The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, February 26, 1944, Page 1

VOL. XLI., NO. 9586. BIG ATTACK MADE 0 793 Jap Planes Destroyed in R Wandering Moose On " Alaska Railroad Tracks Is Cause of Bottleneck GREAT AIR VICTORY IN 50. PACIFIC Nof One Interceptor Arises from Bombed Base Since Sunday BULLETIN—ALLIED HEAD- QUARTERS IN THE SOUTH- WEST PACIFIC, Feb. 26—A | total of 793 Japanese planes have been destroyed since the campaign to reduce Rabaul from the air started on Decem- ber 17. This is believed here to constitute the greatest air vic- tory anywhere at anytime. The tabulation ends with the raid of last Sunday because since then the raiders have failed to draw a single Jap plane into the sky. KEEP SMASHING RABAUL ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN (Continued on Page Six) The Washington| Merry - Go - Round By DREW PEARSON (Major Robert 8. Allen on sctive duty.) WASHINGTON—M o5t lucrative! bootlegging in the world today is in ! quinine—also the most tragic from | the viewpoint of U. 8. troops fight- ing in the malaria-ridden tropics. On top of the fatal error of Jesse Jones' aide, Will Clayton, in not buying quinine from the Dutch East Indies when it was available dur-| ing the first two months after Pearl | Harbory U. 8. officials seem frus- trated in their efforts to stop prec- ious quinine from leaking through our fingers, some of it perhaps to; the Axis. ‘These leakages apply to quinine| developed in Latin America, wheref’ we are supposed to control every| single gram. Despite this, hundreds of pounds are slipping out from under the noses of Leo Crowley's Federal Economic Administration of~ ficials. Here is part of the record: On May 19, 1943, Banco Lisboa and Acores of Lisbon sent to the Guaranty Trust of New York a let- ter of credit for Jose Sturm of La Paz, Bolivia for $7,750 covering 150 | kilos of quinine sulphate at $50 a kilo. (Base price set for U. S. buy- ers is $28.40 a kilo.) On May 27, B. Bordoni of Buenos Aires wrote to Chemia, Ltd., of Lis- bon that Jose Sturm had an order for 500 kilos of quinine to be ship- ped in monthly lots. By this time, the price had gone up to $60. Chemia, Ltd., replied accepting the offer. 500 kilos is about 1100 pounds of quinine, enough to last U. S. troops in the Sbuthwest Pacific perhaps a year. On Oct. 20, the Nicaraguan Le- gation in Mexico shipped to Nicar- agua by Pan American Airways 21 packages of quinine, weighing 80 kilos and valued at $4997. The shipment carried the directive that President Somoza be notified per- sonally when the quinine arrived. On Oct. 18, the Bank of Portu- gal in Lisbon instructed the Bank of Manhattan in New York to open an irrevocable credit in favor of J. Sturm in Lisbon of $20,000 for 264 kilos of Bolivian quinine. The ship- ments would be made through an Argentine port. On Nov. 11, 80 kilos of quinine hydrochloride and 10 kilos of qui- nine sulphate were shipped from Peru to the Dominican Republic by Pan American Airways. LEAKAGE CONTINUES Strangely endugh, substantial quantities of quinine are being pur-| chased by various agents in the Do- minican Republic. Why such a small country should need so much qui- nine remains a mystery. As recently as two weeks ago, Leo Crowley’s FEA cabled Quito, Ecu- ador, authorizing purchase of certain _action from New Guinea and New PAC| MARSHALL Britain may figure in the plans, “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” JUNEAU, ALASKA, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1944 HOW Wlll. NIMITZ DRIVE STRAIGHT TO CHINA? IFIC OCEAN THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRIC[: TEN CENTS IPSKOV UNDER IFIRE OF RED MRTILLERY ies Counterattack Nazis' White Russian Arm- | Monty Views Ruins to Close Lines 5 o MOSCOW, Feb, 26—Germany's White Russian armies counter- | 3 DECLARATION by Admiral Nimitz that “his forces intend to drive straight across the Pacific'to China to gain bases for the final defeat of Japan” is certain to raise many questions which this map seeks to illustrate. Since he made the statement shortly after the Marshall Island victory, Kwajalein harbor (1) will doubtless figure prominently. Either Truk or Wake (2) must be openly defied by convoys or quick action taken against them. If Wake is knocked out this “straight drive” might challenge the Jap fleet to “come out.” A more northerly route via Midway (3) appears the final possibility. Where will they try to land in China? That'’s as hard to answer as how a run near the Phlhpplne.s or Formosa can be managed. As arrow indicates, __ (International) ;plug the crumbling central front, but Soviet units fighting through heavy snows, continued fo exploit Ithvh large-scale break-through near #Rogachey, frontline dispatches said. To the northwest the Red Army .is closing in rapidly on Pskov in a two-pronged attack from the north- east and southeast. {the northeast is down the Lenin- railroad and highway, and lattacked desperately in attempts w! The drive from § ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Feb. 26.— Five Alaskan railroad trains were | stalemated as long as two and a half hours today, all because a bull {“canyon” cleared along the tracks by the snowplows. The first train to be stymied by the animal, which had been brows- ing along the tracks since Sundly, was delayed an hour and a half this imorning when it had to trail along behind the moose as it wandered {down the tracks and finally got by | when the moose balked at a bridge crossing. The second train, however, was halted when the moose finally de- cided to cross the bridge and slipped § |and fell between the ties. moose was unable to get out of a | JAP PACIFIC BASES abaul Raids 3 ISLANDS RAIDED BY - U. S. FLEET 'Nip Torpedo Bombers Spot Oncoming Warships- Are Shot Down | PAC'FIC FLEET HEADQUAR- |TERS IN PEARL HARBOR, Feb. |—Battleships, escorted by a task force, ranging 3800 miles west of here last Tuesday to strike at the Marianas, wiped out 135 Japanese planes, scored against shipping and caused heavy destruction and did not lose one war vessel. Disclosures of the results by Ad- miral Chester W. Nimitz is per- mitted by lifting of the radio silence, CARRIES OUT RAID, REICH Two-Way Assualt Costs Al- lies Record Loss of MUCHCREDIT grad placed the Russians in a position to ishell Pskov’s outer defenses. e Fearful of approaching close The warships were not even dam- enough to help the animal, the aged, despite the fact the approach conductor, Kenneth Porter, and plow was detected the day before the operators Sgt. Rinaldo and John attack by enemy torpedo planes that GREATFLEET Urge Byron Price Nof ‘ToTake Over OWI; Has Record on (ensorshlp TWO STRIKES IN 24 HOURS BY JACK STINNE‘I"I‘ | WASHINGTON, Feb. 26. — Re- gardless of the seemingly insur- “1_AT DETROIT. 59 Planes LONDON, Feb. 26. — A massiyve fleet of British bombers carried out a crushing attack on the burning city of Augsburg last night, and piled up a total of more than 17,000 tons of bombs dropped on Ger- many in the unparalleled six-day offensive on the Reich’s aircraft in- GIVEN SUBS IN CONQUEST American Undersea Craft mountable political difficulties and bitterness between England and India, there is apparently no hard Armor Plate for Navy‘ | | | Manley halted the train until the moose regained his footing. Once across the bridge, the animal continued down the track, the train ; following at a moose page until it came to a section house’ where it refused to go any farther. Trainmen attempting to pass, re- | treated in front of the moose’s counterattacks. Porter finally man- , tried repeatedly to sink them. Six out of hundreds of attacking planes from carrier bases were lost. Three-Point Attack The attack was made on Saipan, Tinian and Guam by Rear Admiral Mare Mitscher’s: carrier force, Guam, 120 miles south of Saipan was bombed for the first time. The elusive Jap fleet was not aged to deploy around to gain en- found in- Saipan’s ‘harbor ‘bot & , trance to the section house where he telephoned to Anchorage for per- mission to shoot the bottleneck. The train finally got on its way cargo ship was sunk, another dam- aged so badly it was beached and | third was set afire, One patrol craft was blown up, Landing Barges Held two hours and forty minutes late several small boats damaged; rin- to meet three other trains similarly Ways, seaplane aprons, airdrome fa- feeling between the men of both countries who shoulder guns. A young British Tommy from| Newbury, Eng., who escaped from| a Nazi prison camp somewhere tymed 3,000 workers back from the along the Polish border and is in gates of the Great Lakes Steel Washington on an undisclosed mis-| Gorporation plant, halting all pro- Up by Walkout { DETROIT, Feb. 26—CIO pickets| ision, tells this story of cooperation duetion at the only mill producing | dustry. The German radio said the large- scale attacks on the chemical center of Frankfurt were made at the same time the Swiss radio said night flights had crossed Switzer- land from Italy. ‘The Air Ministry said the op- eration on Augsburg was “in yery great strength.” The city, center of aerial engine production, was attacked twice by large forces of Lancasters and Halifaxes. Twenty- four planes were lost in these as- saults. During the operations in yester- day's two-way assault on the Reg- ensburg Messerschmidt factory from both Britain and Italy, 142 enemy aircraft were destroyed, against the loss of 69 heavy bombers, which loss set a record for a single day’s sorties. The Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy ran into more than 250 ene- my fighter planes and lost 39 planes, and the Eighth Air Force flying from Britain lost 30. i BRITISH ARE USING NEW DEVICES IN ANTI-AIRCRAFTING NEW YORK Feb. 26—The Bfl- tish Information service here saldl the British Antiaircraft batteries) are now aided by “new secret de-| vices” shooting down eight Ger-! 'much of the whittling down,” Nim- Sink 500 Japanese | Ships * U. S. SUBMARINE BASE AT PEARL HARBOR, Feb. 26.—Ameri- can submarine skippers who have sunk nearly 500 Japanese ships, are credited by Adm. Chester Nimitz with a big share ire the success of the conquest of the Gilbert and| Marshall Islands. “The enemy has not come to the rescue of the beleaguered garrisons | in the Gilberts and Marshalls for reasons best known to himself. However, I ' believe that insuffi-{ cient shipping and an unbalanced fleet are among the reasons. The acute shortage of shipping and lack of sufficient screening types is the result of the steadly shuttling of his merchent marine and combat ships. | “The gallan submarines have done itz said. ARMY-NAVY AR FORCES MAY MERGE ‘WASHINGTON, Feb. 26.—Con- among the fighting men. Three hundred Indian troops, captured in North Africa, were brought into the camp. Seon after their arrival, the Nazis punished the British troops, already there for some minor infractions of pri- son camp rules. The pnishment consisted of withholding from the; lBriush their Red Cross packages. The Indians put their turbans to- gether, chose a committee and de- manded to see the camp comman- dant. Given an audience, they no-! tified the commandant they wouldn’t accept Red Cross packages either until the privilege was re- stored to their British brothers- in-arms. Friends and kibitzers are urging; Byron Price not to take over the domestic affairs of the Office of War Information, should he be of- fered the job if and when OWI|who sald it was necessary because| becomes another war mismanage- ment casualty. There is no feeling that Price couldn’t handle domestic OWI but they fear the bickering and squab- bling that has surrounded OWI from its inception might jeopardize | the faith and confidence Price built| up for his splendidly managed Of-| fice of Censorship. Why, they argue, | tack OWI's had name orito Censor- ship’s unblemished record? ‘The feeling generally here is that the trouble with OWI hasn’t been |armor plate for United States Navy :lnndtng barges. | The strike started with the walkout of 900 workers yesterday | protesting the discharge of an em- ployee who left the plant without |permission. Six thousand are idle as the night shift stayed away, but fires were kept under the furnaces. Headquarters of the CIO United |Steel Workers Union confirmed |that the dispute was over the dis- | ciplining by the manugemem. which was the “only issue.’ | The company said that the armor | plate “is needed badly and’in some |instances has been flown by air- plane to assembly points.” It was the second major strike in ithe area during the past 24 hours. Yesterday 7,000 workers made a protest through the CIO United | Automobile Workers against the closing today of one plant of the Briggs Manufacturing Company, of changes in the production ischedule of the Navy. The plant | makes airplane wings. 'VESSEL ARRIVES " FROM SITKA: 33 LEAVE FOR SOUTH A vessel arrived from Sitka today | with the following passengers for GEN. SIR Bernard L. Montgomery, commander of Brilish armies in the European area, is shown in one of his last pictures as commander of the British 8th Army in Italy, against the background of a ruined church in Fossacesia. Canadian Army photo. (Intemanonal) WILL REVIEW OCCUPATIONAL WASHINGTON, Feb. 26.—Presi- |dent Roosevelt, estimating the armed forces are still short approxi- mately 200,000 trained men, has crdered a review of all occnpational deferments “with a view of speed- ily making available” the personnel required. to carry on the war. A memorandum to this effect has (been sent to War Manpower Chair- man McNutt and Selective Service Director Hershey. The memorandum urges agricul- |ture and industry to release younger | men physically qualified for mili- tary service. e GAMBLING CASE FROM ALASKA IN SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Feb. 26, DEFERMENTS APPEALS COURT| man planes with shells needed in solidated Army and Navy Air Forc- 1940 to shoot down one. 1’es on equal level into a single gov- British Gunners are now using ernment department have been ad- 'a gun that weighs two tons and vocated by some high military \fires as many as 122 pounders a quarters. | It is proposed for accomplishment, while the war is still going on, for efficiency in operations and assign- minute to a height of 6,000 feet. . ment commands. STOCK QUOTATIONS The Washington Post says in a NEW YORK, Feb. 26. — Closing'copyrighted story, the matter is un. quotation of Alaska Juneau mine der consideration jointly by the stock today is 6, Anaconda 25%, Chief of Staff and there is every Bethlehem Steel 58%, Common- indication pointing to its approval wealth and Southern 11/16, Curtiss and recommendation, Wright 5%, International Harvester | To President Roosevelt, arguments 71, Kennecott 31%, North American |are being advanced among the Aviation 8%, New York Central|ranking commanders and possibly 18%, Northern Pacific 16%, Unll,ed!'hey have already presented to the States Steel 51%, Pound $4.04. President that the time to achieve quinine produced in that country. —— (Continued (n Page Four) Dow, Jones averages today are unity in the armed service is now as_follows: industrials 136.58, ralis|while they, in fact, are united in 36%3, utilities 23.46. many important ways. lin the leadership but in the in- compatibility of propaganda K and news. Elmer Davis, OWI chief, has been one of the most harassed well- intentioned men in Washington, simply because you can’t combine news and propaganda and satisfy anybody. He has fought hard to get the news . out and has been blocked: by the War, Navy, State and prac-| tically any other department that claimed stories might be of mili- tary importance to the enemy. He has struggled, too, to get the pro-| some one else in authority was playing politics with it. The belief now is that OWI will disappear completely, either by ex- ecutive order or Congressional ac- (Continued on Page Six) paganda out, despite constant crit-! icism from Congress that he or| Juneau—Mrs. Ed Christensen, Mrs. —The United States Circuit Court Harry Hagen, L. T. Peterson, and of Appeals has ruled the Govern- Mrs. Josephine DeGanahl. menz‘s appeal in the Pete Jones *The boat departed for the south | |gambling case in Alaska is entitled this forenoon with a load of pas-|to stand. sengers including these for Seattle—| Jones was arrested in 1942 in An- |Mr. and Mrs. Frank Stine, 8. H.lchorage and was convicted of |Cohen, W. D. Blackham, R. Jame-|maintaining a gambling house in son, E. M. Fritts, A. C. Bromley,lyiolation of the 1919 Alaskan sta- . E. Crooks, Laurin Haapa, Alma‘tme Rnbortaon, Mrs. B. B. Coble, Mrs. Two days later Jomes was ryo- R. Richardson, George WONS,'|. .cq on a habeas corpus order, Grace McNallen, Charles Gammon, Ole Syre, and J. Carson. | The following month Judge Si- Por Ketchikan — Dr. D. ,\mon Hellenthal sustained his de- Knowles, Mrs, Hansen, Chris Hen- {murrer holding the law invalid. | , Mrs. W. C. Miller, Sig E.! The Government appealed from Johnson, Mrs, Johnson, Mr. and the decision but Jones movel to| |Mrs, L. Englert and John Ethridge, dismiss the appeal on the grounds |' Por Petersburg—Mrs. Carl Roger, the appeal was too long delayed. Ben Folger, Mr. and Mrs. H. A.| This contention has been over- |Jensen; Glen Nore, Sylvia Nore, and Tuled by the U. 8. Circuit Court of | C. B. Harris. Appeals. . delayed because of its fajlure to meet siding schedules. The moose will soon grace the tables of the Eklutna Vocational School for Natives. SEN. MNARY. 'PASSES ON IN FLORIDA Republican Minority Lead-| er Dies Suddenly-Was | . Nationally Known | WASHINGTON, Feb. 26.—Senator Charles L. McNary, 68, Republicas x' minority leader, died yesterday at' Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He had (been ill for several months after a brain operation, but friends were; shocked at the news of his sudden passing as the latest word received by his colleagues here was that he| was on the road to positive recovery. His present term would not have expired until 1949, Senator McNary won national at- tention in 1927 as the co-author of the McNary-Haugen farm relief bill. | He played a major part in me; successful enactment of the legis- lation, which provided for the| seventy million dollar Bonnevule’ dam power. Senator MecNary was running ticket headed by Wendell L. Wilikie which carried only ten states against 38 for Roosevelt in 1940. He went to the Senate in 1917. Senator MeNary was born onya farm near Salem, Oregon, June 12, 1874. McNary married Jessie Breyman, mate on the national Republican| cllities, fuel dumps and buildings were bombed heavily at the three points. Force Is Detected The task force was detected on the afternoon of February 21, and that night and the following morn- ing, Jap land-based torpedo planes {and bombers kept after the on- coming naval units and warships which put up a terrific anti-aircraft fire barrage, bagging 19 planes. Five more were later shot down. Despite being warned, 87 Jap planes were wiped out on the |ground and 20 more were shot down later in combat. ELUSIVE JAP FLEET WASHINGTON, Feb. 26—Secre~ 'tary of Navy Frank Knox axpress- td the belief at a press confer~ ence the Jap fleet has possibly withdrawn either to home waters or to the Philippines. Knox said he could draw only two conclusions for failure of the Japs to make an appearance. Pirst ~—they do not want to meet Ameri- can forces; and second—the fleet “may be waiting until we are wide- ly extended.” American Red Cross San Frandsco Girl Is Killed in Action ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN NAPLES, Feb. 26.—The death of the first American Red Cross girl killed in action in this war theatre is an- nounced. Miss Esther Richards, | former San Francisco hospital social worker, was a victim of the German bombing of the Anzio beachhead on February 7. NAZIS LOSSES & childhood friend, in 1902. Years later she was killed in an automo- bile accident. In 1929 he married Cornelia Morton, of Chicago. They had an adopted daughter, Char- lotte. The McNary home is “Fircone” a showplace of western Oregon sit- uated five miles from Salem on {land which he once tilled as a boy. On it magnificent firs are reflected ;n :ieep p;;labnnd interlaced with stream y an ice-cold s Filbert and' prune orchurdsm:::- round a tennis court ‘and a golf putting course, N HEAVY, ITALY ALLIEL _HEADQUARTERS IN ALGIERS, Feb. 26—The Germans may have lost 15,000 casualties in the Italian operations since Janu- ary 22, including the latest offen- sive against the Allied beachhead, the Anzio Headquarters spokesman said. Operations on the beachhead to- day are reported as minor, because of weather condftions, only patrol activities.