The Evening Times from Sayre, Pennsylvania • 1

49 49 49 49 49 I bonds now! occasional snow flurries. defense savings stamps or THE EVENING TIMES moderately cold tonight with War costs money. Buy WEATHER Continued VOL. NO. 279 SAYRE, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1942 PRICE THREE CENTS Three Large Enemy Transports Sunk in East Indies Battle 'Allied Counter-Attack Comes as Tokyo Claims Blow' to U.

Dutch Air Fleets By The Associated Press Allied warplanes blasting at Japan's sea-borne invaders were credited officially today with sinking three big enemy transports in the critical battle for the Dutch East Indies, while a Tokyo spokesman acknowledged 26 Japanese transports had been sunk or damaged to date in the far Pacific, The spokesman, Commander Itaru Tashiro of the naval press section, said Japan expected even heavier losses because the 1 United Nations had more than 1,000 planes in the war zone and 40 to 50 submarines. A U.S. War Department bulletin said seven American P-40 pursuit planes intercepted a formation of nine Japanese bombers escorted by 14 fighter planes over Java and forced the raiders to flee. The bulletin said one Japanese bomber and one fighter plane were shot down. Four other enemy bombers and two fighters, were damaged, without loss to the Americans.

As the day wore on, other United Nations triumphs in the air were reported, and it was becoming apparent that for the first time in the 11-weeks-old conflict Japan was facing a major challenge in the skies. A royal Australian air force communique said Australian bombers, slashing at Japanese bases 400 to 500 miles north of Australia, attacked both Rabaul, New Britain island, and Timor Island, and set big fires. Simultaneously, dispatches from Rangoon said 30 Japanese fighter planes were destroyed in the battle area today. Burma, of the allies' new aerial counter-punches came as imperial Tokyo headquarters asserted in an English-language propaganda broadcast that Japanese planes had delivered a "mortal blow to the British and Dutch air forces" with the destruction of 68 allied planes based at Java yesterday. Dutch headquarters edged big-scale Japanese raids on the harbor and an airdrome near Batavia, against naval objectives near Soerabaja and upon an airdrome near Bandoeng, but said (Continued on Page 9 Column 2) NEWFOUNDLANDERS GIVEN CREDIT FOR SAVING 43 SAILORS ST.

JOHN'S, Newfoundland, Feb. 25- (AP) -Forty-three survivors of the United States destroyer Truxton and the U. S. naval supply ship Pollux owe their lives to the hardihood of men, women and children from the village of St. Lawrence who rigged up a bosun's chair in defiance of the storm that smashed the ships, and pulled the seamen to safety over a 200-foot cliff.

The survivors were hospitalized in Argentia at a U. S. naval base across the bay from the place where the vessels wrecked with the loss of at least 189 men. The story of the rescue was the first report of the number of men saved. Yesterday's announcement from Washington merely estimated the number of casualties.

Word the two ships were in distress brought the villagers of St. Lawrence to the scene from across three miles of snow covered, wind-swept hills. They found a cluster of men clinging to a cliff and, began hauling them to the top with the bosun's chair, a rough wooden seat slung from a rope. Other rescuers attempted to save some in the surf by a dory lowered from the top of the cliff but the little boat was swamped. Its crew was saved.

The battered seamen first were taken to homes in the village and near the shore, and supplied with additional clothing and with food. Then they were taken to Argentia, Bodies of the dead also were taken to Argentia. A third U. S. ship struck the shore in the same storm which wrecked the destroyer supply ship, but floated clear and reached harbor.

REDS ANNOUNCE HEAVY BLOW AT HITLER ARMIES Three Nazi Divisions Shattered, 12,000 Killed; Meanwhile Hitler Tells of Spring Offensive Plans By the Associated Press Russia proclaimed a smashing new victory over Adolf Hitler's battered invasion armies today even as the Fuehrer announced that the bitter snows of winter were melting and that he had completed preparations for the "final struggle" this spring. "Snow and frost brought to a temporary standstill the series of victories of the German army, unique in history," Hitler declared in a message to Nazi party ers. "Our enemy then hoped to inflict on the German army the fate of the Napoleonic retreat. This attempt has collapsed miserably." In Moscow, Russians celebrated a communique reporting that the triumphant Red armies had crushed Germany's 16th field army, shattering three divisions and killing 12,000 troops in the Staraya Russa sector, 140 miles below Leningrad. Staraya Russa had been a key German base guarding the southern flank of the Nazi armies before Leningrad.

A decisive breakthrough by the Russians would gravely endanger the whole northern arm of the German invasion and presumably force a hurried withdrawal of the Nazi siege forces around Leningrad. Soviet front-line dispatches also reported important new Russian gains during the past 24 hours on the southwest front presumably between Orel and Kharkov, in the Ukraine with the slaughter of 250 Nazis. Hitler asserted the coming spring struggle would be "a settling up with that conspiracy which was hatched in the banking houses of the plutocrats and extended to the vaults of the Kremlin." This was the Hitler who boasted last Oct. 3 that the Russian army "already is broken and will never rise again;" who blamed the weather for subsequent reverses, and declared that 1942 "will again be a year of great victories." Bern dispatches said Russia's scorched earth policy, labor shortage and the flight of thousands of potential workers before the German army had crippled attempts to gear the economy of occupied Soviet areas to that of the reich. Belligerent capitals placed varying lights upon the explosion of a bomb in Ankara, the capital of non-belligerent Turkey, on a boulevard only about 18 yards from the strolling German ambassador, Franz Von Papen and his wife.

The man who carried the bomb was killed. SCORES OF HOMES SHAKEN BY BLAST PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 25 (UP) -Scores of houses were shaken today when escaping illuminating gas caught fire and exploded in an underground city main. Three iron manhole covers were blown in the air and the blazing gas set fire to two trolley-wire poles. The flying covers narrowly missed a policeman and two other men.

WORK OR FIGHT LEGISLATION IS EXPECTED SOON Administration Studying Plan to Give War Labor Board Strong Hand Keep Production Going WASHINGTON, Feb. 25-(AP) Drastic "work or fight" legislation may soon be sought by the administration to give the war labor board a strong hand in its task of eliminating all stoppages in arms production. An informed source predicted today this request to congress was likely, and indications were that it would command strong support, especially since President. Roosevelt called on Americans in his Monday night radio address not to stop work for a single day. Proposals for such legislation were said to have originated with officials charged with responsibility for all-out war production.

President Roosevelt has repeatedly stressed the need for uninterrupted production in numerous speeches during the past year, but the arms program nevertheless has lost hundreds of thousands of man-hours because of labor-management, jurisdictional and other controversies. As outlined by one influential Democratic senator, the legislation probably would include provisions for the immediate drafting into the armed forces of any striking worker who was subject to military service but who had received deferment because of employment in an essential war job. Under tentative plans, workers not subject to the selective service who went on strike would be blacklisted and their employment banned for a period of time by any plant working on a government contract. The president's call for uninterrupted war production brought predictions in congress, meanwhile, that if the war labor board failed to find a formula to keep all the industrial wheels turnin.g without stop, congress would act to see that the job was done. Senator Hill of Alabama, Democratic whip, said he felt some legislation might be necessary to give the board broader authority to prevent strikes.

"It just isn't in keeping with any all-out effort to win a war to have anybody stop work, even for an hour," Hill told reporters. Agreeing with this viewpoint, Senator Ellender (D-La), a member of the labor committee, forecast speedy congressional action if the WLB failed to guarantee the uninterrupted production the president wanted. This action might come, suggested Senator Taft (R-Ohio), in the form of legislation to freeze the open and closed shop status of war industries and to link wages to the cost of living. Under the latter provision, he said, wages would advance only as the cost of living rose. Taft said he believed members of the WLB would welcome establishment of such general pol- icies.

Like Taft, Senator Vandenberg (R-Mich) felt the president's pronouncement called for congressional action to fix policies, although he said he would be glad if the no-strike agreement reached by industry and labor last year could be carried out voluntarily. There was some doubt, he added, whether that agreement was being followed to the letter. Anti- Guns Roar in West, Cause Is Military Secret U. S. Ski Commando WAY After one month of arduous training, troopers of the 503rd Parachute Battalion are now seasoned ski soldiers.

This soldier has just landed from a plane jump and is running toward his equipment roll which was dropped from the equipment plane. White clothes add to the camouflage scheme. Black headcovering protects his eyes. CONGRESS WASHES HANDS OF PENSION BY VOTING REPEAL WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 (AP) -Congress has washed its hands of the pension for congressmen law, which has brought tons of angry mail from taxpayers since it was signed by the president Jan.

26. The house vote yesterday was 389 to 7. Actually it was on a technical motion instructing house conferees to retain a senate amendment to a minor naval bill. The senate amendment repealed the congressional pensions. "We are on a spot," one representative said, looking ahead to the fall campaigns, "and don't you think a lot of the boys aren't worried.

"Regardless of the repeal vote the fact remains that no one opposed the pensions when they came up originally on unanimous consent procedure. "Next summer, when the congressional campaigns get going good, a lot of opponents are going to base their campaigns on this single issue. They are going to say the incumbents voted for pensions originally by not blocking them under the unanimous consent rule. "Then, when the harassed incumbent points to his repeal vote, his opponent is going to counter with the charge that vote was cast under pressure from the people back home, and that a congressman who has to be forced to vote the way his constituents want him to ought to be replaced." 'OPEN PRIMARY' IS URGED BY SMITH PITTSBURGH Feb. 25-(UP)Judge Ralph H.

Smith, candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nominaiton backed by U. S. Sen. Joseph F. Guffey, today declared in favor of an "open primary" and directed the state party chairman to ignore anyone asking the committee to approve him at its meeting tomorrow.

Smith told committee chairman Meredith Myers that he had not designated anyone to represent him at the party meeting. He declined an invitation of State Treasurer G. Harold Wagner to attend a series of preliminary conferences in the two days preceding the meeting. "A party primary is designed to furnish the membership of the party an opportunity to select their leadership for the next four years," Smith said in a message to Wagner. MacArthur Hits Japs to Shatter Calm in Bataan Series cessful' of 'Uniformly Attacks SueMade All Along Defenders Line Across Peninsula WASHINGTON, Feb.

25-(UP) Gen, Douglas MacArthur's troops have struck back at the Japanese forces in a series of "uniformly successful" attacks which broke three days of calm on the Bataan jungle battlefront in the Philippines, a war department communique said today. Over Java a squadron of American P-40 pursuit planes shot down two enemy planes, a bomber and a fighter, and boosted to 50 the number of Japanese planes destroyed by the U. S. army air force on the Dutch East Indies front since Jan. 1.

Four Japanese bombers and two fighters were damaged in the latest victory of the P-40 fighters, all of which returned safely to their bases. Today's war department communique indicated that MacArthur, alert against any Japanese surprise, had sent out patrols through the Bataan brush in an effort to learn the reason for the calm that had descended upon the front since Sunday. "There were sharp encounters between our patrols and the enemy all along the line in Bataan," the communique said, referring to MacArthur's main line of defenses stretching about 13 miles across Bataan peninsula from the vicinity of Bagao on the China Sea to Pilar on Manila Bay. "Small elements of our troops were uniformly successful in aggressive local actions," it was stated. That meant that MacArthur's (Continued on Page 9, column 3) DEFENSE COUNCIL STRIKERS RETURN MEDIA, Feb.

25-(UP)The "strike" of 17 women office workers of the Delaware county defense council was ended today when the women returned to their desks in the interest of civilian defense. They had "struck" in protest against the dismissal of executive secretary William J. Enders. His $50 a week office was abolished by the defense council and Carl H. Schmitt was named executive chairman.

Enders went to Harrisburg today to confer with state defense officials. Mrs. Sarah Harrington, spokesman for the women, said that in view of present conditions it would be unpatriotic to continue their protest. JAP EFFORTS TO CRACK BATAAN LINES SEEM DROPPED, AT LEAST TEMPORARILY By CLARK LEE With Gen. MacArthur on the Bataan Peninsula, Feb.

23-(Delayed)--(AP)-The battle of Bataan appears to have entered a definite stalemate, with the Japanese abandoning at least temporarily their hitherto costly efforts to crack General Douglas MacArI thur's line across the peninsula. There are at present no indications whether the Japanese are awaiting reinforcements, planning attacks against Bataan and the island fortress of Corregidor from new directions, or whether they are content to tighten their encirclement in an attempt to starve the American-Filipino defense forces into eventual capitulation when supplies and provisions are exhausted. In the past week infantry activity on the Bataan front has been desultory, while artillery duels between Japanese batteries on the. south shore of Manila Bay Unidentified Object, Possibly Balloon, Seen at Los Angeles; Army Maintains Silence ROOSEVELT STEPS INTO FARM PRICE FIGHT IN CONGRESS President Roosevelt today appealed directly to congress for the defeat of legislation designed to prevent the commodity credit corporation from disposing of its stocks of surplus farm goods in an effort to keep prices down. The president wrote to Vice President Henry Wallace as the senate prepared to debate the legislation.

It was read to the senate shortly after the session convened at noon. "I believe irreparable damage to the war effort and to the farmers of the country would result from the enactment of this legislation," the president wrote. He pointed out that food is an essential commodity for victory in the war. The bill, sponsored by Sen. John H.

Bankhead, would prevent the CCC from disposing of its stocks at prices below parity. It is designed to forestall a policy, revealed by Secretary of Agriculture Claude A. Wickard, which would permit the transfer of these stocks to other agencies for processing into finished goods. The president urged congress to remember that substantial aid had been furnished farmers in the past, and that further aid probably would be extended in the future. However, the president said, "The good will of the public should not be shattered by grasping for a few additional dollars." The president declared that large supplies of wheat and corn had been set aside in government bins for use when necessary.

The time for use of these governmentheld stocks is at hand, he added. The stocks, he said, were held for "a time of emergency that emergency is now upon 1 us." EARLE SEEN OUT OF PA. POLITICS WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 (UP) HARRISBURG, Feb. 25 (UP)Former Gov.

George H. Earle was regarded in some political ters today as definitely removed from consideration as a "harmony" candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination while in others he was labeled as available if party leadership decides his chances of winning top the field. Those believing the U.S. minister to Bulgaria still was in the running pointed to the absence of a definite declaration that he would not again be the party standardbearer, in his speech here last night at a "welcome home" dinner given in his honor by the Young Democratic clubs of Pennsylvania. Although he told the 1,000 diners he wanted to "fight Japs and Nazis, not Republicans," he refrained from giving a positive rebuff to the Young Democratic officials who planned the affair in his honor and expressed a preference for him as gubernatorial standardbearer.

MARTIN PETITIONS TO BE CIRCULATED Washington, Feb. 25-(UP) Republican gubernatorial nominating petitions for Maj Gen, Edward Martin, former commander of the 28th division, will be placed in circulation Saturday, it was announced today. Attorney Rufus S. Marriner, president of the Washington county Lincoln Republican club, said petitions have been distributed throughout the state for circulation on the first day for candidate filing. I LOS ANGELES, Feb.

25 (AP) -Anti-aircraft guns thundered over the metropolitan area early today for the first time in the war, but hours later what they were shooting at remained a military secret. An unidentified object moving slowly down the coast from Santa Monica was variously reported as a balloon and an airplane. seen Some two planes observers over claimed Long to Beach. have Army intelligence, although uncommunicative, scoffed at reports of civilian observers that as many as 200 planes were over the area, There were no reports of bombing, but several instances of damaged property from anti-aircraft shells. A garage door was ripped off in a Los Angeles residential district and fragments shattered windows and tore into a bed where a few moments before Miss Blanche Sedgwick and her niece, Josie Duffy, had been sleeping.

A Santa Monica bomb squad was dispatched to remove an unexploded anti-aircraft shell in a driveway there. Wailing air raid sirens at 2:25 A.M. (PWT) awakened most of the Metropolitan areas three million citizens. A few minutes later they were treated to a gigantic Fourth-of-July-like display as huge searchlights flashed along a 10-miles front to the south converging on a single spot high in the sky. Moments.later the anti-aircraft guns opened up, throwing a sheet of steel skyward.

Tracer bullets and exploding shells lit the heavens. Three Japanese, two men and a woman, were seized by police at the beach city of Venice on suspicion of signalling with flashlights near the pier. They were removed to FBI headquarters, where Richard B. Hood, local chief, said "at the request of army authorities we have nothing to say." A Long Beach police sergeant, E. Larson, 59, was killed in a traffic accident while enroute to an air raid post.

Henry B. Ayers, 63-year-old state guardsman, died at the wheel TWO MORE TANKERS VICTIMS OF SUBS I ATLANTIC WAR WEST PALM BEACH, Feb. 25 (AP) Enemy submarines, apparently striking at United States oil supply lines, have added two more American-owned tankers to their toll of shipping attacks in Atlantic coastal waters. The navy disclosed today that torpedoes ripped into the Cities Service Empire, of New York, and the Republic, of Houston, leaving 16 seamen dead or missing. Fifty-seven were rescued.

These latest attacks brought to 24 the officially announced number of ships torpedoed off the United States coast since Axis U-boats began activity Jan. 14. Fourteen were tankers. Eight tankers were sunk, damaged or beached and large oil installations were shelled in the Dutch West Indies, where important producing areas are located. The American west coast waters had a number of submarine at- (Continued on Page 9, Column 5) (Continued on Page 9, Column 3) HORE-BELISHA SAYS WAR CABINET MUST STAND ON RESULTS and the guns of Corregidor and other fortified islands have been intensified.

The Japanese have fired hundreds of shells against Corregidor. In the Manila Bay sector of the Bataan front, which is dominated by American-Filipino artillery, the Japanese have abandoned medical and other supplies which the defenders either captured or destroyed. Hitherto there has been no explanation of these evidences of hasty departure, but the theory has been advanced that the Japanese may have withdrawn some troops from Bataan to prepare defense positions along the Lingayen Gulf and eastern Luzon, fearing American forces will land behind them. All fronts have been relatively quiet, with artillery action limited generally to counter-battery firing. Japanese aerial activity also has decreased, although the Jap- anese still control the air and periodically receive additional planes, especially 97 dive bombers which probably were brought by ship from Formosa and landed somewhere in northern Luzon.

In various areas of Luzon American-Filipino forces are carrying on guerrilla warfare, raiding Japanese-held towns and picking of Japanese in small groups. It is generally believed that the Japanese high command is preparing for further assaults against General MacArthur's Bataan positions, but may delay a major drive pending the arrival of reinforcements released from action in the Malaya and Dutch East dies areas where their main strength is at present occupied. Heavy casualties suffered by General Homma's fourteenth army have undoubtedly contributed to the halting of the Japadrive. Exact Japanese losses have not been estimated, but it is certain that thousands--perhaps as high as been killed or wounded. Some 2,000 Japanese have been buried by the American-Filipino defenders alone.

These were wiped out in attempted landings on the west coast, and in thrusts against the west central. section of the front, where Japanese were annihilated by artillery fire. An entire Japanese infantry regiment is believed to have been killed in the west coast landing attempts. The artillery took a terrific toll of the Japanese, who in the early days of the Bataan fighting usec. to march in close order down the roads commanded by American guns, Several times artillery of the defenders fired into concentrations of between 500 and 1,000 Japanese, destroying nearly all of them.

Their fanatical charges into (Continued on Page 9 Column 3) LONDON, Feb. 25 (AP) Cheered by the house of commons, Leslie Hore-Belisha, a former war secretary declared today that he welcomed Prime Minister Churchill's revised government but that "it must stand or fall by the manner in which it meets the needs of this war." He and other members speaking in the second day of war debate in the house declared three big needs were: 1. That the army be given control over its own supporting aircraft, instead of the RAF. 2. That an immediate "generous" gesture be made to India, and that the British colonial policy be revised.

3. That the government take drastic steps to obtain a maximum of production and a minimum of civilian consumption. Hore Belisha, war secretary in the Chamberlain government at the outset of the war, declared that inadequacy of air support for the army and navy had been a constant factor in British reverses. Another, he asserted, was underestimating the enemy. He told the house that Britain was presumed to have reached parity with Germany in plane production, but that "neither the army nor the navy has the types required." "The navy," he said, "lacks land-based torpedo bombers There is no divebomber There is no airplane armed with cannon sufficiently powerful to explode tanks.

"There is inadequacy of machines of the kind to carry parachute troops, and not enough transport carrying planes and gliders.".