Corsicana Semi-Weekly Light from Corsicana, Texas • Page 7

Visitor The Semi-Weekly Morning Light local, state and world news into thousands oi rural homes In Navarro and surrounding counties twice each week. Every worthwhile Item news from every point thoroughly covered. liifinti fl Home of the Daily Sun and Sem i-Weekly oming Light FU-L LEASED WIRE ASSOCIATED PRESS SERVICE Fifty Years of Service The Ssml-Weekly Morning Light has been an outstanding progressive working for the advancement of the rural communities of NavaTro and adjacent counties for more than fifty years. Its success la oound up with the growth of Rural life. VOL.

LV. CORSICANA, TEXAS, TUESDAY, JANUARY 28. PAGES. NO. 24.

BRITISH FORCES CONTINUE SMASHING BLOWS AT AFRICAN EMPIRE OF ITALY ITALIANS IN AFRICA BEING HARASSED BY FORCES OF BRITAIN DERNA IN LIBYA IS FACING ASSAULT; WEDGE BEING DRIVEN INTO ERITREA (By The Associated Press) desert troops were reported in battle contact today with Italian defenders of Derna, Libya, where a swashbuckling Connecticut Yankee planted the Stars and Stripes in the war on Barbary pirates 136 years ago. Derna, 95 miles west of fallen Tobruk, is the gateway to the Mediterranean seacoast plateau en route to Bengasi. Observers in Cairo predicted fascist Marshal Rodolfo Graziani might take a stand" defense on the plateau to guard his base at Bengasi, 170 miles to the west. Premier Mussolini's high command said Italian forces inflicted losses on enemy armored vehicles in lively east and south of Derna. The Italian air force, it was said, "bombed, strafed and machine- gunned strong artillery and mechanized of the British army of the Nile pushing westward.

It was at Derna, on April 25, 1804, that Gen. William Eaton, Dartmouth-educated former United States army officer, led a riffraff army of six U. S. Marines and 500 shieks, Arabs, Berbers, Greek mercenaries and Nubian blacks to wrest the port from the control of Yussuf the Bloody. Activity in Eritrea.

Some 2,000 miles to the southeast of Derna, other British troops were reported to have driven a wedge halfway across Italian Eritrea in a drive toward the Red Sea. Cairo dispatches said the British were within striking distance of the Italian town Agoraai, an important ralhead. In the siege of Britain, millions had their seventh consecutive night without an after- dark alarm; but despite bad weather, RAF raiders streaked across the channel before dawn to attack the industrial city of Hanover, in north central Germany. high command acknowledged four killed, six injured in the raid, in which several hundred incendiaries were dropped. of our own planes are the German high command said.

"All our aircraft returned the British communique said. Amid this comparative lull in the aerial conflct, attention focused on the rapidly developing African war theater. Take Prisoners in Eritrea. Military sources at Cairo said the British captured the village of Biscia and were within 10 miles of Agodat, taking 100 prisoners and bringing the total to 700 in the 11-day Eritrean campaign. The Soviet Russian army newspaper.

Red Star, commenting on the African campaign, said the Italian position was and expressed the opinion that it was no longer a question of Italian losses, "but of possibility of their further resistance at The Greek spokesman in Athens said the new Italian commander in Albania, General Ugo Cavalero, ordered counter attacks at several points on the Albanian front yesterday to "strength the morale of his but that the Greeks had beaten the Italians back. Authoritative Italians last night denied foreign reports of disorders which German troops were said to have helped quell in industrial northern Italy. Repeats Broadcast The Columbia Broadcasting System, which carried the first reports that there had been such fighting in Turin. Milan and other cities, said in a broadcast last SECRETARY OF STATE 'SENATE ASKS OLD HULL IS LEASE-LEND OFFICIALS OLD AGE MEASURE WITNESS ASSISTANCE APPEAR TESTIFIED BEHIND CLOSED ANSWER SOUGHT TO ALLE- DOORS; REPORTED TO SEE CATIONS APPLICANTS FOR NO WAR INVOLVEMENT ASSISTANCE BEEN DENIED BANANAS USED IN A SHIP LAUNCHING Vice Premier Horia Sima (above), of Rumania, Iron Guard chieftain named by the Rumanian govern- i ment as a leader of forces which i revolted against the Antonescue I regime, was reported under ar- rest. The report did not state 1 where or when Sima had been taken into custody.

WILLKIE LUNCHED WITH CHURCHILL AND CONFERS WITH EDEN ALSO VISIT IRELAND FOR CONFERENCE WITH DE VALERA 1 LONDON, Jan. Wen- dell L. Willkie lunched with Prime Minister Churchill, had long talks I with Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and Ernest Bevin today and disclosed that he I intended to visit neutral Eire and I confer with Prime Minister Eamon I De Valera. At the luncheon, which followed a morning conference with Eden, Willkie presented Churchill a message from President Roosevelt. Then he went to Bevin office and had a long chat with the labor minister.

Willkie grinned his way through most of his first busy day in Britain, but he spoke bitterly when he looked back at the devastation around St. Cathedral in where, he was told 3,000,000 books were burned. thought the burning of Paternoster Row, the street where the books were published, was rather he declared. "They destroyed the place where the truth was He said he found the damage to be not less than he had expected but exclaimed, "the way it is being dealt with astonished me. They are grand (In Dublin it was announced de Valera would "be very glad indeed" to see Willkie.) Although he had planned to spend but an hour with Churchill, Willkie and thd Prime Minister became so engrossed in their con- Spp INTERNATIONAL, Page 6 See WILLKIE.

Pace Congress Is Doing By The Associated Press Senate. Routine business. Foreign relations committee starts hearings on lease-lend bill, Naval committee opens hearings on bills authorizing $1,209.000,000 for navy. House Routine business. Foreign affairs committee continues lease-lend bill.

RUMORS OF UPRISING IN ITALY MAY BE UNTRUE BUT MUSSOLINI IS SURELY FACING HARD TIMES By DEWITT MACKENZIE, Associated Press Staff Writer. W'hen a chap badly dtpwn on his luck all sorts of gossip is likely to be circulated about him, as witness Rome's denial of reports that there has been rioting in Northern Italy, with German troops helping suppress the disorders. There are several points of interest in connection with this story, and one of them is that while it is branded as false, it was born out of the mental attitude of a lot of Italy's neighbors. That is to say, the country is so hard hit both economically and militarily that many outsiders are expecting a the wild tales. Then there is Berlin's denial of an uprising up in Italy, accompanied by the tip (given inadvertently or otherwise) that German troops were cheered while passing through Milan yesterday en route to Southern Italy.

So it would seem that London was correct when it stated last night that Nazi forces were being sent into lLa.lv An authoritative British source warned that reports of extensive unrest in Italy should be treated with the British would know what is going on there if anybody, since they are actively engaged in trying to cause a popular upheaval against Mussolini. However, an informed source in the British capital said considerable numbers of Germans were being sent into Italy, ostensibly as air staffs, but allegedly to support the Fascist regime. W'hatever may be the purpose of the Nazi troops, it will take a good deal more aid than that from Herr Hitler to pull his partner out of his difficulties. Reports from the battle fronts today indicate that II African empire is continuing to collapse like a scots has-pipe on a dying wail. The British ind their allies, having bagged the important strategic port of Tobruk on the Libyan coast, already are in fighting contact with the small part of Derna.

ninety-five miles to the west. The speed with which the British are MACKENZIE, Page WASHINGTON, Jan. Secretary Hull told the senate foreign relations committee today, an informed source said, that American aid had been "largely for Great Britain ability to resist a German invasion in the last seven months. Testifying behind closed doors the secretary of state was reported to have declared emphatically his belief that the increased assistance envisioned under the administration's British aid bill woud not involve the United States in war. Committee members said the state department apparently had had information that an invasion attempt was scheduled last September but had no definite clue as to why it did not come off.

Hull was quoted also as saying at one point in a 2 1-2 hour closed session that he believed Turkey would stand fast in its opposition to threatened axis aggression, but that Japan aimed to seize control of Indo-China. He also was said to have testi- I fied that long efforts to obtain I mutual understanding and eration between the United States I and Japan had been viirtually fruitless. I Hull, the first witness in the committee's study of the aid-to- Britain bill, had asked permission to present some testimony behind closed doors- He explained that he wanted to present information which might bear on the bill "but which should not be made known to every nation. Under President Roosevelt's definition of warring China might become one of the beneficiaries of the lend-lease legislation-' Asks Be Heard Privately. In asking that he first be permitted to testify privately, Hull said that publicity "would not be compatible with the public interest and might be injurious to our national security." Chairman George (D-Ga.) said the committee would resume open hearings at 1 p.

SCT, today- The house committee also met in executive session today in an effort to conclude its study of the legislation after two weeks of hearings. It first heard confidential testimony from Admiral Harold R. Stark, chief of naval operations, and was scheduled to hear Gen. George Marshall, the chief of staff, later in the day. Speaker Rayburn and Majority Leader McCormack told reporters today that the general sentiment in the house "is overwhelmingly' in favor of enactment of the bill McCormack said he would be if the measure is not taken up next Monday and action completed at the end of See CONGRESS, Page 4 ATTITUDE OF U.

S. TOWARD CHINA BAR TO JAP RELATIONS TOKYO, Jan. Minister Matsuoka was reported yesterday to have declared that an American policy of regarding China her first line of stood in the way of developing relations" between the United States and Japan. Domei, Japanese news agency, quoted the foreign minister as testifying before a house of representatives budget committee that: long as America maintains her policy of regarding China, instead of the eastern Pacific, as her first line of defense, the development of friendly relations between Japan and the United States will remain an idle (Dispatches from Shanghai today said the Japanese had launched a new offensive in Central China, recapturing Miyang in southern Honan province and killing 1,200 Chinese. (Domei said the Japanese were spreading fanwise over southern Honan province in an effort to drive out 100,000 Chinese soldiers operating between the Peiping- Hankow railway and the Han river.

The drive was said to have been launched from Sinyang, 50 miles south of Miyangi. Domei said Matsuoka described United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull's recent statement on the Manchurian incident as an obvious distortion of the fact that it will not bear the barest Governor Klangsu Province Slain SHANGHAI, Jan, reports reaching Shanghai today the Japanese-sponsored governor of Kiangsu province, Kao Kuanwu was shot and killed at Soochow last week. I The entire city was said to have been placed under martial law. The victim was described in i some quarters as the most impor- tant puppet official assasinated since the death last year of Fu Siao-en, puppet mayor of Shanghai. AUSTIN.

Jan. (IP senate today invited old age assistance officials to appear before the upper chamber Feb. 4 and answer allegations that applicants for assistance had been denied investigations required by lawr. By voice vote senators adopted a resolution asking the executive director of the Public Welfare Department and the three members of the Public Welfare Board to state what policy they have been following with respect to allegations applicants were denied application forms on grounds: They had relatives capable of supporting them. No more applications were being received- No money was available to pay additional enrollees.

The resolution was offered by Senators Joe Hill of Henderson, Karl Lovelady of Meridian and Clem Fain of Livingston. Hill asserted the resolution spoke for itself. The resolution set out that allegations, if true, amounted to a violation of law since statutes say the welfare department is not authorized to deny the aged the right of assistance without an investigation to determine eligibility. The effect of refusal to accept applications, if they have been refused, it continued, was to deny aged persons the right to have eligibility determined In a legal way. It asked the officials to appear before the senate committee sitting as a committee of the and state the truth or falsity of the allegations so that the legislature can determine whether it is desirable to further amend the old age assistance law.

The officials also would be ask- I ed any question to the administration of the welfare i An investigation similar to the Workmen sample a few of the 7,000 pounds of bananas as they were made ready at Beaumont, Texas, to TOBRUK FALL YIELDS 25,000 MEN AND 1100 TAKEN IN ERITRA PREPARATIONS FOR ATTACK UPON PORT OF DERNA BEING RAPIDLY PUSHED CAIRO, Egypt, Jan. 27. i i imperial forces, smashing by land and air at African empire on fronts 2,000 miles apart, have driven nearly 80 miles into Eritrea and are continuing Libyan preparations for an assault on the port of Derna, the Middle East command announced today. British headquarters announced also that 25,000 Italian prisoners had het ii seized last week's capture of the Libyan port base of Tobruk and that 1,100 prisoners have been taken thus far in the invasion of Eritrea. These figures brought to 111,000 the number of Italian pi isoners reported taken by the British since they launched their African offensive.

Pacing the land operations in the Derna area, the RAF announced rstids on the landing ground there and at Barce, another Lib- provide a smooth slide into the water at the launching of a 413-foot cargo ship, the Cape Lookout. The and Maritime Commission explained that juicy bananas have been found an efficient substitute for launching grease. NAVAL EXPANSION Northern Half of APPROVED Nation Covered By UNANIMOUSLY TODAY Snow and Ice SENATE NAVAL COMMITTEE WILLING SPEND $1,209,000,000 FOR FACILITIES WASHINGTON, Jan. The senate naval committee approved unanimously today a $1,. 209,000,000 program for expanding one ordered by the senate is con- shipbuilding and ordnance facilities, modernizing the fleets anti-aircraft defense and constructing 400 small vessels.

The committee acted on the house-approved legislation after hearing testimony that lessons learned from the European war had snowed the work was necessary. Most of the new vessels are expected to be built this year. This would include patrol boats, local defense craft, escort, salvage and towing ships, accounting for $400,000,000 of the program In response to a question from Chairman (D-Mass.) Rear Admirai S. M. Robinson, chief of the bureau of ships, said that 36 of them would be suitable for convoying ships to Europe.

Modernization of the air defense, incorporating improvements in armor and anti-aircraft guns suggested by the European war, the admiral said would be carried on over a period of several years. When the program is completed, he added, can be sure that our ships will be a little better than the oher fellow's if we ge into any sort of Would Forbid Pictures. In the house, Chairman Vinson (D-Ga of the naval committee introduced legislation to forbid outsiders to take pictures or make of any place or equipment for national defense The miximum penalty would be one year imprisonment and a fine of President Roosevelt, meanwhile, asked congress to authorize the maritime commission immediately to contract for in additional expenditures to enable templated in a proposed house resolution which as yet has not been introduced Many Bills. One hundred and fifty hills and six proposed constitutional amendments hit tlie house hopper. Most of them had been made public Saturday.

This was the first day for their introduction. Included was the 1.6 per cent transaction tax advocated by Governor Rep. Clinton Kersey of Bridgeport became house sponsor of the bill today on his return from Washington, See LEGISLATURE. Page 6 Cotton Ginned In Navarro Countv Is 47.176 Bales There were 47,176 bales of cotton ginned from the 1940 crop in Navarro county prior to January 16 as compared with 50,528 bales at the same time last year, according to figures relased Monday by George Campbell, special agent. British Losses Claimed.

BERLIN, Jan. 27. British planes attacked German 1 minesweepers today were driven off and two of them so seriously damaged that the eye of the German military forces they must be considered DNB, official German news agency, reported. The agency indicated that antiaircraft fire from the minesweepers turned the planes hack. It did not say where the encounter oc- cured.

See NAVAL, Pagf FORTY PLUS CLUB IS RAPIDLY ATTAINING GET RID OF ALL OF ITS MEMBERSHIP By EH WALLACE NEW YORK, Jan. One of New York's unusual organizations, whose principal aim is to get rid of its members and go out of existence, the Forty Plus Club announced enthusiastically today that its membership had dwindled to a mere 70. Devoted to the task of selling unemployed executives over 40 back to business, and to and nullify the idea that business men over 40, with fine records of tried experience, are ready for the shelf," the club now is having a difficult time finding new members who meet its requirements. The reason, says its new president, Alfred B. Wilson, is the increased demand for efficient At times, its membership rose to as many as 2000, but in the two years of its existence, some 275 business executives have found new jobs, into which they were by their fellow-members.

To become a member, a man must be unemployed over i0 years old, be an American citizen and have earned at. least $4,000 a year as an executive Each member pledges himself to discover new jobs and to sell his brother members to the business that needs them. Each serves two or three days weekly, carrying out club assignments. Wilson said the organization now was dickering with the federal government to find places for its members in the national defense program. Not all of thet jobs by the club pay what an executive might be accustomed to Some pay as little as $15 a week.

One man, 52 years old, took a job as bookkeeper for a golf club at $20 a week. did so well they raised him to $40 a week, then to Wilson said, he's to be made manager at a salary of $4,800 annually. Not bad, is it, for a man business thought was old? By Associated Press. Winter sportsmen found favorable weather in most of the northern half of the nation today. There was an abundance of snow and ice for skiers, skaters and tobaggoners yet the same conditions gave trouble to highway departments in some states.

The playgrounds for those who like to reiax in the sun and sand were fair but a bit cool, Florida reporting lows of 54 at Jacksonville, 58 at Tampa and 60 at Miami, and California showing 50 at Los Angeles and San Diego and 45 at Fresno. The Chicago weather bureau said the lowest early morning temperature reported in the nation was 20 below at Caribou, Me. Forecaster A. J. Knarr of Chicago said freezing weather extended southward to the Ohio river and along a line across Arkansas, Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, Amarillo reporting a low of 25.

There were lows of 29 at Fort Smith, 31 at Memphis, and 38 at Shreveport, La. ITALIANS REPORTED TO HAVL LOST MANY TROOPS IN ATTACKS GREEK ADVANCE DECLARED NOT HAVE BEEN HINDERED BY COUNTER-ATTACKS IRON GUARDISTS ELIMINATED EROM ROMANIAN CABINET STRONG NEW MILITARY GOVERNMENT FOR NATION By ROBERT ST. JOHN BUCHAREST, Rumania, Jan. General Ion Antonescu today eliminated all Iron Quardists from his cabinet and organized a strong new military government- In forming the new government, Antonescu surrounded himself with generals who helped quell the abortive Iron, Guard revolution last week and who he knew would uphold him without question in his attempt to purge the country of rebellious elements. Outside office as the government was being reshap- ed, In the battle-scarred public square where flared last wreek, a solemn funeral was given for 17 army men who fell in the fighting.

Antonescu will continue in the I dual capacity of premier and eign minister. General Dimitri Popescu, ap- pointed last week as minister of i interior replacing General (Jeorge Petrovicescu, an Iron Guardist who is now reported either dead or arrested remains in that post. The Iron Guardist propaganda minister, whose department was held responsible for Guardist pa; refusal to publish Antones- 1 pleas for support last week, was removed from office. He now is reported under i rest. The new propaganda minister i is Nichifor Croinic, who was elim- inated fiom that post when the i Guard came to power.

Guard rule began last I Sept 5 when former King Carol relinquished all power to Gen. T. Antonescu and fled into exile. The ATHENS, Jam -The Ital-1 of thp Nazl mns were reported by the Greeks i in which an unsuc- today to have suffered enormous! losses in a series of counter-attacks attempted since F)remier Mussolini placed General Ugo Ca- valci i in charge of his forces in Albania. Greek dispatches from the battle- front said the Italians left large numbers of wounded behind each attack.

The number of fascist pris oners taken was said to be mount- ing between 100 and 200 a day. The Greek advance, these advices said, is continuing at the same pace it was going before the fas cist switched to offensive tactics. New positions were said to have been captured by the Greeks north of Klisura in Central Albania and in the sector along the Adriatic coast. The operations north of Klisura, Greek reports said, have the character of a movement of purely local and the battle, waged there for the last five days now is in full Italian forces ther buildings were reported hit- Five Italian planes were reported downed, three of them near Mechile, south of Derna, and two others which were attacking British troops advancing on Derna itself. A sixth Italian craft was said to have been destroyed on a landing field near Mechile.

One British plane was reported missing. Closing In On Hall Center. The British war bulletin ed also that the British forces PREMIER ANTONESCU FORMS 7aT cenSK Barentu, both in Eritrea, and that operations in the Derna area of Libya developing In addition to tho prisoners captured at Tobruk, the communiue said 22 medium and 28 light tanks were seized. It added that the counting and sorting of guns captured there "is The Italians were reported to have abandoned IJmrn Hagar, in Southern Eritrea near the junction of the with the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Ethiopia The British command added that its forces were closely pursuing the retreating Fascists in this secton. Agordat is 80 miles inside Eritrea from the Sudan border and is the railhead of a line to Asmara, the Eritrean capital 70 miles farther east.

Barentu is 60 miles inside Eritrea and 28 miles southwest of Agordat. Farther down in Africa, war bulletin said operations were progressing In the Metemma area and further successes were reported by Ethiopian natives, against Italians in their Fascist- conquered kingdom. Italian Somaliland Operations. British patrols operating in Italian Somaliland, opposite the Kenya border, have engaged in successful encounters the whole the British command asserted. British troops are reported in battle contact with the garrison of the little Libyan port of Derna, gateway to the mountain plateau where some observers predicted today Marshal Rodolfo Graziani might make a last stand to defena his base at Bengasi.

Two thousand miles to the southeast, other British forces striking from the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Kenya colony were said last night to have driven a wedge almost half way across Italian Eritrea toward the Red Sea and to have penetrated pia and Somaliland at numerous points British had cessful attempt was made on tin life of Carol, came a week after the Vienna arbitration dismembered Rumania, giving the Southern Dobruja to Bulgarian Se RIMANA. Seo EGYPTIAN, Pngf MEXICO CITY TRAFFIC IS MOST BEWILDERING TO FOREIGNERS AS SPEED LIMIT IS NEAR THE SKY By JACK KRUEGEK, Associated I'ress Staff. An ominous little item of passed over the wires from Mexico City the other day and Texans thinking about vacationing down there any time soon are here wete reported to have been warned in advanci ferried across plane. the Adriatic by The Mexico City traffic department is thinking about raising the speed limit on the capitals wide sumptuous ooulevards to 45 miles driving where nobody seems to get hurt. The good neighbor policy is put to a strain when you see four cars abreast bearing down from the left while another squadron suggestive of the four horsemen of the Apoealvrse, comes sweeping in on your unprotected right, apparently determined that you shan't make it to the far curb.

But really there is no homicidal proving Parachutist Killed. WEATHERFORD, Jan. OP) an hour. That's about as fast as Leslie Chipman, 26, of Weather- you are legally supposed to travel i ford, plunged 2,000 feet to his the smoothest Texas highway, but i nothing nto this "land death from an airplane here yes- the prospect of tearing along business, terday when neither of two para- 45 through the swirling traffic of chutes he wore opened. He was Mexico City should hardly cause making the jump for a purse of an eyebrow to lift among the tive drivers there.

The limit now is 40 on such ave- Crash Fatal. nues as the beautifully-named UVALDE, Jan. 27. A small beautiful Paseo la Reforma the airplanp crashed on the outskirts capitals main boulevard, but the of Uvalde yesterday, killing one police seem to resent it if of its occupants, Sidney Taylor, I you travel a good bit faster than 16, and injuring critically another, that. Marion Sansom, 25.

To a country-boy Texan timor- The plane, owned by a group ously attempting his first dash on of Uvalde youths, was used for foot acioss the Paseo when traf- flying Taylor was a high fic is at full tide, Mexico City is school senior, an amazing cauldron of reckless there Is To get the full Impact of the perilious pace traffic maintainns in Mexico City, you must know that there aif between 5,000 and cabs running around the streets at most hours, (The figures vary according to which taxi drivei furnishes the informations Competition Is fierce among the swart deft-handcd gentry who op- eiate these cars, and they afford to spare the horses when See MEXICO TRAFFIC,.