The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, March 8, 1943, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” Phies S — VOL. LX., NO. 9285. JUNEAU, ALASKA, MONDAY, MARCH 8, R PRICE TEN CENTY = 'MEMBE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW BATTLE FRONT PLANNED BY ALLIES Rommel’s Attempted Smash Fails; Retr Destruction Rains on Axis Airport BRITISH 8TH ARMY BEATS ALL ATTACKS Enemy Ranks Baftered by Ground Fire-Harassed, Aerial Bombardment ALLIED HEADQUARTERS NORTH AFRICA, March 8—Mar- shal Erwin Rommel's initial smash on the British Army has failed and | “round one is over” with his tanks and infantrymen in retreat toward the Mareth Line at positions north and northwest of Medenine. | A competent military source said “round one” has been won by the British Eighth Army and Gen. Montgomery’s men, after stopping two heavy German attacks last Sat- urday morning, disrupted four more thrusts in the course of the after- noon. ‘ Three stoppages forced Rommel to withdraw again to the hills, bat- tered by ground fire and harassed (Continued on é;ge Three) The Washington — Merry - Go- Round By DREW PEARSON (Major Robert S. Allen on active duty) | the mountains on t.e west side of another Axis position in that area. Allies Batter Axis Ferces British and United States forces continue their hammering of Marshal Rommel’s men, driving them further oack toward the sea af.er costly retreat through Easserine Pass. taeir French troops advancing from Ousseltia Valley smashed one after Meanwhile in the south, the British Eighth Army was reported to have penetrated the outer de- WASHINGTON.—It now looks as if the air cooling systems which were to be yanked out of the Sen- ate, House of Representatives and various government departments would not be yanked out at all, and the solons could keep reason- ably cool this summer Reason for this is new WPB Pro- duction Boss Charlie Wilson, recent head of General Electric. Wilson has not changed these plans be- cause of any special regard for the comfort of Congressmen. The change briefly boils down to this. The air cooling systems were need- ed because of their compressors, | for compressors are one great bot- tleneck of war production today. Compressors are used in making synthetic rubber, high octane gaso- line, and other vital war materials. | And before Wilson took over WPB' production the ordering of compres- | sors was pretty much of a mess. There was no coordination. The Navy, the Army had bid against | r each other. The Maritime Commis- sion and Lend-Lease had bid sgmnsttThSEAflf“f:‘ :’ atsr;., wl:arch 5o them. Each had gone to the bes e Beaxiie Fegivings genoe g compressor companies, and fac- !Saturday said that 350 tons of but- tories were loaded with orders that |tér: almost enough to provide each would not be finished for some | Civilian inhabitant of the startled years. |community with a ton for his own So Wilson called in all the com- needs, was put ashore at Nome, Al- pressor companies, and had them | 25ka, last October by Oivilian Re- line up their orders. Then he told |5¢rve Food Supply officials, return- them to add extra shifts to their |IN8 Alaskans told The Post-Intel- own plants and subcontract to |!lEencer. about 300 smaller plants. | The butter was part of an unex- pected—and Alaskans say unneeded m:vn“u;:::t\x:xrn n:::eo:m:g‘:):g:ke:f ;f—smplogd ot fogdatfs’ito. Norae, Wall Street broker (the WPB.“‘"‘ w;uch there was no storage Army and Navy are loaded down sxfmcehl_nhthel community, anfi much with both). The compressor manu- ;0 '{w)ch already has spolled on facturers knew that if they didn't|‘he beach. produce, Wilson would demand their designs and set up competi- tors who would be in business against them after the war. That is the last thing they want. Wilson didn't have to make any threats. They understcod his lan- guage. He is getting the compres: 015, fenses of the Mareth line. Food Sent fo Nome, Lefton |were 173 tons of coffee, 78 tons of salad oil, 59 tons of soap, 108 tons |of rolled oats, 5,160 gallons of vine- gar, 503 tons of canned milk, 70 |tons of canned pears, 78 tons of |toilet tissue and 78 tons of dried eggs. Losses Seen High Alaskans charged the stuff was "’purchased and ordered sent by | Washington, D. C., and Chicago government officials to whom Nome |is only a place on the map, and them where nepotism is concerned. who do not realize that its present Here are a few of the Congres- [civilian population numbers only sional yearlings, most of them Re-|about 400 persons, or that the pres- publicans, who are drawing extra |ent civilian population of the whole pay checks for members of their Seward Peninsula numbers not families: |more than 1,200 persons. Representative Alvin E. O'Konski,| The butter was wrapped and Republican, of Wisconsin—His wife, |placed in barrels with brine,. in Veronica H. O'Konski, is his secre- |which condition it will keep many tary at $3,900 a year. imonths or even years. But because Representative James C. Auchin- Alaskans say, there is only “warm closs, Republican, of New Jersey— storage” space enough at Nome NEW CONVERTS TO NEPOTISM * Most freshmen Congressmen pre- fer to be seen and not heard, bul there’s nothing backward about (Continued on Page Two) " (Continued on Page Four) Included in the shipment also\ Four Self-Professed ‘Bureaucrafs’ Quiefly Push Work in Alaska d By JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON, March 8 — You |hear so much adverse criticism of | “bureaucrats” these days that it's "hard to think of them as anything |but government gremlins whose !:t)lc objective is to sand the wheels of our all-out war effort. ] I want to tell you now about one )cr the great home-front produc- {tion sagas of this war, engineer | by four self-professed ‘‘bureaucr: |who modestly insist their achieves | ment was nothing at all compared {to what the boys are doing in the Solomons, New Guinea and North | Africa and further claim that what |credit is due should be given to the [“little army” who worked under them. The “bureaucrats” -are officials of the United States Forest Serv- ice. The three here in Washington |are C. M. “Chris" Granger, assist- ant chief of the service; E. E. “Nick” 'Cnrwr. timber expert; and Earl H. !Clapp, until recently acting chief i forester. The fourth is Charles G. Burdick, Alaska forester, who was lin charge of operations in Seattle, | Wash. Under their direction was |the “little army” of woodsmen, lum- berjacks, foresters, laborers, and Pacific coast seamen. | What they did was blaze a pio- neer trail over land, rushing rivers jand open sea, to bring nearly a mil- |lion board feet of much-needed Sit- |ka spruce to the airplane factories lof the United States (some went {as finished lumber to the factories |in Great Britain). | To go back to the beginning: |spruce (vital to airplane manufac- _ture) reserves in Oregon and Wash- ington were getting short. It ap- peared there would not be enough to see us through the war. Granger, Carter and Clapp were virtually ordered to tap the vast reservoirs of Sitka spruce in Alas- ka—to deliver to northwestern mills an adequate supply of spruce logs from those virgin Alaskan for- ests (where few white men have ever trod) in which the trees grow 150 to 200 feet high and measure seven feet or more through at cut- | (Continued on Page Two) | RED ARMIES (RASHNAZIS Blows Now Aimed at Ger- ‘ man Base af Vyazma- More Villages Fall MOSCOW, March 8-—The Red Army rolled on westward with fresh Soviet troops pouring into the gap in the German lines far west of Ghatsk, south of Olenio, where two Russian columns are apparent- ly planning the doom of the im- portant German base at Vyazma, 35 miles west of Ghatsk. The Russians have captured more than 100 settlements during the past 24 hours, while numerous villages are falling continuously and still others are blockaded by the Red Army and on the verge of alling Large Red Army forces are slic- ing large chunks out of the Ger- man lines, according to the official communigue. -+ Objeds o New Road To Alaska War Secrefiry Opposes’ Proposal Made by Secrefary Ickes WASHINGTON, March 8 — The War Department does not consider the construction of a $25,000,000 mili- tary supply highway to Alaska through Canadian Territory either desirable or as a military necessity Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson has advised Chairman Robinson of the House Roads committee ‘This letter was revealed by Alask Delegate Anthony J. Dimond after Secretary of Interior Harold L Ickes had written to Robinson rec- ommending enactment of a bill to authorize the construction of .the highway. THe Alcan Highway, last November, is being improved wrote Secretary Stimson, and will provide a suitable military highway Representative Magnuson, Chair- man of the Alaska International Highway Commission, told news- 'men he will continue to press pass- |age for the proposed mew highway bill. completed ity BOMBERS IN 'ACTIONMANY NEW SECTORS | WASHINGTON, March 8—Amer- |ican bombers attacked Jap bases in the northwestern and central Sol- omons Sunday, tie Navy announced today, but results have not been reported here. The official communique of Navy said: “On March 7, Lib tor heavy bombers attacked Jap installations on Kabhaili and Ball- ale Islands, in the northland is- land area and bombed enemy po- sitions at Vila on Kolombangara Island. An enemy cargo ship at Kaieta, Bouganville Island was al- so attacked by a Liberator. “Bases on Shortland Island have been heavily pounded for several days suggesting the possibility the main powér of Guadalcanal is now being directed to the destruction of stronger enemy positions rather than toward bases in the Munda jarea, central Solomons, for which Vila is one of the ports” the eating ol [ Bombs fall from a United States Army bomber onlo the El Aouina airport at Tul the raid could be seen by the fliers for 80 miles as they returned to their base. Men 38104510 Redassified; Order Will Affed Millions WARIS NOT GOING TO BE EASY VICTORY Rear Admiral Byrd Calls for Maximum Produc- .fion of Aircraft CATTLE, March 8-—Those who ieve the United States is headed for an easy victory in the global war are living in a “fools’ para- dise,” Rear Admiral Richard Byrd told 4,000 Boeing Aircraft workers here, “Generally speaking, the people of this Nation do not realize how very hard and how tough the going is to be to win this war. I do not say this critically. We piece to- gether the news of our own vic- tories. Most of them are small vic- tories but they naturally lull us into unwarranted complacency,” aid Byrd The Rear Admiral stressed the importance that maximum produc- tion of aircraft is vital to the chances of the United States in winning the war, - CDA WILL MEET TOMORROW EVE Catholic Daughters of America will hold a business meeting at 8 o'clock tomorrow evening in the Parish Hall. 'ON, March 8 — The vice ordered all il Boa to put no more 38 to 45 year-old men in Class 4-H and io transfer men now in that classi- ficaticn'into regular classes but not Lo actually draft them WASHIN! Selective ha. lot Several million men will be affec- ted by the order for the selective draft said¢ The action has the effect of es- tablishing an order in which men over 38 will be inducted “if and when the armed forces determine they cdn be used in military estab- lishments,” the Manpower Commis- sion put it, ‘The chief alm of the new order will induce men over 38 to go into farming. The order provides that any man over 38 who farms now or who takes up farming by May 1, shall be re- classified promptly into deferment classes. the spokesman WASHINGTON, March 8 special committee studying all phases of the manpower problems at the request of President Roose- velt, says an authoritative It is said that it is agreed present military goals of men in the armed force end of this year must be - oo CERTIFICATES FOR TIRES, TUBES ISSUED FIRST WEEK, MARCH Certificates for tires and issued the first weele in Marc to the following: Channel Bus I 2 tubes; M. P, Munter Co. Orme Transfer, 1 tire, 1 aska Light and Power Co., 2 2 tubes. I A is source. that the 10,800,000 by retained the tubes ine 5 tubes Al- tire TO SHIFT OFFENSIVE, NEWAREAS | Indications finited Nations I Will Make Attacks in Several Directions (By Associated Press) The United Nation’s Air Forces |have poured an increasing cascade of bombs on the Japs from the Solomons to Burma, Allied commu- niques announced today as dis- patches from the United Nation's Pacific fleet reported a general feeling among the crews of the war- ships that a new phase in battling is imminent and that there is a ‘\\'idesprend belief by the men who man the Navy's guns that the Al- |lies aYe shifting the offensive to Burma as well as the European front, ‘This is given following the boost given by the smashing offensive success of MacArthur's airmen in destroying the 22-ship Japanese convoy off New Guinea last week. Concerning the defeat, the Jap- anese headquarters today made the first grudging admission, although it was only a halfway acknowledge- ment in the light of the Alliud com- muniques. The Japs admitted two destroyers and five transports were lost in |the Solomons area.between Febru- ary 16 and March 5, the period {covered by the convoy battle. The |Jap communique made no mention, 'however, of the numerous bomb- |ings in the Solomons and no men- [tlun of the loss of an estimated f 15,000 Jap soldiers at the time the Jap convoy was destroyed. Gen. Douglas MacArthur's offi- |clal statement gives the Bismarck |Sea losses of the Japs as three |light crufsers, seven destroyers and 1 [twelve transports. } Tokyo also acknowledged the loss |of only seven planes whereas Gen. I }MucArmur's communique was that 1102 enemy aircraft were put out | )uf the convoy battle alone. On the other hand, the Japs claim ' they |downed 113 Allied planes and sunk ARE SIRU(K‘rUur veziciitloi Authoritative quarters in the | Australian theatre are apprelensive 3 : 3 lest the world's reaction to the Al- Alied Airmen Hit Many Sectors in Solomon . Islands Area lied victory on Bismarck Sea may prove too optimistic, however, at |the time Allied airmen swarming over the convoy in reconaissance |flights took photographs that |showed at least 60 other warships or merchantmen were in the har- bor at Rabaul, New Britain. This concentration was, however, not the largest seen in recent weeks, as large concentrations of Jap war- planes, many of them newly de- veloped, are on bases or strips on various islands facing Australia on the north, Surprisingly, not a single Jap fighter or anti-aircraft gun has of- fered opposition when big American bombers have attacked the Ran- goen River or a second formation of four-motored bombers that swooped low over the Thailand fron- tier and poured bombs on docKs, starting one fire the size of a city block. These raids are believed to be ‘a forerunner of further attacksother than in the Solomons area. - FORMER LEGISLATOR HERE ON WAY SoUTH Chester Spencer, of Fairbanks, and formerly a member of the Ter- ritorial Legislature from the Fourth Division, passed through Juneau on his way south from the Interior. He was here for several days await- ing transportation and left yester- for Seattle ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN AUSTRALIA, March 8--Allied ai |men struck at half a dozen Japan- ese positions over a wide front in the southwest Pacific Sunday, tombing an 8,000 ton enemy cargo! ship off the New Guinea coast and| shcoting down a lone reconnais- sance bomber off Darwin, Austra-| The communique announced ac-, cleration of aerial activity follow- ing the Bismarck Sea victory and | found the Allies bitting airdromes and buildings on the western end of New Britain, the Salamaua sec- tor across the straits of New Guinea and the Kai Islands northwest of Australia. | British Spitfires, in action only a few weeks, have shot down eight Japanese planes in the Darwin sec-| tor and a Liberator crew bombed n enemy cargo ship in Stephen €trait along the -northeastern New Guinea coast. The extent of the damage was not determined, but he ship reduced speed after the bombing. The strongest Japanese aerial made was upon ' Goodenough Island off the Papuan Coast but no amage or casualties were inflicted .o TIDES TOMORROW High Low High Low DIMOUT TIMES Dimout begins tonight at sunset at 6:44 o'clock. Dimout ends tomorrow at sunrise at 7:33 am, ® Dimout begins Tuesday at ® sunset at 6:46 p.m. ‘oo 0000000000 t tide. tide: tide 3:47 am., 10:00 am., 4:06 pm., 10:10 pm,, -oe 183 feet. -1.1 feet 166 feet. 00 feet. BUY WAR BONDS