The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, September 26, 1939, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. LIV., NO. 8217. s MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS Naval Battle Reported Raging Off MANY SHIpS | Hands Ofi—I¢s U. S. Ship ENGAGED IN SEA CONFLICT Engagemenl—l;sfs Over an, Hour-Hundred Shells Are Exploded BULLETIN OSLO, Sept. —Dispatches from Farsunk, southwestern Norway, report a naval battle occurred this afternoon near there, just west of Norway's southern extrem- ity. The battle began about noon and ended at 1:40 p.m., the report declared. Watchers on shore said they saw three large warships, two submarines, and many small craft taking part in the action with airplanes maneuvering overhead. It was estimated that nearly 100 shots were fired. The report does not identify the ships. Last night the British Ad- miralty said no reports had been received of a naval bat- tle off Norway yesterday whem another sea conflict was report- ed. 26. Ball}a; ; “5; Germany Promises Coun- fries Same Fafe as Po- land If Join Allies | BERLIN, Sept. 26.—Germany has | served a blunt warning on the Bal- | kan nations that they will share the fate of Poland if they join hands| with Great Britain. The waming“ was given by the semi-official news- paper political correspondence. The | newspaper said that the Balkani nations have found that what was called their “natural relationship” isi with Germany. The paper added that this relationship had a prac- tical effect in increased commerce between the Balkans and Germany. | Said the newspaper “Under such circumstances a change in these re- lations which promise so much | would not be in the interest of the Balkan nations or in Germany'’s in- terest. On the other hand Germany desires for the Balkan nations that | peace which is founded on the ob- servance of strict neutrality.” — .- U.S.NAVYTO GO TRAINING OFF HAWAIl "Fair Sizemta(hmenl"j fo Be Dispatched, It | | He added: Is Claimed | WASHINGTON, Sept. 26. — The | Navy Department is said, according | to high authority, as having decided | to send “a pretty fair sized de- tachment” of warships on the Pa-| citic Coast to Hawalian waters for training purposes. ) | 00PN - "r.aking no chances on enemy craft mistaking the vessel for 4 war prize, officials of the United States liner President Roosevelt, which docked at New York, began painting huge American flags on the hateh covers. __ SWEEPING NEUTRALITY BILLIS Nafions " DRAFTED; HISTORIC FREEDOM, WAR IN EUROPE IS STEPPING UP BUSINESS IN U. 5. Economist, Business Fore- caster, Addresses Bank- ers Meeting in Seattle SEATTLE, Sept. 26.—The Cleve- land economist and business fore- caster, Col. Leonard Ayres, told the American Bankers Association con- vention here that the war in Europe merely stepped up what aiready was a rapidly increasing volume in busi- ness. Ayres said that the present up- ward cycle in business started last spring. He predicted that there would be gradual price increases in | the months to come though less in | POSition to the new bill. | food products than in other com-‘v modities. ‘Wool and leather goods are prob- ably due to make the shapest ad-l | vance in prices. | Ayres advised families to lay in wool and leather articles that might be needed in the next year or so. “Don’t worry about food prices.” Dr. Fred I. Kent of the Bankers Trust Company, warned the conven- | tion that security must be restored | if the United States is to hold own in the world. Divisional heads of the associa- tion elected are: Melvin Rouff, of Houston Texas; Andrew Price, of Seattle; George Gilman, of Malden, Mass.; Roy Marquardt, of Chicago; Roland Clark, of Portland, and Carl Fenninger, of Philadelphia. D REALIST WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Sept. 26.—A stickler for realism, a young model airplane builder here equip- ped his gasoline-powered ship with la trapdoor that automatically representing the PWA on the con- WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, SPrings open when the motor stops, | struction of school buildings and 0., Sept. 26—George Groves’ pet cat | dropping out three parachute-equip- muricipal improvements at Anchor- Warned HIGH SEAS, BE SIGNED AWAY : | | WASHINGTON, Sept. 26. — The Administration has moved to sign away for the time being the historic right of freedom of the high seas in the interest of neutrality for the IUmLed States in the present Euro- pean conflict. Leaders laid before the Senate! Foreign Relations Committee a sweeping bill to bar American ships from trading with nations at war | and from sailing in ocean war zones. | The measure also restricted Presi- | dential operation by providing that | | Congress as well as the White House |may declare when a State of War |exists and when the proposed act | shall go into effect. | | The bill will repeal the arms em- | bargo by allowing nations at wari to come to the United States in for- | eign ships and buy what they please. | The Senate and the Foreign Re- | | lations Committee adjourned for | three days to give opponents of the | embargo repeal a chance to study | the proposed new law. Isolationists pledge unalterable op- | Said Senator Rush Holt of West | irginia: “Ninety-day credit is not | cash. Anyway the United Smte.s‘ should not be an international gun | peddler for either cash or credit.” WHAT'S THIS PARIS, Sept. 26.—An official French statement says that Ger- mans captured on the Western | Front inform the authorities they have not been told that Germany is at war with Great Britain and France. They claim they have only been told they are at war with Poland because Poland had a great air force | which threatened to wipe out Germany by bombing raids. Ninety-nine out of every 100 of the prisoners of Germany captured on the Western Front are youths averaging from 20 | to 21 years of age. - eee——— KELSEY VISITS DAUGHTER Louis D. Kelsey, who has been | | | adopted a young rabbit into her ped doll passengers. The motor is age, has been visiting his daughter family of five kittens, The unusual dependable, so the youthful designer | Mrs. Merton F. Benedict for the last family addition went unnoticed un- ears on one of the “kittens.” device a chance to work. | equipped it with a time switch to be week. Mr. Kelsey left this morning til Groves observed unusually long | SUre it would cut off and give his| on the Columbia to enjoy a vacuuon::}:': \ll(::r"du?:m.m men trying ) in the States, Great Britain Is Profecting SYSTEM OF CONVOYS IS ESTABLISHED Merchant Ships - New War on Submarines LONDON, Sept. 26.—Winston Churchill, st Lord of the Ad- miralty, declared today in the House of Commons that Great Britain’s naval convoy system is now in full operation and a “large number of merchant ships are now leaving these shores, de- fensively armed against sub- marines and German bombers.” Speaking in the House of Commons immediately after Prime Minister Chamberlain made his fourth war statement to its members, Churchill gave a full statement as to what Great Britain is doing to crush the U-boat menace. Churchill asserted: “Our at- tacks on German submarines has been from five to six times more numerous than in any equal period in the last World War.” Admits Losses The Admiralty head admitted in his talk before the House of Com- mons that there have been seri- ous losses to British shipping be-{ cause of undersea attacks during! the first weeks of the declared war| against Germany, but said the | ships were not defended and were victims of “lurking U-boats, care-| fully posted beforehand” as to movements. | Churchill said six or seven sub- marines of the British fleet have already destroyed “one-tenth of the German sub fleet or possibly one-| quarter of the U-boats actively | employed. GAVIN ELECTED | | | | p R ES I D E “I OI: LOS ANGELES, Cal, Sept. 26.— GREAT NORTHERN Former Office Boy Chosen to Head Large Rail System | NEW YORK, Sept. 26.—Francis James Gavin, who started as an office boy in the offices of the Great Northern Railway in 1897, has been elected as President of the rail sys- tem, succeeding the late William Kenny. Gavin has been Executive Vice- President. His headquarters will be in St. Paul, Minnesota. — - ROUNDTRIPPERS ON | NORTHLAND VESSEL Nine roundtrippers are aboard | the North Sea which was in Ju-| neau this morning on the way to Sitka. Two are from Oakland, two from New York, three from Seattle, and | two from Los Angeles. |13 1 Gar 13, Tiergarten (pak) 18, Barracks 15. Tempelhot Airdrome 16. Fashionable southwes! quaster ‘Tne population of Greafer Berli ber of the suburbs are industrial centers. center of Prussian militarism. (COAST WATERFRONT TIEUP - POSSIBLE NEXT SATURDAY:; ides most of the pi | FRIEDRICHSHAGEN BOMBARDING OF WARSAW CALLED GREAT MASSACRE NEGOTIATIONS STRAINED oficial Vatican Newspap- FORTY YACHTS UNREPORTED IN SUNDAY STORM. Death Toll of Gale Off Cali- fornia Coast Now Over 50 | The Coast Guard announces today | that at least 40 pleasure yachts with two to ten persons aboard each, are still unreported after Sunday night's | violent storm. The death toll is now estimated in excess of 50 persons and prop-| erty damage is well over $1,000,000. = — e NipponPlane Now in Chile SANTIAGO, Chile, Sept. 26.—The | Japanese good will plane Nlpponi has arrived in Santiago from Lima, Peru. The six fliers and the reporter: aboard the round-the-world plane were welcomed by the Japanese Min- ister to Chile and a large crowd of Japanese residents. The plane will fly from Santiago to Buenos Aires and later to Africa and Europe. BULLETIN — SAN FRAN- CISCO, Sept. 26, — It is an- nounced this afternoon that Longshoremen and Waterfront Employers’ negotiations are still proceeding over the agreement expiring next Saturday, Septem- ber 30, One issue is the day to day agreement, the employers insisting that this is not oper- ative and demanding at least a 30-day agreement, pending settlement. SAN FRANCISCO, Cal, Sept. 26. —The possibility of a coast water- front tieup when present agreements between employers and longshore- men expire next Saturday have in- creased. Relations between negotia- tion committees of the eniployers and the dock workers grow increas- ingly strained and there appears lit- tle immediate possibility of agree- ment on many points that are now |in issue. The employers charge in a letter to Longshoremen Chief Harry Bridges that the workers have deliberately slowed up their pace in the past five years and at the same time have in- creased their earnings. They claim that a sharp increase in wages has taken place. The longshoremens’ demand for pay was one disputed issue. The letter declared that it now takes five longshoremen at San Francisco to do the same amount that three did in 1934. Three men are required to do the work at Los Angeles the letter stat- ed and four to do the work formerly done by three at Seattle and Port- land. ‘The employers claimed that long- 1Coni;;ué:i on élge Five) STALEMATE LIKELY INTHEWEST BECAUSE ATTACKS FACEAWFUL RISK By MORGAN M. BEATTY AP Feature Service Writer WASHINGTON, Sept. 26. — Any- body who has seen a working model of the fortifications on the Western front in Europe can understand why the generals on both sides—and the soldiers in the line as well—aren't any too anxious to get down to fast- er blood and thunder. Any man worth his military salt tells you that the attacker on either side is going to lose at least [our‘ men to the defender’s one. More likely, if the attempt is extremely determined, the losses will be ten| to one. | The Germans are supposed to to in the World War. | Consider the shock of anguish at home when the dead and wounded started pouring back. Some mili- tary psychologists have even sur- mised that those losses primarily broke the back of German resis- tance, Now come authoritative estimates that an attacking force on the new Western front might have to count on losing 500,000 men to achieve a break-through. PSYCHOLOGICAL If the attacking force which is now the French army, aided by the British, the victors would still find themselves on the west bank of the Rhine, barred from the heart of Germany by the secondary defenses behind the Rhine between Man- heim and Essen, and probably too exhausted to exploit their initial vic- tory. As a matter of fact, military men who have seen one side or the other of the Western front recently, speculate that the primary value of breaking through the wall on either side will be more psychologi- cal than real. It would prove to the victorious army and the people back home— and to the vanquished too—that a| Maginot or a Siegfried line is not impregnable. That should instill greater will to win, | But consider the assault that fails.| Military men can conceive of 0 (Continued on Page Three) er Provokes Feel- ings of Horror VATICAN CITY, Sept. 26.—The official Vatican newspaper decries; what it terms the indiscriminate bombing of Warsaw. The Vatican newspaper declared that in a city of Warsaw's size it | would be possible to bomb all the military objectives without bomblng' the populated districts as well. | Said the newspaper: “News from | all sides on the bombardment of | Warsaw produces the most deplor-| able impression. The consequences were frightful. We hope that such | massacres will come to an end, The | bombing of all Wargaw after the recent ultimatums and the depar- ture of foreigners does not permit us to forget the sad truth that the number of defenseless and the amount of material damage are in- | creasing and provoking feelings of | horror at the present conditions of Poland and Warsaw.” The German high command in turn denied that German planes had deliberately bombed civilians. | The Germans said that their planes | had attacked only military object- ives in Warsaw. EMBEZZLER IN PRISON FACES HIS ACCUSERS Victims Who Trusted Bees-| meyer Will Fight His Parole SAN QUENTIN, Cal, Sept. 26.— Some of the men and women who trusted Gilbert H. Beesmeyer with the investment of their savings will gather at San Quentin prison today to oppose a parole for the man con- victed of stealing $8,000,000. Beesmeyer formerly headed a large building and loan association. He was sentenced eight years ago to serve 40 years in prison for em- bezzlement. Two months ago the State Board of Pardons and Paroles granted Beesemeyer a parole to take a job in Chicago. The parole aroused such vigorous protests that Governor Olson held it up and ordered a pub- lic hearing on the parole. Beesmeyer revealed recently that he cannot afford to hire an attorney to represent him at the hearing. Some of the investors in his build- ing and loan society are skeptical and charge that Beesmeyer cap- cealed a large part of the missing Norway PLANES GET BY AIRCRAFT FIREUNHURT Daylight R;id_ers Carrying War to Heart of Germany ASSAULT LAUNCHED AGAINST WARSAW Nazi Troops Reported Con- cenfrating Near Swiss Border (By Associated Press) Intensified aerial warfare on the Western front was marked today by |a = aylight raid into Frederick the Great lived at Polsdam and established it 'as the | Spectacular ~daylly Germany by a fleet of French planes. The French raiders crossed the Rhine near the Swiss frontier. In- habitants of Basle watched the raid- ing squadron as it flew overhead on into a_barrage of anti-aircraft fire from the German batteries in Lor- rach on the German side of the [river. The French planes passed | over the anti-aircraft fire and con- tinued eastward into the Reich. Heavy Fighting A new German assault on War- saw was launched today while the . German and French forces are locked in heavy fighting on the Western front, French and German artillery ex- | changed fire south of Weibruecken across the Rhine frontier. Paris dispatches said the French cannonading of the south end of the Western front was aimed at RUSSO - NAZI WARACCORD NOW FEARED Ribbenlrop_Due in Mos- cow-Red Army March- ing Toward Rumania MOSCOW, Sept. 26.—Tass, offic- ial Russian news agency, announc« |ed today that Bavon Von Ribbens trop, Germany's foreign Minister, will arrive in Moscow tomorrow to “discuss Government problems con- nected with develpoments in Po- land.” The agency said he is coming at the invitation of the Russian gov- ernment. Von Ribbentrop made his first trip here as a Nazi official on Aug- ust 23 when Germany and Russia signed their non-aggression pact. Speculation is rife in diplomatic quarters that' there is still a pos- sibility of the creation of a small buffer “Polish state” between Ger- many and Russia. There are unconfirmed reports being circulated that Baron Von Ribbentrop is seeking a military ac- cord with the Soviets to follow up the non-aggression treaty. Foreign Minister Sukru Saracoglu, of Turkey, who is in Moscow for im- portant negotiations, attended & conference in the Kremiin today which significantly included the So- viet War Commissar, Marshal Kle- menti Votoshiloff. Today, as the Red Army of Oc- cupation in Poland reached demar- cation lines arranged with Ger- many, it was understood a number of Soviet troops are marching to- ward the recently increased frontier of Rumania which has grown from the recent German-Russian divis- ion of Poland. These developments have aroused intense speculation in diplomatic quarters as to what Russia's inten- tions are toward Bessarabia, taken from Russia by Rumania after the World War, and toward Estonia, little nation on the Gulf of Finland,