The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, March 21, 1944, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE VOL. XLI., NO. 9606. “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” JUNEAU, ALASKA, TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 1944 MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS —_—————————y ARTILLERY FIGHT \ GES, DOVER STRAIT Five-Ship Jap Convoy Sent Down by Allies I CRAFT ARE BLASTED IN SEA BATTLE Hundreds omops, Crews of Vessels Are Re- | ported Lost ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN SOUTHWEST PACIFIC, March 21. | —More than 100 American bombers men the election of a Republlcan'other 15 Jap ships bringing to 642 his candidacy for the GOP nom- and attack planes sank a five ship‘ Japanese convoy oOff Wewak, New Guinea, Gen. Douglas MacArthur reports and ‘“‘many hundreds of troops and ships crew were 1ost.t' | The comunique asserted a running battle extended from last Wednes-| day until Sunday. Liberators, MitchA‘ ells and Bostons took part in the | blasting of the convoy, losing but three planes in the entire attack. The pilot of one Boston was later | picked up from a graft. Wewak itself was hit by Allied bombers dropping 113 tons of ex-. plosives. First Cavalry troopers are re-! ported pursuing the fleeing Japs (Continued on Page Three) > The Washington Merry - Go- Round By DREW PEARSON Col. Robert S. Allen now on active service with the Army.) (Lt WASHINGTON—Among the un- happiest, most disillusioned men in the country today are the thousands of civilian pilot instructors who have built up the great army of u. S. pilots, have seen thousands o their students commissioned, and who are now discharged without any military standing whatever. Having passed up the opportunity for commissions for themselves, these men are now eligible to be drafted as privates in the walking army. They are responsible for the suc-| cess of the training program of| CAA-WTS (Civil Aeronautics - Ad-| ministration War Training Ser-, vice.) Originally they numbered; 14,900 instructors. At first, they, worked without pay, in a forty-| weeks, training program, until CAA/ fought to get them Army pay of $50 a month: At the turn of the year, when| they had been scaled down to about| 5,000 instructors, the whole program| was abandoned by order of the War Department. This meant that the men were thrown back to draft status. 3 Later, the Army said they could| apply for commissions in the Air Transport Command—if they could qualify. This was like saying, “You can join the Four Hundred, but you live on the wrong side of the street.” Actually, the Transport Com- mand already has pilots sitting around for as long as five weeks at a time without getting into the air. There's not a chance that the dis- charged instructors will be taken on by ACT. The feminine angle makes it worse. These instructors see the women pilots (Wasps) getting more flying opportunity than men. Ex- planation is that Wasp chief Jac- queline Cochran, uses her inside track in favor of her feminine flyers. Meanwhile, the Army has so many pilots that it is making in-| structors out of men trained as combat pilots—in the face of a sur- plus of instructors. Apparently the Air Forces have more combat pilots i than they can use, even in this global air war. The civilian instructors—with far more flying time than their students —feel that they should have been allowed to apply for commissions. As it is, however, they are thrown| out of work, to start their mmtary| service all over again—on the, ground. | DOUGHTON COMMITTEE LEAK!| Staunch war horse “Muley Bob” (Continued on Page Four) (spent and brought good results.” REDS SMASH FIRSTLADY 15 Japanese TALKS OUT Ships Sunk IN (ARA(AS@ ‘By!Al:S.Subs Republican President British Undersea Craft Also|Says Rep ublicans Must Allied Forces Lack Room fo Would Not Change Acttive in Far East- Neighbor Policy ern Waters CARACAS, Venezuela, March 21.! WASHINGTON, March 21.—Am- ——Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt said erican submarines operating in the here at a conference with the news- |Pacific waters have destroyed an- President of the United States will|the number of enemy craft sunl not alter America’s Good Neighbor |probably sunk or damaged by sub- Policy. \} marines. “This policy is firmly rooted in{ The Navy says the sinkings in- the hearts of the American people|clude two tankers, two transports and when anything becomes rooted and 11 freighters firmly in the people’s thinking it| is not changed,” said the First Lady| of the United States. Mrs. Roosevelt also asserted that| her observation of lend-lease money | spent in Latin America, “was well | BRITISH SUBS ACTIVE LONDON, March 21.—British sub- marines operating in the Far East- eérn waters sunk seven Jap ships end damaged three others, the Ad- miralty announces. The actions took place off Nico- har Islands, in the straits of Malac- ca, off the east coast of Sumatra, also off Sabang, northern. tip of Sumatra, the communique states. — e PRINCESS IS MARRIEDTO 2RUMANIAN DIVISIONS In North Ukraine, Soviet WILLKIE ASKS GRIM FIGHT WISCONSIN TO. CONTINUES SUPPORT HIM' ATCASSINO Show Sentiment for Maneuver-Nazis Hold ( | | Claims Naval Task Force Off Alaska Is Trapped by JapsBecause of Bungling | | | | WASHINGTON, March 21. — Re- | munications Ofticer had been “si- HEAVY DUEL TAKES PLACE ON CHANNEL | presentative Louis E. Miller, Mls<; Qso\u'l Republican said he would pro- lenced by Executive Order” or he could back up the veracity of the Forward Policy | RIPON, Wis., March 31.—Wendell |L. Willkie asked the Republican \voters to give him 24 delegates for| Isolated Positions BULLETIN—WITH THE FIFTH ARMY AT CASSINO, March 21.—German troops have fought their way back into the wrecked Continental Hotel and enemy defense in the southwest- ern part of the Cassino hills has been stiffened as Lt. Gen. Rich- ard Heidrich, Commander of the First German Parachute Troop n tried to make good his boast he will throw the Allies out of Cassine. New Zealanders immediately went to the old task of trying to knock the Germans out of the disputed territory. nation to help him guide the party along what he called the road to I victory. i | At the same time, Willkie roasted |the Democrats as the party whlch} has “become the vehicle for main-, tenance of power.” Willkie asserted the present Ad- ministration “must be changed” for the welfare of the Nation, &nd claimed the eyes of the Nation are on Wisconsin in the Presidential | primary on April 4 “not because pf the individuals involved, but as a |symbol as to whether Wisconsin \will vote for a forward looking | policy.” 'RADIO SENDER ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN NAPLES, March 21.—New Zealand troops of the Fifth Army have wiped out part of the remaining German fortifications on the western edge reinforced and the grim struggle continues. Allied headquarters announced that many more German prisoners "All EMBASSY : have been taken in “fierce fighting, which continued into the fifth day INAZIS TAKE RODENBACK of Cassino, but the Nazis have been | 'duce two sailors to substantiate his report. Miller declared that “ama- {.(Lury that a United States task teurs of the FCC" had given the force was trapped by Japs in Alas- | Naval Task Force wrong informa- | kan waters “because of bungling” |tion about the disposition of a Jap| iby the Federal Communications|force off Alaska. The U. 8. group,| Commission. he stated, went in the direction Miller's rtion was made at the presumed safe and was attacked. resumption of a hearing by a spe-| “This is a terrible charge and we cial House committee investigating don’t know anything about it. If the FCC, which questioned Charles we knew when or where or how this |Denny, chief counsel for the agen- is supposed to have happened we cy about the task force report. }mighl run it down. I can prove Miller asserted that Admiral affirmatively that it @ isn't so,” Kooper, former Pearl Harbor Com- Denny declared. ON DEFENSE OFHUNGARY ' Balkan Nafion Occupied by Germans ~ Against FROMTRIP ~ TOFIRSTCITY Strikes Out for Election of | Alaska , {Engagement May Be Pre- lude to Invasion—Coast Sections Reserved LONDON, March 21. — British heavy artillery on the south coast fired 140 rounds at German shipping on Dover Strait Monday night and German guns quickly replied. It is officially announced the re- sult was one of the sharpest cross channel duels in months. It is not ascertained whether this is a prelude to invasion, 2 More than 700 miles of England's south and east coasts facing France, Holland and Belgium, have been de- clared “protected” starting April 1. | The result of this will keep out all but long-time residents and persons on official business in an area 10 miles wide along the coasts. Today, Britain - based American Liberators heavily bombarded Pas de Calais “rocket coast" area across the channel in the second heavy attack on that sector in three days. Last night Royal Air Force heavy | bombers struck the Angouleme ex- plosive works in southern France and other nocturnal raids were made on enemy factorles fn western Ger- many. Yesterday, American Flying Fort- Army Nears Lwow in Prewar Poland i | | | | ] | | 1 | | | | MOSCOW, March 21. — The Red |Army has driven to within 50 miles ¢|of the Rumanian border after cap- {turing the highway leading west- |ward from Soroki in Bessarabia, jand smashing two Rumanian di- jvisions hurled into the gap of the |Nazi defenses. y | Frontline dispatches said that | Moscow considers the Prut River as Yugoslav Monarch Breaks | Precedence by Marry- i ingon Foreign Soil | LONDON, March 21.—King Peter |of Yugoslavia, 20, and pretty Prin- cess Alexandra of Greece, 23, were imarried here at the Yugoslav Le- {gation In a private ceremony before a small number of guests. King George and Queen Elizabeth |were among those who witnessed |the 23-minute services in three lan- |guages, Greek, Serbian and English. | The Princess is the daughter of {the late King Alexander of Greece. | The union is seen in some quarters as a sign that Peter might be pre- |pared to relinquish the throne, |since: there have been reports the |the current Rumanian border. The Russians in 1940 took over Bessar- abian areas previously a part of| Rumania. The Russians, who swarmed across the Dniester River into Bes- sarabia on a 3l-mile front, have keen able to bring tanks and heavy artillery across in strength on the German pontoons captured at Yampol, Major Igor Agibalov re- ported in a field dispatch to the Army newspaper, Red Star. The Dniester crossings expanded into several more communities which were captured by Red Army’ forces. Red Star said that German |planes were attacking the Dniester| |King's advisers warned him against defying the tradition that calls for the weddings of Yugoslav rulers to be held on home soil. The monarch is believed to have {been warned that his wedding in crossing, but indicated that the|® foreign land while his country 1s Nazis have no hope of halting the |Still held by the Germans will do Soviet advance, because of the hrgei’much to decrease his already doubt- KING PETER Good Workmnteiligence Division of FCC Is | for possession of Cassino and vicin- ity without a decision in the ruins of the town. The enemy succeeded | in bringing up reinforcements Sun- Red' Threat LONDON, March 21-—Upwards of 100,000 German and ~Rumanian | Henry Roden, active Democratic |candidate for the office of Dele- day night, and the mopping up has | been slow.” i Although two tanks the Germans placed in the lobby of the Con- WASHINGTON, March 21.—The tinental Hotel were knocked out and Radio Intelligence Division of the 180 prisoners taken, there are Ger- Federal Communications Commis- mans still holding out in that area. sion located a short wave transmit- | The Germans also clung firmly to ter in the German Embassy here | positions on the slopes of Monte vl‘ifihl after l"e?rl H.ar‘bor and pre- Cagsino overlooking the town, in- vented the Germans from using it, cluding a strategic point they re- Senator LaFollette told the Senate. ‘gnlned in a counter-attack Sunday. . LI;FOHE'"P dml not go into par- ¢ was announced that they are lay- culars as to the exact date but jng qown heavy artillery fire on the Revealed igate to Alaska, returned to Juneau !this morning by steamer after a| | 10-day campaign trip throughout | Southeast Alaska on which he visit- ed Ketchikan, Petersburg and, ‘Wrangell, speaking at all cities. He will remain here for about a week before leaving on a tour of the, | Westward and Interior. Roden, speaking in Ketchikan,| condemned thé “Wallgren Fish Bill,” and said on his arrival here| |that he was against it because it favors special interests. | troops are reported occupying Hun- gary against the growing threat of the Russian armies, now a bare 100 'miles frem the border. In the Balkan kingdom some ccattered fighting has sprung up from the occupation, but there is nothing to suggest any serious dif- ficulties for Hitler. The topllight Hungarian leaders including Regent Admiral Horthy, and possibly Pre- mier Kally are believed to have been virtually kidnaped to Ger- |resses and Liberators attacked mili- {tary targets in the Frankfurt area. | Six American bombers and eight es- ' corting fighters were lost in yester- day's operations. —————te—— LAVA STREAM POURS FROM MT. VESUVIUS the work of ti.e FCC’s Intelligence Division to urge the Senate to restore $1,954,000 cut out of the com- mission’s 1945 fiscal year appropria- tion by the House and Senate ap- propriations committees. BILL MAY PERMIT FED. EMPLOYEES STASSEN IS NOT SEEKING | said the FCC monitors “obtained re Y and fixed the transmitter before fies froons Dxom: tidss pldese. it could be employed to contact overseas points.” The Senator took the floor to laud Hemmed in by these and other | ‘enemy positions in the vicinity and | all out military assistance by the Rapido and Gari rivers, the ; Bela Imredi, former Premier and; Fifth Army forces have little room in which to maneuver, and only frontal attacks are possible since the enemy position cannot be out- flanked. . — e PForeign Minister and a Hungarian Nazi, is reported to be estabhshiugi a government. He said he had con-| voked Barliament for tomorrow at| which time he is expected to as-| sume Horthy'g powers. | The Russian columns in old Po-| land nearest 1o Hungary are the! {fisheries and game turned over to |the Territory. “If we are ready for statehood,” he said, “certainly we are capable of administering to these duties,” The incumbent Attorney General sald he is also “very much in favor of an elected Governor for Alaska.’ Said Roden, “we should do all we can towards bringing the ad- ministration for the Territory home many whence they were summoned; He said that he is in favor of hav-| to receive peremptory demands for |ing the administration of Alaska’s! : 2 Red troops at Tarnapol, 100 miles|y, Alaska, not leave it in Washing- away in Transylvana Province, am- |yon putated from Rumania with Ger-| «The Governor of Alaska should man uonnivvance. and the REdlrepresent the people and not the troops are in the old Rumanian Department of the Interior. | province of Bessarabia 150 miles| “The Governor cannot oppose any AS CANDIDATES WASHINGTON, March 21.—Fed- {from Carpatho, a Ukraine territory imeasure which has the stamp of| thrown across the stream. Press- ing on from Soroki, the Soviets have got a good grip on the high- way, the dispatch said. At the upper end of the Bessar-| ablan front, the Russians are re-| ported poised for a new great thrust after the capture of Mog- ilev Podolski, major base on the east bank of the Dniester which fell to the Red Army Sunday. Far to the north of these opera- tions, the First Ukrainian Army under Marshal Zhukov is only 57 miles from Lwow in prewar Poland and are within sight of the city of Brody. It is not clear whether the Russians planned to storm Brody or jnumber of bridges which were | ful strength.in his homeland. — e — (halige Made in Uu.S. (glgmanders ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN NAPLES, March 21. — Maj. Gen. Alexander Patch has been assigned to command the U. S. Seventh Army, formerly in command of Lt. Gen. George Patton, Jr., Headquar- ters announces. Patch was formerly Commander of the Troops in the Guadalcanal ' and New Caledonia areas. NOMINATION ieral Employees in Alaska are for- | bidden by the Hatch Act to parti- jcipate in municipal elections, but a| WASHINGTON, March 21.—Lieut. Ibill 1s now pending in the House to JComdr. Harold E. Stassen, former {amend the law which will perm"”lupublican Governor of Minnesota, |some of them to be candidates for D88 advised Secretary of Navy | municipal offices, the Justice De-|Frank Knox, he will not seek the partment said. Republican Presidential nomina- The Hatch Act applies to Fedm‘al:'m" but will accept it if it is of- | Employees in Alaska the same as it|fered. |coes those elsewhere in the United| Stassen disclosed his stand in a |States and has prevented zhom!"’"‘r addressed to Knox and the |from being candidates in municipal|!atter read it to the newsmen. Jelacitons. | The former Governor is now Flag Delegate Anthony J. Dimond, who | Secretary to Admiral Halsey, Com- introduced the bill to amend the Mander of the South Pacific Forces. law, said that in a number of towns| Stassen in Iis letter to Knox said along he Alaska Railroad, Federal | "UMErous questions are being asked by-pass it in the advance toward Lwow. 'MISSOURI DEMOS R Arends Nomina]ed U. 5. Atiorney, 4th Division in Alaska WASHINGTON, March 2L~Pres-| ident Roosevelt has nominated | Harry O. Aread to be United States Attorney of the Fourth Judicial | Division of Alaska, with headquar-|the Office of Indian Affairs, re- ters at Fairbanks, succeeding Ralph | turned from Klukwan and Haines, Rivers, resigned. Arends is an at- where she has been holding classes torney of Fairbanks. in first aid and child care. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo, March favoring a fourth term for Roose- |velt. e FIELD NURSE BACK Alma A. Carlson, Field Nurse for FOR FOURTH TERM : 21.—The Missouri Democratic State| Committee has adopted a resolution| employees comprised a large part as to “my attitude toward the cur- of the voters and his bill will per-|{fAl Inclusion of my name in the imit Federal Employees in the towns|Eresidential nomination discussion.” along the rallroad and employees| Stusen'_s name has been entered of the railroad, to take part anmm the Wisconsin primary on April 4 and his name will go on the Ne- tbraska primary one week later. - COPSTEADS ARE BACK R. E. Copstead, proprietor of the 20th Century Meat Market, accom- Ppanied by Mrs. Copstead, returned {today from an extended business and pleasure trip to the south. ———e— Here from Minneapolis, H. V. Jor- genson is registered at the Baranof. seek an office in the town's clec- ions. He said the measure has been |epproved by the Justice Depart- {ment and the Civil Service Commis- sion and is now before the House 1.ludlcxary committee. —————— IS ARRIVAL HERE An arrival here, Clive Engleman is registered at the Baranof -from Valley Stream, N. Y. ——————— HERE FROM STATES Arriving from the South, Louis J. Wayne Johnson has returned Blommoert is at the Baranof Hotel, {0 Juneau and is at the Baranof, which Hungary wrested from|approval from the Department of | | Czechoslavakia. the Interior. When the views of| Other cclumns are advancing on|the people of Alaska and the In-| | Lwow and are within 125 miles. jterior Department clash, the Gover-| “That should be justification REJECTEDBYFINNS, - =—~— | i | - nor at present must take the pnrt; of the Secretary of the Interior, pEA(E IERMS ARE enough for an elécted Governor for | Alaska.” | | | ~ JAPS BOMBED IN STOCKHOLM, March 21, — The Finnish Government has affirmed its continued desire for peace with Russia but declared firmly the | armistie terms the MARSHA[[ lSlB Kremlin cannot be accepted. H The declaration is embodied in a —_— long communique giving the Finn's| UNITED STATES FLEET HEAD- version of attempts to get out of QUARTERS IN PEARL HARBOR,| the war. |March 21. — Systematic reduction e Ihas severed the Jap outer defense line in the Central Pacific and roll- ! STOCK QUOTATIONS | ed along on Sunday bombing four unidentified " Jap held positions in| ithe Marshalls. NEW YORK, March 21—Closing| Army medium bombers, Marine! quotation of Alaska Juneau mine Dauntless divebombers, Corsairs| stock today is 6'6, American Can and Navy search planes made the! 84’4, Anaconda 26%, Beech Aircraft |attack, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz 87%, Bethlehem Steel 60'¢, Curtiss Wright 5%, International Harvester 71'%, Kennecott 31%, North Ameri- announces. All planes returned. i can Aviation 8%, New York Cen- tral 20%, Northern Pacific 17%, BACK TO SITKA Mrs. P. 8. Ganty, Mrs. Charles United States Steel 55%. Dow, Jones averages today are Wortman and Mrs. Ruth Charteris, who have been visiting in Ket-| as follows: industrials 140.20, rails 40.48, utilities 23.67, | dictated by chikan, passed through Juneau to- day enroute to their homes in ‘Sltka, Worst ErupMSince 1812 Buries Three Towns- No Cg@lfies NAPLES, March 21. — A great stream of hot lava poured out of the crater of Mt. Vesuvius at a speed of 40 miles an hour at noon today without signs of subsiding. The molten river licked at a third village on the northwest slopes after burying most of San Sebastino and Massa de Simma. The lava stream, 30 feet high and 200 yards wide swept on toward Cercola below San Sebastino, and the pace slowed as it wound down the,mountain. Five thousand inhabitants of Cer- cola hurriedly evacuated as the white hot rock flowed to within 150 feet of the town hall, United States Army trucks completed the evacua- tion of an even thousand inhabitants of the other two villages during the night. No casualties are reported from the eruption, the worst since 1872, | which caused great property loss, not only from burial of the towns but also from destruction to orchards and vineyards on the slope. R SUMPRABUM IS CAPTURED NEW DELHI, March 21.—Allied troops have captured the import- ant communieations center of Sum- prabum, northeast Burma, but a strong Jap force is continuing its drive after crossing the Chindwin River, Native troops, operating with the Chinese and American forces, aided in the capture of Sumprabum and Pinshauga has also been reoccupied. Sumprabum is in the upper Mail Kaha Valley, about 70 miles from China's Yunan Province.