Current Events March 22, 1944;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY MARCH 22, 1944:

 The Rome radio reported today that the Germans were taking the necessary moves to make .Rome an open city and thus., preserve the Holy City from war damage. The radio said that the Nazis would withdraw all military installations and divert military traffic from Rome. Allied acceptance of the terms would be necessary before the city is assured protection.

BERKELEY, Calif., March 22 (AP)

—New rumors that Amelia Earhart Putnam might be a prisoner of the Japanese, and not a victim of a 1937 plane crash in the Pacific, rekindled .the spark of hope today in her 75-year-old mother

Mrs. Amy Otis Earhart

 

GALLUP, N. M., WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 1944

 Radio Says

Military To

Be Removed

By The Associated Press

The Rome radio reported today that the Germans were taking the necessary moves to make .Rome an open city and thus., preserve the Holy City from war damage. The radio said that the Nazis would withdraw all military installations and divert military traffic from Rome. Allied acceptance of the terms would be necessary before the city is assured protection.

Meanwhile strong forces of Flying Fortresses and Liberators escorted by many lighters again

bombed Berlin.

German troops were reported today to have taken over vital communication facilities in Sofia and Nazi armored columns were said to be moving swiftly on Bucharest, indicating that both Bulgaria and Rumania might soon share the fate of Hungary, now completely dominated by Hitler's armed forces.

QUIZLING REGIME

The new German moves came amid indications that the Nazis were maneuvering to set up a quizling regime- in Budapest under the protection of 100,000 German troops which had seized command of strategic centers within the past 36 hours.

Mother Believes

Amelia Earhart

Is Jap Prisoner

BERKELEY, Calif., March 22 (AP)

—New rumors that Amelia Earhart Putnam might be a prisoner of the Japanese, and not a victim of a 1937 plane crash in the Pacific, rekindled .the spark of hope today in her 75-year-old mother

Mrs. Amy Otis Earhart.

A report from the Marshall islands attributed to a native the story that a plane flown by an

American woman was forced down in the Marshall group and that she was taken to Japan.

Today Mrs. Earhart said "shortly after the SOS was sent out, a Tokyo shortwave broadcast said that my child had been picked up by the Japanese.

"I was in Los Angeles at the time and I went to the Japanese consul there. His reply was 'so sorry, haven't heard, will have' to check.1 Two days later I went back to the consul but there was a different consul.

"We know now why the Japs would not allow a search in the Marshall area. At the time they refused the search because they said the natives were 'too savage.'"

Mrs. Putnam disappeared July 2, 1937. One of the last messages from her plane was "We are 100

miles from Howland." Howland is about 950 land miles from the lower Marshalls, but there appears to be a question whether Mrs. Putnam or her navigator, Fred Noonan, had accurate bearings, as dwindling fuel caused them to make emergency arrangements.

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