Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the British and Canadian troops in Southwestern Holland had converged on the last two bridges affording escape for 40,000 German troops below the Meuse River, seizing without opposition Bergen op Zoom, the western anchor of the Nazis, and advancing within a mile of Roosendaal. The British had moved to within five miles of Breda following the capture of Tilburg in the middle of the so-called Breda Box.

The Germans were abandoning their positions from Schelde to Tilburg. Use of Antwerp was prevented now by only one remaining German battery, at Vlissingen on Walcheren Island.

RAF Mosquitos struck Berlin in two waves the previous night, the sixth time the city had been hit during October. Other RAF bombers struck German positions guarding the Schelde Estuary on Walcheren Island.

American heavy bombers, albeit numbering only 350 with 200 fighter escorts, one of the lightest of raids since D-Day, struck Hamm and Munster in Germany.

In Italy, continuing rain kept the Fifth Army pinned down eight miles below Bologna, and the Eighth Army on the Adriatic front stuck two miles east of Forli.

The Russians continued their advance in Czechoslovakia after the capture of Umgvar and taking of Ruthenia, now moving into Slovakia. Twenty-five miles north of Umgvar, General Ivan Petrov's Army moved six miles into the region, capturing Starina in the Ciroka Valley, nine miles northwest of Ulic. They were driving toward the isolated Czech patriot forces at Banska Bystrica, 140 miles to the west.

Bulgaria had accepted Allied armistice terms, not yet specified.

The Russians and Yugoslav Partisans of Marshal Tito had captured Ruma, 45 miles northwest of Belgrade.

In the Far East India-Burma-China theater, General Joseph Stilwell had been relieved of his command. It was not yet reported, but it had come at his own request from frustration at not receiving in his estimate enough men and equipment to wage the battle properly. He had complained previously to British General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, Allied commander of the Mediterranean forces.

The report indicated that General Stilwell would be provided a new assignment by the War Department stateside. The War Department gave as only explanation the decision to cut the theater into two smaller commands. Maj. General A. C. Wedemeyer and Lt. General Daniel Sultan would succeed General Stilwell in his three previous command positions.

Observers speculated that the recall was to punish Chiang Kai-shek for not shaping the Chinese Army into a formidable fighting force. He was being urged to use the Chinese Communists in the North, but had thus far refused.

General Stilwell had accomplished his role of clearing Japanese forces from northeastern India and taking Northern Burma to permit re-establishment of the connection between the Indian supply route along the Ledo Road to the northern Burma Road into China, the road to be opened in late December.

In China, the Japanese launched an offensive against Kweilin in the northern Kwangsi Province. The enemy also advanced six miles west of Pingnam, 115 miles south of Kweilin.

To the southwest, another Japanese offensive was underway against the American base at Liuchow, 95 miles from Kweilin, while a second column drove toward the base from the southeast.

In Fukien Province, Japanese forces on the China East Coast had advanced six miles west of the Japanese captured seaport of Foochow.

In the Pacific, the number of Japanese ships either sunk or crippled in the engagement at Leyte Gulf and during their escape had been estimated now by Rear Admiral Forrest Sherman, chief of staff of the Pacific Fleet, to be as many as 40, as American planes continued in hot pursuit from the South China Sea to the Sulu Sea. This number added 13 ships to the previously announced total of 27.

Meanwhile, the Japanese contended that fully 34 American carriers of the 60 to 70 at sea in the Pacific had been lost off Formosa and the Philippines. Stay tuned for more dramatic revelations.

General MacArthur announced that American forces now had complete control of Samar Island, fifteen miles from Luzon. All airdromes on Leyte were also in American possession. The Japanese had suffered 14,000 killed or wounded thus far in the action on Leyte.

Associated Press correspondent Russell Brines reports that Rear Admiral Jesse Oldendorf stated that Navy forces under his command operating in the Surigao Straits, connecting the Bohol Sea with Leyte Gulf, had "crossed the T" of the Japanese Fleet, meaning that they had crossed the enemy approach at right angles, enabling elimination of the lead ships and concentration on ships along the stem of the T while the approaching enemy Fleet had only access to American ships from its lead ships, the ships further down the line being too far out of range to fire upon the American ships.

The maneuver had been invented by the British in the eighteenth century and had been used twice successfully by Admiral John R. Jellicoe in the Battle of Jutland in World War I. Japanese Admiral Togo had successfully used the maneuver against the Russians in the Straits of Tsushima in 1905 in the Russo-Japanese War.

On the editorial page, "Parallel" finds more than slight hyperbole in the suggestion by the CIO PAC that the Republicans and Nazis were both campaigning together against the re-election of the President for the fact of similar rhetoric being used by the Nazis from 1942 when compared to statements of Thomas Dewey, Herbert Hoover, and others in the current Republican campaign.

"Miscellany" examines the cotton industry of the South through some labor statistics, comparing Southern textile workers unfavorably in wages and hours to textile industry workers of the North. In April, 1944, the differential in take-home pay was $22.65 per week for the Southern worker versus $31.03 for the Northern worker. There was a higher wage generally being paid throughout the industry than two years earlier but there was more overtime being worked in the North than the South. This latter difference was the principal factor responsible for the differential in rates of pay.

"Old Story" reports that a two-week campaign against vice in Charlotte had eclipsed all previous records for arrests, with 91 women having been taken into custody on charges of prostitution. Venereal disease was more prevalent among the black arrestees, 36 of the 50 being infected, whereas only ten of the 41 white women were carriers of syphilis. Doctors tended to agree that the problem of venereal disease among Southern blacks had no ready solution, this on the cusp of a time before the widespread use of penicillin.

"New Peril" reports of a new post-war land boom on the horizon, similar to that in 1920-21 after World War I, which then led directly to record foreclosures in 1931-32.

Dorothy Thompson examines the first enunciation by President Roosevelt in his speech on foreign relations a week earlier anent the terms of peace to be mandated of Germany. They included complete liquidation of the Nazi Party apparatus, complete disarmament, and punishment of those directly responsible for "this agony of mankind". The President also made clear that the Allies intended no enslavement or wholesale punishment of the German people.

Marquis Childs, in Des Moines, reports of the nearly unprecedented prosperity being enjoyed by Iowa farmers. Nevertheless, they intended to vote more heavily Republican than in 1940, having split about 50-50 in the earlier election. It was predicted that the proportion in 1944 would be 55-45 for the Republicans, the small towns heavily favoring Governor Dewey.

Samuel Grafton comments on telegrams sent to Governor Dewey by Republican House Minority Leader Joe Martin of Massachusetts and acting Senate Republican Leader Wallace White. They had expressed their intention of providing full support to the Governor and his plans for international cooperation in effecting world peace when he became President.

Drew Pearson provides some behind the scenes information from the recently concluded Moscow Conference between Prime Minister Churchill and Premier Stalin, indicating that Stalin had been blunt in his demands for Russian territorial determination and security of its borders, that it should be surrounded by strong and friendly states. Generally, Churchill appears to have agreed to this principle. Both men were enthusiastic in their reception of one another with Stalin providing heavy praise to the diplomats who had worked at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in Georgetown in August and September.

When they had departed Tehran in December, says Mr. Pearson, Mr. Churchill had reportedly said, "Well, goodbye Marshal. I'll see you in Berlin." Stalin had then responded, "Yes, I in a tank, you in a Pullman car."