CONGRESS SUMMONED IN JOINT SESSION

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25445, 17 March 1948, Page 5

CONGRESS SUMMONED IN JOINT SESSION

president Truman To Speak On “Critical” Situation ! DECISION FOLLOWS SERIES . OF SECRET TALKS (NJJ. Press Association-Copyright) (Rec. 8 p m ) WASHINGTON, March 15. president Truman will address a joint session of Congress st 9-30 p.m. on Wednesday on “the critical foreign situation." Thfe was announced from the White House to-day. The speech* which is obviously of the highest importance because of its timing, will be broadcast by all major radio networks. The announcement surprised Congress and State Department officials. It followed a series of secret conferences of the nation s leaders, including one between the Secretary of ptfence (Mr James Forrestal) and the joint Chiefs of Staff of (he armed services at Key West, Florida. It is expected that Mr Forrestal will report to President Jruman before Wednesday on attempts to formulate a plan of unified strategy to defend the United States against attack. The Secretary of State (General G. C. Marshall) and the Undet-Secretary of State (Mr Robert Lovett) are reported to have spent the week-end in North Carolina, presumably at work 0B a report for President Truman to help him frame his message to Congress. Officials on Capitol Hill said that the President was expected to report on the entire world situation. He might lay special emphasis on recent Russian encroachments on Finland and Norway. He was also expected to discuss the situation in Italy* They added that Congressional leaders had been given only 30 minutes’ warning of the President’s announcement of his desire to address a joint session of Congress, and ‘that he had some serious information, presumably of developments in Europe, which had not yet been made known to the public. The Speaker of the House of Representatives (Mr Joseph Martin) told Reuter that President Truman had telephoned him 30 minutes before the White House issued its announcement, and said: “I have some information I want to give Congress before it leaks out.”