Evening star., 1942-02-22
BY DON WHITEHEAD,
Wide World News.

by DUN WhlIEhEAD,
Wide World News.
NEW YORK, Feb. 21.-There's a
bright flame of courage shining out
of gloom of wars misery, destruc-
ton and death.
It's fed by Macarthur and his
men battling the Japanese hordes
in the foxholes of Bataan it's
in the little band Of volunteer flyers
sweeping the skies over Burma.
1t rides with the feet which
smashed enemy naval bases south
east of Pearl Harbor and 1t
flares in the dispatches of CORES
pondents watching the convulsions
of q world in conflict.
Webster defines courage as that
quality of mind which meets danger
or opposition with intrepidity. calm
ness and f1rmness."
But whatever 1t is-it's found in
the men who have told the story
of Inflated Warsaw, Dunkirk,
France, Greece, Singapore and Ba-
taan men like quiet, scholarly
c. Yates Mcdaniel, 35, and big
Clark Lee, IS, Associated Press war
correspondents.
These two. far different in back
ground and temperament, have
added new chapters of bizarre ad-
venture by their own daring to this
unfinished saga of journalism.
In Singapore's Last Hours.
1t was the day before Lincoln's
Birthday and slim, grave, prema-
turely gray c. Yates Mcdaniel sat
in a Singapore hotel room to write
q stirring footnote to history.
His hands were wet with nervous
perspiration. The typewriter he
pounded danced with the roar and
crash of cannonading and bursting
bombs.
Mcdaniel was the only American
newspaperman left to witness the
heroic last-ditch stand of Singa-
pores outmanned defenders. He
had bid farewell to departing re-
porters the day before.
For days he had reported the
steady advance of the enemy to the
very outskirts of Singapore itself.
He had seen smoke billow up from
burning oil tanks, rubber plants,
pineapple canneries and factories,
fired to prevent the Japanese seiz-
ing them.
Now he sat in a hotel room and
watched waves of japanese planes
pour murderous fire from the sky
on the defenders their only
challenge from ground guns and
two obsolete biplanes with speed of
about 100 miles an hour.
Illumination Amid Battle.
ut makes me rather ashamed of
myself, sitting here with my heart
beating faster than their old motors
when think what chance those
lads have of getting back In their
antiquated machines" he wrote.
"If ever brave men earned undying
glory, those r. A. F. pilots have on
this tragic morning"
To friends of Mcdaniel, 1t seemed
typical he should pause for reflec-
ton in the midst Of this holocaust.
1--WE always agreed" one said,
that Mac was the sort Of guy who
could sit in a building during an
earthquake and write a story"
Perhaps Mcdaniel got some Of his
outward calm from the Chinese chill
dren with whom he played as a
child In Soochow, China, where his
parents, the Rev. and Mrs. Charles
G.. Mcdaniel Of Blackstone, Va,
operated Baptist mission until the
recent japanese occupation.
Like most missionaries sons, Mac
was sent to the United States for
his college education. He obtained
a bachelors degree at the University
of Richmond. Va. A classmate de-
scribed him as 'one of those versa
tile geniuses who never lets his stud
les interfere with his education"
Worked on Southern Papers.
Learning the rudiments of news
paper work on the Sarasota FlaO
Morning Herald and the Durham
IN. c. Herald, Mcdaniel returned
to China In 1929 to work for Shang-
hal papers. He Joined the Asso-
ciated Press in 1885.
japanese bombers seemed to fol-
low Yates wherever he travelled in
China-or else he anticipated their
moves.
At the outbreak Of the Chinese
Japanese conflict he was in Tentsln
when the bombers came. He rode a
Chinese ambulance to Marking for
q rendezvous with the bombers. He
watched them drop death on Canton
and Hankow.
Usually, his wife-the former Miss
Natalie Ellis of Boston and Los
Angeles-stayed with him as much
as possible. During Singapore's
desperate stand, she was in Java.
The bombers followed him to
Singapore Once as he was writing
his story he ducked behind wall,
which screened the blast OF bombs
falling just outside the hotel.
Finally he tapped out the last
paragraph:
IT am leaving now in car which
I swear will put into forward gear
and head straight into the Strait Of
Malacca. I left one car for the
japanese in Nanking in 1887, but
never again. Don't expect to hear
from me for many days
Writes from Bombed Vessel.
But the next day Mcdaniel filed
still another story Of the battle OF
Singapore-and added:
Lying offshore, we were bombed
necessarily until sundown yester-
day and throughout today We were
dive-bombed half q dozen times, but
5 Hours of Barg;
vnlu 81 I" 4