The British Government was reported today in circles close to President Manuel Azaña of the Spanish Republic to have taken the lead In attempting to end the long civil war. Señor Azaña was said to be supporting efforts of the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, as was the French Premier, Edouard Daladier. Mr. Chamberlain was understood to have instructed his representatives at Burgos, the Spanish Insurgent capital, to open conversations with Generalissimo Francisco Franco on a basis of three points, closely approximating those made by Premier Negrín at the last meeting of the Spanish Cortes on February 2 at Figueras:
- Evacuation of Spanish territory by foreign “volunteers.”
- Assurances that reprisals will not be taken against Republican leaders.
- Elimination of all foreign influence from Spain.
Although the Insurgents previously had refused to consider these conditions, collectively or singly. President Azaña was said to have echoed Mr. Chamberlain’s view that General Franco might be more willing to make concessions from his previous demand for “unconditional surrender” if Great Britain did the negotiating. Should negotiations be successful, it was said, an armistice would be declared, followed by the handing over of the Madrid-Valencia-Alicante zone to the Insurgents. Mr. Chamberlain’s proposals were understood to include a British guarantee of fulfillment of conditions of the armistice. Spanish Government officials with Señor Azaña at the Spanish Embassy, where his Foreign Minister, Julio Alvarez del Vayo, were reported attempting to stave off the President’s resignation, said Mr. Chamberlain personally was directIng the British peace efforts.
The Spanish Foreign Minister flew from Madrid yesterday to confer with President Azaña. With him were General Vicente Rojo, chief of the army general staff. and General Hidalgo de Cisneros, chief of the air force. Señor Azaña, who refused to heed Señor Alvarez del Vayo’s pleas to return to Madrid, where Premier Juan Negrín is heading efforts to organize desperate resistance in the central zone, was said to have declared he feared such a step would be interpreted as a move on his part to prolong the war. He was reported to have declared he wanted hostilities to end quickly.
Insurgent Generalissimo Francisco Franco was reported tonight to have assigned three of his best divisions, including two of Italians, directly to the task of assaulting the main strongholds of Republican Spain. Insurgent dispatches said General Franco’s Fourth Infantry Division had been sent to the Madrid front and the Blackshirt Littorio and Twenty-third of March Divisions toward Valencia for a coastal drive in a campaign to wipe out the Republican government’s resistance in the last one-fourth of Spain it holds. Valencia was struck today by more than 100 bombs dropped from Insurgent planes.
Reports from Madrid said Colonel Enrique Lister, whose brigade covered the government retreat from Catalonia, had been named commander of the Madrid front.
Ever since Sunday the Insurgents have kept Madrid in a state of uninterrupted nervous tension by slow intermittent bouts of shelling at all hours of the day and night. Last night and this morning powerful high explosive shells have been falling at the rate of one every quarter hour or half hour. Madrid was shelled today from the west and south. The destructive effect was such that one would imagine an air raid had occurred.
Barcelona judges face rebel courts. The judge who condemned many to death aboard the prison ship Uruguay is one of the first to be tried.
The Spanish police arrest a London Daily Herald newspaper correspondent traveling in France with 45 pieces of diamond jewelry.
Pál Teleki takes office as the new Prime Minister of Hungary. Count Teleki succeeded in forming a Cabinet today. It is identical to former Premier Bela Imredy’s cabinet except for the portfolio of education, which Count Teleki himself held. The new Minister of Education is Valentin Homan. The new Premier addressed members of the Governmental party today and said that he would continue Mr. Imredy’s home and foreign policies including the anti-Jewish bill and the land reform measure that the former Premier introduced. He insisted that his Cabinet must not be considered as transitory. Count Teleki spoke in firm and determined tones, leading to the supposition that he has received permission from the regent to dissolve Parliament should the occasion arise.
A pressing invitation to elect a successor to Pope Pius XI who may assist the totalitarian States to build “a new world upon the ruins” of the past without the necessity of having recourse to war was addressed this morning to the Sacred College of Cardinals by Dr. CarlLudwig Diego von Bergen, the German envoy, in the name of the whole diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, of which he is the dean.
His words on this point were: “We live and act in one of the most decisive hours of history. We are assisting at the elaboration of a new world, which wants to raise itself upon the ruins of a past that in many things has no longer any reason to exist. We want this evolution to be peaceful, and the Papacy without any doubt has an essential role. On the Sacred College — we are most convinced of this, most eminent Princes — weighs this moment a most delicate responsibility in the choice of a worthy successor to Pius XI, in the choice of a Pontiff toward whom humanity may turn its gaze as toward a beacon shining in stormy and fearful anxiety for a common goal of peace and progress.”
Germany deplores the British armament plan and finds it an attempt to destroy the spirit of the Munich agreement.
The United States Mediterranean squadron, under the command of Rear Admiral Henry E. Lackey, arrived in Corsican waters today for a week’s courtesy visit.
The House of Lords demands deep underground shelters in case of a London raid.
Britons mistrust regional dictators being chosen for wartime posts.
The RAF’s first North American Harvard trainer spins into the ground killing the flight test observer, Peter Alston.
Ireland will raise defense outlays, spending £5.5 million on war materials. A sharp party conflict and at times heated interchanges marked a debate in the Irish Dail Eireann tonight when Premier Eamon de Valera carried his £5,500,000 defense estimate despite strong criticism by the Cosgrave Opposition and the Labor party. When the division bell rang the government had 62 votes to 39 for the Opposition. Dr. Thomas O’Higgins led off the attack from the Cosgraveite front bench. He ridiculed the idea that this country could defend itself against a mighty European power with the expenditure of £5,500,000 and a standing army of 30,000. Dr. O’Higgins accused Defense Minister Frank Aiken of lack of candor in not acknowledging the need for naval defense of an island country like this.
A Soviet court strips a Red Army officer of his title and sentences him to five years in a labor camp for slander.
U.S. President Roosevelt was pictured as personally intervening on behalf of the French air mission, which has been buying military planes in this country, when a part of the secret testimony taken on that subject before the Senate Military Affairs Committee was made public today. The disclosure was made by Senator Austin, the ranking Republican member of the committee, after the day’s session. Whether or not the President took the step of ensuring the fullest facilities for the French experts against the advice of the War Department’s experts was not cleared up in that part of the transcript which was revealed. Senator Sheppard, chairman, announced that the full transcript, deleted of military secrets, will be made available for publication “as soon as possible.” Senator Austin made clear, however, that his understanding of the whole testimony was that General Malin Craig, the Chief of Staff, and other general staff officers had opposed special facilities for the French visitors on the ground that their purchases might interfere with procurement on behalf of the United States Army.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace exempts 24 foods from new mandatory food labels. The exemption is good for two years.
President Roosevelt called on Congress in one message today to consider methods of conserving and utilizing the nation’s energy resources, and in another suggested a $2,000,000,000 Federal-State program for abatement of water pollution. Each subject was covered in bulky reports from the National Resources Committee. Without adopting the Committee’s recommendations for his own, the President pointed out that some legislation affecting coal, oil, natural gas and water power would expire at the end of this fiscal year and other similar measures would terminate after a few years. He offered the report as “a useful frame for legislative programs affecting these resources.” Energy resources are not inexhaustible, yet the nation permits waste in use and production, the President wrote, and apparent economies today mean in some instances that future generations will carry a burden of unnecessarily high costs, and be forced to substitute inferior fuels.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt urges a world role for the United States and predicts trouble ahead.
The American Labor Party votes to purge Communists from its membership.
A ceremony at the capital honors the memory of Susan B. Anthony, suffragist.
Thoroughly recovered from an attack of grippe which kept him from his desk for a week. President Roosevelt left Washington by special train late tonight on his way to Key West. On Saturday he will board the cruiser USS Houston for two weeks in the Caribbean to view the fleet maneuvers and to fish. Mr. Roosevelt held a special Cabinet meeting in his study in the Executive Mansion for discussion of legislative and administrative problems that seem likely to arise during his absence. All Cabinet members were on hand except Secretaries Ickes and Perkins and Postmaster General Farley.
The President had been expected to name a successor to Associate Justice Louis D. Brandeis before leaving on his cruise, but the White House indicated that he would let the matter go over until his return to Washington about March 4. This decision is understood to have been caused by the addition of William O. Douglas, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to the list of possible successors of Justice Brandeis. Mr. Roosevelt is scheduled to reach Florida City, Florida, early Saturday morning. From there he will drive over the new Overseas Highway to Key West. The same afternoon the President will make a special radio address opening the San Francisco International Exposition.
James Bryce of IBM is advised that company president Thomas Watson has approved the project to build the Mark I which in time becomes the first IBM computer, and one of the first in the world.
Brazilian envoy Aranha indicates he may stay in Washington, D.C., until Roosevelt returns from the Caribbean since he would like to meet with the President again.
The World’s Fair in New York sets prices: 75 cents for adults, 25 cents for children, with a special dime-day held once a week for youth.
Seven thousand workmen set a feverish pace on Treasure Island today as only two days remained before the opening of the California World’s Fair on the island in San Francisco Bay.
Kentucky Derby officials expect a record crowd of 100,000.
Tallulah Bankhead appears in Lillian Hellman’s play, “The Little Foxes.”
Katharine Hepburn previews “The Philadelphia Story” in Hartford, Connecticut.
The Chinese attack in a wide range of areas. Guerrillas are said to be seriously menacing in the central region.
Gunmen today shot and killed Tu Foh, president of the Japanese-controlled Nantao District Court, boosting to fifty-one the number of political assassinations in the Shanghai area since Japanese occupation. Mr. Tu was slain while walking in the French Concession. Kao Hung-chao, an official of the Tatao Water Police, escaped.
Chinese forces reported recapturing Yanglowtung, about seventy-five miles south of Hankow. They said they had torn up Canton-Hankow railway tracks and destroyed bridges, cutting Japanese communications between Hankow and Yochow. Yochow is the principal city held in the long stalemated Japanese salient into Hunan Province. Chinese guerrillas in Hopeh Province reported killing 600 Japanese at Titsun and Towchwang and 300 in recapturing Jenhsien. Guerrillas in South Honan reported reoccupation of six counties.
Chinese press reports indicate that the Japanese are shifting the emphasis in their Shansi campaign to clean up guerrillas from the south to the north of the province. A sharp attack is said to be underway in the northern part of the province. The Japanese say that this is an important source of war material. The Chinese, on the other hand, assert that the Japanese “mopping up” operations in South Shansi have been a failure.
A number of British doctors who have been working in Loyalist Spain have offered their services to China. A cable from the China Campaign Committee in London has advised that men are available and the Chinese Red Cross is expected to incorporate them into the Red Cross Medical Relief Commission.
The Japanese plan to land more troops at Hainan and warn foreign ships to avoid the 30-mile area by Taichow Bay. Japanese authorities served notice today that they intended to land troops at Haimen, 200 miles down the coast from Shanghai, later tomorrow in a new move to tighten the China coast blockade. They warned all foreign shipping to stand clear of a thirty-mile zone in Taichow Bay, where the port is located. Haimen is one of the few remaining ports through which the Chinese still are able to send supplies to their troops in the interior. They transport the supplies by motor road to Kinhwa, 100 miles west of Haimen, and by rail from there to Nanchang. The occupation of Haimen also would halt traffic on the Lin River and threaten hitherto untouched territory in East Chekiang Province, including the towns of Lukiao, Hwangyen, Linhai and Wenling.
Reports filtering through from Japanese-held Hankow, 585 miles up the Yangtze River, told today of a tense situation created by a Japanese embargo on food for the French defense force in the French Concession. French consular agents were said to have failed to achieve settlement of the quarrel through representations to Japanese headquarters. Several “incidents” were reported. For some unexplained reason, the French prohibited Japanese entrance into the Concession several days ago and the Japanese at once laid down a blockade to shut off provisions for the French force. Persons entering the Concession were searched by the Japanese. Some Chinese women believed to have carried food were said to have been mistreated by Japanese sentries.
After many days of silence, twelve Americans and fifty-three other foreigners stranded on a mountain in Central China in the path of an imminent Japanese onslaught made contact today with the outside world. They acknowledged receipt of radio broadcasts containing a Japanese warning to leave their isolated haven in a Summer resort at Kuling, on Lushan Mountain, southeast of Hankow. Lieutenant Commander Charles R. Jeffs, commanding the United States gunboat USS Oahu, planned to leave Kiukiang, on the Yangtze River, tomorrow to arrange an escort for the foreigners who want to leave.
French Deputies urge a strong Indo-China defense against Japan. Submarines are declared an indispensable tool.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 145.39 (+0.79).
Born:
Ross O’Hanley, AFL safety (Boston Patriots), in Everett, Massachusetts (d. 1972, brain cancer).
Adolfo Azcuna, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, in Katipunan, Zamboanga del Norte, Republic of the Philippines.
Died:
Jura Soyfer, 26, Austrian political journalist and cabaret writer, at Buchenwald concentration camp.
Josef Moroder-Lusenberg, 92, Austro-Italian artist.
Naval Construction:
The Marine Nationale (French Navy) Élan-class Avisos dragueur de mines (minesweeping sloop) Commandant Riviere is launched by Ateliers et Chantiers de Provence (Port-de-Bouc, France).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type IX U-boat U-42 is launched by AG Weser, Bremen (werk 947).
The U.S. Navy heavy cruiser USS Wichita (CA-45), sole ship of her class, is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Captain Thaddeus Austin Thomson, Jr., USN
History Diaries 