The President's Week

The White House grounds were a billowing of bright new snow under a lead-grey sky. In his office the President spoke to reporters amiably, but his face was tired. The important news, he declared, was the capture at last by U.S. and Australian forces of the Huon Peninsula in New Guinea. From Italy there was nothing new. It was a very tense situation, the President observed mildly. But we should realize that we still have control of the sea --subject to bombing attacks--and control of the air. On both accounts we are praying for good weather, he added.

A short time later he had his first meeting in weeks with all the Chiefs of Staff--General Marshall, Admiral King, Admiral Leahy, General Arnold.

During the week the President:

>Met China's Roman Catholic Bishop Paul Yu-pin. Fresh from meeting optimistic Franklin Roosevelt, the Bishop announced to reporters that China was more optimistic than ever.

> Asked Congress for $150 million for public works in industrial communities.

> Signed the repealer of the 62-year-old Chinese exclusion act.

> Turned over to Vice Admiral Raymond A. Fenard of the French Navy the U.S.-built destroyer-escort Senegalais.

>Hung the Congressional Medal of Honor on the Army's Lieut. Gerry H. Kisters of Bloomington, Ind., the Marine Corps' Lieut. Kenneth A. Walsh of Brooklyn, N.Y.

>Gave a soft answer to a question he had once irritably tagged "picayune." A reporter bluntly asked him if he would accept a Fourth-Term nomination. "Well," he replied, "that is one of them things."

But a newspaper cartoonist thought he knew just where the hat and the ring could be found (see cut).

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