three fleets, and also for all other seagoing forces of the Navy. -The U. S. War Department combined the Departments of Puerto Rico and the Panama Canal Zone and the Trinidad base command into the Caribbean Defense Command, with headquarters at Panama. Jan. 9-In the midst of a German air raid, Harry L. Hopkins, special and personal envoy of President Roosevelt to Britain, arrived in London by train from a Channel port. He had crossed the Atlantic by plane. -British planes raided Messina, Italy. -The "Free French" submarine Narval has been sunk "by enemy action." It was the first unit of the French Navy to rally to the cause of Gen. Charles de Gaulle. -German planes made a fire-bomb attack on Jan. 20-In Africa, the Italians continued their re- Jan. 21-In Parliament' Labor Minister Ernest Bevin announced that the British Government had decided to register working men and women for drafting into war factories. -The United States removed the "moral embargo" ban on exports to Russia of planes, parts and aviation gasoline, which dated from Dec. 2, 1939, when the Russians were fighting Finland. Jan. 10 German and Italian planes attacked a British fleet in the eastern Mediterranean, sinking the cruiser, Southampton, and damaging the aircraft carrier Illustrious, the battleship Malaya.-Col. William J. Donovan has arrived at Sofia, German planes and the destroyer Gallant. raided Portsmouth, England. British planes made a mass attack on Brest. Jan. 11-The Italians evacuated Klisura in Albania. British planes bombed Turin; German planes showered incendiary shells on London. American fighter planes were reported in action on the British front for the first time. Jan. 13-Sub-zero cold in Albania and sand storms in Libya stopped war activities in those areas. Britain and Germany made the usual reprisal air raids. Dusseldorf and Liverpool were the chief sufferers. Jan. 14-The siege of Tobruk by the Australians Jan. 15-Bombing planes made in the United -London ordered compulsory evacuation of ill or -Marshal Petain of France appealed to the United -Harry L. Hopkins spoke at a public meeting in -President Roosevelt stated, as to his powers under the "lend-lease" bill, that he did not -In Africa the Italians abandoned Kassala, on Bulgaria, in his swing around Europe as one of Jan. 22-Prime Minister Churchill assured the -In Central Albania a Greek bomb dislodged a -The Admiralty disclosed that the Mediterranean Jan. 23-In opposing the "lend-lease" bill, Col. Jan. 24-In Rumania a four-day rebellion by a faction in the Iron Guard resulted in the setting up by Premier Ion Antonescu of a new military regime with orders for reprisals. A communique announced the death penalty for all persons possessing hidden machine guns unless the weapons were surrendered within 24 hours. Army control was extended over 52 additional industries, including the Malaxa arms plants. -London reported that the British submarine Parthian had torpedoed and sunk a 7,000-ton Italian supply ship south of Italy. -Marshal Petain announced in Vichy the formation of a new advisory council of 188 to be drawn from all walks of French life and to sit only when called by the Chief of State. Jan. 25-The Italian High Command reported sink- Jan. 26 Rome announced an air raid in "military Marshal Petain decreed all French Ministers and -Suppression of the Daily Worker, Communist newspaper, was approved, 297 to 11, by the House of Commons. Jan. 29-Gen. John Metaxas, 70, Premier of Greece and head of the military defense against Italian forces, died and was succeeded by Alexander Korizis. -In Britain, by royal proclamation, the age level of those liable for military service was dropped from 19 to 18 and raised from 37 to 40. At the same time Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labor, laid plans to draft into industry men and women, especially the latter, who for one reason or another, cannot bear arms. -In St. John, Newfoundland, 1,000 U. S. troops, the first to make the trip to guard the U. S. base, arrived on a transport from Brooklyn. Jan. 30 Chancellor Hitler, in a broadcast speech in Berlin on the eighth anniversary of "seizure of power" by the National Socialist party, said: "Whoever believes he will be able to help the English must definitely know one thing: Every ship, whether with or without a convoy, that comes before our torpedo tubes will be torpedoed." As to the British, he said: "What do they hope for? Outside help? America? I can only say one thing: We have taken every possibility into our calculations since the beginning. Every one who does not wish to distort the truth and who claims the opposite knows that the German people have nothing against the American people. Germany has never had interests on the American continent unless it be that she fought along with this continent for its freedom." -A Dutch submarine and a British trawler were officially reported sunk. at --Derna, in Libya, was captured by British forces. -There were British and German retaliatory air raids. In London they were experienced by Mr. Willkie and Mr. Hopkins. -The formation of a new political group called the Afrikaaner party, to follow the outlines of Gen. Hertzog's anti-war policy, was announced Cape Town, capital of South Africa. This led to rioting at Johannesburg, where there are many of Dutch and German descent. Jan. 31-Anti-aircraft guns shot up a Dornier (German) "flying pencil" bomber plane, as Wendell L. Willkie stood and watched on the arm of a jetty at Dover, on the English Channel, 20 miles across from German-occupied France. He wore white steel helmet Prime Minister Churchill had given him. -A 10,000-ton British ship was sunk at Bardia by German planes. a 1941-FEBRUARY Feb. 1-The official Gazette in Rome published an order including the Italian islands between Sicily and North Africa in the zone of war operationsPantelleria, site of an Italian air base, and the three Pelage islands, Linosa, Lampedusa and Lampione. -In Washington, Secretary of the Navy Knox told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee it would take "about five or six years" to complete the Navy's present national defense preparations. --German planes began raids on British sea communications along the Egyptian and Libyan coasts, bombed Solum and Bardia. Feb. 2-Wendell L. Willkie explored the ruins of Coventry, England, where German planes, according to a radio broadcast by Joseph P. Kennedy, late U. S. Ambassador at London, destroyed a city in one day. Willkie visited also Birmingham, a cotton textile center, which had been repeatedly bombed. -British planes attacked docks at Brest, Boulogne and Ostend. -British planes from the Mediterranean fleet dropped bombs on the Tirso Dam on the Italian island of Sardinia. Feb. 3-Cheering crowds greeted Wendell L. Willkie in Liverpool. In Manchester, students of the university paraded outside his hotel with a broken down Ford towing a horse cab, in which and on which the students' band was performing. Feb. 4-Wendell L. Willkie flew from London to Dublin and talked with Premier Eamon de Valera. --Italian forces quit Cyrene, the ancient Greek "Athens of Africa" in Libya, and Australian and New Zealand troops moved in. On -British planes made their 35th raid on Brest, French sea base held by Germans. Feb. 5-After a daylight survey of the wreckage caused at Bristol by German planes, Wendell L. Willkie left England by plane for Lisbon. the way the pilot received wireless orders to enter the clouds and fly blind at a certain stage of the journey. On leaving London he gave out a message for broadcasting, referring to his German antecedents and his pride therein, adding: "I hate aggression and tyranny. Tell the German people that my convictions are shared to the full by the overwhelming majority of my fellow countrymen of German descent. They, too, believe in freedom and in human rights. Tell the German people that free German-Americans reject and hate the aggression and lust for power of the present German government." Feb. 6-Col. Charles A. Lindbergh reiterated to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations what he had said to the corresponding committee of the House, in opposition to the President's "Lend-Lease" bill-namely: "I'm against appeasement, but I am more opposed to an unnecessary war. I'm opposed to buying time by spending British blood. I oppose aid to England that would weaken us or carry us into war. I don't believe the United States can or should police the world. We are not changing the trend of the war by sending Britain aid-we're just prolonging it. Every nation that has depended on another nation for defense has failed. I don't believe the Germans think they can come over here, but if they tried, I believe in war to the uttermost." -Secretary of the Navy Knox announced that the British aircraft carrier Illustrious, surviving Axis air attacks that had cost her about 80 men killed and 20 bombing planes destroyed in one direct hit by a 1,000-lb bomb, had arrived at Alexandria, Egypt, under her own power from Malta. Feb. 7-Still hurrying westward on the desert track south of the Jebel el-Achdar mountain range, Australian troops in Libya, preceded by British tanks, seized Benghazi, having cut the road from there to Tripoli. Among the Italian prisoners was Gen. Annibale Bergonzoli ("Electric Whiskers') who had escaped when Bardia fell. He had been a corps commander. Feb. 8-Denmark has turned over ten of her torpedo boats to Germany. The Province of CobliezTrier on the Upper Moselle River, opposite the former Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, has been renamed Moselland by a decree of Hitler. Feb. 9A fleet of British warships, including the Malaya, the Renown and the Sheffield, threw 300 tons of shells on Genoa, Italy. The Ark Royal attacked Leghorn and Pisa. -Prime Minister Churchill, in a radio broadcast. declared Britain did not need American troops but only money, ships, planes, munitions. "Give us the tools and we'll finish the job," he said. -Wendell L. Willkie returned to New York from England, by way of Lisbon, Bolama (Portuguese Guinea), Port of Spain (Trinidad, and San Juan, Puerto Rico). -In France, Admiral Jean Darlan became Vice Premier and Foreign Minister in addition to retaining his Navy portfolio. In the Foreign Office he succeeded Pierre-Etienne Flandin, who resigned. -German planes raided Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. In Feb. 10-Great Britain severed diplomatic relations with Rumania because it was charged Germany was assembling an expeditionary force there. In Bucharest blackouts were made permanent. Bulgaria train services were further reduced. In Sofia diplomatic quarters said Russia had notified Bulgaria that Russia would not interfere if Germany marched across Bulgaria to get to Greece or Turkey. -Marshal Petain, in a Constitutional Act, named Admiral Jean Darlan his successor as Chief of State in case of death or disability. Laval held a similar position until he was ousted last Dec. 13, as Vice-Premier and Foreign Minister. -British forces occupied the Red Sea port of Mersa Taclaí in Eritrea. -The U. S. House passed a bill raising the national debt limit to $65,000,000,000. Feb. 11-Wendell L. Willkie told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that this country should send all its bombing planes, except those needed for training, and five to ten destroyers a month to England. -The British Home Fleet shelled Ostend from a distance of ten to fifteen miles. British planes raided Hanover and Calais, German planes shelled the English east coast, Malta and one port on the Cyrenaica coast, and, it also was claimed, sank two merchant ships in the Suez Canal. -Foreign diplomats are forbidden to leave Rome without a permit. -British forces took Afmadu in Italian Somaliland. Feb. 12-Italy asked the U. S. to shift the latter's consuls in Italy from Palermo and Naples "to a place as far north as Rome or farther north and to a place which was not on the sea coast." This was done and the supervisory consulate general of the United States in Italy was established in Rome. On March 6, Mr. Hull requested that Italy close her consulates in Newark, N. J., and Detroit, Mich. This was done later. -In the Atlantic, 500 miles west by south of Lisbon and 190 miles due east of St. Maria Island, Azores, German warships attacked a British convoy bound for England. The Germans said they sank 13 of the 14, leaving one to pick up survivors. London said only six were sunk. Feb. 13-The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 15 to 8, reported favorable an amended version of the administration Lend-Lease bill which the House passed on Feb. 8. -Among the ships hit by German plane bombs were an armed 12,000-ton merchant liner 310 miles west of the Hebrides; two cargo boats off the mouth of the Humber, east of England; two armed freighters, northwest of Ireland; two cargo ships, southeast of Harwich. bridges across the Danube between Rumania and Bulgaria-one at a point between Giurgiu and Ruschuk. Danubian traffic along a front of about 60 miles between these ports has been suspended. Feb. 14-Premier Dragisha Cvetkovitch of Yugo--German army engineers are building pontoon slavia, and Dr. Alexander Cincar-Markovitch, his Foreign Minister, conferred today with Reichsfuehrer Hitler and Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in Berchtesgaden. -The U. S. Senate approved the bill raising the national debt limit to $65,000,000,000. President Roosevelt signed the Act Feb. 19. -In Italian Somaliland, British forces took Kismayu. Feb. 21-German troops crossed from occupied France into Spain at the invitation of the Spanish Foreign Minister to give assistance to the stricken population of Santander, which was devastated by hurricane and fire. -Retaliatory raids were made again by German planes in the south of Wales. British planes raided the Channel ports and also Italian posts in Africa. Feb. 15-Kurmuk, in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, just west of the border, in the Blue Nile region, was evacuated by the Italian forces. -Rhodes, Crete and Malta are daily objects of retaliatory raids, also the Channel coasts. Feb. 16-Harry L. Hopkins returned to New York from England and Africa by airplane and went thence by train to Washington, where he told the President what he had seen and heard in his four-week survey of war conditions in Eng--The British Admiralty announced that 150,000 land. He said the British are "desperately in need of help." -The British Government announced that, in defense of Singapore, an area of 80 by 50 miles, covering part of the eastern coast of the Malay Peninsula near the southern tip and several islets in that vicinity, would be mined without further notice. Feb. 17-In Sofia and Ankara an official Turkish- -Eight Ministers or Under-secretaries have left -In Tokio, Kohishii, the government official spokesman, in a public statement said: "Japan is fully prepared to act as mediator and to take whatever action is calculated to recover normal conditions not only in Greater East Asia but anywhere in the world. Leading powers have a great responsibility of restoring world peace and civilization. Such a responsibility can be fulfilled only by a wise and generous statesmanship willing to listen to other claims and contentions. That same day the Japanese Government officially offered, in a note to London, to mediate among the belligerents. The offer was declined. Feb. 18-Australian troops debarked in Singapore. The Japanese were reinforcing naval units in the Gulf of Siam after having strengthened their bases in Hainan, in Formosa and in Northern Indo-China. -By & Presidential order, American air and sea bases in the Pacific and the Alaska and Caribbean regions are to be isolated as naval defense areas. -Planes again raided the Suez Canal and Malta. -Guerrilla activities by the natives in Ethiopia have forced the Italians to evacuate Danghela and other points south of Lake Tana in the Gojjam area, of Ethiopia, the British announced. -A denial at the Vatican "that the Holy Father blessed the arms of a single nation" refers to a visit that German and Italian soldiers paid to the Vatican, when they were blessed by the Pontiff. This was done, not because they were soldiers, it was stated, but because they were Catholic individuals. The Pope would bless any soldier of any nation who came to him as an individual. Feb. 19 The U. S. House passed a bill authorizing the spending of $245,228,500 in expansion of naval bases at Guam, Tuluila (Samoa); Pearl Harbor and Kaneche Bay (Hawaii); Midway and Wake Islands; all the bases in Alaska and the Canal Zone; and so that the leased bases in New Foundland, Bermuda, Trinidad, British Gulana, Jamaica, Antigua, St. Lucia and the Bahamas can be completed. -In Italian Somaliland, British-Australian forces crossed the Juba River. In southern Ethiopia they captured Mega. Feb. 20-President Roosevelt appointed a Production Planning Board and put Harry L. Hopkins on it. Feb. 22-The German High Command announced that a Canadian freighter, the Canadian Cruiser, had been sunk in the Indian Ocean, while the United States flag was painted on her side. square miles of the Central Mediterranean was "dangerous to shipping." -The German air force resumed daylight raids on London and Wales. Feb. 23-According to Premier Mussolini, 14,000 officers and 396,358 soldiers of two army corpsthe Fifth and the Tenth-including ten divisions of Italians and Libyans, had made up the Italian forces. There were 1,924 cannon of all sizes, many of the most recent models; 15,386 machine guns, 11,000,000 rounds of shells, 1,344,287,275 rounds of small arm amunition, 127,877 tons of other materials, 779 tanks, some of them heavy; 9,584 trucks and 4,809 motor cycles. At present Italy has about 2,000,000 men under arms. Feb. 24-Chancellor Hitler, in a radio broadcast in Munich before the National Socialist Old Guard announced, on the authority of Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, that, of 215,000 tons of enemy shipping destroyed in the last two days, German submarines had sunk 190,000 tons, including a British convoy of 125,000 tons. "I can mobilize half of Europe and will so do," Hitler said. Britain said her ship losses for the week were 37,635 tons. -In Eritrea, British forces advanced toward Cubcub; in Ethiopia they neared Amanit; in Italian Somaliland, after taking Jelif, they spread east of the River Juba. British planes, using Aden as a base, bombed Adis Ababa. -The first fight in Libya between German and British mechanized forces occurred southeast of Agedabia, near the farthest point reached by the British advance from Egypt toward Tripoli; Berlin claimed a victory. -The U. S. Government, by executive order, took priority control of production of aluminum and machine tools. Warning also was given that U. S. submarines were operating northeast of Block Island. Feb. 25-The President proclaimed aircraft pilot trainers, beryllium and graphite electrodes under the export licensing system immediately. Pilot trainers were defined as "trainers for ground instruction of pilots, student pilots and combat crews for aircraft in instrument flying, navigation, bombing or gunnery." Also, by his order, effective March 10, he adds to the list for which export licenses must be obtained, belladonna, atropine, sole leather and belting leather "in the interest of national defense." -On the Somaliland coast, British forces took Brava. -German planes raided Harwich, Ipswich, Exmouth and the London docks. The air attacks were concentrated on the key points of British trade routes and ports, including Bristol and Hull. British planes bombed ports in Germany, occupied France and elsewhere on the Channel The Germans are also increasing their use of submarines in the more open seas. It is estimated they now have more than 200. Those dating from the war's start range from 250 to 740 tons, but larger ones are coming into use week by week. -The British destroyer, Exmoor, was sunk by a German speed boat. Feb. 26-The British announced capture of Mogadiscio, capital of Italian Somaliland. Feb. 27-Commons gave Prime Minister Churchill an unanimous vote of confidence in passing a bill to permit members who are sent to posts abroad for "the duration" to retain their parliamentary seats. Affected especially are Malcolm MacDonald, the new High Commissioner to Canada, and in lesser measure the Ambassadors in Madrid and Moscow, Sir Samuel Hoare and Sir Stafford Cripps, respectively. Feb. 28-A Greek General Headquarters communique stated that "British bombers shot down more than 30 Italian machines." -The British Government ordered all experienced shipbuilders not now employed in shipbuilding to register for "national service" in the industry. 1941-MARCH March 1-In Chancellor Hitler's presence, in the March 2-The Turkish Navy Ministry announced March 3-Soviet Russia, in a formal note to Bulgaria which was officially broadcast to the world from Moscow, said the agreement for the military occupation of that country by Germany had been without Russia's knowledge or consent; moreover, it would extend the sphere of warfare, involving Bulgaria therein; furthermore, "the Soviet government, true to its policy of peace, cannot render any support to the Bulgarian government in the application of its present policy." The British Legation staff began to depart from Sofia. -British forces took Abruzzi, 80 miles northeast of Mogadiscio, in Italian Somaliland. British headquarters in Cairo announced that 16 Axis bombers and fighter planes had been shot down over Malta during attack on that base by more than 100 aircraft. March 6-German forces advancing through Bulgaria reached the Greek border along the Struma and Maritza rivers and at several points in the Rhodope Mountains. March 7-Britain announced that all Italian troops had been driven from Italian Somaliland; 12 Axis merchant ships had been seized or destroyed in the Somali ports of Mogadiscio and Kismayu. -British planes raided the Nazi-held Netherland -The U. S. Senate, 60 to 31, passed the "Lend- -A London night club was hit by a bomb in a March 9-The armed Italian merchant ship Ramb -British troops took Dagabur, 400 miles north of Darlan stated that France has received from March 4-The British Cabinet announced in Par--Speaking for the Vichy Government. Admiral liament that 50 industries would be required to concentrate their manufacturing in a few plants and turn over all the others and their labor to war work. The industries affected, such as hosiery, pottery, the major textile industries, shoes, gloves, corsets, furniture, gramophones and many others unessential to the war, already are operating under production limitations and the rationing of war materials. -To the United States export control list, effective March 10, were added cadmium, carbon black, cocoanut oil, copra, cresylic acid and cresols. fatty acids produced from vegetable oils under export control, glycerin, palm-kernel oil and palm kernels, pine oil, petroleum coke, shellac and titanium. Effective March 24 there also will be added jute, lead, borax and phosphates The proclamation regarding plans becomes effective April 15. -Retaliatory air raids are made daily (mostly nightly) by British and German planes, in Britain, the Channel area, Germany and Italy. -King George was host at the Palace in London to Col. W. J. Donovan and Gen. Charles de Gaulle. -British war craft shelled an island in the March 5-Panama announced it had agreed to -A native uprising in Ethiopia led to the capture -In Sofia, George W. Rendel, the British Minister, The -Gibraltar was bombed by one plane; and several atacked the Suez Canal where, the Germans say, tra hic has been paralyzed by ships sunk in the Channel. Malta and London also were raided. British planes concentrated on Cologne and Tripoli. -Air Secretary Sinclair told Commons that Britain March 12-In unoccupied France. factories are -In Ethiopia, native forces under British leadership took the Italian base at Iavello. -British planes bombed the Island of Rhodes, for the third night. Crete's naval base was shelled by Italian fliers. March 14-The U. S. House passed the $3,446,585,144 Navy supply bill for 1942 and sent the measure to the Senate. -German planes that raided English cities observed that they were met by enemy fliers equipped with searchlights, also "beacon fires" on the ground, set to deceive. At Plymouth, they dropped a bomb on a famous beauty spot-the Hoe where Sir Francis Drake played bowls while he awaited the time to attack the Spanish Armada. -The Norwegian freighter Benjamin Franklin, carrying several $100,000 Douglas bombers and a cargo of foodstuffs from Los Angeles, has been sunk off the British coast by a German torpedo with the loss of 31 lives. United States the "storehouse and arsenal of democracy"; 231 Democrats, combined with 104 Republicans and 1 Farmer-Laborite for the bill, with 45 Republicans, six Democrats, three Progressives and only one American-Labor member against it. The bill was passed by the Senate and was flown by plane, on March 25, to the President, who was on a navy ship on a fishing cruise cff Florida. March 20-German air raiders shelled Plymouth and eight districts in Greater London; British airmen attacked Cologne and the submarine base at Lorient. -Fighting in Marda Pass, along a winding mountain road, was reported by British headquarters at Nairobi, Kenya. British patrols were said to have made their first contact with the Italians about eight or ten miles west of Jijiga. In Libya, Tripoli harbor was attacked by British planes. -The 31,100-ton battleship Malaya, escorting a convoy, was pierced near the waterline in midAtlantic by a German submarine torpedo; a boiler was put out of commission. March 21-German planes attacked Plymouth and London, also the port of Clacton-on-sea. communique added: "Submarines operating off the West African coast sank 69,000 tons of shipping space out of a strongly protected convoy headed toward England." The March 15-President Roosevelt in a world-wide broadcast (short-waved in English, German, Italian, French, Turkish, Greek, Norwegian, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Albanian, Serbian, Czech and Slovak) declared that aid to the "embattled" democracies "would be increased and yet increased until total victory has been won." To Britain and Greece the President pledged ships, planes, food, guns, tanks, ammunition and supplies" of all kinds. To China heThe British announced capture of Jarabub (an said that aid would come. -The next day (March 16) Chancellor Hitler, in the Arsenal Museum, Berlin, in a talk to a gathering of naval and army, government and party leaders, said: "No power and no support coming from any part of the world will change the outcome of this battle in any respect. England will fall. The everlasting Providence will not give victory to him who, merely with the object of ruling through his gold, is willing to spill the blood of men." March 16 The British Labor Minister, Ernest Bevin, announced drafting girls 20 to 21 and men of 41 to 45 for work in war industries. -Belgrade reported the landing in Greece of a new division of British troops. On the Albanian front fighting slackened. -In Italian East Africa, British forces advancing north from Italian Somaliland neared the town of Jijiga, outpost protecting the Addis AbabaJibuti railway. -A British Treasury spokesman announced the sale of the $100,000,000 British-owned Viscose Corporation, producer of rayon thread, to an American syndicate to obtain dollar exchange for the purchase of munitions. -A German mass air raid on Bristol caused civilian fatalities, and other damage. March 17-The port of Berbera British Somaliland was recovered from the Italians. English bombers raided Eastern Ethiopia and Tripolitania in North Africa. British forces besieging Cheren took new heights on the outskirts of the town. -In Europe, reprisal air attacks went on as usual with the customary declarations from both sides in the conflict, emphasizing the civilian fatalities and minimizing military damage. -The U. S. State Department was notified by the British Ambassador that a German submarine was attacking enemy ships off Southern Greenland, within the 300-mile U. S. neutrality zone. March 18 In London, at the Pilgrims luncheon, Prime Minister Churchill said to U. S. Ambassador John G. Winant: "Not only German U-boats but German battle cruisers have crossed to the American side of the Atlantic and have already sunk some of our independently routed ships not sailing in convoy," adding "they have sunk ships as far west as the 42nd meridian of longitude." -The fighting between British and Italian forces around Cheren, in Eritrea has resulted in the death of Gen. Orlando Lorenzini. March 19--German planes made a six-hour attack on London. Hull also was raided again. British aircraft shelled the German naval bases of Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, the petroleum stores at Rotterdam, the docks at Emden, and the airfields in the Netherlands. -President Roosevelt formed a National Defense Mediation Board of 11 members to mediate strikes involving defense industries when SO requested by the conciliation service of the Department of Labor. The new group headed by the Selective Service Director, Clarence Dykstra, includes three members representing the general public, four for union labor and four for employer groups. -The U. S. House, 337 to 55, passed and sent to the Senate the $7,000,000,000 appropriation bill recommended by President Roosevelt to implement the aid-to-Britain program and make the oasis in Eastern Libya), and Hargeisa, in Somaliland. -In Yugoslavia, opposition to the proposed proAxis pact caused the resignation from the Cabinet of Mikhail Konstantinovitch, Minister of Justice; Dr. Srdjan Budisavljevitch, Minister of Social Welfare, and Dr. Branko Chubrilovitch, Minister of Agriculture. March 22-The German High Command reported that its battleship squadron in the North Atlantic (this is the first news of such a squadron in that part of the world) has sunk 22 armed mechantmen totaling 116,000 tons bound for England involving the saving of 800 suvivors of the crews. The squadron, under command of Admiral Luetzen, is said to include the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau. The High Command also stated that the previously reported attack by German submarines on a British convoy off the West African Coast had lasted for several days and had resulted in 11 ships of 77,000 tons being sunk from the convoy. The submarines followed the convoy for several days and attacked it repeatedly. The convoys do not stop when assailed, but keep right on going, leaving the accompanying warships to pick up survivors. March 23-British planes raided Berlin. When they had gone the German Army's "der Tag" was celebrated, in a blizzard; 100,000 persons gathered and cheered the Compiegne armistice car which was hauled through the Brandenburg Gate and down Unter den Linden by a company of sappers and placed in a corner of the Lustgarten, where it remained throughout the day. March 24-The U. S. Senate, 67 to 9, passed, after less than two hours discussion, the $7,000,000,000 appropriation which President Roosevelt had requested for the financing of Britain and her allies. The Senate approved also legislation authorizing the Federal Housing Administration to insure up to $100,000,000 worth of housing mortgages certified as essential to accommodate workers in defense industries. It would create a revolving fund to be started by a loan of $10,000,000 from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, out of which the FHA would insure mortgages, up to 90 per cent of the principal, in areas which have become overcrowded by the establishment of defense works. -British planes shelled German troops on parade in Cherbourg; they had dropped on Berlin 10,000 incendiary bombs, and many heavy explosives. -German air attacks have blasted the roof and walls of the ancient All Hallows Church, Tower Hill, London. -Carrying 480 soldiers and other passengers, the 8,799-ton steamer, Britannia, was sunk by a German warship 500 miles off the African coast: there were 77 survivors, Many others were seized by sharks. March 25-Yugoslavia joined the Axis, when, in the Belvedere Palace, Vienna, in Chancellor Hitler ́s presence, Premier Dragisha Cvetkovitch and Foreign Minister Alexander Cincar-Markovitch, as representatives of the Belgrade government, signed a protocol of adherence to the Tripartite Pact. This protocol is identical in content with those signed previously by Hungary, Rumania, Slovakia and Bulgaria. Germany and Italy. however, delivered notes of identical text to the Yugoslav Government declaring, first that the |