted Mk Nihet XE by a locust plague.” Starting Wednesday, free from Nazi interference, ge will | tell the down to realities story | of tortured Eurape. Watch for his first article, Wednesday, in |

The Indianapolis Times

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| dianapolis,

After This Year

NEW YORK, Jan. 19 (U. P.) — The straw hat is the latest victim of the war and will net survive after this summer. Manufacturers say cutficiers straw braid is on hantl for men’s and women's hats for this spring and summer, but loss of Far Eastern supplies makes the industry dependent entirely on domestic substitutes and Panamas from Ecuador.

boop ne Actress

‘Where Airliner Burned on Mountain

Enclosed circle shows “smoke from the burning TWA airliner that crashed and burned on Table Mountain, near Las Vegas, Nev, killing Carole Lombard, her mother, and 20 others.

Straw Hat to Go |

GABLE TO TAKE

BODY TO COAST “Identified “Hom! Dental Chart: Funeral

Plans Incomplete.

LAS VEGAS, Nev, Jan. 19 (U. P.).—THe broken body of screen

WIN-WAR REQUESTS NOW TOP 100 BILLION

More for Army, Navy.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 (U. P.\. —President Roosevelt , today ‘sent his win-the-war appropriations total over the $100,000000 mark with a new request to Congress for supplemental appropriations and eentract authorizations of $§28500.767.495, almost entirely for use by the Army ahd’ Navy. The request, providing hige new sums fot expanding American air power—$8.041,373,000 for the Army Air Corps ,alone—boosted : projected total national defense appropriations for the 1941-42-43 fiscal years to $100.438.000.000. Budget Bureau officials explained that the supplemental estimates do no: indicate any change in President Roosevelt's estimate of 1943 fiscal year expenditures for nation-

al defense which now stands at $52,7786.000.000_

Details of Fighting . Rio Conference . Local Defense

F. D. R. Wants 28 Billion

| actress Carole Lombard, killed with {21 others in the crash of a trans|port plane Friflay night, was prepared for shipment to Hollywood today in the custody of her grimfaced husband, Clark Gable. Only by using dental charts, flown to Las Vegas from Hollywood, could authorities identify the crushed, burned body of the blonde actress. Mcuntain climbers and soldiers recovered it yesterday from a snow bank beneath the torn wing of the Transcontinental and Western Airlines’ plane, which smashed into the steep cliff of a mountain peak.

Gable in Seclusion

Miss Lombard’s body and eight others, still unidentified, were wrapped. in’ ‘army . blankets and raised with ropes up the fece of the 400-foot cliff. They were : carried by horsés to the mountain community of ‘Goodsprings and. taken down the mountainside in army ambulances. Mr. Gable remained in seclusion at the El Rancho Vegas Hotel last night and did not attend the inquest held to clear the way for the return of his wife's body to Hollywood. Funeral plans were indefinite pending identification and return of the body of her mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Peters, another victim of the crash. Burial, probably Wednesday or Thursday, will be at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park. When mountain climbers arrived at thé wreck yesterday almost at the 8000-foot level, they found only (Continved on Page Two)

A radio program to honor the memory of Carole Lombard is being arranged by the Indiana Defense Savings Staff, Eugene C. Pulliam, executive chairman of the organization, announced today. The program will originate in Inwhere Miss Lombard spent the last day of her life. The date and the hour of the broadcast will be announced later, but it is ‘known that the program will be switched to Washington,

6 Millett ....co S

where Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau and Will H. “czar” of the movies, will speak in tribute to the patriotism of the former Jane Peters of Ft. Wayne. Mr. Puiliam revealed that Mrs. Elizabeth Peters, mother of the actress, was making her first airplane trip. “No one outside of her immediate family could have been more

sly saddened by the tragic climax Lombard’s patriotic

Hays,

Radio Program in Memory Of Carole to Originate Here

service than the members of the Defense Staff who accompanied her during the various activities of the War Rally,” Mr. Pulliam said.

“She was so willing, so enthusijastic, and so - sincerely eager to make the day a rallying event for the whole nation. Just an hour before she left for the airport to take her plane she was talking with a few of us about the day’s activities.

“It's been so wonderful and so magnificent,’ she said. “There just aren't any people like Indiana folks. I've told My Old Man (thus she had referred throughout the day to Clark Gable) there's only one thing wrong with him—he wasn’t born in Indiana. I do hope I have really helped to get Indiana started. I'd de anything in thé world for this defense movement. Why, I'd even get out and plow if they told me that would pn

I ——c—

ONLY 25 MILES FROM BASTION, TOKYO CLAIMS

British Admit Lines Drawing Back: Russ Smash at

Nazi Line ‘Anchors.’

By JOE ALEX MORRIS United Pres: Foreign Editor

The United Nations battled

Singapore today and stood off

enemy assaults in the Philippines. At the same time, the Red Army was putting tremendous force into its counter-offensive against the Germans in an effort to break through the Nazi second winter defense line anchored on Mozhaisk, Orel, Krusk and Kharkov. Progress at Mozhaisk, which was reported burning, was claimed and the London radio said that the Germans were falling back on the road to Smolensk. But the outcome of desperate fighting still was uncertain. In the Crimea, the Germans claimed to have recaptured Feodcsiya and offset recent Russian gains,

Singapore Climax Near

The battle for Singapore was roaring toward a climax, but conflicting reports left the positions uncertain on the fighting front. Dispatches from Singapore, which was heavily battered over the week-end by enemy bombers, said that imperial forces had fallen back from the mouth of the Muar River and in the Segamat sector (central Malaya), both about 90 miles from the naval base. Australian forces are “holding their positions everywhere” after the withdrawal. it was reported from Melbourne, and aerial reinforcements have been sent to aid them.

Japs Claim Big Gains

Axis reports from Tokyo, however, asserted that the battle had been carried to the southernmost tip of Malaya, across the strait of Johore from Singapore island and about 25 miles from the naval base. Those reports said that the Japanese had engaged British forces in battle about 20 miles west of Johore Baru, which lies just across the strait from Singapore, after capturing Pandschang Besar, cutting off the British retreat and encircling some 20,000 defense troops. But dispatches from Allied war bases gave the impression pf stiffened defense lines on all fronts and Australia officially reported that aerial reinforcements had been sent to the aid of the hard-fighting Australian troops who have exacted an eight-to-one casualty toll from the Japanese in Malaya. The Pacific fighting on fronts shaped up as follows: PHILIPPINES —American defense forces under Gen. Douglas MacArthur threw back the Japanese from positions on Bataan Peninsula and shot down four more enemy (Continued on Page Two)

other

Japan's drive toward the gates of] .

Wearing his siren suit and earphones, Prime Minister Winston Churchill took ever the controls for a while of the big Boeing flying boat which returned him to England Saturday. plane, the beaming and cigar-smoking Briton is reported to have told Boat Commander J. C. Kelly Rogers: “It is very different from what This censor-approved photo was cabled from London.

I flew in 1913.”

Hungry Britons Scraped Dust Of Hellfire Pass for Food

By RICHARD D. M'MILLAN United Press Staff Correspondent HELLFIRE PASS, Jan. 19.—<A little band of British soldiers, hungry, thirsty and feverish, cheered Saturday as they stumbled from the caverns of Hellfire Pass’*and gréeted South Africans who delivered them

from Axis imprisonment. Behind them the Gérmans who British forces stood in submission, Later, I asked two of the Germans whether they were glad to be prisoners. “Mein Gott, in chorus.

Shorn of Braggadocio

I never have seen German prisoners so frankly shorn of Nazi Biaggadocio. Some of the Britons, who had been prisoners for seven ahd eight weeks, described the agonies of semi-§tarvation ‘and thirst which drove several of them almost to delirivm. They were so famished that they scraped the desert dust with their hands, seeking in it anything whichemight be edible. I had gone to Ft. Capuzo through a dust storm and found some of the relieved British side by side with Germans in a casualty clearing station, which consisted of a group of tents. They told me the story of the siege and capitulation of Hellfire as seen from the inside. “Despite our. weakness,” a pilot officer told me, “our spirits mounted every day as we saw our men draw nearer foot by foot.

ja!” they answered

PLAN TO COORDINATE

Committees to Organize At 92 Buildings.

A central committee for the Indianapolis Public Schools was organized today to co-ordinate civil defense and war service activities. It is to be followed soon by service committees at each of the 85 grade and seven high schools. The committee and its subsidiaries will function for the war's duration, according to Schools Supt. DeWitt S. Morgan. In the defense activity, the committee will have charge of air-raid drills an dother protection arrangements. The service functions include physical development, Junior Red Cross support, first aid studies, sewing and Knitting clubs, health inspection, conservation and defense bonds and stamps sales. William A. Evans, Schools safety director, was appointed director of war service.

ETHIOPIAN PACT READY LONDON, Jan. 19 (CDN) .-The Anglo-Ethiopian treaty re-establish-ing diplomatic relations between Great Britain and Ethiopia and defining their mutual relations during the period of reconstruction has now

been agreed upon and is about to be

SCHOOL WAR R SERVICE

Churchill as Pilot

Acme Telephoto.

After banking the

had been: forced to surrender to the their faces blanched and pinched.

“The Nazis morale began to break as they realized the end was near. “Sometimes we felt that relief would come too late but our lads, even the wounded, never murmured. They made me proud to belong to the race.” “Our daily ration was a small tin of bully beef along with three bits of hardtack,” an R. A. F. pilot said. “We never tasted any water. Our only liquid was two-thirds ‘of a pint daily in the form of salty soup and sometimes salty coffee, which we were all scared to drink because it rendered the thirst. pains more agonizing.” Scrambled in Dirt for Rice Walter Meld, one of the German prisoners, a 24-year-old soldier from Darmstadt, said “the British blitz terrified us.” “The R. A. F. never gave us any peace,” he said. “We never saw the Luftwaffe. It was always British bombers.” I talked with a Tommy sitting on a nearbv cot. “We scrambled in the dirt for currants and rice, which the Nazis used (Continued on Page Two)

War Moves Today

By LOUIS F. KEEMLE United Press War Analyst

Disquieting

for Singapore is partly offset by word of continued Russian progress on the long front from Moscow southward to the Crimea. Viewing the war as an indivisible whole, the anti-Axis forces are losing ground slowly in one salient, the Malay peninsula, but are gaing steadily in two others, Russia and Libya. The striking thing about Russia's counter-offensive, which began six weeks ago, is It pace is slow but steady and methodical. There was a tendency among foreign observers for a time to believe

its continuity.

that it would reach a peak of fury and then slacken, while the Germans dug in for the winter. The Germans themselves expected this and established a winter line which the Russians, according to Moscow claims, are now piercing at key points . The expected did not happen and from the way the battle has been going, there is ground for belief that it may not happen. The most significant development is the Russian advance into Mozhaisk, 60 miles west of Moscow, which was the farthest point of the German drive into Russia. Its capture by the Russians would straighten out the bulge in the German line which threatened the capital less than two months ago. Mozhaisk apparently stood so long because the Russians delayed a frontal attack while encircling arms were driven through from the

: territory overrun by the invaders,

news of the progress of the battle

Now apparently the Russians are} able to make the direct attack and their strategy probably will be to close in from the rear and cut off the German forces from their next

base, Smolensk. The Russian wings already are reported within 60 miles of Smolensk. Over-optimism about the Russian prospects would be unwise. Nearly all the news comes from Soviet sources and the Germans are taciturn almost to the point of muteness. However, the Russians obviously hope to drive the Germans back beyond the Dnieper River, which in the center is some 300 miles from Moscow. If this drive can be continued through the winter, the Russians are in a fair way to regain much -of the more valuable part of their

SHIP IS FIRED IN STEPPED-UP ATLANTIC WAR

Flames’ Shoot Up 100 Feet; Craft Sinks in 5 Minutes Off North Carolina.

NORFOLK, Va., Jan. 19 (U. P.).—Twenty-three of a crew of 36 men apparently drowned or were burned to death yesterday morning when the American tanker Allan Jackson was torpedoed by a submarine. The craft burst into flames and sank off the North Carolina. coast, the Fifth Naval District revealed today. It went down in five minutes. It was the third merchant ship, all tankers, sunk within five days

close to the Atlantic seaboard. These attacks by enemy submarines and other sinkings in the North Atlantic indicated that the Gere mans were stepping up their sube marine warfare, There were only 13 known sure vivors of the Allan Jackson crew, Six of them, including the skipper and two of his mates, were in the naval hospital here for treatment of “serious injuries.”

Flames Shoot Up 100 Feet

Four bodies .were picked up in the water by a vessel that brought the survivors here last night. Thers was little hope that any of the rest of the crew survived. The others, it was feared, were trapned and cremated when the Standard Oil tanker became a pyre with flames shooting 100 feet into the air ime mediately upon being struck by two torpedoes.

The survivors told of sitting helpe lessly in the one lifeboat which they were able to launch while their shipmates screamed and burned to death on deck or struggled in flame ing, oil-covered water around the sinking tanker.

Eight in One Lifeboat

Details of the sinking and the harrowing experience of the boate load of survivors came from the haggard, oil-smeared sailors arrived here aboard the rescue vessel last night.

Only seven of them got into the one lifeboat before it pulled away from the sinking tanker, They picked up another man from the water. The rescue ship picked up five other survivors from the water near where the Allan Jackson sank, Onis B. May, able-bodied seaman of Panama City, Fla, one of the survivors, gave this account of the flaming ship: “Before the ship went down we could see men being burned to death on deck but we were helpless. There was nothing we could do to help them.

Watched It Go Down

“We stopped the boat and watched her sink. She was out qf sight in less than five minutes after the torpedoes struck. “After rowing beyond the circle of fire which spread for about 300 yards around the Allan Jackson we saw the blue lights of the submarine, We made it a point then to keep the flames between us and the sub(Continued on Page Two)

Sugar Shortage Warning Studied.

Times Special

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19.—Sec= retary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard had his press section scurrying about today trying to find some figures to support his contention that a sugar shortage looms, _ He broke this news in a broade cast last night on Mrs. Rooses velt’s coffee program. Up to that moment the Agriculture Depart ment press agents had been pute ting out the story that there is enough of everything to eat—ine cluding sugar. They said this morning that they are working with the Secre-

who

tary’s office now to try and find bo

out what he meant. Since Secretary Wickard » rebuked by President » at a press confers his appearanc~” program was that there is

ard’ family

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