The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, March 7, 1944, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” JUNEAU, ALASKA, TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1944 VOL. XLI., NO. 9594. MEMB — ER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS 176 NAZI PLANES DOWNED, AR BATTLE U.S. Subs on Pacific Will Strike New Blows 3 NIMITZ IS PREDICTING BIG SMASH Undersea Crfi Are Doing: Great Work—Another | Atoll Is Captured | WASHINGTON, March 7. — Ad- miral Chester W. Nimitz reported on his arrival here for a series of | conferences, that American forces have occupied Majuro Atoll in the| Marshall Islands and also that our| submarines may deliver a Kkilling| blow on the Pacific. | Admiral Nimitz said the American troops encountered no upposmon‘ when they invaded Majuro, a for-| mer supply base. No Japs were found on the Atoll, Admiral Nimitz told the newsmen, adding the little | island will provide the American | forces with a good anchorage for advance positions in the mid-Pacific Marshalls. Admiral Nimitz declined any dis- cussions the new base might be used for. As for the work of the ‘American submarines, Admiral Nimitz said:| “They are taking such a heavy t,oll] of Jap shipping that the lack of shipping may be a cantrolling fac-| tor in the war against Japan. Our| submarines are increasing in num-' ber and efficiency even though the, number of targets is slowly de- ! creasing.” The Was‘hingion5 Merry - Go- Round 1 By DREW PEARSON (Lt. Col. Robert S. Allen now on active service with the Army.) | WASHINGTON—The second talk which CIO chief Phil Murray had| with President Roosevelt over m national service act was plobably the most significant from labor’s | point of view. The President wanted to see Mur- ray in order to get the powerful backing of CIO uniens for the ad- ministration’s subsidy fight in Con-‘ gress. The Scotch-burred CIO chieftain, one of Roosevelt’s staun-| chest supporters, readily promised his aid on subsidles. Then the Pres- ident remarked that he had noted Murray was opposed to his labor draft proposal. Murray told him that he was most emphatically opposed. “For whom do you speak?” a.sked the President. Murray replied that he spoke for the CIO. ‘Whereupon Roosevelt handed him a telegram from Julius Emspak, head of the Electrical Workers, a CIO union, endorsing a national service act. The Electrical Workers, is ‘one of the left-wing CIO un- jons, and the President indicated that he had other telegrams of en- dorsement from left-wing CIO un- ions, including Harry Bridges’ long- shoremen and Joseph Curran's Na- tional Maritime Union. Despite this strong hint that Murray couldn’t control his own| unions, the CIO chief stood his ground. He asked the sident whether he intended to go ahead with his plan to draft labor, even if Congress would not approve his entire five-point program. These five points included: ()| a realistic tax law taxing unreason- able profits; (2) renegotiation of war contracts; (3) subsidies to keep \ | | i prices down; (4) a new pnce-wugn‘ stabilization act; (5) a national| service act. MURRAY WINS HARMONY Murray asked this question be- cause he knew Congress was Oppos- ing most of this program and that the President would have a hard time carrying the first four points. A national service act might be easier. Roosevelt agreed that Congress NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES PACI - KAMCHATKA : ) 67T e, s . Guch SAKHALIN z msu'" progt Harbor 7 J\PARAMUSHIRO HKARAFUTO, < uRiLE i R ! - | HOKKAIDO 3 | 7 JAPAN Pacific Ocean | Tokyo ' PYAY dawaiian HooNN 2 1s. [ : MARCUS bs Pearl | W Harbor ‘WAKE Honolulu PHILIPPINES 5 9 JOHNSTON e L b R R Ay T W AWMARSHALL PALAU, £ 0w sgfRUC G U, Al Sy i AR R », PALMYRA CAROLINE 1. 8 o FIC BATTLEGR OUN D_This map of the Pacific shows the relationship of Japan to Hawali, the Aleutians, and many of the South Pacific Islands for which Allied forces are now battling. Marshalls invasion is newest American move. 1000 STATUTE MILES AT _EQUATOR THRUSTS OF NALZIS GIVEN Artillery Pla_y; ‘Parl in Re- pulsing Attacks on Anzio Beachhead ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN NAPLES, March 7—Sharp clashes flared between Allied patrols and Germans inside battered Cassino. Americans have thrown back two |small Nazi attacks near Cisterna. The Germans opened up heavy mortar and machine gun fire at both armies on the Rapido River which has risen three feet. Artillery has again taken a heavy toll of Nazis attacking the beach- head and played a major role in blunting thrusts. Another minor Nazi thrust south- west of Carroceto, on the other side of the beachhead also failed. — o — TRUK NAVAL BASEISTO BE OCCUPIED Importa n~i_DistIosure Is -Made During Hearing on Fund Request WASHINGTON, March 7. — Dis- closure that the United States Navy intends to take over the Japanese naval bastion at Truk came today a§ the House Appropriations Com- mittee released printed copies of its hearing on the deficiencies supply bill. Testifying for support of the Navy Department’s request for funds, Rear Admiral Edward Cochrane, Chief of the Bureau of Ships, told | the committee that “When we go to Truk, where we are going in, we'll have work to do. What it will be |and how necessary, will be difficult to say.” The Rear Admiral was discussing the need of ship repair facilities. “When will these repair facilities be needed,” Chairman Cannon asked. “Most of them by the first of (Continued on Page Four) January, 1945, replied the Adrhiral. BIG SETBACK Cassino and then sent out patrols,} !but no gains were made. Rain and mud have bogged down ' | !from conquered Batavia, Now the Ladies Go To Blazes; Are in - Foreslry Dlvmon WARNINGON | (OMPROMISE WITH JAPAN Nippons Plan for Genera- tions of War - No Ap- peasement Possible LONDON, March 7. — Under a heading “Japan is Scheming to Fool Us Again,” the Daily Mail printed on the editorial page an article by Simon Harcourt Smith, who warned against the appease- ment of Tokyo, and said that a cer- tain group of financiers in the city of London and in the Commons have “lately begun work for a com- promise peace with Japan.” The Daily Mail said that Har- court Smith's personal interpretive articles didn’t reflect the editorial opinion of the paper. The basis of the article is a Japan broadcast in which the writer is quoted as saying: “If Japan's constructive war ob- ject cannot be fulfilled in our time, it will be carried forward to the . |next generation, and if it is still not done, it will be turned over tq succeeding generations untl final peace and victory are achieved.” 1944 INCOME TAX RETURNS MAY BE LAST WASHINGTON, March 7.—The House Ways and Means Committee hold out hope for some 30,000,000 income taxpayers now have to file. Chairman Donghton announces the Committee is studying a plan to erase requirement for further! returns after 1944 for persons whose income is $5,000 or less, considera- tion being given to a plan to ar- range a withholding tax and thus, eliminate the necessity of returns 5Weating | one pack horse and get on the what may be the last they will ever| BY JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON, March 7. — In these days when women are getting so much credit for doing men's jobs, the Forest Service would like it known that 16 percent of its lookout personnel last year and maybe anything up to 40 percent this year will be women. They are fire-watchers and fire- fighters and some of them have proved that they can match any man in blazing a trail up untrod- den peaks, but so far as I know, nobody has given them a name like WACs, WAVES, etc. Their boss here is Perry A. “Pat” ‘Thompson, chief of the Forest Ser- vice division of fire control, and he is proud as all get-out about the way these strictly outdoor girls have | performed. Last year, there were more than 1500 girls in the lookout service. ‘This year there may be more than twice that number (the peak of fire lookout employment doesn't come until the dry summer sea- son) and there isn’t even a hint in the reports that the girls haven’t proved just as effective at keeping forest fires under cecntrol as the men who now are gone to the wars. I know of no better way of ex- plaining what these women are do- ing than introducing you to a few of them. There is, for instance, Edith Bedal, who is a forest guard in the Mount Baker National Forest above the Sauk River Valley in ‘Washington. Her boss out there reports that Edith is the daughter of a French- Canadian trapper and an Indian mother, who has known the ways of the woods from infancy. That gives her a head start on some of her city cousins who are doing the same type of work, but Miss Bedal is no great exception. Last year was her second year with the Forest Service, and in addition to manning a lookout (without help), she runs a string of six packhorses (if yoy are that| interested. go to the library, and| try to figure out how you would throw a diamond hitch on just trail before sun-up); cooks for fire handedly subdued fires that once out of hand might have levelled thousands of acres. koe were the two young women as- (Continued on Page Two) crews; and on occasion has single-| WARDRAWS (LOSETOLINE OF RUMANIAi UkraineIs Sea of Mud as Snow Melts-Strong- holds Taken . | MOSCOW, March 7. — The Red | Army brought the war closer to Rumania, all but isolating General | von Mannstein's Southern Ukraine | Army from Germany and Poland, | and are swinging on despite weather | so bad the Soviet dispatches de- | seribed it as “almost impossible.” At some places where the Rus- sians have taken strongholds on the Odressa-Warsaw railway, Soviet| units are 87 miles from the Ru- | manian border beyond the Moldav- ian Republic. This refers fo the | border established in 1940 when Ru- mania was ceded Bessarabia and northern Bucovina. Frontline dispatches said the snow Is washed away by heavy rains and | the wide fields of the Ukraine are | ponds and areas of mud. Red Star | dispatches pointed out how the lack | of roads and mud brought about | the “parallel chasings” of the Ger- man army, which indicated the Ger- | 1 i mans are separated one from fin-} other, and falling back without con- | tact through areas where only a few miles lay between the various units. | GERMANS PLAN ANOTHER WAR ~IN 25 YEARS LONDON, March 7—The Ger- mans are already planning another war in 25 years with the United States, their arch adversary ac- cording to the French underground paper “The Combat.” This paper, | printed in Algiers, quoted the Lon- don Sunday Chronicle as saying that a preliminary memorandum for the next war had been drafted | 1 for the German General Staff by General Otto Von Stuelpnagel, iwhich declared that “we would be wrong if we try to conquer Russia| while leaving intact American in-} dustrial production.” ———————— MRS. BULMER HERE FOR SHORT VISIT | Joining her husband who has taken over the office of the Alaska Dora Hunt and Maxine H;p-’Mrllnes during Mrs. Vera Clifford’s | absence, Mrs, M. W. Bulmer arrived from the Westward to spend a few dlyl in Juneau. { radio Iwho represented Finland in arrang- 4-ENGINED BOMBERSIN | ROME RAID Waves of Aircraft Swee p! Over Two Sections— (asualties Heavy LONDON, March 7.—The Rome| 4-engined | said waves of bombers attacked Rome today. The broadeast said “formations of 4-engined aircraff, in succesissive waves, dropped bombs on the in- habitated districts of the city of Rome. Enemy aircraft flew over the targets at a comparatively low |’ level and dropped loads of explo- sives on the vere districts. The total number of casualties is not yel ascertained but apears o be large.” RGN AMERICANS IN ADVANCE, 10S NEGROS Amphibious Landing Made, by 32nd Division Units on Guinea Coast Ostiene and Traste-| ' "Going Home' American Battle fleel Is Now I.argesl in World WANIIINGTUN March 7.— Secretary of Navy Frank Knox said the American battle fleet is the largest in the world now, consisting of more than 900 war~ ships, “which does not include any small stuff.” At a conference with news- | men, Knox disclosed that the | plane carrier group of the Essex type includes more than 11 ships originally scheduled of that class, He gave no details and turning to the subject of U- boats, Knox called attention to | the announcement in London that less than one ship of each 1,000 sailing the Atlantic were lost to submarine activity in the last half of 1943, but warned, however. the “war is not over and the Germans have a tre- mendous number of subs in re- serve and at any time may de- cide on a fresh fury.” War Mrs NewProblem Reverse P0pulahon Trend ~ May Create Big Man- power Shortage WASHINGTON, March 7.—Many ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN THE SOUTHWEST PACIFIC, March 7. — Reinforced American troops on Los Negros Island in the Admiralties have advanced north of Momote airdrome against Jap- {anese artillery fire to cross the nar- \row isthmus connecting the main part of the island with the plan- tation covered peninsula, says Mac- Arthur's communique today. The communique also announces the amphibious landing by the Thirty Second Division units behind Japanese positions on the nmth-‘ east New Guinea coast, 30 mlles west of Saidor. The advance by the First Cavnlry from Momote airdrome is the first| {the American invaders have been| able to make since beating off the| heavy Japanese counter-attacks. Reports said American destroyers and attack planes supported the| ground advance. The landing west of Saidor puts! nut-cracker pressure on the Sandor‘ !garrison standing between the Am-/| ericans and the assault on Madang, ultimate objective. Planes continued assaults on Ra- baul, dropping 181 tons of bombs e FINLAND TO MAKEREPLY T0 RUSSIA Expected to ) Answer Peace| Terms—Asking for Clarification STOCKHOLM, March 7. — The, newspaper Tidningen, quoting prl-1 vate sources, said Juho Paasikivi, | ! 1 l ing peace in 1940, would arrive here| soon with Finland's answer to Rus-{ sia’s peace terms. The Tidningen said the reply would be given into the hands of | the Soviet Ambassador and Fin- land will ask for clarification ot fcertain terms. | Earlier, the Stockholm newspstperI Dagens Nyheter said the Finnish| Parliament rejected the Soviet de-| mands for internment of the Ger- man troops now in Finland and also restoration of the 1940 boun- daries, | winner in every Juheau and Doug-| |for all of this month, an effort is| war workers who rushed to crowd- ed centers early in the war are now “going home” the Office of War Informaticn asserts, adding that the everse population trend poses a terrific manpower shortage and problem of war production centers and particularly on the Pacific Coast. The inclination to go home is| cited by the armed forces as the reason for the passage of the Na- tional Service Law. RED CROSS DRIVE IS ON TODAY Day's Wages Set as Indi- vidual Quofa for This Area A day's wages for every family’s breudwlnner That's the individual goul which volunteer solicitors for the Red Cross War Fund campaign are shooting at in the drive which got under way this morning in the Gastineau Channel area where the quota is a total of $13,000. So take that into consideration |when the solicitor calls at your| door. ‘This, was the figure set last night at a meeting in the City Hall for solicitors. It was decided that in order to raise the larger quota this year for the expanded services of | the Red Cross, a donation of at least a day’s woges f om the breaa-| las family would be necessary. Solicitors last night received their supplies, including receipt books, stickers and other material. Although the drive will continue being made to clean up Juneau’s; quota before the end of this weekl If a solicitor does not call on\ |you, send your check to Allen Shat-| tuck, Red Cross Chapter Treasurer, Juneau, Alaska and your receipt| will be sent to you. | When you make your donation ! you will receive a window sticker a lapel tag and a receipt. | U. S. FLEETS ENGAGEDIN BIG BATflI Lose 68 Bombers in Ratd— Also 700 Highly Trained Airmen LONDON, March 7--Great Amer- ican air fleets, smashing at Berlin on Monday, knocked down 176 Nazi planes but lost 68 bombers in one of the greatest plane battles of the war, the United States Army head- quarters announced. Royal Air Force night bombers kept the attack rolling with heavy blows at the railway targets at Trappes, France, 15 miles southeast of Paris. Mosquito bombers darted against the targets in northwest Germany also without loss. More than 850 American bombers hurled 2,000 tons of bombs on burn- ing Berlin in swirling aerial battles that raged all the way from the Dutch coast to the Nazl capital city. Gunners on Flying Fortresses and Liberators bagged 93 enemy planes while fight escorts downed 83. It was the second highest single day’'s score of victories for the U. (Continued on Page Six) Senafe Will Delay Move OnConfempt BULLETIN — Washington, March 7~The move to cite Presidential Assistant Jonathan Daniels for contempt of Senate apparently collapsed after he reappeared today and testified about the unsuccessful attempt of the Administration to per- suade Harry Slattery to resign as Rural Electrification Admin- istrator. He said the President personally approved the plan to assign Slattery to an overseas Job of studying European pow- er developments if he would resign. Slattery refused to re- sign however. WASHINGTON, March 7.—The Senate Agriculture Sub-committee delayed action yesterday on the contempt proceedings against Jon- athan Daniels, one of the Presi-* dent’s assistants, on his promise to appear today to testify about his efforts to get Harry Slattery to resign as Rural Electrification Ad- ministrator, Chairman Smith said, The committee ordered the pro- ceedings delayed on receipt of a letter from Daniels saying the lat- ter was willing to answer the ques- tions which he refused to reply to last week. Daniels at that time refused to jdiscuss Slattery’s statement that Daniels three times approached him and suggested that he resign, a course lattery declined to follow. The Red Cross War Fund campaign is now on. Give generously so that YOUR Red Cross sticker will be a true symbol of an understanding of humanity's needs in a war .o FLOYD GORMANS HERE Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Gorman are here trom Gustavus and are guests at the Hotel Juneau. world. Don't wait for the solicitor! Send contributions to Allen Shattuck, Red Cross Chapter Treasurer, Juneau.