Current Events September 17, 1942; CLERGY TAKES STAND ON JEWISH PERSECUTION/ STALINGRAD IN PERIL/ GUADALCANAL RETAKEN NIPS REPORT:

RED CITY'S DEATH NEAR

Germans Are Within 9 to 12 Miles Of Stalingrad
LAVAL HITS CHURCH
Tells Clergy to Handle Religion.. He'll Handel State



                                               THE LOWELL SUN

                                                Lowell Mass. Thursday September 17 1942

Retaliates For Church's
Jewish Stand
Orders Cardinal's
Aide to "Fixed
Residence"
ON THE FRENCH FRONTIER,
Sept. 17. (UP) —
French Premier Pierre Laval
has struck back at the Catholic
church for opposing
Jewish persecution in France
by interning one of its leaders
and warning the clergy to
"handle religion—I'll handle
the government," it was disclosed
today.
It was learned that Laval
had ordered Father Chaillet
of the staff of Cardinal Ger-
lier, archbishop of Lyons, interned
in ''fixed residence"

Powerful Nazi Army Fighting
Like Devils, Says Moscow
Russians Fighting Street-by-Street,
House-to-House as Germans Keep
Advancing on Stalingrad
By M. S. HANDLER
MOSCOW, Sept. 17. (UP)—A powerful Nazi army,
described as "fighting like devils," battered into the northwest
outskirts of Stalingrad today, but the Red Army made
plain its intention to fight house by house, street by street
and pillbox by pillbox to the last defender before relinquishing
the Volga river city.
The assault on the northwest outskirts of Stalingrad
carried the Nazi to within 9 to 12 miles of the center of the
city. It was reported that out of a total German assault
army of possibly 1,000,000 men some 450,000 troops were
hammering at the narrow northwest front.

Main Allied,
Jap Forces In
Bitter Combat
Are 32 Miles,
Airline, From
Port Moresby
GEN- MacARTHUR'S
HEADQARTERS, Australia, Sept. 17
(.AP) — The main bodies of the Allied
and Japanese forces in New
Guinea were locked in bitter combat
today approximately 32 miles
from Port Moresby following
a new enemy advance
down the southern slopes of the
rugged. densely -wooded Owen
Stanley mountains
The immediate scene of the
battle was the tiny hamlet of
Jorihaiwa, which the Japanese
reached yesterday after
pushing forward eight miles
from Efogi, where they had
been stalled for a week after
crossing the summit of the
mountains with the aid of
their familiar infiltration tactics.

Claim 4,000 Jap Troops
Have Retaken Guadalcanal
Enemy Report Says Nips Have Taken
Airfield There After "Ferocious Tank
Battle" of Eight Hours
STOCHOLM, Sept. 17 (UP)
—Dispatches from Japanese held
Shanghai to the Swedish
t e l e g r a p h agency today
claimed that 4000 Japanese
troops fighting on Guadalcanal
in the Solomon Islands had retaken
The airfield there after
a "ferocious tank battle" lasting
eight hours.
The Japanese claimed that
they were also advancing on
the island of Malaiti while
lighting from Tulagi harbor
was "still indecisive"
A Japanese source estimated
Allied forces on the three
southernmost Solomon Islands
at 10,000.

VICHY RADIO
Stalingrad In Nazi Hands
LONDON, Sept. 17 (INS)—Reu-
ter's (British^ news agency today
I picked up a Bucharest report
broadcast by the Nazi - controlled
Vichy radio claiming that the city
of Stalingrad has been occupied.
The Vichy radio is notoriously
inaccurate and invariably
far ahead of actual developments.