Evening Star Newspaper, April 15, 1940, Page 1

Weather Forecast Cloudy, slightly warmer, occasional rain tonight; minimum about 44; tomorrow cloudy and warmer, with local showers in afternoon. Temperatures—Highest, 51, at 2 p.m.; lowest, 36, at 1:30 a.m. From the United States Weather Bureau report. Full details on Page A-2. Closing New York Markets, Page 20. 88th YEAR. No. 35,048, ch WASHINGTON, ¢ Foen WITH SUNDAY MORNING D. C, MONDAY, L 4 EDITION APRIL 15, q Star 1940 —FORTY PAGES. *** ‘From Press to Home Within the Hour’ Most people in Washington have The Star delivered to thefr homes every evening and Sunday morning. () Means Associated Pre: THREE CENTS. BRITISH LAND ARMED FORCES IN NOR of Treason That Opened Nor Amazing Story '2 More Transports Sunk, English Say; Air Raids Continue Four Hits Are Scored on Troopship Convoy, One Fired, London Declares By the Associated Press. LONDON, April 15.—Great Britain announced today she had landed soldiers at several points in Norway to press | the war against the German invaders while her navy and ainr force hurled new bolts at the Nazis in widespread sec- tions in and around Scandinavia. o (In Berlin German officials asserted that no British troops had landed at any Norwegian points occupied by Ger- man forces, either Narvik or anywhere else, but may have effected landings elsewhere. (It was admitted that the British may be somewhere along Norway’s jagged coast of nearly 1,000 miles. The cc_last abounds in little hideouts, but these are strategically unim- portant, the Germans said.) - " The brief statement in a joint war office-admiralty communique that British troops are on Norwegian soil capped a week end cram- med with these reports by the British: _ 1. The laying of a huge mine barricade across the entire Ger- man Baltic coast from Kiel Bay to Luthuania. 2. The torpedoing of the 10.000-ton German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer by the British submarine Spearfish. The admiralty did not say whether the Admiral Scheer was sunk. Claim Two More Transports Sunk. 3. The sinking by British submarines of two German transports, bringing to 12 the total of transport and supply ships reported sunk in recent days. The admiralty also said its submarines scored four hits on a transport convoy in the Skaggerak. 4. Continued British aerial raids on Stavanger and_ on"Berzcn. A gasoline dump was believed destroyed in a night raid, the fifth since Germany's invasion, at Stavanger and the admiralty said one German transport was set afire at Bergen. " Landing Reported Made at Narvik. : 5. A British naval squadron, led by the hameshyp Warspite, on Saturday sank seven German destroyers at Narvik, northern Norwegian ore port. i While official information was lacking on the number of men and the points where the British expeditionary torce_ hx_lded. Nor- wegian sources said that the British occupied Narvik in the far north. k . Other points considered among the most likely landing places are Namsos, about 100 miles north of German-held Trondheim and Andalsnes, about 100 miles south of Trondheim. Prime Minister Chamberlain conferred today with Clement Attlee and Arthur Grenweod, opposition Labor leaders. It was reliably stated that he; informed them he would make; a full statement tomorrow in thez House of Commons on the Brit- ish landings in Norway. Communiques Relate Quicker Tempo. | The quickened tempo of the war in the north was related in terse communiques from the war office, the admiralty and the air ministry. A joint war office-admiralty com- munique merely said that “British| forces have now landed dt several | points in Norway.” X British warships were reported to| have destroyed seven German de- stroyers in Narvik Harbor, in north- ern Norway, Saturday. The fitth British aerial attack upon Stavanger, a port on the western coast and near the southern tip of Norway, was said by the British to have been perhaps the most effective raid there. Air Transports Cause Little Alarm. The British said that one pilot of the coastal command flight, which ‘was said to have returned “without damage,” reported a sudden red| glow at Stavanger apparently caused | by a big explosion, perhaps of one of Germany’s hastily built gasoline dumps. Germany’s novel maneuver in| transporting large numbers of troops | by planes is causing little alarm to| the British, it was said in London. Neutral military experts expressed | belief that the British intended to carry out systematic destruction of inland airdomes and strate water (See LONDON, Page A-22) British Reported Landing at Narvik Under Protection of Naval Shellfire Landing of Troops Forecast Friday by Constantine Brown Constantine Brown, colum- nist commentator for The Star on foreign affairs, last Friday in his column “This Changing World” printed a report that an allied expeditionary force was on the seas en route either to Norway or the Netherlands. Early today the British an- nounced that troops had de- parted for Norway. Observers, well knowing that troop move- ments are not announced on embarkation, were not surprised when at 8 a.m. there came news that the troops had landed at several Norwegian points. German newspapers yester- day printed distorted excerpts from Mr. Brown's column of Friday under such headlines as “America Reports: British In- vasion of Holland Imminent?” Mr. Brown's statement that an allied force was aboard transports last Friday has been borne out by today's news. His references to the destination— Norway or Holland—were en- tirely speculative and would be interpreted in no other way by American newspaper readers. The landing in Norway, of course, definitely disposes of any speculation concerning Holland. By the Associated Press, STOCKHOLM, April 15.—British forces were reported today to have landed in Narvik under the protec- tion of naval shellfire which drove the Germans from the Northern Norwegian ore port into the moun- tainous interior. ‘The British warships which raid- ed Narvik Saturday, apparently pre- paratory to a landing by British soldiers or marines, were said to have the city under control of their guns. ‘This report, from the Norwegian radio at the port of Bodo, south of Narvik, followed a Norwegian Army communique reporting that Nor- wegian troops north and west of Narvik were ready to attack the Germans. The Norwegian commander said the German - forces had retreated hastily and were believed to be in- capable of strong resistance to the Norwegians who, he said, are now fully mobilized in the north. German Forces Outweighed. These sources said that all Ger- man warships in Narvik, hopelessly outweighed by the stronger British naval force, had been sunk while trying to keep the British out of Rombaks Fjord, which controls the %mflh\( to the Norwegian ver- ) A sion, the British battleship War- spite, screened by a division of destroyers, forced the mouth of the fjord. Norwegians considered it unlikely that the Germans would be able to land troops in Narvik again. They said that there had not been any heavy British bombard- ment before landing forces were sent ashore, but that Narvik's big- gest building, the new Hotel Royal, had been destroyed. ’ In Southeastern Norway, sporadic fighting between German and Nor- wegian forces brought the invad- an Nazis nearer the Swedish bor- er. King Urges Greater Efforts. The Norwegians, meanwhile, were urged to greater efforts by their aging sovereign, King Hagkon VII, Wwho last night b an appeal (See STOCKHO! 'age GUIDE FOR READERS Page. Page. Amusements, B-18 Comics __B-16-17 Editorials __A-10 Finance _.___A-19 Lost, Found.B-13 Obituary Radio Serial Story_.B-2 Vessel Repo[ls Sub Encounter 0ff Canada Radio Calls Leave British Freighter's Fate in Doubt B the Associated Press. THOMASTON, Me, April 15— Mackay Radio said it had heard a radio station, presumably Canadian, | report that the British freighter iGraig's distress signal—sent out | early today after sighting a sub- marine 800 miles northeast of New York—had been “all cleared up” at |7 am. Although Mackay explained that “distress all cleared up” meant that the air lanes had been cleared of the Graig's distress calls and had “returned to normal work with other ships,” details of the encounter between the freighter and the un- identified underseas craft remained undivulged. g Earlier, the Mackay station at New York picked up two fragmentary | messages. one from the 3,683-ton “vessel saying “sub coming close.” |and another from the Canadian | government station at Camperdown, | Novia Scotia, which reported recetv- |ing an SOS distress call from the | | Graig and interpreted it as “indi- | | cating attack, but no further de- Meaning of Call.in Doubt. | Mackay was unable to say whether the third message reported the dis- tress cleared up meant that the Graig had escaped the submarine and no longer needed assistance, or that she had met serious trouble and was unable to send additional | ealls for help. The possibility re- { mained. also. that the. submarine was a British craft or belonged to a nation neutral or friendly to| | Britain. . { . 3 ition given in the first eall, ! 40 o4 13 minutes N, 57.degrees, 24 miputes- W.. wou]d have placed| the vessel, registered from Cardiff,| | Wales, and owned by the Graig| ‘,Shipplng Co., of London, about 300 | miles southeast of Halifax, N. S. | (Naval authorities in Halifax | said no SOS had been received there from the S. S. Graig. Na- val sources added, however, that they were “taking all necessary action.”) ° ‘The Graig’s position indicated she was within 200 miles of the neu- trality zone limits, - but probably | outside. its ¢ reaches. The zone roughly follows the 60th parallel. Several Sub Reports. There have been a number of re- | ' ports of submarines operating in | waters of the Western Hemisphere. ‘On March 1 the British freighter Southgate reported she had been attacked by a submarine 130 miles northeast of Puerto Rico, but the next day a naval plane sighted her and found that she apparently was| not in danger. The British tanker El Ciervo was reported to have sent a signal say- ing she “was chased by a subma- rine” off Trinidad. When the ves- sel reached Halifax on April 1 her crewmen expressed belief they had sunk a German submarine after the tanker had fired 16 shots at a U-boat. The undersea craft disap- peared, they said. Rural Wages Climb As Workers Decrease By the Associated Press. The Agriculture Department re- ported that farm wage rates, reflecting a decline in the rural labor supply, had increased this spring to the highest point since 1931. The average wage rate on April 1 was reported to be 124 per cent of the 1910-14 level, or 5 points higher than on January 1 and 3 points above April 1, 1939. However, the number of persons working on farms declined from 9,960,000 on April 1 a year ago to 9,797,000 this year. Officials said two factors contributed to the decline— increased mechanization of agricul- ture and migration of many farm laborers to industrial areas. Present wage rates on a monthly basis, without board, were said to average $36.41, and day rates, with- out board, $1.55. Inter-American Affairs. Reviewed Lawrence Duggan, chief of the Division of American Republics of the State Department, will be the guest speaker tonight on the National Radio Forum over WMAL at 10:30 o'clock. Mr. Duggan will discuss rels- tions between the United States and the other American repub- lics during the last 50 years. He also is expected to empha- size ‘the greater need for inter- American unity in the light of the European war. The program is arranged by Star and is heard over a coast-to-censt network “of the Nationsl Brogdeasting Ce. Still Waiting for “His Master’s Voice”! 2 Allied Submarines 'Destroyed, Reich Announces Norse Mobilization In Oslo Region Declared Crushed By LOUIS P LOCHNER, Asgociated Press Poreign Correspondent BERLIN, April 15—Germany announced two more allied ! submariires “h¥d been sunk in the 8kagerrak, a Nbrwegian torpedo boat captured and a German mer- chant ship sunk by British air raid- ers at Bergen. Establishment of a strong British naval blockade of Narvik, important Neorthern Norwegran ore port, also was acknowledged by the Germans, Wwho said their southern forces had “crushed” Norway's attempt to mo- bilize in the Oslo region. The high command, in & commu- nique, declared thé two new subma- rimes raised to seven the Josses of allied undersea craft in recent.days Two British-air raiders who sank a German merchantship at Bergen subsequently were shot down, the communique declared. Shedding only scant light on Ger- many’'s land operations in Norway, the communique reported capture of Honfoss in the Oslo area and said Norwegian efforts to mobilize had been “crushed” in that region. DNB, official German news agency, reported that German forces in Norway had captured 300 prisoners, seven cannon and a quan- tity of small arms and ammunition southeast of Oslo. The captured Norwegian torpedo boat Hval will be put into service with a German crew, the announce- ment stated. reporting quiet on the western front, but that two British | planes were shot down, Contact With King Broken. Authorized sources acknowledged that contact had been broken be- tween King Haakon and the Ger- man Minister to Norway, Kurt Brauer. Although these sources declined to say so, this became evident when & proclamation of Gen. Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, German Army commander in Norway, demanded Norwegian submission under threat | of death, and that of King Haakon declared Norway's will to fight. Still, however, Germany does not consider herself at war with Norway, although authorized sources pointed out that Germans were seizing Nor- T (See BERLIN, Page A-22) Virginia Killings Called Double Murder, Suicide By the Associated Press. CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. April 15.—Two men and a woman were killed yesterday afternoon near Cro- | 2et in what county authorities de- scribed as double murder and suicide. The victims: J. W. Mawyer, 82, re- tired farmer; his wife, about 70, and Charles Gross, about 30, son of Mrs. Mawyer by a former marriage. According to Commonwealth’s At- torney’ E. V. Walker, Gross shot his stepfather in the left eye with a single-barrel shotgun, reloaded the gun and shot his mother in the face and then wounded himself fatally in the head. Gross lived several hours. The Mawyers were found in chairs in the living room of their home last night by Arthur Mawyer, a son of Mawyer by a former marriage, who had come to the Mawyer home to visit his father and stepmother. An inquest was conducted by Dr. Ernest Davis of Crozet, who ren- dered a verdict of double murder and suicide. According to Mr. Walker, Gross frequently had quarreled with his mother and stepfather and threat- ened their lives. Bulletin BUCHAREST, April 15 (/#.— Strict contrel of Danube River traffic was enforced by Rumania today following German threats to send gunboats down the river immediately to proteet German shipping from glleged “English sabotage.” "Howes to Resign From Postal Post To Enter Politics First Assistant Postmaster General Sees President | First Assistant Postmaster Gen- |era] William W. Howes said today he is going to resign from the Post seven years ago as Second Assistant to Postmaster General Parley. Mr. Howes made the announce- | ment after a five-minute apgoint- | ment with President Roosevelt at 112:55 p.m. today. | getting into politics and was going | to head an uninstructed delegation from South Dakota to the Demo- cratic National Convention. He in- dicated he would quit within 60 days. Mr. Howes is a former member of the Democratic National Committee {from South Dakota and is widely known in the Northwest. He is a lawyer. White House Secretary Stephen T. Early said Mr. Howes' appointment with the President today was to dis- cuss routine Post Office administra- tive affairs. The appointment was sandwiched in a busy day for Mr. Roosevelt. The Chief Executive arranged to go at noon to the Pan-American Union for an address marking the 50th an- niversary of the union. He re- turned to his office for the five- minute appointment with Mr. Howes and then went to the White House, where he was to be host to the Pan-American Union Governing | Board at a 1 p.m. luncheon. The Pan-American activities caused Mr. Roosevelt to cancel his regular Monday morning conference with the “big four” congressional leaders—Vice President Garner, Sen- ate Majority Leader Barkley, Speak- er of the House Bankhead and House Majority Leader Rayburn. He plans to see them tomorrow morn- ing instead. The President will go to the sea- son-opening baseball game tomor- row afternoon and throw out the first ball in accordance with tradi- tion. Because' of the ball game, his regular Tuesday afternoon press con- ference has been canceled. Minnesota Publisher Dies OWATONNA, Minn,, April 15 (#). —E. K. Whiting, 69, past president of the Minnesota Editorial Associa- tion and weekly newspaper pub- lisher, died here yesterday. News of to 21, inclusive— Mail—Postage Prepaid Canada Foreign ___ Leave orders with Star Office Department, which he entered | He said he was| | Americas Will Meet Force With Force, President Warns New World Wants None Of European Basis of Life, Roosevelt Says Text o/ Roosevelt's address. Page A-13. By BLAIR BOLLES. ‘The nations of the New World will act decisively to preserve their scheme of lasting peace from sity arises, President Roosevelt told the governing board of the Pan- | dress commemorating the union's 50th anniversary. The speech, which had only vague and general yet | condemnatory references to the war in Europe, was broadcast nation- ally over three networks and re- broadcast around the globe in Span- ish, Portuguese, French, German and Italian. The President’s statements car- ried far beyond any interpretation that has previously been given, the decision of the 21 American re- | publics made last October at the special Panama Conference to effect legalistic machinery for keeping the European war from our door. He lspoke as “we” for all the republics | rather than for the United States. The warning of Mr. Roosevelt puts | teeth in the Declaration of Panama | which established a wide zone around American land areas into which the Americas asked the bel- ligerents not to come for war pur- | poses. Apparently the speech de- fines the preservation of the West- ern Hemisphere from the war as | this country's primary interest in ;lhe course of the European war. | Moreover, it links the republics in | & closer unity than the past has established. The President held up the peace of the Americas—based on “good will” and continued “because we have agreed, as neighbors should. to mind our own businesses”"—as an ex- | ampie of what the world might fol- low. He has concluded that the “whole world now is struggling to find the basis of its life in the | coming centuries.” he implied. The New World wants none of the Euro- pean basis, he said. Will Meet Force With Force. “The co-operative peace in the ‘Western Hemisphere was not created by wishing; and it will require more than words to maintain it. In this association. of nations, whoever touches one of us, touches all of us. We have only asked that the world go with us in the path of peace. But we shall be able to keep that way open only if we are prepared to meet force with force if challenge is ever made. “Today we have no illusions. Old dreams of universal empire are again rampant. We hear of races which claim the right of mastery. We learn of groups which insist they have (See PAN-AMERICAN, Page A-4) D. A R Full reports of the D. A. R. Convention, April 14 U. S., Mexico and representative at Constitu- tion Hall or The Evening Star office, 11th $t. and Pa. Ave. N.W. way WAY to Germans Naval Guns Spiked, Mines Disconnected, Reporter Declares Vast Plot Let Germans Walk In Without Resistance, He Says By LELAND STOWE, Chicago Daily News Foreign Correspondent, STOCKHOLM, April 15.—For the first time the story behind Germany’s paralyzing 12-hour conquest of vital Norwegian ports on Tuesday, April 9, can be told. Between midnight and noon on the bewildering day, Norway's cap- ital, all her principal seaports and her most strategic coastal defenses fell into German hands like an overripe plum. Norwegian people were stunned as the Belgian people must have been stunned in 1914 and most of them still have not the slightest conception of how this incomprehensible tragedy could have happened. I spent these hours in Oslo, together with the only other | American newspapermen who were on the spot—Warren Irvin of National Broadcasting Co. and Edmund Stevens of the Christian Science Monitor—and we ourselves could scarcely believe the evidence of our own eyes. | But I had to remain in Oslo through four days of German oe- cupaticn to learn how this miracle of lightning naval and military occupation was made possible. Then I could scarcely believe my | ears. After that, with the last train connections to Sweden severed | Irvin and myself decided to try somehow to get across the border. | It was the only possible way to give a detailed account of the most | astonishing thing that has happened since the second world war | began. Ports Seized by Gigantic Conspiracy. Norway's capital and great seaports were not captured by armed |force. They were seized with unparalleled speed by means of a threats from abroad if the neces- | American Union today in an ad- | | gigantic conspiracy which must undoubtedly rank among the most | audacious, most perfectly oiled political plots of the past century. | By bribery and extraordinary infiltration on the part of Nazi agents and by treason on the part of a few highly-placed Norwegian civilan and defense officials, the German dictatorship built a Trojan horse inside of Norway. Then, when the hour struck the German plotters spiked the guns of most of the Norwegian Navy and reduced its formidable fortresses to impotence. Absolute control of only a handful of key men in administrative positions and the navy was necessary to turn the trick and every- | thing had been faultlessly prepared. The conspiracy was about 90 per cent according to schedule. Only in two or three places was it | marred by unexpected hitches, but Norway’s sea gates were already | wide open. For the success of the German plan, the capture of three key cities was essential, these being Oslo, Bergen and Narvik. It is known that Narvik was betrayed to the Germans by its command- ing officer. How Bergen's harbor defenses were taken remains a mystery, as far as I can learn. But most important of all to the Nazi plot was the immediate domination of Oslo Fjord with its mighty fortresses and the forcing of its virtually impregnable nar- rows at Drobak, together with the seizure of the great Norwegian naval base at Horten. Only in this manner could the Germans penetrate to Oslo and deliver an almost irreparable blow to Norway’s parliamentary gov- ernment. To seize all of Oslo Fjord and force its narrows would | have appeared impossible to any foreign government except the | Nazi dictatorship, but, by methods even more astonishingly efficient ithan those which it used against Austria and Czecho-Slovakia. the inconceivable was accomplished. Until now, I believe, the outside | world has had to guess how it was done. Germans Sailed Night of April 4. To understand the conspiracy’s scope one must go back some- where near the climax of the plot. In Oslo I learned, on the most | reliable authority, that Germany’s sea forces and troop ships sailed from German ports for their Norwegian adventure during the night of Thursday, April 4—three full days before the British mined the upper Norwegian coast between Bergen and Narvik. I also was informed with impressive assurance that the German Army chiefs strongly opposed Fuehrer Adolf Hitler on the plan to invade Norway because they insisted that communication lines for an army of occupation in Norway would be most dangerously limited and ex- posed. Nazi radical leaders supported Der Fuehrer and the decision was taken against the regular army chiefs’ counsels. On Friday night, April 5, while the German fleet and trans- ports already were streaming toward Norway, an event of enormous historical importance occurred in Oslo and, until now, has probably never been reported. The German Legation held a soiree to which it invited 200 persons representing Norway’s influential personali- ties. All the members of the government were invited, as well as. many officers of the defense forces, leading bankers, shipping executives and industrialists. The invitation emphasized the importance of the soiree by reading, “White ties, unifomms and decorations.” Despite the great formality imposed, it was no official dinner. Norway’s elite had been invited to see an “unusually interesting film.” It proved to be the motion picture “Baptism of Fire,” de- picting in the most graphic details Germany’s aerial destruction in Poland. For more than an hour the distinguished Norwegian audience sat in icy silence, gripped by the horror of many of the scenes. Afterward the German Minister explained that the film was not a war, but a peace, film, since it showed what nations which elected peace would save their people from suffering. The Norwegians left the German Legation that night filled with gloomy, ominous thoughts. Quisling Returned to Oslo on April 6. In Oslo I learned that Maj. Vidkun Quisling, leader of the pro-Nazi Norwegian party, called the Camling, and now Premier of the so-called National government set up after the German occupation, was in Berlin at the time the film was shown in Oslo and while the expedition was being organized. He returned to Oslo on Saturday, April 6. On Sunday night the British sowed mine fields below Narvik. On Monday Berlin’s press flamed against this provocation. In the first hours of Tuesday, April 9, Norway’s naval defenses were betrayed to the German fleet and the first German troops landed at Fornebo, Oslo’s airport, a few hours after daybreak. This brings us to the methods by which Oslo Fjord and Osle itself were captured from the sea early in the morning hours of April 9. The Germans could not enter without controlling the vital (Continued on Page A-2, Column 1.)