Evening Star Newspaper, April 12, 1940, Page 1

Weather Forecast Cloudy and much colder tonight, with minimum about 28; tomorrow fair; fresh northwest winds. Temperatures today—Highest, 60, at 7 a.m.; lowest,. ‘From Press to Home Within the Hour' 38, at 2 pm. From the United States Wess the e e on Closing New York Ma: ther Wureau report age A-2 rkets, Page 18. 88th YEAR. No. 35,045. Five Reich Ships Also Reported At Trondheim By the Associated Press. STOCKHOLM, April 12— Seven German warships were | reported in Norwegian advices today to be bottled up in Oslo’s harbor and Norwegians, trying to seal their conquered capital within an iron ring, expected important action at any mo- ment. ‘The Norwegian government an- nounced by radio that the Germans elsewhere were masters of Kristian- sand, on the south coast; Stavanger, on the southeast coast; Bergen, on the west coast, and Narvik, on the northern coast. The situation at Trondheim re- maiged hidden under military se- crecy. Five German warships, including & pocket battleship, were reported today off the port where British were said to have attacked by air and sea. The Norwegians believed the war- ships hid in the narrow, deep bays of Trondheim Fjord yesterday, for a Norwegian expedition sent to lo- cate them reported no vessels were visible. Highways Blocked. To the north British naval activ- ity continued, as Namsos, north of ‘Trondheim, reported that two Brit- ish destroyers this morning steamed along the coast outside the harbor of Folde Fjord. All highways to the east and northeast of Oslo were blocked by Norwegian defense forces, accord- | ing to advices reaching here, and an effort was being made to weld | a solid ring around the fallen| capital. | A semi-circle already has been es- | taplished running from Moss, 35| miles south of Oslo, to the east and thence morth through Halden, | Kongsvinger, Elverum and Gjovk, the latter 60 miles north of Oslo. To the northwest, strong formations | were reported concentrated in val-| leys. | Elverum was destroyed by German | air vombs Jast night, but the number | of killed was relatively small as the | civilian population had been ordered earlier to withdraw. Guard Forces Organized. The guard forces meanwhile were being organized and women were | called to labor duty. | Adyvices reaching Stockholm—the only Scandinavian capital free of | German control—said the Germans occupying Trondheim had mined gll bridges, apparently to forestall any assault by a British landing force. The Germans were believed to have about 1200 men in all at ‘Trondheim. | The Norwegian radio at Olesund | reported a naval battle betweenl British and German sea forces and | British war planes were said to have bombed German warships in Trond- heim Fjord. (The German command re- ported that British planes and light navai forces attacking Trondheim were driven off.) The pocket battleship was identi- fied tentatively as the Luetzow—for- merly the Deutschland—sister ship of the scuttled Admiral Graf Spee. She and the Admiral Scheer are the only two fighters in that 10,000~ ton class left in the Nazi fleet. Bridges Are Blasted. ‘The Norwegian “Minute Men,” gome of them untrained peasants and men who had time only to shoulder a shotgun and join the | colors, were reported methodically blasting bridges to obstruct the Germans, and fortifying every pos- sible defense point not in Nazi hands. Indications of how completely Norway was surprised by the Ger- man action included a report that when mobilization was ordered | ‘Tuesday, Norwegian officers and sol- diers could not reach concentration centers before several had been oc- cupied by Germans. A clue to how it was done was seen here in a dispatch reporting a con- versation yesterday with an officer outside barracks in Oslo. He spoke | fluent Norwegian, wore a Norwegian uniform and was German. When German reinforcements landed as Moss, on Oslo Fjord be- low the Norwegian capital, they commandeered buses and private automobiles for the overland trip up to Oslo. One report said they drove through Norwegian guard lines, the guards never suspecting that the invaders would arrive in interurban buses and private cars with Nor- wegian license plates. Although the reported landing at Moss indicated that Germans still were reaching Norway by water, Bwedish newspaper reports said that the army of occupation was being (S8ee NORWAY, Page A-4.) Brifish Suspend Naviceris For Six Counfries By the Associated Press. The British Embassy has sus- pended the issuance of navicerts for shipments to Norway, Sweden, Fin- land, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia until further notice. Navicerts are navigation certifi- cates stating that British authori- ties have no objection to certain Items of cargo going on to neutral destination. Earlier today the Embassy an- nounced that all contraband goods | | SHETLAND s, 7 ORKNEY IS# h WASHINGTON, D. C, FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 1940—FIFTY PAGES. **** 7 Nazi Warships Bottled at Oslo AsNorwegians TrytoRing Capital; - British Planes Sink Munitions Ship I ANDALSNES Q BERGEN® SEA STRUGGLE CONTINUES—(1) sinking two more British destroyers at Narvik and hitting an airplane carrier and cruiser at (2) sea; (3) German warships grouped to defend Trondheim Harbor; (4) British soldiers were reported trying to join a Norwegian force near Bergen, although the Admiralty denied any forces had been landed; (5) British planes bombed airdrome at Stavanger; (6) Norwegian royalty was in refuge as Elverum and Hamar burned; (7) Sweden mined the strait; (8) British sank an ammunition ship in the Belt; (9) Great Britain laid a vast mine network.—A. P. Wirephoto. L 2 ONYB, 0! RGN .H o LVERUM MAR STOCKHOLM The Germans reported Rail Station Bombed, Nazis Say, Hinting At Reprisals Britain’s Air Ministry Denies Planes Raided Schleswig Town By the Associated Press. BERLIN, April 12—DNB, German official news agency, reported today that British warplanes had bombed a German railway station in Schles- wig-Holstein and intimated that re- | bombings were repeated. The agency | said the raid had given “a new | aspect to the war.” The identity of the town was not | disclosed, but DNB said that the| tracks had been broken in one place and that the station was slightly damaged. (In London a high official at the Air Ministry denied the DNB report that British planes had bombed a railway station in Schleswig-Holstein.) The news agency called the raid the first allied attempt since the beginning of the war to damage transportation outside the active combat area. Schleswig-Holstein is in the north- ern part of Germany near the Danish border, across which Ger- man troops marched earlier in the week. Retaliation Hinted. “If a repetition of this act should show it is part of a systematic new policy on the part of the British,” DNB said, “the German air force will face the new situation.” The intimation was that the Ger- mans would revise their own air tactics in retaliation. Announcement of the British air raid was made as Nazi military com- manders boasted of new successes against allied naval and sea forces attempting to shake loose Germany’s tightening grip on Norway. A German communique asserted that German warplanes had severe= ly damaged a British aircraft car- rier and a cruiser 125 miles off the Norwegian coast and said that light units of the Bitish Navy had been repulsed while attempting to enter Trondheim Fjord. Air Raids Beaten Off. British air raids on Trondheim and Stavanger likewise were beaten off and one Vickers Wellington bomber was shot down, the com- munique asserted. Meanwhile, the military occupa- tion of Norway was said to be pro- ceeding “according to systematic schedule.” o The German-occupied area at Narvik, the Northern Norwegian iron ore port, was “expanded” in- land to Elveness without resistance, the high command reported, and DNB, official German news agency, (See BERLIN, Page A-3) 500 Pupils March To Safety in Fire By the Associated Press. PITTSBURGH, April 12.—As frantic-stricken mothers stood on the street screaming and crying, more than 500 small children marched calmly to safety as fire swept - the ‘roof of the Letsche Ele- mentary School near the downtown section today. The students, believing they were carrying out one of the regular fire drills, evacuated the three-story, 35-year-old brick structure in three minutes. Many mothers thronged consigned to or destined for Den- mark would be detained or seized by the allies. -, the street, uncertain for a time whether all of the children had escaped. .} | prisals might be expected if such | Survivors of Brifish Ship Charged German Batteries at Narvik 50 Men of Hardy Crew Reported to Have Made Landing By the Associated Press. LONDON, April 12.—Britain today | received the story of what is be- | lieved to have been the only landing | yet made by any British fighting { men on the Norwegian coast. Returning survivors of Wednes- day’s blazing battle at Narvik said that about 50 men of the British destroyer Hardy, which was wrecked and run aground in that battle, made a landing under fire of the | German shore batteries, apparently determined to continue the fight. | Eye-witnesses aboard the destroy- ers Hotspur, Hostile and Havock, which managed to withdraw from the fight, said their comrades | aboard the Hardy when last seen were landing with rifles and ammu- nition. Fate of Group Unknown. The fate of the Hardy's survivors, however, is not known. They have not been reported since the battle, except for German accounts of hav- ing captured prisoners at Narvik, ore port above the Arctic Circle. The British admit that another destroyer, the Hunter, was sunk at Narvik, Survivors of another of the series of fights which made up this week's battle oft the Norwegian coast re- turned today to tell of what they saw, the last hours of the destroyer Gurkha, Gunner Jack Squires said that about half a dozen German war- planes attacked the Gurkha about 3 pm. Wednesday afternoon. “When the vessel began to sink, we closed the bulkheads and man- aged to keep afloat nearly four hours,” he said. “We kept firing and brought down a couple of Ger- man planes—one of them the blighter that got us.” Other members of the crew as- serted the Gurkha's commander stuck to his post while his ship sank under him, but was saved from death by two subofficers who “al- WITH SUNDAY MORNING EDITION Skagerrak Mined To Bar Return of German Fleet By the Associated Press. LONDON, April 12.—Amid re- ports of a raging war at sea along the far-flung Scandinav- ian front, with new warplane successes, Britain today bul- warked her air and navy against Nazi conquest of Norway with vast mine fields in waters vital to Germany’s campaign. British flyers ranging over the sea lanes from Germany's Baltic coast to Norway's Oslo Fjord during the night were announced officially to have blown up a large ship, de- scribed as apparently an ammuni- tion ship of about 8,000 tons, in the Great Belt of Denmark, while far- ther north they were believed to! have damaged a 5,000-ton supply ship. (The sinking of a vessel of con= siderable tonnage in flames in the Skagerrak was witnessed to- day from Stroemstad, Swedish coastal town near the Norwegian border. Heavy clouds of smoke billowed up from burning oil or gasoline. The ship sank in an hour.) ‘The Admiralty gave notice of the mining of four areas in the North Sea, the Skagerrak and the Katte- gat, interpreted as a move to block German traffic between the North Sea and the Baltic except through the Kiel Canal. Mines Two-Edged Weapons. ‘The mines were seen as a two- edged weapon against Germany aimed at damming the sea-borne flow of men and munitions to aid the invasion or Norway and at prevent- ing the German fleet now in Nor- wegian waters from returning to Germany. The mined area touches Nor- wegian, Danish and German coasts and also territorial waters of Sweden and the Netherlands, it was an- nounced, but no mines are to be laid in channels extending 10 miles on both sides of certain points. Naval sources explained that the fields covered the entire entrances to the Skagerrak and Kattegat and extend as far as the middle of latter, the sea way between. Sweden and Denmark. Besides the attacks on German ammunition and supply vessels dur- ing the night, British flyers also were announced to have bombed a Ger- man seaplane base on the Baltic coast. Aircraft Rocked by Blast, The ammunition ship was one of a line of eight to 10 vessels and the official announcement said it “was blown up with such force that the attacking aircraft were rocked by the force of the explosion.” Darkness, it said, kept the fiyers from learning the true effect of the attack on the supply ship inter- cepted farther north. An authoritative British source said there had been no major naval | engagement in the Kattegat today. Reports of heavy detonations heard in these waters, a naval offi- cial said, may have been due to depth charge explosions, since there is no doubt that the Germans have made vigorous search for British submarines there. It was understood that British submersibles have been very active on the German supply ship routes between Germany and Norway. Speculation on Trondheim. The Norwegian port of Trond- heim, in whose deep fjord a naval battle was reported in progress, was picked by neutral experts as the most likely base for allied and Nor- wegian operations to drive the Ger- mans from Norway. Four other ports besides Trond- heim were seen as possible British military bases, because they are on railroads. They are Namsos, north of Trondheim; Aandalsnes, on Romsbals Fjord to the South; Nar- vik, in the Arctic, and Bergen, in the southwest. Trondheim, however, with rail- roads leading north, south and east, and situated on a wide inlet that slashes nearly across Norway, was described as the best jump-off point as military strategists and British War Office “brains” pored over maps to visualize a land campaign which must follow the present wide- open sea warfare between the British and German fleets. Winston Churchill, First Lord of (See NARVICK, Page A-3.) Summary of Page. Arysements, A-14-15 Comics _C-10-11 Editorials __A-10 Finance .__A-17 Lost, Found -C-5 Obituary -__A-12 Page. Serial Story B-12 Society - B-3 Foreign Five German warships reported at Trondheim. Page A-1 British planes sink big munitions ship. Page A-1 Schleswig railway station bombed, Germans say. Page A-1 National President signs bill extending Trade Agreements Act. Page A-1 McCarran fights President’s last two reorganization orders. Page A-1 Evacuation of Americans in Scandi- navia long planned. Page A-2 Senator Walsh to speak at D. A. R. defense meeting. Page A-2 Southern Republicans seen “stop Dewey” possibility. Page A-3 Washington and Vicinity Cherry blossom pageant cpens to- night at Tidal Basin. Page A-1 (See LONDON, Page A-3) Today's Star Regulation of new labor-saving ma- chinery urged. Page A-2 Jones leads tribute to Glass at Vir- ginia C. of C. banquet. Page A-2 Mail truck driver beats off bandit in Chevy Chase. Page A-5 Kennedy forecasts no ra 1 change in District setup. 'age B-1 Navy building new powder factory at Indianhead. Page B-1 Editorial and Comment This and That. Answers to Questions. Letters to The Star. David Lawrence. Alsop and Kintner, Frederic William Wile. Constantine Brown. Charles G. Ross. Page A-10 Page A-10 Page A-10 Page A-11 Page A-11 Page A-11 Page A-11 Page A-11 Miscellany . Vital Statistics. Service Orders, Bedtime Story. Letter-Out. ‘Winning Contract. w Uncle Ray's Corner. Cross-Word Puzzle, Nature’s Children. Page B-16 Page B-17 Page C-10 Page C-10 Page C-10 Page C-11 Page C-11 PT c-12 ¢ Foening Star Star delivered Most people in Washington have The to their homes every evening and Sunday morning. THREE CENTS. President Approves Measure Extending Trade Pacts Law Roosevelt, at Signing Ceremony, Answers Criticisms of Act (Text of President’s Statement, Page B-8.) By JOHN C. HENRY. Describing the program as a “pow- | erful instrument for promoting our national economic well being and for strengthening the foundations of stable peace,” President Roosevelt today approved the legislation ex- tending the Reciprocal Trade Agree- ments Act for three more years. Present at the signing ceremony at the White House were Secretary of State Hull, Secretary of Agricul- ture Wallace, Senate Finance Com- mittee Chairman Harrison and House Ways and Means Committee ‘man Doughton. The latter 4 “were instrumental in getting gislation through Congress. g occasion in the signing ceremony to make his own answer to many criticisms which have been | directed against the program, the facts brought out by * * * search- ing scrutiny should leave no room for doubt in the mind of any fair- minded person that the trade agree- ments program has brought demon- strable benefits to our Nation as a whole and to every interest directly concerned, and has not inflicted in- jury on any group of producers, Unwarranted Fears. “What was particularly striking,” he continued, “was that, in the absence of any proof of actual in- Jury, much of the opposition seemed | to be based on unwarranted fears |as to what might happen in the future. There is nothing more de- | structive of public welfare than the | conjuring up of groundless fears for the sole purpose of discrediting a | constructive policy which is invul- | nerable to attack on any legitimate basis.” Carefully, the President empha- sized that procedure followed in the program has been in large measure responsible for its success. From the Departments of State, Agricul- ture, Commerce and the Treasury, One Killed, Five Injured As Autos Collide Head-on One man was fatally injured and five others hurt in a head-on col- lision of two automobiles on rain- avenue shortly before noon foday. Hugh R. Riley, 14 Franklin street, Annapolis, driver and sole occupant of one of the cars, died about an hour after being admitted to Casual- ty Hospital. Passengers of the other machine, a Baltimore police car driven by Albert Kendrick, a detective, were said to be members of a Baltimore grand jury en route to the House of Reformation at Cheltenham, Md., on an investigation. Mr. Kendrick received head and knee injuries; Maj. Julian De Court, U. S. A., re- tired, head and arm injuries, and Edwin E. Hooper, athletic director of the Baltimore Fire Department, head injuries. Kendrick and Maj. De Court were treated at Casualty Hospital. Mr. Riley, a correspondent for newspapers in New York, Philadel- phia and Washington, including The Star, was about 65. He had been long active in Democratic politics, serving formerly in the An- napolis City Council and the State Legislature. He was several times a candidate for Mayer. He served as a lieutenant colonel in the Mary- land National Guard. Hospital authorities said Mr. Riley’s neck apparently was broken in the accident. Witnesses said his car skidded and went out of con- trol as it reached the crest of a low hill, met the other car head-on and knocked it into a ditch. A sscond car of jurors following the first was, not involved in the accident. Norwegians Warned NEW YORK, April 12 (#).—The German-controlled radio station at Oslo, Norway, in a broadcast picked up by the N. B. C. short-wave listen- ing station shortly after 6:45 a.m. today appealed to the Norwegian people to stop fighting and warned that any one failing to co-operate Chief Executive remarked that “the | slippery Crain highway near Central | said. Delaware Town First To Report Census; Shows Gain of Six By the Associated Press. Odessa, Del., today won the distinction of reporting the first complete count in the 1940 census to Washington head- quarters. The little town in New Castle County had a preliminary count of 391 residents, a gain of six over its 1930 tabulation. Many, small towns in the county probably have completed their censuses before today, but Odessa was the first to get an official report into Washington. Ten years ago, Centertown, Mo., was first. | 'President Doubts Changes Will Reduc F.A.A. or C.A.A. Rolls Reorganization to Bring Few, if Any, Cuts in Agencies’ Personnel Assurance that there would be few if any reductions in personnel of the Federal Alcohol Administration and they now exist, as a result of their contemplated revised status under recent reorganization orders, was given today by President Roosevelt. By terms of the third order issued early this month the F. A. A. is being abolished as an independent agency with its functions coming under more direct supervision of the Treasury Department. A similar shift for the G. A. A. to bring it from full independence to inclusion within the Commerce Department was pro- vided in the fourth order issued | yesterday. i Asked about the detailed implica- at a press conference today, Presi- dent Roosevelt replied that in both cases it was largely a matter of giv- ing the agencies a cabinet depart- ment to which they would report. F. A. A. Doing Excellent Job. In the Alcohol Authority, he de- clared that the present personnel has been doing an excellent job. Engaged in carrying out a law which, of course, has not been changed, these people will be retained, he said. In the case of the aeronautics agency, he continued, the presently existing machinery will remain in- tact. Some top salaries will be elim- inated and the work of the agency will become a part of the operation of the Commerce Department, he Emphatically. he asserted that the Civil Aeronautics Authority as| tions of these particular suggestions | Cherry Blossom Fete Delayed as 28-Degree Cold Is Forecast Committee Puts Off All Events Until Tomorrow, Sunday t Ramspeck Hifs Civil Service Extension Bar Keller, However, Is for Nichols Retroactive Plan BACKGROUND— Keller-Nichols amendment to Ramspeck bill is bitterly opposed by Civil Service Commission. Amendment would restrict ez tensions of civil service under the bill by applying State quotas. Bill would take in some 125,000 jobs under civil service, and units affected approve with one ezcep- tion—some mechanics working on the T. V. A., who prefer their own personnel service. Bill would probatly raise pay roll expenses some $10,000,000. By J. A. O'LEARY. The effort to bar thousands of Government workers credited to Washington and 14 States from the benefits of the Ramspeck civil service bill was opposed by the author of the measure, Representative Ram- speck, Democrat, of Georgia before the Senate Civil Service Committee today. He joined the Civil Service Com- mission in describing as “unwork- able” the ban advocated in the House by Representative Nichols, Democrat, of Oklahoma, to prevent extension of civil service status to those employes because they were appointed from areas that now are above their quotas under the ap- pointment law. Nichols Takes Stand. Shortly before the committee re- cessed until Wednesday Representa- tive Nichols took the stand to de- fend his ban against employes from A fast-dropping mercury this morning, topped with an official forecast of occasional rain later in the day and temperatures as low as | 28 degrees tonight, caused a 24-hour postponement of the Cherry Blos- som Festival. | The Executive Committee of the | festival planning group, watching | the thermometer fall 8 degrees bet- |tween 10 and 11 am, announced |that all events, including the eve- ning pageants, would be held to- morrow and Sunday instead of to- day and tomorrow, as had been | scheduled. | Official weather forecast was “oc- | casional Tains this afternoon with ‘smndily falling temperatures. cloudy |and much colder tonight with a | minimum of about 28 degrees; to- morrow fair.” The temperature fell from 60 at 7 am. to 39 at 1:30 pm. Members of the Executive Com- mittee conferring this morning with Weather Bureau officials were Edgar Morris, festival chairman; Aubrey Bogley, in charge of equatic ar- rangements; Col. Harrison Brand of | the” Washington Board of Trade, iand Clyde Burton of the National | Capital Park and Planning Com- mission. | 100,000 to 200,000 Expected. | An estimated crowd of 100,000 to | 200,000 is anticipated over the week end to view the trees expected in full flower tomorrow and Sunday. Persons converging on the Capital by sutomobile, buses and special excursion trains, were rapidly filling local hotels, with the peak antici- pated late tomorrow or Sunday. Miss Rose Colliflower, the 1940 cherry blossom queen, is now sched- uled to make her appearance at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow from the long-popu- lar swan boat amid a torchlight es- cort of American Red Cross swim- mers. Taking her place in the stage, Miss Colliflower will receive her dia- dem from Commissioner McCoach at 7:50 o’clock. After the coronation the queen and her court of princesses will assemble on the stage to witness the pageant. The audience will look out over the stage toward the Thomas Jef- ferson Memorial, now under con- struction. The United States Ma- rine Band, under the direction of Capt. William Santelmann, will then play the theme song of the 1940 festival, “Pale Potomac Moon,"” composed by Arthur Godfrey. This will be followed by 16 danc- over-quota States, d to charge that the basic civil Service law has failed to bring about a merit system. Commenting on the announce- ment of the commission that his amendment is unworkable, Mr. Nichols said: “I am not in a position to argue | with those gentlemen, because they are in possession of the machinery for carrying out the bill. I am inclined to agree it won't be worked, whether it's workable or not.” Mr. Ramspeck peinted out the | Nichols proposal is retroactive on | employes now in the unclassified service. He said he would have no objection to the alternative of Rep- resentative Keller, Democrat, of Illinois, to require that in future no new appointments to civil service shall be made from over-quota areas as long as other States are under quota. Keller for Nichols Plan. Mr. Keller came pefore the com- | mittee a moment later, however, | and announced he now supports the | Nichols retroactive provision, instead of his original amendment. He told Senator Bulow, Democrat, of South | Dakota, chairman, that with the | amendment he is for the bill, with- | out it he is against the measure. Charles 1. Stengle of the Ameri- | can Federation of Government Em- | ployes came out against the Nichols- Keller ban, and urged passage of the bill. Turning momentarily from the pending bill, Mr. Keller said he plans to introduce in the next Con- gress a measure under which a newly-appointed Government em- ploye would be given a five-year ten- ure, after which his or her future status would be determined. Ramspeck Stresses Examination. Another development today was | the 1equest of Mr. Ramspeck that his bill be clarified to make sure that any non-civil service employe who fails to pass a non-competitive | examination, within six months after | the President orders application of the merit system to an agency, be dropped. He indicated there was some doubt | about this feature of the bill as it passed the House. Mr Ramspeck emphasized, how- ever, that the whole bill leaves dis- cretion with the President to de- cide when and whether an outside agancy should be brought into the merit system. If an agency was or- _(See CIVIL SERVICE, Page A-3) —_— | | | (See REORGANIZATION, Pg. A-4) (See FESTIVAL, Page A-3) President Asks By GARNETT D. HORNER. President Roosevelt, declaring the Danish possession of Greenland is more closely related to the American than to the European continent dis- closed today that he had started action looking toward possible Red Cross relief for the 17,000 inhab- itants of Greenland next winter. The President dismissed as pre- mature and hypothetical, however, questions about possible application of the Monroe Doctrine should Greenland be taken over by either Germany or Great Britain. He added that he thought it grand that discussions about the possibility of German occupation of Greenland following the Nazi invasion of Den- mark had stirred the American people to think about the Artic is- land, and look up their 1maps to see how close it was to the American continent, and read about its inter- esting history in encyclopedias. Mr. Roosevelt emphasized that his interest in Greenland for the time being was humanitarian rather than political. The view has been expresged in Congress and elsewhere that Green- land lies close enough to the North American Continent to be included in the Monroe Doctrine, under which the United States has declared that any changes or extensions of Euro- pean sovereignty on this hemisphere would be resisted by this country. The President said his principal concern was what might happen to the 17,000 inhabitants of Greenland, mostly Eskimos, if there should be Red Cross To Aid Greenland if Necessary any interruption in the supply ships, which for years have gone regularly from Denmark to the Arctic island. He said he had asked the Red Cross to look into the situation to lay plans in such case to keep the Greenland people from starving. He added that he thought the American people would be glad to help if necessary. The President said numerous per- sons had discussed the question with him in the last few days. He said he had looked up the history of Greenland in an encyclopedia and had talked with several geographers and other experts. His researches convinced him, the President said, that from the point of view of an- cient history and its flora and fauna, Greenland belongs much more closely to the American con- tinent than to the European. He said the Danes had done a good job in handling the Eskimos in Greenland, establishing numer- ous community governments that worked very well both from the u;clalozlcll and economic point of view. He said he had been particularly interested in Greenland since Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owen, former United States Minister to Denmark, stopped off in Greenland four or five years ago and made pictures portraying the life of the people there, later showing them to him at the White House. Pre;idem Roosevelt emphasized that he was speaking only about Greenland, and not about Iceland, (8ee GREENLAND, Page A-3) The Latest News When the day is over in Europe it is “press time” at The Star and all of the dra- matic news of the war is found in the late editions of The Star. A Yesterday’s Circulation The Evening Star Thurs., April 11, 1940__*165,472 Thurs., April 13, 1939__*154,780 Increase *Returns from newsstands not deducted and no samples included. Yesterday’s Advertising The Evening Star. 2nd Néwuplper Total, 3 other papers, 54,553 Telephone NAtional 5000 and have the regular edition of The Evening Star and The Sunday Star delivered to your home at 75 cents per month or the Night Final and Sunday Star at 85 cents.