The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, December 13, 1943, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME" VOL. XLIL, NO. 9522. JUNEAU, ALASKA, MON: DAY, DECEMBER 13, 1943 — MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS e e GERMAN ADRIATIC LINE CRACKED NOW Roosevelt Visits Sicil ARMY TROOPS ARE REVIEWED BY PRESIDENT Chief Executive's Desire fo Go to ltalian Front Is Vetoed ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN ALGIERS, Dec. 13. — President Roosevelt visited Sicily on his re- cent trip to the Mediterranean and ]Republicans | Fail to A OnPEposals Make Declarationfi But Don’t Go on Record- Statehood for Alaska SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Dec. 13.| —Despite assertions of delegates |“we are now prepared to go and ,demand a place in the sun,” the |twu»dny conference of Republicans from 11 western states placed on | H - TANKBATTLE reviewed ‘the American Seventh Armyc i . tmanded Wi reference to that demand. . A, The only specific request was that 1t is announced the President .g.giern industries be given the flew from Malta to the Castelve-| ... concderation for opportunity tranto Air Field in his big Douglas in reconversion to post-war needs| transport accompanied by 12 Light- as eastern industries.” ning fighters. Fred Baker, of Seattle, Washing- At the airport he entered & jeeD 4o, Ngtional Committeeman, pre- ";h dm“‘ m‘\‘:d D EM::":’;: sented proposed expressions for for- and drove up and down eign policy, taxation and postwar front - where hundreds of soldiers v cinecs regulation of social welfare record a declaration that made little RED DEFENSE RALLYING IN Back of German Counter Offensive Appears fo Be Broken BULLETIN — MOSCOW, Dec. 13.—Soviet planes are coming into action after' forced inac- tivity for one week, due to wea- ther, and are reported turning the tide of battle west of the Dnieper where the Russians have thrown back the enemy tank forces which advanced to the main sector of the Kiev bulge. LONDON, Dec. 13. — Russian defense forces, rallying in one of the mightiest continuing tank bat- tles of the war, lashed out against the attacking German forces pound- ing at Kiev and have retaken sev- g BIG DAYLIGH ATTACK MADE, NW.GERMANY {American Heavy Bombers | Soar Out Early Today fo ' Smash Nazi Targets LONDON, Dec. 13.—Strong forces; of American heavy bombers thunds ered through the concentrations of enemy fighter planes and flak in & new daylight assault today in one of the most heavily bombed regions of the world, northwest Germany. ¢ Specific targets are not immed- iately named by the Eighth Aifr | Force headquarters in the announce- ment but the most important cities of the Reich lie in the northwest territory inciuding battered Hams | burg, Wilhelmshafen, Bremen and | Emden. { United States Marauders, escortedl | by Royal.Air Force, Dominian and | Allied fighters, struck at Schipol aig- ) 'Butch’ Gives No Answer To Call; Ace of Pacific War Goes DowninBattle! SOUTH PACIFIC GAINS MADE, ALLIED UNITS 'liberator Bombers Make lined up on the runway. Flanked by. Patton, Eisenhower and Lt. Gen. Mark Clark, the (Continued on Page Two) The Washington Merry - Go- ound Ibut the resolutions committee de- clined to recommend them. The Republican delegates however proposed immediate statehood for Alaska. 1 -ro | Kirovograd. They | field in Amsterdam in another dags eral hamlets, killed 1,600 Germans, | jight gperation today. 7 and wrecked 325 tanks, a report! Britain's tireless fleet of Mogd from Moscow says. {quito bombers penetrated Clermanis, Two hundred miles to the south for the third successive night last the Russians haVe announced the! capture of the town of Chigrin at| the northern end of their Kremen- | chug brideghead and have captured | eight, moje. populated places in their | drive for the Industrial town ofj} also reported fighting in the streets of Cherkasy tacks on targets. in_the weste: Reich. v ABOARD U .S. CARRIER OFF TARAWA, Nov. 27. — (Delayed)— “Butch, this is Phil, Butch, this is Phil.” 7 Again and again, Lieut. Comdr. John Phillips spoke over the radio [transmitter of his torpedo bomber and strained his eyes for a glimpse of the familiar plane in the night. But Butch, Lieut. Comdr. Edward O'Hare, 29, hard flying, hard fight- ing Congressional Medal of Honor ace of the Pacific war, never answered. Butch had gone down fighting. O'Hare was lost last night, the| third successive night attack and’ the most sustained by enemy planes l. on g High's '0 S'rike Enemy Positions on this task force. : Exactly what happened no one| knows. | Rear Admiral Arthur Bradford, —_— commander of the task force said,/ ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN “Butch with the accompanying THE SOUTHWEST PACIFIC, Oec. planes saved my formation from 13.—Sharp but localized ~clashes certain torpedo hits, and I was feature fighting in the ground sec- recommending him for & second tors during the past three days Congressional Medal of Honor.” |while "Liberator bombers made long The Hellcat fighter was last seen"over-wster hops from Northwest in the early minutes of a blazing Australia to blast the Japanese oil 2-hour battle against 30 to 40 ene- supply centers in occupled The my torpedo planes. Netherlands East Indies. Batfle Over Subsidies Infense; Many Lobbies Adivein Wa-shinghnT _euit, tv understand the intensity of - American troops beat off sharp counter-attacks in the northeas! sector of Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville Island, but Marines| and soldiers expanded their holdings and established an air strip, Australian infantry, supported by 'tanks and artillery, pushed up the coast on Huon Peninsula, New Guinea, against stiff opposition. In the Ramu River Valley, Aus- tralian cavalry and infantry patrols met the Japanese and several sharp |clashes took place. Long bomber flights were made to Balikpagan, on the southeast coast of Borneo, to BY JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON, Dec, 13—Unless' you are on ‘the ground, it' is diffi- the battfe over subsidies. 1 doubt if there has been pres- was 2,600 miles roundttip. _oovmweon | ARE SCORED BY (fl INESE Considerable Advance In- dicated During Past 24 Hours-Bloody Fight CHUNGKING, Dec. 13—The re-| i | 1 WASHINGTON—Two-fisted Sen- ator - Vandenberg of Michigan, no friend of the Roosevelt Administra- tion, summed up the soldier-vote bill situation when he said that the Eastland substitute would “make it practically impossible for absentee Michigan servicemen to vote.” “A man is entitled to vote as well as to fight,” concluded Vandenberg. One thing he had in mind is the fact that most State legislatures are {break through with almost 2,000 itry. 35 miles farther north. | ‘The Moscow radio gave new de- tails of the battle in the Kieyv bulge, ! where German Field Marshal Gen.] Fritz von Mannstein tried vainly to! tanks and many divisions of infan-| In one sector the Germans at- tempted to break through the So-| viet defense lines but were thrown back, and over 600 dead were left on the approaches to our positions as well as seven German burningl tanks,” the report said. BULGARIAAS CRISISNEARS 'Balkan Stae Tofters Under| Propaganda, Allied Bombs and Fear ent in Washington in recent years any larger or more active lobby than that fighting subsidies. One exhausted Congressman who had been in the thick of the subsidy scrap told me he believed there were “at least several hundred” anti-subsidy . group representatives in the capital. Mostly, they are speaking for farm organizations, dairy men and cattle raisers. From the outset, sub- et sidy proponents in Congress admit- | WASHINGTON, Dec. 13.—Secre- ted their defeat on passage of the, tary of War Henry L. Stimson dis- bill which would end all Commodity | |closed in a report to the Senate Credit Corporation financed subsi- 'BY STIMSON Coisar "S;;;é Fifeaten-| ingly and with Harsh- ness’' fo Soldier Libegators also flew 2,400 miles round trip to hit the harbor area at Makassar, southwest Celebes Is- dands. The attack resulted in fires jon the wharves, The Japanese sent fighters to the Ramu River Valley but they were! driven off with greatly outnumbered Allied - Kittyhawks. Flu Hits not scheduled to meet next year, and a number will ot meet until after elections. Therefore, it s a safe bet that few legislatures would act on the recommendation of .the Eastland Bill to pass absentee sol- diers’ vote legislation. s Vandenberg's statement, together with the fight waged by Senator Scott Lucas of Ilinois, co-author of the original soldier-vote bill, were among the few high points of “statesmanship in one of the worst ‘debacles of democracy so far seen pmong the so-called statesmen of the U. S. Senate. In contrast, there were many low points, one of them stirred up by white-thatched Senator James M. Tunnell of Deleware, who declared of the Eastland substitute: “If the Senate does not want the boys to vote, let it say so fearlessly. Let us * notruse a subterfuge and pretend we are giving them something when we are not.” To| this, Senator “Cotton Ed” Smith of South Carolina replied: “Doesn’t the Senator believe his State is patriotic enough—as are other States—to call a special ses- sion of ‘the legislature to provide an opportunity for the precious boys to vote?” Raging with fury, Tunnell shot back: “Why does the Senatér speak 80 sarcastically by saying ‘the pre- clous boys?” Smith spiittered in confusion, did not ‘' answer \ the question. Finally regaining his composure after the emotional slipiup, the South Caro- linian asked Tunnel} if it would be “impossible” to ‘call special sessions of State legislatures. Tunnell re- plied that 1t would be “impossibe to get soldlers to vete in accordance with the proposed_substitute, and/ no one knows it any better than capture of Niupitan east of Chang- teh, retaking of 10 villages north- west of Changteh, and the encircle- ment ‘of 2,000 Japs, nore than 500 {0f Whém' were killed, was announc- | ed today by the Chinese command, | following bloody “Rice Bowl” fight- | ing. Escaping remnants of the sur- rounded force fled towdrd Linli, 25 miles north of Changteh. | Results of the fighting were not' unmixed, however, for the Chinese admitted the loss of Shihmen, im- portant town 40 miles northeast of Changteh. Panlungkiao, 20 miles northwest of Changteh was among the towns occupied by the Chinese. The report indicated a consider- able advance during the past 24 hours by Chinese yesterday, who said they had cleared the enemy from a 13-mile zone northwest of Changteh. i Heavy fighting is reported around the Yangtze River port of Ichang where the Chinese sald their troops are attacking the outer defenses of the Jap base after hand to hand engagements which resulted in the capture of several villages. COLD WAVE IS HITTING WIDE AREAS (By Associated Press) A cold wave warning has been issued covering the Ohio Vailey, Middle and North Atlantic States after temperatures fell below zero. ‘Temperatures are predicted to | | | In another sector the Russians,! LONDON, Dec, 13.—A peace or apparently counter offensing, dis- war crisis, inspired in part by fear lodged the Germans from 'séveral of an expected Allied invasion of populated places, killed 1,000 more |the Balkans is shaking Bulgaria to Germans, destroyed 28 tanks, four ! her very foundations, amid some Ithat Lt. Gen. George S. Patton had “spoken threateningly and with undo harshness” to a soldier who Iraued to wear leggings in combat Over Half dies Dec. 31. Their “objective fs simply to marshal enough strength to sustain the President’s veto of | ;Lhe bill, which also is considered a Officers Decorated EIGHTH ARMY HAS CAPTURED HIGH GROUND Wrests Part of Long Front from Three German - s ee Divisions ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN ALGIERS, Dec. 13. — Cracking a portion of the new 15-mile long Adriatic line on which the Germans massed three divisions, the British Eighth Army has captured the ele- vated ground overlooking the sea- coast town of Ortona, anchor of the enemy defenses guarding the roaus both to Pescara and Chieti. Official advices report fierce fighting along the entire sector ex- tending from Ortona, which is three miles north of the Moro River, through Orsogna to Guardiagrele on the slopes of the Maiella Moun- tains which tower up 8,000 feet, 15 miles in from the sea. New limited gains of Montgom- ery's warriors, which included wi- dening of two more river bridge- heads, came in 'the face of strong enemy counter-attacks in that sec- tor while a Jull prevailed on the PFiftli Army front. Eameeie oo v n e ood the storage tank areas, The fligh £ GETSDEATH SENTENCE \Thomas H. Robinson, Jr., After Rgpeal on Life Sen- tence, Gefs Hot Chair LOUISVILLE, Dec. 13.—Federal Judge Miller has sentenced Thomas H. Robinson, Jr, to die March 1 in Kentucky's electric, chair for kidnapping of Mrs. Alice Speed Stoll, of Louisville, in 1934, |reaching the battle lines. ELIGIBLE FOR tcall a “rich field” for military man- {as 4-F. Under the new draft bill {the President will appoint a com- | :thé “Senator from South Carolina.”|reach 15 degrees below gero tonight “I do not know any such thing,” in upper New York and the New replied Smith meekly. England States. . “Then the Senator doesn’t know| In the Midwest, Duluth, Minn., re« as much as he should know,” coun- |Ports 12 degrees below zero today tered Tunnell amid laughter from|and at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, the ‘.uem it is nine degrees below. — e T (Contiued on Page Wour) BUY WAR BONDBv | ) self-propelled guns and 40 trucks. | ‘The Red Army is using self-pro- pelled 150 m.m. artillery with greatJ success against the fresh Nazi tanks 4FS MAY BE ARMED FORCES Physical Standards of Army | and Navy May Be Low- ered, Is Report WASHNGTON, Dec. 13. — Draft | officials are awaiting the return of President Roosevelt for a 7 to clarify the Selective Service pic- turé, and are explorinpg what they power. ‘There are 3,400,000 men classified mission to study the physical stand- ards of the army and navy. If these standards are lowered a lot of 4-F rejects may be eligible for service next May. ‘This will delay the drafting of pre-Pear]l Har- bor fathers to some extent as Con~ gress intended. Officials emphasized that no plan to ‘induct fathers by age groups as reported by Represéntative May were being made. PRNIECERS 2 SO JERRY ALLEN VISITS HERE Jerry Allen, nephew of G. E.| Allen, of the Thomas Hardware Co., southbound from the westward, called on friends here today while his steamer was in port. w move |, indications that the world will have but a little more time to wait for the promised East - West - South knockout blows against Hitler. “The next hundred days will be as important in the history of the world as the hundred days before ‘Waterloo,” declared Lord Siram- bolgi, chief labor whip of the House of Lords, in a speech yesterday. “Then Napoleon met his fate and Hitler will meet his, if we act brave- ly and swiftly.” Bulgaria, first in defeat in the 1918 debacle of the Germanic pow- ers, is again treading a similar path. Continental reports say there are great numbers of Nazi troops there, but the Bulgarians are anxious to continue their traditional friend- ship with Russia but are reluctant to break with Germany . This key central Balkan kingdom is wobbling precariously under the impact of both Allied and Nazi propaganda as well as the most direct menace; of Hitlers bayonets and further, by still heavier 'l0ads of Allied aerial bombs, - . ¢ Backed by German arms the pup- pet Bulgatiiin government is fight- ng’a growing revolt of the worried | pro-Russian population. Associated Press correspondent | Prank/O'Brien, writing from Ankara, said the third American air attack on Sofia on: Priday convinced the Bulgarian citizen his life and prop- erty are in danger by his govern- ment’s alliance with the Nazis 0.E. SWILL ELECT OFFICERS TUESDAY Election of officers will be held tomorrow night at a metting of the Order of Eastern Star in the lodge room of the Scottish Rite Temple. ‘The session will begin at 8 o'clock. Members are reminded to take their donations for the Christmas welfare baskets as this will be theis. last opportunity before the baskets are made up. duty because his ankles were swol- certainty. If that happens, Congress len. i This - was the only criticism of ‘rthk nature made against Gen. fwill merely be going ‘over the same ground it did earlier in the year. In view of all this some Congress- - OfNafion Absenleeisrfi Hits War Patton, except the previously re- men are surprised that the public ported incidents in which the Gen-!generally has shown so little inter- eral “cuffed” one soldier and up- est in the subsidy battle. I don't be- braided another in Sicilian hospi-‘l_lwe that is sp difficylt to under- tals, Stimson said. qund. In the first plgee, it's rather| In a further report on the Pat-|a dull “subjéct. In the second, it’s ton case, which has been under in-jone of those economic matters any vestigation by the Senate Military discussion of which almost‘immed- Committee, Stimson confirmed the iately flies off into the realm of |Private Charles Kuhl and occurred theory. one hspital-incident which involved' In Canada particularly and in August 3. It was followed by a sim- England, too, subsidies have been ilar incident in another hospital on applied to hold the inflation line. August 10. ———————— FDR MAY TALK TO (ONGRESS Presideni May Give First | Hand Report on Con- ferences_, ! Asked WASHINTON, Dec, 13.—Congress|gotten out of line. may hear from President Roosevelt| Whether they will do all these a first hand report of his epochal|things, whether it is the most eco- war conferences aboard. This pos- nomical method of obtaining those sibility is held out by Presidential’ends, and whether those ends are Secretary Early who said he “na-|really for the best interests of the turally anticipates” an invitation for country and the producers involved| A subsidy is a payment by the government of a portion of the cost of any article. If for example, the price of butter to the dairy is to be 45 cents a pound, yet the price | has to be held to that level to the consumer, then the government Isteps in and pays the distributor |enoughi, say five cents, to make it possible for him to meet both prices. | ‘Those figures are, of course, hy- pothetical and the actual adminis- tration of subsidies is much more complicated. The objectives prima ily are (1).to hold down the c of living and thus ‘head off de- mands for higher wages—in other werds, preventing inflation; (2) to} stimulate production of needed products; and (3) in some instanc- es to roll back prices- which have the President to address the law-| |makers as did /Secretary of State| are the questions which have raised all the ruckus. For the most part, Cordell Hull upon his return from | Moscow. “The President would respond to such @n invitation,” Early said. ———- BUY WAR BONDS spokesmen insist that the farmers want no part of this control sys- tem. The administration insists that it is vitally necessary. (Continued on Page Two) Plants, Schools, Offices in East and Midwest (By Associated Press) Absenteeism in war plants, offices | and'schools mounted in eastern and midwest United States today owing to an increasing respiraory ailment variously diagnosed as grippe, in- fluenza, “cat fever,” and common | cold. Public Health officials describe the illness as mild but highly in- fectious. Few deaths have resulted, ‘The victims generally have a high temperature, they ache, sneeze and| cough, and the majority remain at home. | In many sections war plants are operating on a restricted basis. T "Washingtdn, D. ., it is esti- mated 100,000 pe: affected | E 3 and’ school aftendance is off 30| NEW CABLE SHIP FOR ALASKA IS LAUNCHED, SEATTLE SEATTLE, Dec. 13.—The Col. Wil~ lam C. Glassford, especially built| craft to eventually be used by the| Signal Corps, United States Army, | has been launched here. The craft will be used in Alaskan waters to handle submarine cables where the ordinary cable vessel is unable to go, Cal. Pred P. Andrews, Commanding Officer of the Alaska Communications System, asserted. The new ship draws but six feet of | | | The Federal Court jury convicted Robinson Saturday and recommend- ed the death penalty, but the judge could ' have imposed a lesser sen= tence, Robingon pleaded guilty to the charge in 1936. At that time he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He won a jury trial after he obtained a writ of habeas corpus releasing him from Alcatraz prison, where he had served six and one half years of a life term, He colitended he’ was insane at the time of the kidnapping and was coerced by agents of the Fed- eral ‘Bureau of Investigation into pleading guilty and that he was not represented properly by coun- sel. Sl ——— U. S. COURT OF CLAIMS MAY BE FINAL ARBITER OF ALL WAR CONTRACTS WASHINGTON, Dec. 13. — The Senate Pinance Committee has vot- ed to make the United Staes Court of Claims final arbiter renegotia- tions of war contracts designed to elimindte any excesive profits. The House has passed the two billion one hundred and forty two million - dollar tax bill that would give the Uy 8. Tax curt the job of passing on disputes growing out of renegotiations between contrac- tors, Army and Navy. water,