Ceylon The New Day

The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations present the Pacific story. This is the story of the Pacific. The drama of the millions of people who live around this greatest sea where the United States is now committed to a long-term policy of securing the peace.

This is the background story of the events in the Pacific and their meaning to us and to the generations to come. Tonight's specific story comes to you with drama of the past and present and commentary by Dr. Lennox Mills, professor of history at the University of Minnesota and author of the book Ceylon Under British Rule. The New Day, off the coast of India

lies the island of Ceylon. The drums of the yellow-robed Buddhist priest's This is the first rob in Ceylon today, as they have for centuries. The elephants roam wild in the wilderness, the leper, the wildcat and the jackal, the mangus and the sloth bear roam wild in the wilderness.

The python, the cobra and the crocodile slide on their bellies and the lushness of the jungle and the birds by the hundreds sing in the tropical trees. But Ceylon is changed. The Salon of today is a different Salon, for war has come and gone, and Salon is coming into her own.

Salon is now in the front line of defence. This was 1942. Hong Kong and Singapore have fallen. Malaya and Burma have fallen. We must hold here. These were brave possibilities. Salon, as you can see on the map, is now the focal point of the west drive of the Japanese.

The commander pointed to the military chart on the table. The salon here at the southeastern tip of India is that the junction of the eastern oceans. Yes, and it commands the coasts of India. Right. If the Japanese should take salon, they could use it for a springboard of attack against India.