The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, March 28, 1944, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. XLI., NO. 961 1. __' — e e’ JUNEAU, ALASKA, TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 1944 3 MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTY RED SALVOS POUND NAZIS IN RUMANIA erman Attacks Near Cassino Broken Up [ ARTILLERY HAMMERS TWO HOTELS Assaults of Nazis Below Rome on Beachhead Also Repulsed ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN NAPLES, March 28.—Allied artillery has broken up a German attack rorth of Cassino and the artillery also continues to hammer the two| hotels in the “key point” areas of| the German defenses within the/ ruined town. | The Nazi attack broken up was on the road from Terelle and lies about four miles northwest of Cas- sino. The Germans replied but no material damage resulted and few if any casualties. Shelling of the hotels Continent- al and Des Roses continued all night. ! It is disclosed that three German attacks of platoon strength on the left side of the beachhead below| Rome were beaten off Sunday a’-; | ternoon. The Germans are now re-| maining on the defensive in that/ (Continued on Page Two) —— e — — The Washingion Merry - Go- Round By DREW PEARSON (Lt. Col. Robert §. Allen now on active service with the Army.) i | WASHINGTON — A mysterlous hand has reached inside the War Production Board to hold up a new method of alcohol production. The process, developed in Germany, is the distillation of alcohol from sawdust and wood waste. i All over the U.S.A. there is a great surplus of sawdust and wood scraps from saw mills. In some areas, its disposal is a problem. But in Germany, some thirty plants are in operation turning sawdust not only into alcohol, but yeast and cattle feed. This same process has been test- ed at a U. S. Forest Service pilot plant at Marquett, Wis,, and receni- | ly plans were all set to open a commercial plant at Willamette, Oregon. The Vulcan Copper and Supply Company was scheduled to do the job, and J. Alfred Hall,| borrowed from the .Forest Service| by WPB's office of production re- search and development, actually| had gone out to Oregon to inspect the proposed Willamette site. But now something has happened. The alcohol division of WPB is re-| ported to be quietly throwing mon- | key wrenches into the works. ; For two long years, WPB'’s alco-| hol division had blocked the saw-| dust alcohol method for the obvious | reason that the big alcohol compan- | ies are entrenched with the Cuban | molasses method. Their plants are! near the Atlantic seaboard, where| molasses is readily accessible. They/ don’t want competition from Lhe: lumber regions of the South and| Northwest. But finally, because of| the desperate alcohol shortage, they | GETTING READY FOR THE BIG PUSH DURING ALLIED TANK MANEUVERS in England, two of the world’s best known soldiers take time out to examine a carbine. Casting expert eyes on the rapid-firer are Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, chief of Allied forces for the invasion of western Europe, and Gen. Bernard L. Mont- gomery, head of British ground forces for the big job. (International) : CONTESTIN OKLAHOMA WATCHED ‘Outcome | Course of Roosevelt and Dewey (By Associated Press) Democrats and Republicans today | watched the progress of the special | Oklahoma Congressional election in ihope the outcome might give some |clue as to the future course of two | silent men in politics, Roosevelt and | Dewey. These two who have given |no public indications they will be | candidates may .be given a clue as | to their course. | At Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Wendell ! L. Willkie climaxed his campaign |in that State for the Republican | Presidential nomination by the as- | sertion the United States is “bog- | ging down internationally,” observ- !im; that the President and other ON TOUR—Lt. Gen. Carl Spaatz, commanding general of U. S. Strategic Air Force in the European Theater, alights from his plane for a short visit to a bomber station. {down broad general principles of foreign collaboration. : Willkie said “at each successive | step we have violated the very prin- | ciples we annocunced as principles | for which we might fight.” i In Oklahoma, W. G. Stigler, Demo- ¥ {crat, and E. O. Clark, Republican, 1 | are battling for the Democratic House seat. The contest brought Does Not Consider [!lness| Serious-Feels Fine | Senate Majority Leader Barkley into Otherwise e | | WASHINGTON, March 28.—Pres- | FARI.EY pl(KS | the opposition wanted to make the New Deal a dominant issue, the Democrats are rgady to accept the challenge. Senator Moore, Repub- lican of Oklahoma, asserted that | Clark’s election will “end the fourth | term talk.” May Decide| Allied leaders, early in the war, laid | the campaign with the declaration if | | IAP FORCES | PUSHINGON INTO INDIA Making Defermined At- tacks—Allies Continue Counter-attacks NEW DELHI, March SUPPLIES FROM AIR KEEP 'UNCLE JOE' MOVING NEW TRAP . ' CLOSING IN ONGERMANS Street Fight-i‘nd_keporled at Nikalaev-Foe Believed Now in Full Flight | forces pushing through the Somra | | 28. — Jap, Hills inside the Indian border are BULLETIN LONDON, March 28.—~The capture of Nik- ‘cap!un-d the village of Hwakngla- pressing home with determined at- | tacks in the vicinity of Ukhrul, 32 | miles northeast of Imphal. ! To the south of Imphal mean- while the Allied troops are reported | in today's communique as continu- ing operations to clear the Tiddim- | Imphal road along which the Japs are moving steadily northward! since crossing the border several| days ago. | Late this afternoon American | trained Chinese troops stormed and ang in the Mogaung Valley killing large numbers of Japs. Y The Chinese forces are now | astride the upper Mogaung . Valley road and are in contact with the enemy. o In the same valley, troops Stilwell are wiping out Jap sui- cide squads with grenades nncy" compressing the invaders between of | !the Hkawnglaw River and Shadu- zup. SRR A S S | LIBERTY SHIP | INVESTIGATION . IS UNDERWAY Witnesses Called Before Truman Committee af Hearing in Seattle SEATTLE, March 28—The Gov-| ernment’s conversion of operating | Liberty ships into troop trm\spons; instead of converting those stil under construction is branded wasteful by one witness appearing | before the Truman War Investi- | gating Committee here. Supt. E, M. Murphy, of the Alaska Steamship Co., testified that five ated were ships. “How much of a job is it to con-| vert?” asked United States Sen: ator Mon C. Wallgren. “Takes about twe months,” plied Murphy. “How much did Wallgreen. “About three million dollars,” was | Murphy’s reply. “Why is it necessary to make a| ship fitting at the dock for conver-| sion when other ships which mightl be converted are already on the| ways,” asked Wallgren. converted into troop| re- { it cost,” asked ! “I can't answer that,”. said| Murphy. | “It appears to be wasteful | doesn't it,” queried the Senator. | Murphy answered ‘“yes, in my opinion it is a_wasteful way of doing the joh.” | Are Good Ships { olaev is announced tonight by Stalin in a special order of the day. The capture of the big seaport and naval base at the mouth of the Bug River left Odessa as the only major Black Sea port remaining in German | hands in the Ukraine. | Stalin’s order was addressed to Gen. Milinovsky. The order said the seaport was stormed after stubborn fighting. By Associated Press Russian trqops inside Bucovina lappeared to be strangling the com- munications at Czernowitz from po- {sitions on that provincial capital's joutskirts while Red artillery along |80 miles of the Prut River poured Isalvo after salvo. into the enemy | | | STILL ADVANCING against the Japs in northern Burma, Lt. Gen. Joseph Stilwell (second fl:om left) leads a party past supplies that Allied planes have dropped. Note porters (background) gathering the bags and bales. Air delivery is often the only way in which supplies can be delivered in the roadless jungle. Rice can be dropped in heavy bags (as in the inset picture) without parachutes, but explosives and breakables must Lo 'chuted down, From clearings such as this the food and munitions are carried by porters and river-barges to Gen. Stilwell's American-ireined Chirewc army and its American allies. (International) FOR GIRL DRIVERS NO BED OF ROSES Liberties his company oper-| _ REAL CAMPAIGNERS are these gir] truck drivers of the British Transport Service in the Middle East. When night covers the de: ert and driv 8 becomes dangerous, they wrap blankets around themselves, find a “goft” spot, then bed down in front of their vehicles State D epartment Is fo (International) Be Reorganized; Many More Workers Needed United tatesc. of C. Back- BOTHRABAUL, WEWAK GIVEN BOMB BLOWS Warehouseisr,iéarracks ! Shop Buildings, Dam | ReporfedDestroyed | ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN THE SOUTHWEST PACIFIC, March 28.—Allied bombers from the Solomons, dropping 70 tons of ex- plosives on the Rabaul supply areas destroyed warehouses, barracks and shop buildings. Meanwhile two medium bombers destroyed the Jap dam across the stream head at Massava Bay west | of Rabaul. | ot bombers hammered We-| wak and strafed remnants of enemy |troops in the foothills south of; Lorengai in the Admiralty Islands, where the First Cavalry is mop- ping up. R INFLATION LINE i MUST BE HELD, SAYS JOHNSTON { ing Administration | ranks. {" There b no positive indication that the Russfans have crossed the {Prut, which divides Bessarabla and Rumania- proper, nor any report of answering fire from the German land Rumanian guns, indicating the toe is in flight toward Iasi, head- quarters of von Mannstein’s re- treating army of the south. Street Fighting The Russians are reported as 10 miles from Iasi on the Prut at Skulyany. Streat fighting is report- cd at Nikalaev, the Black Sea port on the Bug estuary 215 miles east of Iasi. Nikolacv is reported as ripe for Russian capture, Forty miles northeast of Czern- owtiz, the capture of the strong Dnieper River base of Kaments Podolsk, and the town of Bozovit- sky have swiftly fashioned a death pocket around the Germans in a 1,400 square mile salient in the northeast. Escape Routes Snapped The main escape routes have been snapped and the Germans could retreat now only through the muddy corridor, which is being closed from the north by the First Ukrainian Army, and from the south by the Second Ukrainian Army, Izvestia said. The ominous rumble of Russian {ertillery is already audible at Iast and “The German Command can- net halt our troops” the Red Star declared in a dispatch from the Prut River. Marshal Konev's Second Armyv tanks and tommy gunners are driv- ing the Germans and Rumanians to death in the narrow stream of the Prut. Czernowitz with 110,000 popula- tion, is the third largest city in prewar Rumania. LASTCALL, RED (ROSS were overruled and the Willamette ident Roosevell disclosed that he| F. J. McDowell, General Manager By JACK STIN almost $2,000000 a year. In view of on One Point plant was authorized. |has been suffering from bm"d"““{ lof James Griffiths Sons, said his % rts the criticism recently levelled at the However, queer things happened.|for the past three weeks, and has‘ company was operating 11 Libert WASH»IN(; T ON, March 28 S'"u‘. Dr~ ;v’mm“’ it Sl : e When the Willamette application gone to the Naval Medical Center | There's going to be a reorganization | i . 3 WASHINGTON, March 28.—Eric! it was “lost.” WPB refused to act| The President, who spent the without the “original” application,|better part of 10 days away from| so valuable weeks were wasted ar- pis office, was coughing throughout | guing. ithc press conference, but said he| Then, an engineer named Le\‘y,|saw no reason for alarm over his| who had had experience with the health. He said he has bronchitis, sawdust method in Germany, Was'but felt fine otherwise. ! brought here from England. This| The President said that his x]l-l time the Willamette application ness was not serious, and that while| papers were ready. But another gne case of bronchitis out of some hitch - developed. WPB suddenly 48500 develops into pneumonia, i found some of Levy's credentials|is 5 glim chance and he would not| i wag sent by registered mail to WPB, here this afterncon for x-rays. | | | AS GOP TICKET NEW YORK, March 28.—Colum- nist Ed Sullivan asserted in his weekly CBS broadcast that Jim Farley, former Democratic National Committee Chairman, told him he was convinced that if the Presiden- tial election were held now, the Democrats would lose every state {except the Solid South. Sullivan also said that Farley unsatisfactory, demanded an FBI, investigation. The FBI cleared him, | but still the WPB's alcohol division is holding things up. | N OTE .— Hard-hitting Senator| Wallgren of Washington wrote an| article on the subject for the Wash- | Berbley, with the Fed- Low tide—11:33 Arlington farms, officially) when '»—-:0_00- - i ington Star, exposing the whole oty e o fee 11033 a.m., 04 feet. |of the Liberty ships as troopships,” | Committee that, with hardly & dis- | jexplicable things go wrong, they Miss Florence Sarjeant is at the | AT HOTEL JUNEAU 5 ey argl OpupTilicAsIs Gommisiion,.lp | Bigh Ude 008 1 100 toct: P> ' sent, it okayed employment of nearly | " " " ' Baranof Hotel, having registered’ . At the Hotel Juneau, Fern' K o {Gontinnedien Pags ®dun). . . atithe Gastineau Hotel Low tide—11:42 p. m.. 42 feet, (Continued on Page Three» 600 additional workers at a cost of | (Continued on Page Two) | from Seattle, Williams {5 here {rom Ketchiken, {thinks Gov. Thomas E. Dewey and {Gov. Earl Warren are the winning ;GOP combination. ! TIDES TOMORROW High tide— 5:01 a. m., 14.9 feet. put it in headlines. Bl bt OJA FROM SITKA 15 George Oja, here from Sitka, is at | the Hotel Juneau. R Howard F. and -“we feel they are good ships.| We have had no major difficul- ties.” He said his company also operates five new Liberty ships, and some of the latter developed cracks as the result of being forced while in convoy. | R. B. Butterfield, Assistant Gen- eral Manager of the American Mail Line, said his company operated 37! Liberty ships and “we found the Liberty ships easy to operate, sturdy and seaworthy.” Good Troopships John Hearing, Port Engineer of the *Alaska Transportation Com- pany, said his company was acting as shipping agent for 14 beerty‘ ships, two of which have been con- verted into-troopships. “How do you feel about the use | Propriations committees of the Department of State. Tt may await the return of Undersecretary |Edward R. Stettinius, Jr,, from his trip to England, or, announcement may come any minute. As was predicted here some months ago, when it comes it will be through the efforts of Stettinius, who went to the Congressional ap- and told them that reorganization “is only | about 80 percent complete” and that State is “undermanned to a point that is somewhat alarming to me, not only in respect to our ordinary functional activities, but in connec- tion with our planning for the post- war period.” Stettinius made such an impre sion on the House Appropriations of economy-minfled members of Congress, this was rather a remark- able response. Maybe it was because Stettinius not only made a strong demand but told the legislators he probably would be back in the fall for funds to hire around 600 more workers, Incidentally, when the second re- organization comes or maybe befare, { Joseph Grew, former Ambassador to Japan, one of the best informed men on oriental affairs, may be persuaded to head up the department’s far eastern division. If hé is persuaded, he will have one of the toughest to do with Japan when it's all over. | Off the cuff: Over in Girls Town ¢ jobs of all postwar planning: what ' Johnston, of Spokane, Wash., Presi- dent of the United States Chamber of Commerce, told the Senate| Banking Committee, his organiza- ition wants to hold the line against inflation and keeping wages and prices stable as much as does the Administration. Johnston gave the opinion that “creeping advances” may not be avoided, but the “whole thing is going to be shot” if controls are not extended for a year. - e RETURN HERE Mrs. Ruth Whited and daughter have returned here and are at the Gastineau Hotel. e 2 MISS SARJEANT HERE WAR FUND Juneau is still $1,000 short of its Cuota in the Red Cross War Fund, Brooks Hanford, drive chairmgn, announced today. The entire chapter area, he said, is about $4,000 short of meeting its quota. The drive ends this week and it is believed that many persons have yet to send in their contributions. Hanford urged all who have no% vet given, and those who feel they have not given enough, to send their contributions by mail, or bring them in person. to Allen Shattuck, Chapter Treasurer