Posted on 06/20/2010 6:20:43 PM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
8:55 Eastern Daylight Time, and Columbia and its affiliated stations bring you Elmer Davis, and the News.
An armistice between France and Germany was signed at Compiègne this afternoon, but it will not take effect until six hours after formal notice has been exchanged of a similar arrangement between France and Italy. And there is evidence that some French leaders find the terms so harsh that they doubt if it is worthwhile accepting them. An official announcement from Bordeaux tonight says that the armistice negotiations are virtually completed. A little earlier, heavily censored dispatches from the French capital quoted Minister of the Interior Pomaret, as saying that the final French decision would be made after study of both the German and Italian demands, which means not before tomorrow and perhaps later. Tonight a broadcast a London by General de Gaulle, former Assistant Defense Minister in the Reynaud cabinet who, due to faulty transmission was at first confused with the present Minister of Defense, said that the armistice would mean surrender of all France’s arms and occupation of the entire country. And he called for the assembly of the largest possible French forces to continue the war elsewhere, either in England or the colonies. Such an armistice, he said, would be not capitulation but slavery. We have had no trustworthy news of the French fleet today, except that some of its units were with British ships at Alexandria when the Italians made and unsuccessful air attack this morning. None of the many rumors about the French Navy are yet confirmed but the flight of great numbers of French planes to Algeria from which colony they can go on fighting suggests that possibly some of the fleet may make a similar decision. Nor have we yet any details to the terms of the armistice, news of which was first brought by correspondent William L. Shirer, in a joint broadcast with William C. Kirker of the National Broadcasting Company from Compiègne this afternoon.
However, General Huntzinger, head of the French armistice delegation, said that the terms were very hard and he consulted with the Bordeaux government last night and again this morning before he signed them. The French delegates then left by plane for Italy. A remark of Mr. Kirker’s that the terms would not be made known until after the armistice with Italy had been arranged and might never be made known at all, suggest that the Germans may have had their doubts about acceptance.
Also, this broadcast to the United States, which of course had to be passed by the German censorship, was released more than two hours before the German government decided to inform its own people and the rest of Europe that the armistice had been signed. Whatever objections many Frenchmen may have to the terms, however, it does not appear that much effective resistance is any longer possible except on the sea and in the colonies.
The Germans claim today the remains of three French armies in Alsace and Lorraine had surrendered, a total of about half a million men. Though it is admitted in Berlin that the garrisons of some isolated parts of the Maginot Line were still holding out. The Germans also occupied the Atlantic port of Lorient and the Channel port of Saint-Malo. And the French reported that as German troops continued to advance down the Rhone Valley, the Italians, for the first time, attacked at several points and were repulsed. German informants at Compiègne told a correspondent of the International News Service that a conference for a permanent peace, not only with France, but with Belgium and the Netherlands, might be held next week, perhaps at Münster in Westphalia, where the peace of Westphalia was concluded in 1648. Annulment of the results of this treaty as well as the treaty of Versailles has recently been announced as one of the German war aims. And it was that treaty which among other things gave formal international recognition to the independence of the Netherlands.
Speculations built on Russian troop movements into the Baltic States were ridiculed tonight by the Russian official news agency TASS, which said the Russian troops on the Baltic were not a hundred or a hundred and fifty divisions as some reports have it, but only eighteen or twenty, and that they were not concentrated on the German frontier or intended for pressure on Germany. Good relations have been established between the Soviet Union and Germany, said the Russian agency, and these are based not on a passing motive of temporary character, but on the fundamental interests of the two states.
European affairs are having their echoes in Philadelphia where the Republicans are gathering for the National Convention which begins next Monday. After the first flurry of protests against the appointment of Colonels Knox and Stimson to the Roosevelt cabinet, it was said today that governor Stassen of Minnesota, the key note speaker, will praise the appointments as a needed strengthening of the administration. And Governor Landon, Chairman of the subcommittee writing the foreign policy plank of the platform, said that it would probably not be written until Germany’s peace terms to France were known.
This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.
8:55 P.M. Eastern Daylight Saving Time and Elmer Davis and the News, brought to you by the makers of Post Toasties, who are sponsoring this broadcast simply to make this brief announcement. Now, in the interest of better nutrition, and at no extra cost to you, Post Toasties have been enriched with vitamin B1, the precious vitamin, essential to abundant energy, sound nerves, and good appetite. Post Toasties are the only corn flakes containing vitamin B1.
The Democratic Convention, which opened today, is still a matter of strong probabilities, but no positive and absolute(audio glitch). It’s the practical universal expectation that the delegates will offer the President another nomination and that he will accept. But nobody knows accept possibly two or three men who aren’t telling. Secretary Hull is still understood to be the preference of the administration forces for the Vice Presidency, but since there is apparently no prospect of persuading him to take it Senator Burns of South Carolina seems most likely to be selected. Unless the delegates should revolt, as they did at the Chicago Republican Convention of 1920 after a dictated presidential nomination, and pick their own man for second place. Supporters of security administrator, Paul McNutt are making a brisk campaign for him in case the Vice Presidential field is thus thrown open.
Mr. Hull lunched at the White House today, but it was said that this was only for discussion of the Havana Conference at which he will head the American delegation. Incidentally, following the German notes to various Latin American countries, trying to discourage united action in Havana, it was reported today that some of the ablest of German diplomats from the Latin American capitals would be there as observers.
The convention formally opened at noon today with welcoming speeches from Mayor Kelley and Senator Lucas. And then adjourned until tonight when the delegates will hear from Chairman Farley and the key note speech by speaker Bankhead. The Resolutions Committee, meanwhile, has been hearing from many speakers on many topics, including William Green, President of the Federation of Labor, who said that he believed Mr. Roosevelt could ultimately solve the unemployment problem if he is pressed to deal with it. However, Mr. Green said later that this should not be construed as an expression on the third term. And Dr. Townsend threatened that if the old people of his movement could not get satisfaction on their pensions demand from the major parties, they would start their own party supported by the votes of their children.
Overseas, the unexplained delay of the attack on England which the Germans have been threatening for the past three weeks was pointed up by an editorial by the Italian Virginia O’Gaiden, who said that in a few days the preparations will have been completed and then England will have to chose between submitting to Europe’s new forces and undergoing the most violent war, end quote. This alternative seems to support the persistent rumors that a new peace offensive is going on. To which Winston Churchill may have been alluding to yesterday when he said that the British would neither make peace nor parley. Another phrase in Churchill’s speech that London would be defended, if necessary, street by street, inspired German spokesman to comments which seem to indicate that London, which has not yet been bombed, would not be treated by the Germans as an open cit….as an open city exempt from air attack. The German spokesman later denied this implication, though it is hard to see why either London or Berlin should be immune from bombing except from fear of retaliation. At any rate, the British seem much encouraged by their success in beating off the great air attack yesterday and today’s raids were on a much smaller scale, though several people were killed in Southern England.
The Germans claim that yesterday they did a good deal of damage, that three ships of moderate size were sunk in the Channel and military objectives hit at Ramsgate, Chatham, and other points in Kent.
The British Air Force again attacked in Northwestern Germany and German bases in the Netherlands last night.
Another success for the Italians in Africa. The British today admitted withdraw of their forces form Moyale a post of some importance on the border of Kenya. The Italians claim capture of the town two days ago.
Wong Ching Weh’s government in China has ordered the expulsion of six Americans from the international settlement in Shanghai. Mostly editors or publishers of newspapers, English language or Chinese language which have supported Chang Kai Shek. Meanwhile, Chinese guerillas emphasized the limitations of Japanese control of Shanghai by attacking the city tonight and fighting is still going on in the suburbs.
And that’s the news to this moment.
(end transcription)
Link and transcription provided by CougarGA7
So now Britain stands alone.
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