The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, December 1, 1944, Page 1

(3 Q K4 & I ) e F &F HE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” — - "VOL. LXIV., NO. 9822 JUNEAU, ALASKA, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1944 PRICE TEN CENTS MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS — YANKS GET READY TO HIT SIEGFRIED LINE JAPS LOSE TTHCONVOY OFF ORMOC, Over 26,060“Enemy Sol-| diers Drowned in Rein- forcement Attempts By JIM HUTCHESON (A. P. War Correspondent) GEN. DOUGLAS MacARTHUR'S HEADQUARTERS IN THE PHIL- IPPINES, Dec. 1—Five thousand Japanese soldiers were Kkilled or drcwned—bringing the total to over 26,000 who tried and never got to Leyte—as American planes for the| second straight day accounted for an Ormoc-bound enemy convoy ‘Tuesday. Although the convoy was cau-| tiously scattered over a wide area, Yank fighters tracked down all of | it, sinking a 9,000-ton transport and three small freighters, engulf-| ing a 5,000-ton freighter and leav- | ing several destroyers in flames. This is in contrast to Wednes-| day’s erasure of a 13-ship convoy,| two of which got reinforcements to | Ormoc. This one didn't even get| close to the port. | One freighter was bagged far west of Mindor by a night patrol plane, and the others, including the heavily -loaded transport, were blasted off Kasabate and off Cebu by the Yanks. The enemy’s reinforcement lossesl by attacks on their seven convoys | has been raised to 29 transports, | aggregating 103,750 tons, and 18, escortiMg war vessels sunk. } { EXTREMECOLD SWEEPS STATES I (By Associated Press) . Extremely States today from the Rockies to! the Eastern Seaboard, while freez- | ing conditions extended toward the]‘ Gulf of Mexico. The New England states experi- enced cold weather which added to the discomfort of the communi- ties lashed with wind and rain yesterday, causing damage unof- ficially estimated in millions of dollars. g At least five deaths in upstate New York were attributed to the storm condition, expected by the Weather Bureau to abate soon. Nineteen inches of snow are re-| ported in Syracuse. The Washington Merry - Go-Round By DREW PEARSON (Lt. Col.” Robert S. Allen now on active service with the Army.) WASHINGTON — Inside fact is that Harry Hopkins had a great deal to do with the postponement | of Roosevelt’s proposed Big-Three conference with Churchill and Stalin, though military advisers also heartily concurred and urged postponement. One reason was that Stalin wouldn't budge out of Russia, didn't want to come even to Te-| heran or some other non-Russian, neutral spot. He said he was busy fighting the war and couldn’t spare the time. This excuse was under- standable when Russia had Nazi Armies on her soil. But now the Red Army is largely on enemy soil and the tables are reversed. While the President in the past has been glad to go to Teheran, and has proposed meetings in Al- aska, Eastern Siberia adjoining Alaska, or any other reasonable place, he did not feel that he should trek half around the world a second time, especially when he had some pressing problems of his own at home, among them a new Congress and a Cabinet reorganiza- tion. ROOSEVELT IN THE MIDDLE Perhaps even more important, however, was the fact that the main points to be discussed at the Big Three meeting were political problems between Britain and (Continued on Page Four) - | intellectual DIMOND HONORED BY COMPLIMENTS, | 6 OIL PAINTINGS| Delegate from Alaska to for Judge's Bench WASHINGTON, ©Dec. 1 — Gifts and compliments were yesterday showered cn “Tony” Dimond, who, after 12 years in Congress, leaves soon to become Federal Judge in the Third Judicial District in Al- aska. Gifts of six oil paintings of Al- askan scenes were presented for the people of Alaska by Gov. Ernest Gruening, which were also | compliments and tributes from the Delegate's voteless associates. One was from the House Insular Affairs committee. The surprise to the Delegate de- veloped after a committee meeting at which one of his bills was ap- proved. The Governor and a score of other speakers paid tribute to Di- mond’s “intelligence, shrewdness, honesty, breadth of vision, keen sympathy, understand- ing and unswerving integrity.” The Delegate expressed his ap- preciation for the gifts and also for the “sympathetic consideration” he said his colleagues had shown | him in Congress. Incidentally, yesterday was Di- + ond’s sixty-third birthday. Dimond announced that Dele- gate-elect E. L. Bartlett would soon be in Washington to take the oath and enter upon his duties. BILL TO HELP VETERANS TO SETTLE IN NORTHLAND WASHINGTON, Dec. 1.—Legisla- tion designed to help veterans settle in Alaska after the war has been introduced by Delegate Dimond. Under the bill the Smaller War | Plants Corporation will be author- ized to spend up to $100,000 to in- cold weather swept: vestigate the possibility of helping | the northern area of the United |veterans to establish independent businesses there. 'REDS WITHIN 100 MILES, AUSTRIA; RAILWAY IS CUT MOSCOW, Dec. 1.—Enveloping 50 more communities in their new drive west of the Ddnube in southwestern Hungary, Russian troops moved north to within 78 miles of out- flanked Budapest, less than 100 miles from the Austrian border, Moscow announced today. A nine-mile advance north along the west bank of the Danube was imade yesterday northeast of Buda- pest, while other Red Army troops seized Eger and Szikszo which guard invasion routes into central Slo- vakia, Russian troops also cut the rail- way between Miskolc, Hungary's fifth city, and Koice, an eastern Slovakian communication hub now threatened by Petrov’s forces which are fanning out from captured Ungvar. SEVENKILLEDIN - BIG PLANE CRASH LOS ANGELES, Dec. 1—Seven persons were killed and 18 injured today when a Transcontinental Western Airlines passenger plane enroute from San Francisco, crashed in a heavy fog as it was nearing its destination at Burbank. The plane carried 20 passengers and three crew members. City Manager Walter Cooper of San Diego was among the. dead, and Mayor Harley Kno of the same city was severely injured. The pilot and co-pilot were killed. Some of the injured passengers told reporters that the plane lost altitude and began to jerk, then crashed after scraping along the treetops. The plane’s hostess, Donna Marr, was taken to the hospital with a leg fracture and other injuries. Lee Flanagin, Acting TWA Op- erations Manager at Burbank, said it was impossible to say immedi- ately what the cause of the acci- dent was, - PHILIPPINES Soon Leave Congress | YANKS LOSE 2 CARRIERS, 1 EL PASO, Texas, Dec. 1—Albert Bacon Fall, 83, Secretary of In- terior in the Warren G. Harding Administration and one of the central figures in the Teapot Dome oil scandal, is dead in a hospital here, passing away in his sleep, WASHINGTON, Dec. 1—Fourteen |hundred men were rescued from Itwo escort carriers which were sunk lin the battle of the Philippines, the Navy reported in releasing an ac- icount of how six baby flat tops fought a big Japanese task force. e | | { court. ]‘ Fall, feeble and weary and suf- fering from an illness which de- veloped into chronic pleurisy with ! congestion in one lung, was unwil- | ling to continue the fight. | Sick And Pennlless i “I am an old man &nd for the The carriers were sunk at St. Lo according to Dr. John Morrison, We picked up 800 men,” said m.m-} Albert B. Fall tumbled from Admiral C. A. F. Sprague. |heights of honor in the public “Our losses at Gambier Bay were Service to the lowly position of a low too, considering the fact the felon. middle of the Jap fleet. Six hun- through the years into the United dred men were rescued there,” said States Senate and thence to the Sprague. | Secretaryship of the Interior. i Leases to public oil lands executed }lion resulted in his being branded |a “faithless public officer” by the | United States Supreme Court. | That was in 1927. The leases had 'been made to Harry F. Sinclair and iEdward L. Doheny in 1922, They | resulted in numerous oil trials but ion criminal charges. Found Guilty s i Six years after he quit his cabi- inet post he sat in a Washington of the 8lst Army Division killed man rose and said he had been 1300 Japanese and captured 142 on found guilty of taking a bribe from Peleliu Island in the Palaus, between Doheny, his wealthy friend of pros- October 20 and November 26, the pecting days in the west. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz' com-= | ¢orcaq fo one year tn bit: munique said that our losses were‘ That October day in 1920 was 92 killed, 622 wounded and five i cyimination of Fall's switt des- missing. tcent ‘from & place of emineiee o ::’rerl;:gnb:zh::: ::nm‘: ;;L;,.h:n::: ™Y |and broken in health and fortune. The communique also reported a | .Blows_ aimed at the series of Jap bomber attack on Saipan and‘nm\sacnons which resulted in the was caused and one enemy plane |hardest on him. ¥ was destroyed. Doheny Acquitted Four months after Fall's con- {viction, Doheny went on trial same; the same judge presided and UNITED SIATES the same attorneys argued the case. y Doheny too wept at the verdict AIR pRopos Als but his tears were those of joy. He Protestin ginnocence, Fall went i CHICAGO, Dec. 1—British op-|back to New Mexico, which had position and attacks on the Ameri- sent him to the Federal Senate, or a world-wide air record left|on his ranch at Three Rivers. Later {the United States with its pro-lhe left this refuge for a home posal in a bundle quite separate{owned by Mrs. Fall in EI Paso, from other achievements of the|Texas. The ranch went to Doheny | ference. | Attorneys in whose hands Fall| The result represented something |left his case appealed his convic-l‘ of a victory for the United King-|tion but in April, 1931, the District | dom which would prefer that the firmed the verdict in the lower set form, and, to some degree, a set-back for the United States which had hoped to give the ideals prestige of attachment at the This convention will include an air navigation agreement including technical standards, procedures and set rules for air transport opera-|last eight years have known little tion will administer the convention.!jdea of appealing to the United States Supreme Court was broach- (HlA"GA"D W|FE ed. “I am a poor man, and have no money for further legal de-| NoT SEP‘R‘IED Nevértheless, the case went be- ¥ ifore the highest tribunal. On June SAYS SpoKESMA" 1, 1931, the court refused to review Fall's conviction. CHUNGKING — (Undated) — A |culprit was placed in a motor am-| source close to Chiang Kai Shek [bulance at El Paso and started for declared a malicious Calcutta dis-|the New Mexico State Penitentiary | patch “in the ‘London Mail said!at Sanea Fe. The Jjourney was at a Chungking tea party,” thus july 20, Fall reached the prison bringing into the open rumors of a where he was placed in the hospi- domestic crisis in the General's|¢q) household. He sefved nine months and 19| and Gambier Bay. |the only person at the bedside “Our losses were low at St. Lo. when the end came. carriers dropped back into the| The turbulence of politics led him |by him in the Harding administra- Fall was the only person convicted WASHINGTON, Dec. 1.—Troops courtroom and wept as a jury fore- { Navy announced today. | Fall was fined $100,000 and sen- ‘The main points of resistance were the position of a man disgraced Tinian November 28. No damagelle"se of Naval oil reserves fell BRI‘"SH A‘I“" A(K {charged with giving him the $100.- 000 bribe. The courtroom was the was acquitted. can plan for five sky freedoms and resumed living at the big house £ International Civil Aviation Con-'on a foreclosure. of Columbia Court of Appeals af- freedoms not be presented in any forthcoming convention. tions. An international organiza-iput trouble,’ he said when the fense.” The long fight ended July 18 (By Associated Press) of that year, when the enfeebled China’s leader and his wife were halted for a day at the Three separated “after open disagreement |Rivers ranch, then resumed and on ‘This source, said the report pub-‘dm ys, ill virtually all of the time lished Wedneaday, shottid be thor-|ony " emereing on a, stretcher May " ® & o o it B ;fiffi;fi;’f&‘;’f‘,fi 9, 1932. Again there was a tire-|y ° wparmpe REpoRT | o a-long illness. some trip in a motor ambulance,ie - (y, g Weather Bureau) © Actually, the tea party which the|®P4ing at the Three Rivers ranch, | P . Calcutta dispatch apparently ‘re- |{OF Doheny, having acquired ttle|y memperagure, November 30 o ferred to was not a breaking-up %0 the property through foreclos-|q 'yy juneay: Maximum, 39; ® party but a meeting delfberately ar- | ure, did not attempt to oust h“‘, ® minimum, 36. Rainfall, 58 of e ranged by the General and his wife [0ld friend. ® an inch, . to stop gossip about them that they Oil Magnate Dies ' At Airport: Maximum, 36; e feared endangered both China’s and | The oil magnate’s health also|e munimum 32 Rainfall, 8 of ® Chiang’s political security. failed about this time and after|e an gen £ . —————————— three years of illness he died in ¥ WHITE IN TOWN September, 1935. Thereafter Falls|® ® ©_® o ¢ o o o o o U. V. White, from Petersburg, is} ubles multiplied again. The Pe- staying at the Baranof Hotel, troleum Securities Company, a ‘Alberl B. Fall, Principal in Nafion's Greatest Scandal, Passes Away in His Sleep holding unit in the Doheny ‘estate, told Fall he could remain at the ranch as a “guest” by paying $1 a year. Instead, he started a fight to regain possession of the homestead, contending that the mortgage did not cover that portion of the ranch, The holding company countered with an ejection suit and the court fight dragged for more than a year. Fall directed his side of the controversy from a hospital bed in El Paso whither he had been taken in the autumn of 1935. On De- cember 2, 1936, attorneys for the two sides signed stipulations in the supreme court of New Mexico end- ing the litigation. It was an- nounced that the Fall family would be permitted to continue in resi- dence at Three Rivers and that Mrs. Fall's illness had been the de- termining factor in bringing about the settlement. But Fall himself, too weak to be moved, or even comment on the court proceedings, remained at the El Paso hospital. The Supreme Court's scathing denunciation of Fall came when it invalidated a lease granted to Sinclair on the reserve at Teapot Dome, Wyoming. His friends said it affected him more than any other develecpment in the oil scan- dals, save perhaps, his convietion. Jury Shadowed Shortly after, Fall and Sinclair went on trial on charges of con- spiracy. A mistrial was declared upon the revelation that members of#the jury had- béen shadowed. The cases were severed upon medi- cal certification that the former Interior Secretary’s health was too precarious for him to return to Washington from El Paso, Texas. From his sick bed Fall made a gesture in defense of his name late in March, 1928, in taken at the instance of Sinclair counsel. This upheld the notorious Teapot Dome lease, but it was not introduced in the trial which re- sulted in Sinclair’s acquittal on the conspiracy charge. During the separate trial, M. T. Everhart, son-in-law of Fall, testi- fied that he had received $233,500 in ‘bonds and $35,000 in cash from the oil man for the former In- terior Secretary. He declared the $268500 wa sin payment for a third interest in Fall's ranch hold- ings. Are Acquitted As with Teapot Dome, the Su- preme . Court also set aside the lease granted by Fall to his old prospector friend, Edward L. Do- heny, on the Naval oil reserve at Elk Hills, California. “The whole transaction was tainted with cor- ruption,” it held. Fall and Doheny were acquitted in the criminal con- spiracy growing out of the Elk Hills lease. During the Senate investigation which uncovered Fall's actions as Secretary of the Interior in leas- ing the reserves, large amounts of money and bonds had reached him about the same time from Sinclair and Doheny, the former cabinet member appeared only a shadow of the rugged west- erner he was in the days of his prime. The flowing iron-gray curls and drooping §mustach9 had turned almost white. His figure was bent and less robust. Fall's scant school education was and also that |obtained in rural sections around Frankford, Kentucky, where he was born November 26, 1861. From the age of 18 to 20 he taught school and read law, later going west. In 1883 he married Emma Garland Morgan of Clarksville, Texas, who remained by his side throughout his stormy career, and who cared for him and nursed him through his several collapses which followed court proceedings and conviction. L BUY WAR BONDS a deposition | NORTH SEA ARRESTED 'Alleged fo Have Stolen 4 (REWMEN | Boardman, Special Agent in charge of the Seattle Office of the FBI, lannounced today that four seamen, members of the crew of the vessel North Sea, have been taken into |custody here on the basis of a Federal Grand Jury indictment returned against them in the United States District Court at Ketchikan, Alaska, The quartette is charged with theft of whiskey from an inter- state shipment enroute from Seattle to Alaska. The whiskey was part of the cargo of the North Sea, on which the four men were crew- members. Upon arrival in Sitka, Alaska, May 12, 1944, four cases of whiskey were found to be missing from the ship’s cargo, some of which was later found in possession of mem- bers of the crew. In the subsequent investigation it developed that the four crew members indicted were either in- volved in the actual theft of the chase and sale of whiskey, knowing it to be pilfered cargo. Those indicted are Sidney Bal- | com, Robert Swenson, Peter Pliver and Herbert Thomas. GREAT WAVES OF ALLIED BOMBERS POUNDING REICH LONDON, Dec. 1—Great -waves |of RAF bombers raided Germany during the night thus establishing a record - breaking Allied air of- fensive. Yesterday brought the United States Air Force its worst loss of six four-engined craft were downed by ack-ack. Thirty United States| fighters also failed to return to |their British bases after all-day| | pulverizing attacks .by 3,000 planes on the synthetic oil plants in the| Leipzig area and the railroads in {the Saarbrucken sector. f Tactical air forces suppprting |ground troops, lost three medium bombers and one fighter last night. {More than 500 Halifaxes and Lan- | casters -dropped 3,000 tons of fire| and explosive bombs on the Rhine | jand Rhur city of Duisburg. Two- { {Hamburg. Four raiders were lost. | Not since 63 United States bomb- |ers went down over Berlin in April !have the Allied planes encountered |such concentrated fire as they did |yesterday, particularly in a 40-mile- square area near Leipzig. Tempering the heavy losses re- ported was the belief that most of | the fighter pilots grounded in friendly territory. | The United States Fifteenth Air! |Force heavy bombers in Italy are |apparently striking at Germany as| | wintry weather halted the two-way | offensive of British-based United | States Eighth Air Force and RAF !planes. | Berlin broadeasts today warned | Germans there were raiders over| Bavaria. Losses of the Eighth Air| Force yesterday proved to be con- siderably less than originally nn-l nounced. Of the 56 bombers and 30! fighters missing in first accounts, 16 bombers and 17 fighters, said to be missing, were reported safe,| leaving 40 bombers and 13 fighters still unaccounted for. | STOCK QUOTATIONS NEW YORK, Dec. 1. — Closing | quotation of Alaska Juneau mine | stock today is 6, American Can 90%;, Anaconda 28, Beech Aircraft 13%, Bethlehem Steel 62%, Curtiss- Wright 67%, International Harvester 77, Kennecott 34%, North American Aviation 87, New York Central 18%, Northern Pacific 17%, United States | Steel 572, Pound $4.04. Dow, Jones averages today are as follows: industrials, 147.27; rails, | 42.87; utilities, 25.40. BOND SALESMEN ASKED TO GET CAMPAIGN GOING THREE YANK ARMIESFORM liqguor or were engaged in the pur- | % declaved 1 among the rebellious draftee tr heavy bombers since April. Fifty-| g | Few requests have yet been turn- | | ed into the Capitol Theatre, reports | | Jack Fletcher, Chairman of the; | i !sixth War Loan drive, for tickets | to the bond premiere, “See Here, | Private Hargrove,” which is to be held at 9 o'clock on Thursday De- Assault Lines Drawn Up | Four Cases of Whiskey Joemper 7. % " Along Two Important | from Cargo for Sitka | sumeaatels. “svers mond porshoses | Rhine Barriers will entitle the purchaser to a seat - SEATTLE, Dec. 1—Leland V.|at this show. One $25 bond is good BULLETIN—PARIS, Dec. 1.— jfor a general admission ticket, 10g¢s | Four American armies Lo day for a $50 bond or better. | | threw the Germans back aecross “If you wish to see this fine Show | {he Roer and Saar rivers, chief and no one has called upon, you,| perthern and southern barriers | either call me at 800 or purchase| (o .he Rhine, and broke thorugh your bond direct from the Capitol (he German defenses at the Theatre. All solicitors should rush easternmost tip of France. Many their bond applications to the Capi- | key points have been taken or tol Theatre as soon as possible 50| are near seizure. that the tickets can be mailed oui il in plenty of time,” says Fletcher. PARIS, Dec. 1—Three American s |Armies beat out hard-won gains across the churned baftleficlds and |drew up solid assault lines along R |both the Roer and Saar, (wo of around that town on the road to the Rhineland city of Munchen r i i some 15 to 20 miles. . 0 der n Coun(ll Reques's‘ Patrols stabbed across the flood- Government fo Go Line almost solidly along a front of 12 to 15 miles. Patton’s tanks discipline was jand Batterm. Germans Resist Desperately of Quebec to be calm from one| the most importaut barriers to the Rhine, : F Gen. Simpson’s Ninth Army cap- |tured Welz, one mile south of Gladbach, as virtually the entire army clesed up the Roer and its swollen Inde, as Gen. Patton's y Third Army pressed against the Against Draft OTTAWA, Dec. 1—Canada’s con- plunged forward a half mile and reached the Saar bend opposite As December came over the grim of their foremost anti-conscription- ‘h"m"“‘*‘ds- the Germans are pour- | ‘Lhmlch, and drew close in an arc ;NS ‘Lrlbulary, the Inde, on a front of west bank of the Saar-Siegfried scription erisis cooled off today as Merzig after clearing Hilbringen ist leaders in Quebec. However, it|In8 their final strength into a des- |was announced last night that the [Perate struggle for a winter line Provincial Government had adopted | West of the Rhine, losing 3,000 men an order-in-council asking that the @ 43y in prisoners alone. In dead Federal Government “respect and |and disabled, Hitler is sacrificing fulfill its solemn engagements and|More than that. |sacred pledges against conscription| French troops took possession of |for overseas service.” |Huningue, on the west side of the The anti-conscriptionist view of |Rhine, without resistance after a |the French-speaking minority miheavy artillery attack on the Ger- Canada was laid before Parliament Man garrison. About 1,000 men llast night by P. J. A. Cardin,|Who held pillboxes during the ar- on the West Coast. | An appeal went out to the people | ton block-busters were dropped on | former Works and Transport Min- tillery duel of the past several days ister, who resigned in 1942 over|Crossed to the east side of the the conscription issue, In face of sporadic disorders in Quebec he appealed to his people to avoid damaging property and endangering lives. 5TH ARMY MOVES AHEAD IN ITALY ROME, Dec. Fifth Army, Indian Division, moved ‘iorwnrd along the Florence-Faenza iroad against only light resistance {and reconnaissance, reports indi- |cated. | The enemy is withdrawing from | |the mountains in that area to the| Po Valley. The German move is ap- parently to straighten out the bulge in his line between Bologna and Faenza. On the Eighth Army front there is no change in positions. Allied troops are still engaged in heavy fighting around Alberto, yorthwest of Faenza. UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE IN Rhine under cover of fog. At Cannen’s Mouth The Third Army has drawn up close to Merzig on the northwest, west and southwest and is looking into the mouths of the Siegfried cannon. The Siegfried Line here, with its |forts, hundreds of pillboxes and miles of tank traps, comes down |to the river. Beyond is the Huns- ruck range, running northeast be- 1—Troops of the tween the Moselle and Nahe Val- leys toward the Rhine and Main cities of Wiesbaden, Mainz and Frankfurt. The Allied campaign has yet to reach the climax of fury, but is shaping bit by bit into three great wedges, each forcing the Germans to throw in thinning reserves to block the roads to Berlin. GIRL SCOUTS TO HOLD BOND SALE TOMORROW The American Leglon Auxiliary- sponsored group of Girl Scoul: will hold a bond sale tomorrow noon at the Baranof Hotel. Mrs. J. H. Likens is leader of the troop,” and Mrs. Don Foster is chairman of the drive. TIRE APPLICATIONS WASHINGTON,D.C. WASHINGTON, Dec. 1. — Two highly placed Congressional sources suggested Washington as a site for the forthcoming United Nations Conference of World Security. i Chairman Bloom, of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he | had information on the formal an- | nouncement plans of the confer- | ence and that it would probably be made “next week, perhaps on Wednesday.” Senator George predicted that the assembly would be held here, prnb-l ably in February. \ | —_————— | MOOSE MEETING TONIGHT | There will be a meeting of the Moose Lodge tonight at 8 o'clock in the Seward Building. Routine business will be followed by a social and refreshments. Passenger tire applications ap- proved at the November 30 meeting of the War Price and Rationing Board No, 7 are as follows: Earl B, Ritter, 2; George Junceau, 4. Truck tire applications approved are: James McCellen, 2.