Another day filled with news of the war in Europe and concerns it would spread from the Far East.
At Bangkok it is reported that| 15 Japanese war ships are cruising in the Gulf of Siam. Hong Kong passengers said that last week 15 units of the Japanese fleet were seen rounding the Indo-China peninsula, south of Saigon, and heading for the gulf. The Japanese Government spokesman referred to said Japan done nothing to receive warnings from any Power as her policies, including those affecting southward regions, were entirely peaceful.
According to the Berlin correspondent of the “Yomiuri Shinbun”, Germany is watchful against Anglo-American maneuvers toward undermining the Axis. A Japanese spokesman at Shanghai declared that Britain’s moves at Singapore were part of an Anglo-American plan to strangle Japan, which would be countered with appropriate measures. The spokesman would not amplify his statement beyond hinting that Japan intended speed up her mediation in the Thai-Indo-China dispute.
And on the other side of the Atlantic – Two hospitals were damaged by direct hits during Wednesday night’s raid on London. In one, a nurse and several patients were killed. The night’s heaviest raid was directed against Swansea, where damage to houses and shops was extensive. The Air Ministry and Ministry of Home Security issued the following communiqué yesterday morning : During the early hours of last night, enemy aircraft made an attack on a town in South Wales. High-explosive bombs caused damage to a considerable number of houses and business premises, but incendiary bombs were dealt with very promptly.
None of the fires caused was serious, and all had been put out early this morning. Casualties included a number of people killed. A short attack was made on the London area, where some damage was caused. The number of casualties was small. Very few people were killed.
(The Ministry announced later in the day that the number of killed was greater than was at first thought.) Bombs also were dropped at several other places 1n the southern part of England and at one town in East Scotland. In some cases damage was done, but the total number of casualties is not large. Most of them reported from all these incidents occurred at one place in the Home Counties. All raids had ceased soon after midnight.
And from Capitol Hill – Senator Tobey (R-NH) says the “sanctity” of the ballot box is a “mockery” in New Jersey’s Hudson County. Tobey, in a 1,400-word minority report of the Senate campaign expenditures tie committee which probed voting conditions in New Jersey, asserted that an unnamed “important Washington political leader” attempted to block the investigation of “fraudulent elections” in the political stronghold of Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City. Tobey referred to the “great privilege” of the voter and “the sanctity of the ballot box.” “What a mockery is made of such preachments where, as in the Hague domain, ‘free’ voters are beaten up at the polls, and given illegal ‘assistance’ by party bosses, where floaters vote the names of dead men and the names of people long since placed in insane institutions, and when evidence which is pertinent to an investigation of fraud is burned.” The majority report of the committee is expected to be made public Monday.
And that’s just a little of what happened, this February 21, 1941 as reported by NBC’s News Of The World.
