The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, December 3, 1942, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. LX., NO. 9205. JUNEAU, ALASKA, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1942 MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS DECISIVE TUNISIA BATTLE NOW RAGING Many Allie As Yanks Landed Near Oran, Algeria FIVEU. S. TRANSPORTS SENTDOWN | | Not Including Destroy- er, Tanker Damaged NUMBER OF MEN | KILLED NOT GIVEN 2 gl British Anr;);;lce Loss of| Aircraft Carrier-Also Other Naval Boats | ¢ WASHINGTON, Dec. 3. — The | Navy Department officially an- | nounced today that five United States naval transports were lost | during the occupation of North | Africa and three other transports, | one destroyer and one tanker were damaged. | The transports listed as sunk in | the naval communique are the Tas- ker H. Bliss, Hugh L. Scott and| Edward Rutledge, which were sunk | off Casablanca. | The Joseph Newes was sunk off | " {Continued on l;ase Five) | The Washingtu; Merry -Go- Round By DREW PEARSON | (Major Robert 8. Allen on active duty.) WASHINGTON—On November 2, | this column reported an incident | inside the War Production Board | in which Emory Brennerman had | cut red tape to speed the ship-| ment of oil refining equipment to| Russia. | With its oil supplies cut off in the Caucasus, Russia has wanted | to set up refineries behind the | lines, and President Roosevelt is- | sued a directive October 10 that oil equipment move immediately. So Brennerman, finding that the Russian oil documents were not moving, carried them to the Treas- ury, urged Treasury Procurement officials to act. Then he found two officials in his own War Production Board who had snarled up the Russian ship- ments. He reminded them that the President of the United States and WPB's vice chairman Ferd Eber-| stadt both had demanded that) Russian oil equfpment move im-| mediately. But the two WPB men did not move easily. “You put your judgment against that of the President, and against Mr. Eberstadt,” said Brennerman. “And you didn’t take the frouble to tell them you disagreed with | them. You just sat there ignoring their orders.” | But following publication of the column, describing this incident, Mr. Brennerman, the man who cut red tape, was fired. Donald Nelson instructed his counsel John Lord O'Brian to notify Brennerman of his dismissal. DON'T CUT RED TAPE On the surface, the incident may | not be important. But backstage, it has had alarming repercussions. Word has trickled all through the War Production Board that Bren- nerman, the man who tried to carry out Roosevelt's orders, the man who tried to speed produc- tion, got fired. So the reaction on other em- ployees has been—sit tight, don’t cut red tape, let things drift. | Nelson has fired a lot of little| fellows because they got too much publicity—Fred Libbey, Guthrie.; Guy Holcomb of the Little Business branch of the Justice Department. But they had opposed him openly, and most of them were New Deal- ers. However, Brennerman, though a small cog in the WPB machine, comes from a staunch Republican | ) (Continued on Page Four) ing B An Allied landing boat noses up to the shore near Oran, Algeria, during occupation of that territory by American troops. This picture, one of the first to reach the United States, was taken from British News- reel Association films, in London, French Diplomals Leave for Infernment and cabled to New York. Gaston Henry-Haye (arrow), Vichy-France Ambassador to the United States, turns for a final word with Charles Bruggman (black hat), Swiss Minister to the U. S., as Henry-Haye and several members of his staff left the French Embassy for Hershey, Pa., where they will be interned pending return of the U. S. diplomatic mission now in France. At right stand three FBI agents guarding the embassy. Glamor Is Going fo Congress; Going By JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON, Dec. 3. — Clare Boothe Luce is coming to Congress and although I have no penchant for flippancy, I'm tempted to add: hey-hey. Capitol Hill has been short on glamor long enough. Some years ago when I was doing a stint on Broadway, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mrs. Luce (or just plain Clare Boothe, as she was known in those days, although she already had acquired and drop- ped the married name of Brokaw). She has beauty, charm, chic, a sharp wit and a gouging pen. Mrs. Luce would be a welcome addition to any Congress. But I have a hunch that Congress is going to enjoy Mrs. Luce a lot more thun she is going to enjoy Congress. According to The Associated Press reports following her election; Mrs. Luce said: “This election proves how the American people want to fight the war. They went to fight a hard war, not a soft war, efficiently and without bungling.” In her campaign speeches, accord- to the same report, she fre- House s fo Like It, Too quently referred to her opponent as ‘“one of the rubber stamps in Congress who are bungling the war.” That kind of campaign and elec- tion night talk has a familiar ring It reminds me of some of the things ex-Rep. Bruce Barton said, includ- ing that one about how he wanted to come t6 Washington “to repesl a law a day.” ‘Mrs. Luce would do well to have a little chat with Mr. Barton before she comes down in January. He might explain how he didn't repeal even one law—and why. Freshman Congressmen (and women) have a way of getting lost in the shuffle on Chpitol Hill. It | hasn't anything to do with ability or even with what party one be- longs to and not at all with how independently one votes. It's just the system, built up by 150 years of tradition. . It may be good; it may be bad; but there it is—and if Mrs. Luce beats it, she'll be the first in a long time. How Mrs. Luce votés or whether ishe makes a great name as ‘“the Congresswoman from ' Connecticut” in the next two years isn’t nearly as important to me as something (Continued on Page Five) BUREAUS ATTACKED, CONGRESS General Drive Made on Many Branches with OPA in Particular WASHINGTON, Dec. 3.—Govern- ment bureaus in general, and the Office of Price Administration in| particular, found themselves the targets of a Congressional drive to retrieve some of the powers dele- gated in recent years to the Ex- ecutive arm of the government A definite get “Leon Henderson” movement is underway with the Demoeratic members of the House, those mostly from the South, join ing the chorus of Republican criti- cism of him. | “We are suffering from a severe | attack of Federalists,” said Repre- sentative Graham A. Barden, Demo- crat of North Carolina, in one of the several severe attacks in the House on what the speakers called bureaucrats. —,,———— The larvae of the Hessian fly at- tack the stems of wheat, barley and rye and are extremely destructive to | wheat crops. SKI TROOPS {White Clad Russians Keep | | . | | Pressing Enemy Back | . —Fighting Is Fierce MOSCOW, Dec. 3. White-ciad | Rilssian ski troops |Nazis back on the blizzard-swept | battlefields west of Moscow between the Don and Volga rivers and the Red Army steadily closed the trap on Stalingrad’s besiegers from the recaptured heights northwest and also southwest of the city. South of Stalingrad and west of Moscow, Germans are dying by the thousand a day as ski troop- ers armed with tommy guns clashed | with Nazi Alpinists brought up as reinforcements. The fighting is said to be the fiercest in the past sev- eral weeks. Nazi tanks and trucks are now often abandoned in the fighting as the Red Army surges on Soviet troops, during today, stormed and captured and held | a strategic height northwest of Stalingrad The Germans, according to So- viet advices from the front, have rushed reinforcements to at least three key salients in a desperate e#ort to halt the Russian advance e ! 13NIPPON TEROS ARE SHOTDOWN Allies Crufi!fiANempi to? ey Reinforce New | Guinea Base | ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN| AUSTRALIA, Dec. 3—Allied ah'-} men have downed 23 Jap Zero| . fighter planes and driven off a|® naval convoy attempting ‘o rein-j force the trapped Japs at Buna,| on the northeast New Guinea coast, | it is announced today | In one of the hottest fights in that area yet, the High (memmn(lf ennounced, the Allies lost eight| planes. The Japs in that area sidting with the greatest lierceness,| { well aware of their peril - President To Receive War Powers Ways - Me;ECommiflee} Blocks Attempt fo | Junk New Bill f are re-| | | WASHINGTON, |margin of nearly two to one, thej | House Ways and Means Committee | | has blocked the attempt to pigeon-| hole for the balance of the year a {measure granting the President | | wartime powers to suspend traffic | regulations. Instead, the Committee has di- !sideration” a modified measure drafted by the Committee and to . grant the President tariff powers, but not his request to override im- migration barriers. | —_————— of Maine, t Senate only and a group of*Senators from the Panama is 34,000 square miles in Posed to X area—a little larger that the state might cheapen silver as a mone- Large Unidentified Fleet Reported Off We BULLETIN—SAN FRANCIS- CO, Dec. 3. — The 12th Naval District anmounces “a large num- ber of unidentified surface ves- sels” are reported 450 miles off the California Coast. A thorough search of the area thus far has failed to confirm their presence. An order was broadcast before dawn this morning for all fleet personnel to return to their ships. The Navy issued the following statement for publication: “A large number of unidenti- fied surface vessels were report- ed by a naval patrol at dusk December 2 to be on an easterly course, 450 miles off the coast New Haines Road Wil st Coast by Navy of California. “Since the presence of such a force would constitute a serious hazard to the West Coast, every effort is being made by Army and Navy aircraft to verify the reported contact. “All available forces are on the alert and steps have been taken to intercept any enemy forces. | “A thorough search of the | area concerned has failed to | confirm the presence of any un- | identified vessels. The report is | considered an error.” | This statement was issued by Admiral John' Greenslade, com- ' manding the western sea front- ier. | Starting at 4 a. m, Pacific ‘, Wartime, however, radio sta- | tions began broadcasting orders | for all fleet personnel to report | to their ships at once. Bring Post-War Trade To Southeast Alaska HEADS DRIVE_Lt Gen. Dwight Eisenhower (above) is commander-in-chief of the Al- lied offensive in North Africa. LEASE, SELL GOVERNMENT SILVER NOW o 2 — 5 + Senale Banking Commifee Okehs Bill Making Provisions WASHINGTON, Dec.. 3. — The Banking Committee has iven formal approval to a bill xe;;ed c“hakm" Doughton Atu IN-| which will permit the sale or lease troduce “as a basis for future con-|,¢ ynpledged government silver for onsumptive uses in industry “in urtherance of the war effort.” Senator Murdock, Utah, was the member against the bill. He states were strongly op- every move they thought ilver ary metal Southeast Alaskans might well| expect to hear any day now that the U.S. Army's announced con-| struction of a road connecting Haines, Alaska, with the new Alcan | Highway from Edmonton, Alberta,| to the Territory, has been com- pleted. That's the way Brig. Gen. James O'Connor, the man mainly responsible for doing the Alcan | job in six months when the War Department predicted it would take a year, does things. The Haines road, now being sur- veyed by Public Roads Administra- tion employees from both ends, will be of immense importance to Southeast Alaska cities because it will mean that no matter how many roads are built from the Central United States into Alaska {through interior Canada—the main highway to Alaska will continue to be the cheaper and heavier freight- carrying Inside Passage. Alcan Route Wise There is little doubt but that) the route of the Alcan road was a wise one from the military point# of view. Well inland most of the way, it more or less follows the great circle route towards Russia, giving the pilots who follow the| interior route a charted course, con- necting together the numerous air- fields. It is even possible that the road may be widened considerably in many places to furnish addi- tional airfields, directly on the highway In addition, it taps the greater {industrial centers of the United States, opening a new route in- )sluad of supplementing the water ‘,Lranapurcation course. If the high- way had been built along the West- |ern Coast the latter would have been the case. Lastly, roads form a transporta- tion system that is vulnerable to attack by the enemy, more so than water transportation, because a bomb hit on one bridge might stop traffic along the entire route, while one boat sunk would not mean that all other vessels serving Alaska would cease operation. The Alcan Highway has been built where, al- ! though it may not be immune from i | (Continued on Page Two) OF SOVIETS E X T R A | Rasnazis ; | | | | | | Front dispatches said that d Craft Lost In African Landings ALLIES NEAR CAPTURE OF “AXIS BASES Americans Piayed Major - Part in Smashing ; Nazi Attack |GERMANS CLAIMING | RECAPTURE OF POST ]‘Berlin Radio Says Vital Te- [ bourba Rail Center Is Retakgn LONDON, Dec. 3.—The decisive battle for Bizerte and Tunis ap- parently is under way today with British and American troops con- verging on the bomb-shattered Axis strongholds after smashing a Ger- man counter-attack which touched off the heaviest fighting yet in the Tunisian campaign. The largest Nazi counter-attack attempted, routed yesterday by the crack Allied troops, inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. Americans in Action the Americans played a major role in repulsing this Nazi assault directed at the Alied limes in the viclnity of Tebourba, vital reilway 'junc- tion 20 miles west of Tunis and 35 miles south of Bizerte. A dispatch from Berlin today, | however, claims that German forces have recaptured the rallway cen- ter, the first German acknowledge- ment that it had even been lost. The Berlin version claims that the Americans lost 22 tanks. But there was no Allied confirmation that the captured city had been retaken by the Axis, which also claimed that Allled supply ports are being continuously bombed. . Nazis Lose Many Allied headquarters, referring to the battle, said that the Germans lost heavily in the counter-attack. A late report from the Morocco radio says that another Nazicoun- ter-attack has been repulsed by the Allies at Pont Defahs, 30 miles south of Tunis. Heavy fighting also is reported around Mateur, 12 miles south of Bizerte where an Allied column is | driving toward the coast. American medium bombers, es- corted by sleek P-38 fighters, raided the Tunis airdrome for the fifth time in 44 hours, destroying at least. 12 grounded planes. At the same time, adding to the pressure being exerted on the Axis SMASHNEW ~ JAP FORCE, SOLOMONS Nine Enemy Vessels Sunk in Landing Attempt, Guadalcanal WASHINGTON, *Qge. 3. Smashing a new Jap attempt to land reinforcements on Gua- daleanal Island, US. Navy vessels have sent nine enemy ships to the bottom in a sharp night battle north of the is- land, the Navy announced late today. Losses inflicted on the enemy on the nights of November 30 and December 1 included twe large destroyers or cruisers sunk, four destroyers sunk, two troop transports sunk and one carge ship sunk. The Navy said there is a possibility beth transports were (Continued on Page Three) i