Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 February 1942 — Page 1

The Indianapolis Times

VOLUME 53—NUMBER 288

FORECAST: Little change in temperature this afternoon and tonight.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1942

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind. Issued daily except Sunday.

FINAL HOME

PRICE THREE CENTS

ABANDON HOPE FOR SINGAPORE

U. S. CONTROLS SUPPLY LINES, WRITER SAYS

Keeps Reinforcements to Far Pacific Moving;

Blow to Jap Plans.

BOSTON, Feb. 10 (U. P.).—The Christian Science Monitor in a copyright dispatch from Wellington, New Zealand, says today that the “battle of the supply line” from America’s factories to the Far Pacific battle front has been won. The dispatch came from Joseph C. Harsch, a Mintor staff correspondent who arrived at Wellington with the first unit of Admiral Herbert F. Leary’s American forces to reach New Zealand.

Way Stations Secured

ous reverse,” the article says. American admiral commands the! terminus of the supply route. The §& way stations have been secured.) Bluejackets are here. And the way | is open for reinforcements and the! vital weapons of war.” | Mr. Harsch says he “can testify| from 4000 miles of travel from Ha-| wzaii in several different units of the American fleet . . . that the | Japanese have fooled themselves]

er Side In

Navy Engineers Inspect Capsized Normandie

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udson River after fire had swept the superstructure

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JAP

NIPPON AIMS STRONG BLOWS TOWARD JAVA

Chiang Kai-Shek Seeks India’s Aid in Fight For Burma Road. By JOE ALEX MORRIS

United Press Foreign Editor Japan threw tremendous power into thrusts deeper into the united nations front today in the battle of the Southwest Pacific. On the embattled island of Singapore, in the strategic Dutch island stepping stones to Java and the Philippines, the enemy offensive battered its way closer to the most

DEFENDERS HELPLESS AGAINST SWARMS OF

DIVE-BOMBERS

London Observers Predict Fall of Naval Base In 48 Hours; British Fall Back as Foe Continues to Land More Men.

By HAROLD GUARD United Press Staff Correspondent

SINGAPORE, Feb. 10, 5 P. M. (4 A. M., Indianapolis Time) (U. P.).—I paid my last visit to the Singapore front this afternoon and watched the bravest men in the world crouching in ditches while huge flights of Japanese planes dive-bombed and machine-gunned them—at their leisure. Our men are falling back under Japanese attacks backed by heavy new landing forces along the northwest and western shores of the island. The rattle of heavy machinegun fire now is audible in the western suburbs of Singapore City and the gravity of the position of the defenders of Singapore is obvious. May Fall In 24 Hours (In London some observers believed that Singapore will

if they think the attack on Pearl Harbor paralyzed the American fleet.” Channels Wide Open

Since the attack, Mr. Harsch savs, long lines of communication vital to ultimate success in the Pacific “have been nailed down hard with reinforcements and ceaseless naval patrols—until today the channels are wide open. . . . “Japan's best guaranty of victory was to close that line. Japan still is capable of delivering powerful blows from its inner lines of communication. But American forces already have won the battle of access to the Far Pacific.”

29 Die as Jap Sub Sinks U. S. Transport

WASHINGTON, Feh. 10 (U. P)

—The War Department announced

today that a small army transport has been torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine In Hawaiian waters with the loss of 29 lives. The transports loss was announced in an Army communique. It was the Royal T. Frank. In the same communique it was announced that Gen. Douglas MacArthur's Philippine troops are engaged in savage operations against the Japanese. Our troops, the communique said. shot down seven more Japanese planes during the past 24 hours, bringing the total confirmed as destroved in the Philippines to 163. The enemy suffered heavy casualties, it added. The torpedoing of the 224-ton transport Frank occurred Jan. 28. The communique said that 33 survivors reached an undisclosed port The ship was used as a small interisland freighter

M'NUTT IS SEEN AS ‘RECEIVER’ FOR OCD

Times Special WASHINGTON. Feb. 10. —Federal Security Administrator Paul V McNutt may become a sort of receiver in bankruptev for Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt's division of the Office of Civilian Defense, it was reported todav. The former Indiana governor said however. that if such is the case, he would want unhampered control and the power to do a good executive job. ‘IT don’t like being a receiver in bankruptcy, or a veterinarian to a sick horse,” he commented. Those who predict that OCD will be liquidated declare that its functions will be divided between the War Department and Federal Security Administration. The War Department would take over OCD air raid and other defense organizations and Mr. MecNutt's agency the “volunteer participation activities.”

TIMES FEATURES ON INSIDE PAGES

Alley Oop Clapper ...

6: Movies ....... ooo 11iMuSie ooo + 19 Obituaries .... Crossword .... 18 Pegler Editorials ....

1 4

12

Dawn t is morning found the Normandie resting on

of the great ship yesterday afternoon. The bow is pointing to the elevated highway in the foreground. (This Acme telephoto was made with important allied bases and com-

Army-Navy approval for publication.)

RAPS LOAFING BY Filipino-Led 5th Column in CAUSE OF BLAZE Japs' Pay Exposed by U. S.

By THOMAS M. JOHNSON NEA Service Military Writer

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10.—Our most dangerous fifth

STATE WORKERS

Governor Urges Heads of! All Departments to Save

Time, Materials. By EARL RICHERT State |

columnists today are neither nese. They are the small, v

American Cubans, Puerto Ricans country.

7 sier Farmer, its official publication.

The wasting of time by i iemployees, particularly in drinking | | “cokes” during working hours, was leriticized severely by Governor | Schricker today.

mining our war effort by espionage

| “I don't want to be fault-finding| jor critical,” the Governor told State |department heads in a meeting ‘called to discuss the conservation of the use of State automobiles and! tires, “but I believe we are still] {wasting time in State departments.” | Mr. Johnson | Cites ‘Lot of Loafing’ |

| The Governor recalled that he | thad removed the second floor lunch U, S, SEEKS GROUND counter because too many employ-!

moe mame eo AT JEFFERSONVILLE

that he had permitted a small| {counter to be installed on the first

(floor in its place. Goes to Court to Annex | “It’s not general” he said, “but| ‘ {there is a lot of loafing going on | Shipyard and Docks. around here now and people are| | | noticing it. | Condemnation proceedings were, | "I told my employees that if they jer way today in Federal court!

Z rink a * ? y should | ‘ : Yanied Pry Rea eke ne yr allowing the United States Govern- |

‘are not better soon, I will have Went to annex the Howard Shipyard the new counter taken out. This| 20d Dock Co. at Jeffersonville. may appear like a small matter] I caeral authorities deposited a but it jsnt.” {check for 879,395.47 with the court! 5 | at the time of filing the suit yester|day, representing the value of the + |property as determined by Govern-

munism. They have cently their le in Japan, used fined it to the

| Conservation Urged

The Governor told departmen heads that nothing should be wast- Ment assessors. . ed and that they should go through Ihe Ri. sought consists of 27 their equipment, weeding out alll 2Cres with a frontage along the

: : : Ohio River. that is not usable and sell it. as y “Every department should cut! The Howard Shipyard and Dock

down on the use of cars and tires CO. is under lease, it was learned to the greatest extent possible,” he today, to the Howard Shipyard] |said. “We should set an example Properties. Inc, a company whose | for our people for saving whenever articles of incorporation were filed,

it is possible.” with the Secretary of State late

C. Anderson Ketchum. State bud- last November. | |get director, discussed the curtail-| Incorporators of the new company ‘ment of the use of State automo-! Were Sidney Miller, Harold H.

'biles with department heads fol- Bredell and William J. Kinnally, | {lowing the Governor's talk. (Continued on Page Two)

} i i

Doubly dangerous because unsuspected, they are stealthily under-

in our factories—and all on behalf of Japan. These sinister activities are directed by one of the Orient's most dangerous terroristic movements which, unsuspected, has come to America from the Philippines. There, as the “Sakdalistas” they have agitated against American influence and against Commonwealth President Manuel Quezon and all other | Filipino leaders, favoring a sort of anarcho-com-

| Filipinos,

| Philippines and they had better

IN LINER SOUGHT

‘Sabotage Not Entirely Ruled

Germans, Italians nor Japa- Out; Disorder Among enomous proportion of anti- ; ‘ | Workers Denied. |

in this NEW YORK, Feb. 10 (U. P.).— Navy engineers inspected the (buckled plates and scorched decks

and especially Filipinos

in our armed forces and sabotage

| Lafayette for war conversion. lay

| clogged Hudson River. Fireboats still poured water on {the sprawling hulk and quenched {one smouldering remnant of the fire which broke out on the $60.- { 000,000 vessel vesterday. As Navy engineers examined the

caused riots and bloodshed. Reader, Benigno Ramos, after exile Japanese money, but he has conlower classes of Manila.

Fifth Column of 5000

BUT MORE lately, on the Pacific Coast, in a few large mid- the Navy on its cause. western cities, and in several | parts of greater New York, a few

| speedy salvage and resumption of | the enormous task of converting { her, agents of the Federal Bureau! ‘of Investigation questioned survivors of the fire for a report to |

Blame Acetylene Torch

mostly of unsavory =. The Navy and New York fire de- | repute, have been muttering to |partments officially attributed the any who would listen that the |fje to a welder's acetylene torch, United States can't defend the |which an eyewitness said had | sprayed sparks onto highly inflamNew Order for | mable kapok, a hairy material used | Such talk IS in construction work. Sabotage was A to "The |nhot qefinitely ruled out, however. Gang. since the FBI had not completed | Now, “The Gang” is disclosed |its investigation. as an American branch of “the | Navy officers denied a wave of Ganap,” a new name for the |waterfront rumors about sabotage. Sakdalistas, which hides a new, (Continued on Page Two) more aggressive policy. With :

Japanese money, these renegade | Filipinos have ‘mobilized them- ‘PURPLE HEART AlD GIVEN 30 DAYS, FINE

join Japan's Greater East Asia. always traced back

Half of Hoosier Farmers’ Cars Doomed In Year by Tire Rationing, Foust Fears

By WILLIAM CRABB

| Fifty per cent of Hoosier farmers’ automobiles will be off the road in| " ‘a year because of present tire ra. | tation &. pues, tl tioning restrictions, Edmond C.! k, Foust said that the Stream © | Foust of the Indiana Farm Bureau Purchasing power which has Jdwa | claimed today. [so readily to the cities and towns | : | “will dry up as the tires blow out.” | Mr. Foust is publicity director of] “Then will appear the ghost! the Bureau and editor of The Hoo- cities . . . the farmers of America {must have tires or the business] ‘world soon will feel the dent of

ers have no horses. The tire man-'

| date of today means eventual walk-|

{ing as the only means of transpor-

!| He charged that farmers have

lent tire arrangement. Though the

selves as a secret army for the defeat of democracy and white influence in Asia. The main body helped Japan's invasion of Luzon. Gen. Mac- | Arthur caught two score of its : $y 3p Convicted of Soliciting for the bowels of Corregidor. But ; ; : the advance guard, undetected, | Oharity Without License, has nT infiltrated into | Found guilty on a charge of solicToday “The Gang” has nearly Hing For a charity Without a li5000 members in continental | CCDS® Herbert F. Mitchell, adjutant : {of the local chapter of the Order (of the Purple Heart, today was fined (Continued on Page Teh) 4:55.14 costs and sentenced to 30 days in jail by Municipal Judge John McNelis. Mitchell immediately posted bond for an appeal to Circuit Court. {were discharged today, were ar(rested Jan. 23 on affidavits filed by away the long evenings,” he said. | Albert Mendenhall of the Better “They did that 25 years ago. They| Business Bureau in connection with will again do this under the pres-|the sale of tickets for a “George Washington Bitrhday Ball” at the 15 miles from the average farm| The others—Perry Knight of the family, they had just as well be| Warren Hotel, George C. Baker of 100 miles away, for farmers won't!515 Ripple Road, and D. R. Lee of ‘hoof it’ that far.” |the English Hotel—were released by Mr. Foust charged that A de-/Judge McNelis when witnesses cree demanding that farm people failed to identify them as having

leaders and now holds them in United States and the number is | | Mitchell and three others, who county seat towns are but 10 to/Columbia Club Feb. 21. remain on their farms for the du-|sold tickets.

of the liner Normandie today as] 1the vessel, renamed the U. S. S.| The Japanese made a new!

| Normandie for the possibility of |

munications lines. There were strong indications that the Japanese were making their greatest effort to achieve substantial gains by Wednesday, (the most important holiday in | Japan celebrating tne founding of the dynasty of the “Son Heaven.” Dispatches, in addition to the Battle of Singapore, showed: A War Department come munique said forces of Gen. | Douglas MacArthur are engaged in (savage fighting against the Japjanese, and reported seven more enemy planes shot down bringing the total to 136. The U. S. trans(port Royal T. Frank was sunk by a | Japanese submarine with loss of [29 lives.

landing in a thrust at Macasand drove toward Bandjermas in south Borneo. They renewed air activities over main Java bases as the Dutch predicted that a “final onslaught” is imminent. The Japanese made a new landing at Gasmata, on the south coast of New Britain island, in the push toward Australia. Australian bombers attacked enemy shipping off the New Britain coast. The British fought to hold the Salween river line, Axis broad-

jcasie claimed Japanese advances in

the Martaban and Paan sectors, but Tokyo said pressure on Burma was lessened pending outcome of attack on Singapore. The gravity of the united nations’ position was thrown into bold relief by the arrival in India of Gen. Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese generalis(Continued on Page Two)

On the War

Fronts

SINGAPORE: British imperials falling back, with fall of island

| reported near.

HAWAII: U. S. Army trans. port Royal T. Frank sunk in Hawaiian waters; 29 lives lost.

PHILIPPINES: Gen. Douglas MacArthur's forces locked in fierce combat with Japs.

EAST INDIES: Danger to Java grows with Jap landings in southern Celebes and thrust toward Bandjermassin, south. ern Borneo.

AUSTRALIA: Japanese land at Gasmata, New Britain, 325 miles from Port Moresby.

LONDON: Charge Vichy France aided Gen. Erwin Rommel with supplies; three more Axis transports blasted in Mediterranean by British

fall within 24 or 48 hours. The loss of the British Empire's | great eastern bastion was regarded as a foregone conclusion, This view was borne out by Mr. Guard's dispatches today, which made it ominously clear that—barring an unexpects ed miracle—the Japanese shortly will be in control of Singae pore, one of the world's No. 1 strategic positions.) There is only one real way to report this battle of

9 | Singapore. That is to go to the front lines and see for youre

‘self. (Mr. Guard did not make clear the reference to his

“last visit.” He may expect that the battle will be raging at

|the gates of the city of Singapore shortly or he may expecé 'to be evacuated). | Yesterday I spent the day around Singapore City. I ‘heard the crashing sound of artillery fire growing nearer and nearer and formed my own conclusions.

“Nothing Men Can Do”

This afternoon I have been watching our troops in ‘action, including the Argyle regiment which has been fighte

‘helplessly on her side in the ice-!sar in southwestern Celebes island. | ing ever since the battle for Ipoh, half way up the Malaya

|

peninsula. I watched our men crouching in ditches while overhead 'droned flight after flight of Japanese planes—usually 27 ‘planes to a flight. The Japanese planes dive-bombed our men and then dive-bombed again. They opened up with their machine guns in low-flying strafing attacks—carried out at theip leisure. There was nothing our men could do to combat the Japanese aviation. Our troops lack nothing—but air support,

“They Are All Heroes”

Their morale is high. They are all heroes—every man jack of them. Enemy artillery shells still were bursting in the outs skirts of the city. Non-combatants from the areas immediately west of Singapore City began pouring into the main residential and ‘business districts. High military officials admitted that the situation was serious regarding the island as a whole following new Jape anese landings under a tremendous artillery barrage during the night on the north coast, between Sungei Kranji and Sungei Mandai. Enemy forces which previously had landed on the west coast continued to push back the defense forces and were fighting to join up with troops landed on the north coast, (Continued on Page Two)

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War Analysis

By WILLIAM H. STONEMAN

Copyright, 1942, by The Indianapolis Times and the Ch Inc.

icago Daily News. LONDON, Feb. 10.—What was expected to be “Singapore's fight to the last man” is now dangere ously close to becoming a rout—a lightning-like and overwhelming defeat, involving the capture or ane nihilation of tens of thousands of allied troops almost before they have begun to fight. If that happens—and it looks like a thousand te (one probability today—the Japanese will have captured one of the bige gest strategic plums in the world at ridiculously low cost and the allies | will have learned again the lesson which they can’t learn too often—

/namely, that comparatively untried |

troops unprotected against air attack simply cannot stand up to] skilled, courageous veterans abe) ported by air power. This lesson was being pounded

for which the situation seemed to call. There can be no question about the native courage of the defenders. The situation as it stands today is due rather to the violence of the which are

home today as two Japanese invading forces, one from the west and the other from the north, sliced they way on through allied troops

dive-bombing attacks, made possible by lack of adequate fighter defense, and to the fact that the defenders have not had the

12/ Pyle 11! been considered nothing more than | gepression,” he said. |ration would have been no more Toner M. Overly, manager of the Mrs. Ferguson 12 Questions...11, 12 “economic slaves chained to the Mr Foust contended that the|effective than the present system Better Business Bureau, charged Finaneial 6 Radio 20 food for freedom’ machine.” Ineed for tires is a hundred-fold|of tire rationing. that the solicitors in selling the Forum «+ 12 Mrs Roosevelt 11] “Twenty-five years ago most farm- greater in rural districts than in| He compared the farmer in the|dance tickets foi $1.50 apiece, were Homemaking . 15 Serial Story.. 18 ers had a good driving horse and the cities and that there is enough |present situation to the “fellow! “trying to cash in on public sentiIn Indpls. .... 3 Side Glances.. 12{the proper equipment for short rubber and rubber substitutes to!who had his suspenders taken from ment by telling prospective pur Inside Indpls. 11Society.....14, 15 travel,” Mr. Foust said. “Today not keep American farm cars running. /him and then was told he was wel-| chasers that the proceeds were to Jane Jordan.: ie occ. 16, 17 one farm in a thousand has a good) “Of course, farmers still have come to do the hula dance if he be used for wounded soldiers of Johnson ...iss oh 7| driving horse. Hundreds of farm the mail while | desired.” ; this war.” a - ¢ ¥a

sub; Russian offensive slowing

d discipline which comes of long years own.

of active service.

until they were virtually within sight of Singapore City. Their rapid progress indicated that they were outfighting allied infantry and the frenzied activity of their dive bombers made it look as though the fighting was not all of the desperate hand to hand, type

” ” Ld On Inside Pages Auto “Thaw” to Start....Page 3 Map ceavennes 8 Details of Fighting CrsPerR RNS 5 Japan Unmasked tomer eevee

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