Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that General Patton had been buried near Luxembourg this date beside a private of his Third Army, along with 6,000 men who had lost their lives during the Battle of the Bulge a year earlier. The men among whom he was buried had been laid to earth the previous December on a foggy day in rain and wind through the Ardennes, just as it was described as being this day. The General's body was transported on a special train from Heidelberg. A second train brought Mrs. Patton, ten generals and two colonels who acted as pallbearers.

Some 50,000 American homes across the country were deferring their big Christmas dinner until delayed veterans could return home, expected within a few days. Some of the soldiers had been delayed by storms at sea, others by weekend holiday traffic, complicated by freezing weather and slick highways over much of the nation. The Bay Area of San Francisco held 41,000 recently arrived troops. Homes in the area would be open to the temporarily stranded in transit sailors and soldiers during Christmas.

A piece states that the Jig-19 code-breaking of the Navy, involving the decoding of the Japanese Purple diplomatic code and other such codes, had been compromised by the testimony during the Congressional investigation of Pearl Harbor, in testimony provided by Captain L. F. Safford, formerly in charge of the Communications Division of ONI.

Senator Scott Lucas of Illinois stated that he believed irreparable damage had been done to U.S. intelligence by revelation of this code cracking, prompting the nations to change their codes.

A temporary truce for the holidays was called in the G.M. strike so that UAW workers could be with their families. The UAW and G.M. would meet again Wednesday to try to iron out differences. The Government had promised further intervention if the strike were not soon settled. The UAW would meet with newly formed Kaiser-Frazer on Thursday. Ford was not scheduled to meet again with the union until January 8.

Pope Pius XII welcomed the first Christmas in eight years without active warfare in the world and provided his blessings, welcoming new cardinals, thirty-two having been appointed to the College of Cardinals by the Vatican, including four from the United States. The College now totaled 70 cardinals, the number having been reduced and not filled during the war. The American members were Cardinals Francis Spellman of New York, John Glennon of St. Louis, Samuel Stritch of Chicago, and Edward Mooney of Detroit. The only living American Cardinal at that point had been Dennis Dougherty of Philadelphia. The U.S. complement of five cardinals was the largest the country had ever had, previously having no more than four. Of the 70 cardinals, 28 were Italian, only four of whom being among the new members.

The final tally on the Empty Stocking Fund of The News, as reported faithfully throughout the holiday season by Freck Sproles, was a whopping $7,008.53, an increase of over $400 on the last day of the drive, and more than $1,000 over the original goal set, necessary to afford a nice Christmas for needy children of Charlotte.

We sincerely hope that the children of Newtown, Connecticut can put behind the recent tragedy they experienced and have some semblance of a hopeful Christmas.

We always recall the very tragic Christmas of 1960 for New York City, another terrible event which touched the nation just before the holidays when, on December 16, two airliners collided over the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, killing all aboard, save one. The photograph of the sole survivor, a little boy ten years old, which appeared nationwide, showing him burned, yet still alive in the rubble, is forever etched in our memory. He didn't make it. But keeping in mind such memories, that there is no perfect world and never has been, is a way of moving forward without fear. We all die sooner or later. The living have to go forward, without forgetting their fallen friends.

We had a Christmas in 1960, but we could not forget the crash, the descriptions in the newspaper and the photograph of the small boy. "Guardo El Lobo", whenever we hear it, brings back that Christmas, even though this version of the medieval song was not released until some six months after the plane crash in Brooklyn. Why we associate the two, besides a rough temporal connection, we could not readily explain. We understood at the time not a word of Spanish. We could swear that we had heard it being played during December, 1960, but we are, undoubtedly, in error.

We recommend to any child who was touched in some manner by the tragedy in Connecticut to find a song which will softly remind you, in years to come, of this tragic December, and then you won't forget, but, by equal measures, you will not morbidly dwell upon it in fear either. Poetry, we venture, perhaps incomprehensible poetry of the moment, is the best anodyne to tragedy, and sometimes the best explainer to you in later years of that tragedy.

The editorial page of the newspaper for this date is not available and The News did not publish on Christmas Day this year for the first time since 1940.

So we wish you a happy holiday and the First Day of Christmas.

Since we still owe Saturday, we will supply that for you tomorrow, and then we are back up to date for the first time since we got a little behind shortly before Thanksgiving.