Evening Star Newspaper, April 25, 1940, Page 1

Weather Forecast Partly cloudy tonight and tomorrow; little change in temperature; lowest toe night about 38. Temperatures today— Highest, 60, at 2 p.m.; lowest, 36, at 4:30 am. From the U;.Jua States Weather Burean report. ' details on Page A-2. Closing New York Markets, Page 22. 88th YEAR. No. 35,058. ILL-EQUIPPED BRITISH ch ‘WITH SUNDAY MORNING EDITION ¢ Foening Star Most people Star delivered evening and Su (P Means ‘From Press to Home Within the Hour’ n Washington have The to their homes every nday morrfihg. Associated Pr WASHINGTON, D. C, THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1940—FIFTY-TWO PAGES. %%* 3-Way Drivé'Brea.ks English Lines; llies Repulsed a ? 1,500 Sent te Namsos With No Artillery at Mercy Of Planes, Stowe Reports By LELAND STOWE, (Copyright, 1940, by Chicago Dally News, Inc.) " GAEDDEDE, Norwegian-Swedish Frontier, April 25.—— Here is the first and only eyewitness report on the opening chapter of the British expeditionary troops’ advance in Norway, north of Trondheim. It is a bitterly disillusioning and almost unbelievable story. ‘The British force, which was supposed to sweep down from Namsos about 10 days ago, consisted of one battalion of territorials and one battalion of “the King’s Own Royal Light Infantry.” These totaled less than 1,500 men. They were dumped into Norway’s deep snows and quagmires of April slush without a single anti- aircraft gun—without one squadron of supporting airplanes— without a single piece of field artillery. Ill-equipped, they were thrown into the snows and mud of 63 degree latitude, North, to fight crack German regulars—most of them veterans of the Nazis’ Polish invasion—and to face the most destructive of modern weapons The great majority of these young Britishers averaged but one year of military service. They have already paid a heavy price. for a major military blunder which was not committed by their immediate command, but in London. Unless they receive large sup- plies of anti-airguns and ade- quate reinforcements within al very few dayi e remains of these two Briti$h battalions will | be cut to ribbons. Here is the astonishing story of what has happened to the gal- lant little handful of British ex- peditionaries above Trondheim: After only four days of finht-‘ ing, nearly half of this initial | LELAND STOWE. B. E. F. contingent has been knocked out—either killed, wounded or captured. by the Germans. And on Monday these comparatively inexperienced and incredibly ynderarmed British troops were decisively defeated by the Ger- mans. They weré driven back in precipitaté disorder from Vist, which is three miles south of the bomb-ravaged town of S8téinkjer. As T write, it is probable that the British field headquarters has been withdrawn northward and that the British vanguard has been compelled to evacuate one or several villages. Steinkjer was -occupled by the Germans also on Tuesday. Machine Gun Heard Cracking in Hills. I was in Steinkjer on Monday evening, just before the British | lines were blasted to pieces. I was the only newspaper correspondent | to enter the burning town and the only correspondent to visit | British advance headquarters and to pass beyond to the edge of | the front’s heavy firing zone. A score of buildings were flaming fiercely on the town’s waterfront from a second bombing two hours earlier. In the midst of the smoky ruins I heard machine guns cracking at high tempo in the hills just beyond the town. Shell This explosions regularly rapped the valley with angry echoes. was the first sustained battle be- tween German and British troops on Norwegian soil. Al- ready the conflict was snarling hot. A battalion of 600 territorials was fighting desperately to hold Vist, the point of their farthest southernward advance toward Trondheim. As Monday’s twi- light closed down they were com- pletely done in. For hours they had been torn and broken under the terrible triple onslaught of German infantry, tri-motored Pbombers and naval artillery fir- ing from destroyers at the head of Beitstadfjord. Within two hours the British troops were in flight. They had no chance whatever of standing off from bombs and 3 or 6 inch shells with nothing but Brenn machine guns and rifles. Before 11 o'clock that night I talked with nerve-shattered survivors of the British battalion. Among others we found two truckloads of them several miles above their headquarters and on their way north away from the front. One of the officers told me that the battalion had lost more than 200 in killed and that one entire company had been cap- tured. He could not estimate the number of missing, but said that perhaps 150 of the battal- fon’s 600 might be rallied later on MAJ. GEN. CARTON DE, WIART NEW YORK.—SAW TROND- HEIM TAKEN—Capt. William McHale, skipper of the Ameri- can freighter Mormacsea, pictured as he brought his ship in here today, disclosed that a small force of 500 Ger- mans captured Trondheim, Norway, April 9. —A. P. Wirephoto. U. S. Skipper Flees Trondheim, Lands Swedish Gold in U. . 500 Nazi Troops Took City Without a Shot, Says Capt. McHale By the Associated Press. NEW YORK, April 25.—A hard- bitten skipper, back in the safety of American waters, disclosed today that he fled the port of Trondheim, Norway, with $4,500,000 in Swedish- owned gold hidden in the hold of his ship, the 4,958-ton American Scantic Line freighter Mormacsea, after the Germans had captured the port. The skipper was Capt. William McHale, who served with the British mine-sweeping forces in the World War and was four times decorated for bravery. He is now an American citizen. Capt. McHale revealed that asskel- eton force of about 500 Germans seized Trondheim in a pre-dawn raid on April 9 “and walked in un- molested.” ‘The Mormacsea was the first ves- sel to reach the United States from the Scandinavian war zone since hostilities broke out there on April 9. Two other American ships are still there The German invaders, he said, landed from the battle cruiser Von Hipper and from three destroyers, seizing the strategic Norwegian port at 5 am. “The people appeared to be stunned,” the captain said. “They offered no resistance. There were no Norwegian soldiers in sight.” Capt. McHale said the German troops, as they went ashore, carried machine guns and thousands of (See SKIPPER, Page A-2.) Bulletin WARM SPRINGS, Ga., April 25 (#).—President Roosevelt pro- claimed today a state of war in existence between Germany and Norway, and the neutrality of the United States in the conflict. On 2 Railways, BULLETIN. BERLIN, April 25 (#).—The German air force, resuming its raids on British naval units along the coast of Norway, today sank a British minesweeper, set a destroyer afire and hit two trans- ports with heavy bombs, DNB reported. Directs desperate Brm:?l fight in Central Norway. Wounded eight times in World War, he “We have simply been massa- cred,” he declared. “It’s the lanes. We've got no planes to ,n,ght back with and we've got no 105t an eye “": '1;' gv';:'eph $io anti-airguns. It is just like the TR A ' Russians against the Finns, only worse—and we are the Finns.” A subofficer greeted me gratefully when he learned that I was a reporter. “For God'’s sake, tell them we've got to have airplanes and anti- airguns,” he pleaded. “We were completely at the mercy of the Jerries. Their bombers flew low over us, at 500 feet. They scat- tered us. We were up to our hips in snow. Then they dropped signal flares so their artillery knew all our positions. “Last night our wounded were crying in the woods, but we couldn’t get to them or do anything. We had not even got proper clothes to fight with in this snow. Without white capes the Jerries just spotted us and mowed us down every time the bombers drove us out.” Paul Melander, a Swedish photographer, and myself saw these things together. From the first we sensed the tension among men of lower rank. Although almost exhausted from lack of sleep, the : [ - ) J By LOUIS P. LOCHNER, Associated Press Poreign Correspondent. BERLIN, April 25.—German troops pushing along parallel railroad lines north of Oslo have reached Tynset and Ringebu in long strides beyond their former outposts, DNB, official German news agency, reported to- day. Tynset is about 150 miles north of Oslo on the railroad along the Swedish frontier and Ringebu is about 110 miles from the Germah- held Norwegian capital along a parallel railroad through the im- portant Gudbrandsdal Valley. Ringebu is 30 miles beyond Lille- hammer, pivotal point in the fight for control of Oslo’s gate, which allied forces had been reported to have reached. DNB sald new troops and war materials sent out from Oslo were sugmenting the German forces. Reporied Sealing Steinkjer. soldiers were sealing ez, on t Oslo Gat eway Quit Lillechammer; Invaders Dig In Near Steinkjer By the Associated Press. LONDON, - April 25.—The in- creased weight of Germany’s forces has forced the allies to fall back near Lillehammer, gateway in Eastern Norway to German-occupied Oslo, the Brit- ish acknowledged today. On the main front on the fjord- indented west coast, British reports said, the Germans appeared to be digging in north of Steinkjer, north- east of strategic Trondheim, in a lull in fighting in which both sides were consolidating their lines. Bitter Battle in Progress. tire Norwegian front occurred near | Myra, north of Steinkjer on Trond- heim Fjord, it was learned authori- tatively. | In last night's bitter encnunlerj German troops drove British ad-| vance units back six miles from Steinkjer. | British forces reached the Otta | area 25 miles southeast of Dombas, | the rail junction on the Trondheim- | Oslo Railway, the authoritative sources said. The highways and railroad behind them toward the coast are being bombed heavily, but | are either still open or only mod- | erately damaged. German infantry, however, was| reported in Lilleelvedalen and Oster- | dalen near the vital railway out of | Dombas. i British Around Narvik. The same source said “British and Norwegians are around Narvik,” the northern Norwegian ore port, but added that “this does not mean our | lines extend entirely so no one can get through.” | “But we are gradually closing in | on the town despite tremendous dif- ficultles,” it was said. “It is very cold and the country very rugged.” A British source declared it had been established three German mil- itary supply ships, two flying Fin- nish flags and one Swedish, waited off Bergen for four weeks with sup- plies and men who were landed when the German invasion started April 9. ‘The. ships, of 1,000 tons each, were said to have carried the men and supplies hidden below decks until they were landed after destroyers had put landing parties ashore in \the wake of Nazi agents who cut | mine flelds and severed all com- | munications. Fears Over "Fifth Column.” Indignation among members ot | Parliament and the British public over “fifth column” activities on the home front increased today to the point of demands for suppression of the Communist party. Sir John Anderson, Minister of Home Security, announced today he was considering stringent meas- ures against subversive elements, in- cluding the Communist party and Fascist organs, and would intern even M. Ps if “desirable.” Sir John spoke in the House of Commons. To a di [E _ec} quest_ion }*})ethpr he LONDON, Page A-7) {Five Hurt as Bomb Blasts Dublin Castle By the Associated Press. DUBLIN, April 25.—A heavy bldst attributed by police to a time bomb planted by the outlawed Irish Re- publican Army in the Dublin Castle headquarters of the Irish govern- ment’s specilal detective branch early today injured five detectives and shattered priceless stained-glass windows in the Chapei Royal. Witnesses said the scene resembled the havoc resulting from an air raid. Shortly after the blast troops mounted guard at the approaches to the castle and soldiers on bridges the castleand roads leading from Dublin questioned all motorists. Troops Drive Far Northward Berlin Claims the Norwegian west coast, against a British attempt to advance south on Trondheim, by occupying strategic passes and 10ads. Allied resistance, DNB declared, was “without plan.” It said one stronghold guarded by six machine guns was taken without any German casualties, ' On the far northern front, it re- ported, British ships again subjected Narvik to “very active” shelling while streng allied forces engaged Nazi troops 18 miles to the northeast in fighting which still is in progress. Nazis Accuse Britain. The high command charged Brit- ain’ with opening “air warfare against undefended localities with- out military importance,” a possibly ominous development in view of the Nazi “eye for an eye” principle. In the developing campaign cen- tered on Norway the high command claimed widespread successes on land and sea and in the air, with new blows at sea in the reported sinking of two submarines and dam- aging of a British cruiser “severely hit” by air bombs. High lights of the high comman communique included: - ° 1. British warplanes bombed the sea resort of Wenningstedt, on the island of Sylt, and Heide, in Schles- wig-Holstein, thus opening “air war- (B4 BERLIN, Fage A-T) The bitterest fighting of the en- | THREE CENTS. ¢ (/ LADY, DIDYOU SAY THE DISTRICT WAS A POOR PLACE TO LIVE?WE'LL 2 MOVE YOU FREE! = —_—— = i i mmumm Roros Is Reported |Taken by Nazis in Drive to Trondheim Reinforcements Fighting Way to Scene of Big Battle in North Norway By the Associated Press. STOCKHOLM, April 25.—German forces, on the offensive north of | Oslo, were reported tonight to have taken Roros, within 70 miles of Trondheim, in a drive to reinforce that German stronghold on Nor- way's west coast. the Trondheim region. Bombers ranged ahead of the Nazi troops, inflicting terrific damage in the Glomma River region in blast- ing a path clear for the land forces. ‘This force, hurrying by forced march toward the vital seaboard front on which the whole Norwegian campaign may hinge, had advanced about 125 miles from Orphus since yesterday. Ringebu Reported Reached. A second German force, pushing up another railroad which connects with the line through Roros, was | reported to have reached Ringebu, | about 110 miles north of Oslo. Thus, with seemingly unresisted | progress, the Germans appear to | have swept past Lillehammer, vital for control of Oslo and Southern Norway. The British acknowledged that their forces, which had been in the Lillehammer region, had been com- pelled to retreat in the face of “increased enemy pressure.” The allies, who suffered heavily in the first stages because they lacked anti-aircraft guns, were said now to have been strengthened in this respect. British forces landing at Namsos, above Trondheim, and other ports have suffered from severe German air attacks. Nazis Declared Stopped. ‘The Germans, who had driven the allies from Steinkjer. on the coast above Trondheim, were said to have been stopped. meanwhile, slightly north of that town. Their new positions are beyond range of the covering guns of three German warships in Trondheim Fjord which had laid down protec- tive barrages when the British, ad- vancing south from Namsos, held Steinkjer. Heavy patrol action was reported both on the coast and inland, with both sides struggling to stream re- inforcements to their front lines. Major interest now is in the pos- sibility of the Germans bridging the 70-mile gap between their Trond- heim and Roros-units. Three Battlefronts. Norway now is carved into three battlefronts—the Oslo “gateway in the southeast; Trondheim on the Atlantic Coast and Narvik in the far north. The first two are closely re- lated. The Germans hold Trondheim but allied forces have landed at An- dalsnes, about 100 miles to the south, and Namsos, about the same dis- " (See STOCKHOLM, Page Those Dogs So many Star readers have asked for copies—sujtable for framing—of those lovely dogs drawn by James T. Berryman and appearing as the sports cartoon in Yyesterday’s Star, _that a limited number of copies on heavy, glossy paper will be made available to Star readers who want them. You may have a copy by calling at the Business Office counter, first*floor, Star Build- ing, after 3 o'clock tomorrow afternoon, Friday, April 26. The price is 5 cents each. As there will be a limited number you should get one as soon as they becoms avallable. Roros is on a railroad leading to | | | | Swastika Down, Patriotic Pupils Win Holiday By the Associated Press. JERSEY SHORE, Pd., April 25.— The hanging of a swastika atop the Jersey Shore High School today prompted a spontaneous patriotic demonstration by the pupils and won them a holiday. The school janitor, Theodore | Greenaway, shinnied up the pole to | remove the swastika because the rope had been cut . As he descended, | | the 800 students grouped around the | pole voluntarily sang “The Star | | Spangled Banner.” Then the school principal, I. V. Grugan, dismissed classes for the day. ‘The pupils discovered the swastika | floating over the school this morn- | ing and refused to enter the build- ing. | | police. Officials had no e: for its appearance. Allies Sign Contracts 'For $200,000,000 InU. S. Airplanes All Late-Type Craft Sought Now Released For Expert n By the Associated Press. The allied purchasing mission announced here today contracts for $200,000,000 worth of American air- planes and engines have been made within the last two weeks. Arthur B. Purvis, British, and Rene Pleven, French representatives of the mission, told reporters these contracts include large quantities of Bell pursuit planes, Curtiss pursuit planes, Douglas bombers and Alli- son, Wright and Pratt-Whitney mo- tors. ° Mr. Purvis added that the United States had now released for allied purchase all the late type military aircraft which the allies had sought permission to buy. He declined to give the individual number of cost of the different types of airplanes or engines be- cause the information might inter- fere with pending negotiations for additional military equipment. Sev- eral months ago the mission said it was embarking on a potential $1,- 000,000,000 worth of buying in this country. Release of late-type American planes previously asked by the allies was completed a few days ago, Mr. Purvis said, when the Army author- ized the sale of four-motor Con- solidated Aircraft bombers. The cost of the engines to be pur- chased, the allied representatives continued, included the cost of build- ing the factories in which they The banner was handed over to| Farm Bill Will Go Back fo House as Conferees Disagree Senators Stand Firm on Amendments Providing 347-Million Increase A joint conference committee abandoned efforts today to break a | month’s deadlock of the Agriculture | Department appropriation bill. It reported a hopeless diasgreement on Senate additions of $347,000,000 to the measure. Senator Russell, Democrat, of working in an attempt to iron out Senate and House differences on what to include in the bill, said the effect of today’s action would be to send "back fo the House for a sep- arate voté Senate amendments pro- viding for $212,000,000 in parity pay- ments, $85,000,000 for disposal of surplus farm products and $50,000,- 000 for loans to farm tenants. Senator Russell said Senate con- ferees refused to yield on the Sen- ate’s action in adding these amounts to the $714,000,000 in agricultural appropriations approved by the House on February 2. The Senate voted $922.864.688 in farm funds, with $90:000,000 additional provided in loans for agricultural purposes. In conferences lasting about a were offered and rejected. Senator Russell said the conferees finally concluded they could not come to an agreement today, when a House compromise on the parity payment by Senators. Meanwhile, the Agriculture Depart- ment weighed the possibility of a recurrence of the land speculation boom touched off by the World War in 1914, and counseled precautions. Noting that World War conditions had sent farmland values skyrocket- ing almost 100 per cent in a decade. the department sought to gauge the possible effects of the present con- flict on farm prices. Factors adverse to another land boom, it was said, tended to out- weigh those which might encourage one. The department emphasized, however, that the unpredictable ele- ment of “inflation psychology” could upset calculations. “The possibility of even a partial repetition of World War movements in land values,” a department report said, “would appear to justify giving serious consideration to the formu- lation of legal measures aimed at discouraging excessive * * * in- creases.” Figures were cited to reflect the extent of the World War’s influence. In 1910 the value of the country’s farm real estate was $34,801,000,000. By 1920 it had soared to $66,316,000,- 000, with most of the increase oc- curring after 1914, Values have since drifted downward to the cur- will be produced. Summary of Page. Page. Amusements, ‘Obltux.ry... A-14 C-4-5 Radio.. __ C-10 Comics . C-10-11| Serial Story. C-6 Editorials.. A-12| Society_____ B-3 Finance..__ A-21|Sports._. C-1-3 Lost, Found. C-6 | Woman's Pg. B-14 Foreign Allies contract for $200,000,000 in U. 8. planes,.engines. Page A-1 Ill-equipped British cut to pieces by Nazis at Steinkjer. Page A-1 Allies beaten back at gateway to Oslo. Page A-1 Germans rushing reinforcements to ‘Trondheim. Page A-1 Troops drive far northward on two railways, Berlin claims. Page A-1 Swedes deny Finnish volunteers passage to Norway. Page Afl National House to vote on farm bill changes as conferees disagree. Page A-1 Plans for general strike and civil war laid to Reds. * Page A-1 Georgia's convention delegates urge rent $35,356,000,000. Today’s Star Washington and Vicinity Radcliffe tells workers necessary votes are assured. Page A-14 Bruce opens intensive campaign in Baltimore City. Page A-14 Committee considers unemployment compensation law. Page B-1 Nearby pupil tuition seen doomed by Roosevelt to run. e Glass’ objection. Page B-1 Editorial and Comment This and That. Page A-12 Answers to Questions. Page A-12 Letters to The Star. Page A-12 David Lawrence. Page A-13 Alsop and Kintner. Page A-13 G. Gould Lincdm. Page A-13 Jay Franklin. Page A-12 Constantine Brown. Page A-12 Miscellany After Dark. Page B-12 Nature’s Children. Page B-15 Bedtime Story. Page C-10 Cross-Word Puzzle. Page C-11 Letter-Out. Page C-10 Winning Contract. Page C-10 Uncle Ray’s Corner. Page C-11 Vital Statistics. Page C-12 Service Orders. Page C-12 Georgia, one of those who have been | month many compromise proposals | addition to the bill was turned down | CUT DOWN BY NAZIS General Strike Plans Laid to |Communists Step to Civil War, Organizer Tells Dies Committee By the Associated Press. Ezra Chase, who said he had been an organizer for the Communist party at Los Angeles, told the Dies Committee today that tfe party ine tended to plunge the country into civil war by calling a general strike in basic industries. The witness identified what he said were minutes of the Los Angeles County Communist Party Convene tion in March, 1937, These, he said, showed the con- vention had adopted resolutions di- | recting that Communists organize |8 “progressive caucus” in the Los | Angeles Central Labor Council and | that Communist units be formed, especially in C. I. O. organizations. | The main idea of the party, Chase testified, was to rally the entire population of Los Angeles behind | the trade union movement, and par= | ticularly behind C. I. O. organiza= tion efforts in basic industries liks automobiles, steel, aircraft construce tion, rubber and communications. 7. k(élks Communist Policy. sked the purpose of this policy, he said: i LS “The Communist party is an organ- ization having a revolutionary in- tent. Its purpose is to take over this form of government and install one of its own. Its interest in basic industries is that through union organizations it can control them and be in a position to call a general strike, “By a general strike the party can | paralyze industry, creating a situa- tion leading to civil war. From a | civil war, it is easy to convert that into a revolutionary war to accome plish the party’s purposes.” Chase testified that he was a native of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and | that he had joined the Communist | party about 1931. He had been, he | said, an organizer of unemployed workers in Los Angeles, a secretary of the Los Angeles branch of the American League Against War and Fascism and an organizer for the Upholsterers’ International Union. “We controlled that union from the tap to the bottom,” he declared. Chase, telling of what he called | Communist “concentrations” in air- | craft plants and other key industries, | declared the Communist workers were under party orders to supply | the Soviet Union with any informa- tion the latter desired. Admits Espionage. “The immediate purpose of the | Communist party in the United | States,” said Chairman Dies, “is to | secure valuable military and indus- trial secrets for transmission to Moscow. Isn't that true?” “Yes, sir,” Chase replied emphat« | ically. He expressed agreement also | with another Dies statement that through the American Communist party the union has “an espionage 45ystem they don't have to pay for.” The witness declared that in the party’s drive on “basic” industries groups of “Red builders” were sent into the Douglas and Lockheed air- craft plants on the Pacific Coast. He described the “builders” as trusted party workers engaged in recruiting and in circulating literature. Meanwhile, in New York, Mervyn Rathborne, president of the Amer- ican Communications Association (C. 1. 0., denied that his organiza- tion was Communist-controlled, as charged before the Dies Committee yesterday. Mr. Rathborne said that Fred M. Howe, who testified that high offi cials of the A. C. A. were Commu- nists who planned to help set up a Soviet system in this country in the event of war, had been expelled from the A. C. A. a year ago “after having been tried and found guilty * * * of being an agent of the employers,” Charges Denied. “His hysterical charges against the A. C. A. surprise no one acquainted with the infamous role he has played and is playing in the trade union movement,” Mr. Rathborne said, in a statement. “Howe's testimony consists of the lies and slander so dear to the hearts of employers intent on disrupting and splitting trade unions which have been outstandingly successful in winning higher wages and im- proved working conditions for their members. “The Dies Committee clearly shows its union-busting hand once again, providing as it does a public platform from which the vilest slan- der can be broadcast against a group of workers who believe that theirs is the rights to organize and bar- gain collectively.” In San Francisco R. M. Hansen, secretary of the San Francisco Ma- rine Local of the A. C. A, said regarding Howe's testimony that Mr, Hansen was a “dangerous Com- munist: “Attempt to Smear.” “It's an obvious attempt to smear me. In the first place I don't think | I am dangerous and in the second place I'm not a member of the Com- munist party.” At Seattle, T. J. Van Erman, sec- | retary of the A. C. A. local there, branded Howe’s charge a lie. “I'm not a Communist, I never was a Communist and I never will be one unless the time might come when that is the only thing a per- son could be,” Mr. Van Erman said. In Chicago Walter Adams, an op- erator in the Government airways communications station at the Mu- nicipal Airport, also denied he was & Communist. |