Spanish insurgents continue to push east, in some areas gaining up to 20 miles in the last week. Spanish insurgents announced two new successes today, which was the ninth in their drive against Barcelona, the government capital. They reported that after heavy fighting northeast of the Balaguer bridgehead they had cut in two places the strategic highway linking Lérida and Seo de Urgel, a town near the French border. Thirty-one miles of this road were said to be in the insurgents’ possession or under the fire of their heavy artillery. One rebel column which moved out from Balaguer blocked the road from the south, while another threw a barricade across the highway in the Camarasa sector. In addition, the insurgents occupied the village of Cubells, General Francisco Franco’s rebel headquarters in Irún announced. The Lérida-Seo de Urgel Highway runs through Cubells, which is seven miles southwest of Artesa, “the gateway to Catalonia.” To capture Cubells the insurgents executed rapid maneuvers despite freezing weather.
Artesa was said to be hard pressed and flanking movements made its fall “only a question of time,” an insurgent report said. The Lérida-Seo de Urgel road is part of the main road from Saragossa to the town of Puigcerda on the French border in the Pyrenees mountains. Loss of that part of the highway, which the loyalists have possessed until now, would leave government forces only one main route to France — one which skirts the Mediterranean coast. Severance of the loyalists’ communications with the French frontier appeared to be the immediate objective of the rebels’ campaign.
Despite the rebel reports of new gains, government dispatches said that counterattacks yesterday against the center of the insurgent army definitely had slowed the rebel offensive. The government asserted that losses among General Franco’s crack Aragon and Navarrese troops were unusually heavy, with some units “decimated.” In the southern sector of the Catalonian battlefront insurgent divisions which had occupied the village of Granadella attacked government mountain strongholds in the rugged area above the Tarragona provincial boundary. Mule trains carried equipment and supplies over slippery trails to Franco’s troops which were menacing the government’s lower Ebro River defenders from the rear.
Two squadrons of insurgent bombers raided the center of Barcelona tonight, killing thirty-three persons, eight of them women, and wounding ninety-two. Earlier today bombs from insurgent war planes killed five persons and wounded nine in a raid on the city’s nightlife district.
Spanish rebel artillery, it was reported in Lisbon today, bombarded military objectives in Madrid for three hours at dawn. Many fires were started and numerous casualties were reported. Loyalist artillery replied to the shelling but was reportedly silenced by rebel planes. The loyalists, it was said, attempted a surprise attack near the agriculture institute in University City but were repulsed.
British naval delegates return from Germany after talks, with no concessions made by Germany on the size or armaments of new ships.
In a faltering voice, totally lacking its usual radio punch, Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, Germany’s battered propaganda minister, broadcast a New Year’s address from the seclusion of suburban home today. He struck indirectly at the critics of his love life, but gave thanks for a “beautiful year.” It was the first time Goebbels — most voluble of Nazi headmen — had broken the silence since his nearly fatal beating on December 21 for pirating the beautiful actress, Lida Baarova, from her actor husband, Gustav Froelich.
Official Germany, maintaining that the erstwhile fiery Goebbels had been laid up for more than a week with intestinal influenza, announced yesterday that he had recovered sufficiently, to make his usual New Year’s broadcast to the nation. But the government offered no explanation for the tooth knocked out when enraged friends of Miss Baarova’s husband surprised Goebbels in the actress’ home and went to work on him with horsewhips and fists. Goebbels, in his speech, apparently sought to make peace with Hitler by a “long live Der Führer!” and a pledge that “we promise always to be his faithful soldiers.” But shortly after he had gone off the air a report began circulating in Berlin that he would cease to be propaganda minister by next summer or earlier and would be transferred to the post of minister of education. This would strip from him his present control over the press, movies, radio, theater, and also cut down his influence in foreign affairs.
At least 2,000 Jews committed suicide in the Third Reich in 1938. Nine of the new anti-Semitic decrees against Jews go into effect tomorrow morning.
Austrian passports became invalid.
Two pointed reminders were given by French officials today that France is determined to hold on to her empire. Premier Édouard Daladier on the eve of his scheduled departure for Corsica and Tunisia — territory named in Italian agitation for French concessions — declared any lingering suspicions that France might give up any overseas territory should be dispelled immediately. He said France would relinquish no land regardless of the situation. One thousand Senegalese sharpshooters sailed from Marseilles for French Somaliland after being informed by Senator Rene Olry in an address that they were an answer of “force” to a “menace” against part of the French empire.
Hlinka guardsmen throughout Slovakia demonstrate against Hungarian violence.
The Dutch national debt hits ƒ3,986,629,805.70.
Daniel Sternefeld conducts premiere of his ballet “Pierlala” at the Royal Flemish Opera of Antwerp; choreographer Wladimir Karnetzky also danced the title role.
The Supreme Court of the USSR ruled that cases brought under Article 58 of the Kirov Law had to demonstrate the intent to commit counter-revolutionary or terrorist crime. This ruling went some way into restricting the activities of various kangaroo courts which had been using the law as virtual unrestricted power to kill anyone who came into their hands. During the course of 1939 a number of public trials were held of State Security officials, accused of fabricating evidence and perverting the course of justice
The Syrian Parliament refuses to meet with a French Senatorial delegation; instead, it urges the government to rebel.
Sir Charles Tegart, an adviser to the police in Palestine, is ambushed and narrowly escapes being shot. His assistant is killed.
In Palestine in 1938, death totals from terrorism are: 450 Jews, 1,925 Arabs, and 125 Britons.
Washington, D.C. today stood amazed at the spectacle of prominent New Dealers scurrying to the office of Vice President John N. Garner for conferences with the official who usually is the forgotten man of any administration. At the Senate caucus today, where Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky was reelected majority leader without opposition, the main topic was the purpose of the calls which two cabinet members and other officials made yesterday on Garner. The cabinet members were Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace and Secretary of Commerce Harry L. Hopkins.
Several senators confided that “Cactus Jack” is determined to lead a movement at the coming session which will drastically revamp the New Deal. Hopkins and Wallace are reported to have pleaded with him to eliminate the relief and farm programs from any retrenchment. As is his custom, the ruddy faced, jovial Texan arched his famous white eyebrows, stared blandly at questioners with his blue eyes, and asserted that the visits were purely social. “Those gentlemen just came up to see what six months of clean living in the country can do for a man,” he quipped. He has spent the months since adjournment of the 75th congress hunting and fishing in the vicinity of his hometown, Uvalde, Texas.
President Roosevelt continued at 64.64 cents per ounce today the Treasury’s price for newly minted domestic silver. In fixing the price by proclamation, the President directed that the silver must be delivered to a United States coinage mint not later than June 30, 1939.
According to Dun and Bradstreet, business failures in 1938 rose 41 percent from 1937.
Automobile sales this year are down 47 percent from 1937’s total. However, car and truck sales rose dramatically in November and December.
Dr. Rolla N. Harger’s “drunkometer”, the first breathalyzer test for blood alcohol, is officially introduced in Indiana. In 1931, he had invented the Drunkometer to test for driving under the influence. In 1938, he was one of the five people chosen to be on the subcommittee of the National Safety Council that drafted the model legislation that set the blood alcohol content for driving under the influence.
The Boeing 307 Stratoliner had its first flight. Boeing Model 307 Stratoliner NX19901 made its first flight at Boeing Field, Seattle, Washington. The test pilot was Eddie Allen, with co-pilot Julius A. Barr. The Model 307 was a four-engine commercial airliner that used the wings, tail surfaces, engines and landing gear of the production B-17B Flying Fortress heavy bomber. The fuselage was circular in cross section to allow for pressurization. It was the first pressurized airliner and because of its complexity, it was also the first airplane to include a flight engineer as a crew member.
On March 18, 1939, during its 19th test flight, the Stratoliner went into a spin, then a dive. It suffered structural failure of the wings and horizontal stabilizer when the flight crew attempted to recover. NX19901 was destroyed and all ten persons aboard were killed. As a result of the crash of NX19901, production Stratoliners were fitted with a vertical fin similar to that of the B-17E Flying Fortress.
During World War II, TWA sold its Stratoliners to the United States government which designated them C-75 and placed them in transatlantic passenger service. In 1944, the 307s were returned to TWA and they were sent back to Boeing for modification and overhaul. The wings, engines and tail surfaces were replaced with those from the more advanced B-17G Flying Fortress. The last one in service was retired in 1951. Of the ten Stratoliners built for Pan Am and TWA, only one remains. Fully restored by Boeing, NC19903 is at the Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Institution.
“You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” by Bing Crosby topped the American singles charts.
Approximately 320 Jewish refugees from Germany land in Shanghai.
Through its Ambassador in Tokyo, the United States refuses to recognize Japan’s “New Order” in China. A new note delivered to Japan demands that American rights in China be respected. The American government today sent a note to the Japanese government concerning American rights in China. The note, which was described as “final,” flatly denied the Japanese contention of a “New Order” in China, but opened the way for revision of foreign rights in the Far East. In disclosing the contents of the note the State Department said it was delivered today by Ambassador Joseph C. Grew to the Japanese Foreign Office in Tokyo and that it is the summation of the American position on Japan’s attempts to abrogate American rights in China.
The note charged the Japanese with unfair discrimination against American trade in China. It also accused Japan of assuming powers of sovereignty in China with the use of armed force, violating present treaties. The American government sternly warned Japan that it cannot tolerate such trampling on American rights. Then in a more moderate tone the note admitted that conditions might change from time to time and that the United States is willing to consider such changes under procedure of international law and justice. This government virtually told the Japanese that if they want to abrogate foreign treaty rights in China, they should call a conference of the signatories to the nine-power pact to consider the matter through orderly processes.
“The government of the United States has always been prepared,” the note said, “and is now, to give due and ample consideration to any proposals based on justice and reason which envisage the resolving of problems in a manner duly considerate of the rights and obligations of all parties directly concerned by processes of free negotiation and a new commitment by and among all of the parties so concerned. There has been and there continues to be, opportunity for the Japanese government to put forward such proposals. This government has been, and it continues to be, willing to discuss such proposals, if and when put forward, with representatives of the other powers, including Japan and China, whose rights and interests are involved, at whatever time and in whatever place may be commonly agreed upon.”
The British today took steps for closer defense collaboration with Australia in the Pacific. It announced that a Royal Air Force mission, composed of senior officers and officials from the Air Ministry, was sailing to Australia to discuss plans for manufacturing the latest types of British military aircraft in Australian factories. This move is parallel to putting the Singapore naval base into operation and presumably is to strengthen British air power in the Pacific against possible Japanese aggression.
The aircraft industry in Australia, which is capable of turning out fighters and bombers, would add enormously to the strength of Singapore and defense of British bases and possessions in the Far East. Australia always has been the most willing of all the dominions to collaborate in British defense plans. Coincident with the dispatch of the commission of air experts to Australia, Hector Bywater, noted naval correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, discloses that the British Admiralty also has in hand a big program to expand the Fleet Air Arm. He said that by 1942 the Fleet Air Arm will be increased in personnel from 8,000 to about 10,000.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 154.76 (+0.40).
Born:
Rosalind Cash, actress and singer, in Atlantic City, New Jersey (d. 1995).
Atje Keulen-Deelstra, Dutch speed skater (Women’s World Champion, 1970, 1972-74; European Champion, 1972-74), in Grou, Netherlands (d. 2013).
Marien Ngouabi, President of Congo-Brazzaville, 1969 – 1977, in Owando, Congo-Brazzaville.
Naval Construction:
The Вое́нно-морско́й флот СССР (ВМФ) (Soviet Navy) “ShCh” (ShChuka)-class (6th group, Type X-modified) submarines ShCh-405 and ShCh-406 are laid down by A. Marti (Leningrad, U.S.S.R.) / Yard 194.
The Вое́нно-морско́й флот СССР (ВМФ) (Soviet Navy) Project 7-class (Gnevny-class) destroyer Gromky (Громкий, “Loud”) is commissioned.
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