The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, April 4, 1945, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. LXIV., NO. 9927 JUNEAU, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 1945 MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS - ARMY TANKS NOW ON WESER RIV INVADERS Yan GOINLAND ~ ONISLAND Americans Only Six MilesE from Naha-Opposi- tion Confused By MORRIE LANDSBERG (AP War Correspondent) GUAM, April 4—Marines and in- fantrymen, still finding negligible | opposition drove another wedge across Okinawa yesterday to take firm control of that strategic Ryukyu island, south of the cen- tral section, in the four day old invasion which one general said is progressing “far better than our | wildest dreams.” | Major Gen. Archibald Arnold’s| veteran Seventh Army Division was mentioned today for the first time, | as being in action on Okinawa,| only 325 miles south of Japan| proper. ( On the southern flank, the Am- ericans are only six miles from| the town of Naha, principal city in the Ryukyus, with a population | of 60,000. Nearby is one of the| best airdromes in the entire chain. In the northern end of the island, Marines are crossing all kinds ofi difficult terrain, slowed more by hills and dusty roads than by Japanese snipers. | .. Headquarters officers said o el S advance is so speedy, and the, situation so fluid they are unable = to plot positions accurately on ongressman 1 ¥ | STATUTE miLEs | | | | @ © TOKASHIKI | | flags point to airfields taken on ago, (AP Wirepboto imap) et s i maps. Opposition to the Yanks is confused because of the rapidity of their advance, but field officers said the hour is probably nearing when an estimated 60,000 or more Japs on the island could be ex-[ pected to put up a stand. | A communique by Admiral Ches- ter W. Nimitz reported rapid gains on all Okinawa fronts, as navall guns and carrier planes gave close support to ground operations. e - HESSE LEAVES William A. Hesse, who stepped down from 'the job of Territorial| Highway Engineer on April 1, left| on the Princess Norah this mormng{ for Prince Rupert enroute east to| the Mayo Clinic. e MRS. ROWE OUT Mrs. Elanor Rowe, manager of the Harri Machine and Gift Shop, ! left for Seattle this morning on the Norah. RED ARM IS SIX MILES FROMVIENNA Other Russian Army Pre: ing Hard on Bratislava —Railroad Cut BULLETIN—LONDON, April 4—Red Army forces have cap- tured Bratislava, Capital City of the Puppet State of Slovakia, eastern gafeway to Vienna, Stalin announces. This city fell to Marshal Malinovsky’'s army only 24 hours after the advanc- ed Red Army troops moved upon it in three directions. The Washington Merry - Go- Roundf By DREW PEARSCN (Lt. Col. Robert 8. Allen now service with the Army.® on sctive l‘ WASHINGTON — Exciting war | news largely obscured its signifi-) cance, but last week the highest court of the land handed down one of its most important decisions in recent years perhaps ranking | alongside the Schechter Sick Chicken Case involving the NRA. |Viet tank and infantry forces are The case, that of Georgia v. the Surging through the administrative railroads, was largely a tribute to district of Greater Vienna. They one man, ernor Ellis Arnall of Smashed to within six miles of the Georgia, whois fast becoming the City proper which is now within jest, * leader since the easy reach of Soviet artillery. South’s greaest,” lea ! e Civil War. Arnall conceived the| TWo massive Russian armies have case and came to Washington to already deprived the defenders of argue it personally before the Su-|Vienna of the great bastion of preme Court, ¢ | Wiener Neustadt, 22 miles south His victory means several things,'and are closely pressing Bratis- From now on, when one of the .48 l1ava, 2¢ miles east of Vienna’s city states suffers because of monopoly, limits. b it can come to the U. S. Supreme| Far to the north the Second Court direct, without waitig to White Russian Army took Neun- climb up through the District and dorf, two miles southeast of cap- Appeals Courts. Perhaps even more tured Danzig. On' the plains of the important, it means that neither Vistula Delta units of this army the Army nor the Navy nor the also broke onto the Westerplatte President can stop enforcement of Sand spit guarding Danzig Harbor the Sherman Anti-Trust Act if one 8nd won Krakau and Heubude. of the 48 states wants to appeal| Wiener Neustadt fell to Marshal over their heads to the Supreme Tolbukhin’s army which drove on Court. 16 miles to the southwest captur- For years the South has been N8 Neunkirchen and Glognitz. beefing about freight rates fixed by »'l‘he Russians cut the main Wall Street bankers and the ,-Bfl_\Iannx-Venice railroad and the LONDON, April 4—Powerful So- . "/J Mom. b Ne= O WQIch Says Stinnetf Marines, Infantrymen ks Land On Okinawa Kimmu Bay pIcH! J TAKA “ie1anza ©, Q>aAMAmJA stuxm Pucific Ocean 2 3 sy 8 Drurara Gushichan CAPE CHAMU Pointers from flag indicate approximate extent c¢f American beachhead on Okinawa, Japanese island in- vaded in what Adm. Nimitz described as the largest amphibious operation of the Pacific war. Arrows from Okinawa and to Kerama Islands, taken by American forces five days € i % ¥ rom Is Man fo IS MAYOR KETCHIKAN By JACK STINNETT |Other Election Refurns from Various Sections of Alaska jterm. As lawmakers go, he's young, {having just celebrated his 42nd| KETCHIKAN, Alaska, April 4— | birthday. |R. C. Pedersen was reelected Mayor Not very long ago, President yesterday over Dr. C. Martin Carl- Roosevelt called Mansfield to the 'gson, the vote being 646 to 485. White House. What he said, in| Councilman Arthur Bryant was effect, was “Mike, I have had yeelected and new councilmen are WASHINGTON, April 4—Add to the congressmen to keep your eye| on, Rep. Michael J. Mansfield,| | Democrat from Missoula, Mont. | | Hes just starting his second: i | i SS- |reports on China from diplomats and 'gq Steffen and J. P. Valentine. |connection with the proposition of | |the military men. You are acquaint-| p M. Maulding was chosen on jed with the Orient. 1 want you to the Utilities Board of Control and g0 out there as my representative the Rev. Roy Olson, unopposed, was and come back and ftell Congress reclected to the School Board. and me just what you think about it.” Mansfield came back with renew- ed faith in the Chinese, but with a full awareness of the problems they {face and the problems we have ahead in making them an effective |instrument in the war on Japan. SITKA ELECTION | SITKA, Alaska, April 4—In yes- iterday's election, E. M. Goddard {was elected Mayor and Frank N. |Price, Clarence Rands, James L. { men. Robert Gaylor was chosen for the School Board and Harold He was peculiarly fitted for this, it Schaefer to Public Utilities. ’observauon and report. Early in 11918, before his fifteenth birthday, |Mansfield joined the Navy. Dis- charged after 10 months, he enlisted CARROLL SKAGWAY MAYOR | SKAGWAY, Alaska, April 4—The in the Army for a year, then sery-|following are the results of the ed in the Marines from 1920-22, most |€lection yesterday: Mayor, C. A. of the time in China. If there’s any Carroll; Councilmen, L. H. John- other member of Congress who has ston, Sr., Malcolm A. Moe, Dr. C. L. served in all three branches. I have Polley; Treasurer, E. A. Rasmuson; not heard of him. | School Board, Mrs. Celestia Tunley ‘and K. A. Hahn. | Back in Missoula and Butte, Mike| |turned to mining, decided he need- | WRANGELL ELECTION ed more education than you get out' WRANGELL, Alaska, April 4— of the eighth grade and started ¥red G. Hanford, one of the Rep- studying up. He studied enough to Fesentatwes of the Pirst Division pass the entrance examinations for i the Seventeenth Legislature, was the Montana School of Mines and Yesterday reelected Mayor for the went from there to the state uni-,third consecutive year. |versity. By 1933, the lad who had| FElected to the council were |skipped high school was a profes- George Sumption, Olaf Hansen, J. sor of eastern history at Montana U. M. Steear. In 1942 Jeanette Rankin, only, Hanford defeated his opponent, member of Congress to vote against Helen Ronning, by a vote of 113 to war after Pearl Harbor, retired, and 56. The total vote cast was 206. Mansfield was elected to succeed her.| Mansfield doesn’t play follow-the- | ELECTION AT KODIAK leader, but the young liberals in. KODIAK, Alaska, April 4—Oscar |the house count him on their side.A. Torgerson, President of the Bank | On occasion he has pointed out that 0f Kodiak, running unopposed for |the farmers constitute 23 per cent Mayor, gathered 265 of a total of |of the population, yet receive only 287 votes cast here. | ( | | | | PEDERSEN | Advance on RESULTS OF TUESDAY'S ELECTION PARSONS IS NEW MAYOR OF JUNEAU Proponent of Public Own- * ership Wins by 35- Vote Margin Ernest Parsons, former city coun- gilman and Juneau electrical dealer, was elected Mayor of Juneau in| yesterday's municipal election by the close margin of 35 votes, de- feating James Larsen, contractor. Xe8 Parsons, who served on the city| No council during the 1942-43 term, has | FOR LIGHT, POWER: been a resident of Juneau for 14 Yes |years. He ran on a platform which No |advocated an investigation to de-!FOR TELEPHONE: termine the feasibility of the city's| Yes purchasing Juneau's electric light No and power racflllk‘._s as a means|pop ¢ ARRAGE COLLECTION: of increasing the city revenue. v Three councilmen candidates on i Parsons’ Business Administration | NO Ticket also were elected to office, |[FOR DOCKS: but the ticket failed to go in whole,| Yes candidate Jack Fletcher, hotel man- No ager, being defeated by Edwm‘d“crry BUS LI { Nigisen, incumbent councilman who | Yes {ran for re-election on the Tax-| No | payers’ Ticket. The three members | T 7 of . the Business Administration FORY;"‘Y MENAGER: | Ticket who were successful were | No Total Vote Cast Pre FOR MAYOR: James Larsen Ernest Parsons FOR COUNCILMAN, 1-Year: John G. Young FOR COUNCILMEN, 2 Years: Jack Fletcher Stanley V. Grummett Edward S. Neilsen Edward Shaffer Dr. Richard H. Williams FOR SCHOOL BOARD, 3 Years: Ralph W. Mize R. E. Robertson BUS FRANCHISE: Yes No FOR WATERWORKS: { No. 1 190 243 331 219 308 201 187 231 177 218 145 218 433 Precinct No. 3 131 123 Precinet No. 2 86 6 cinet Totals 407 442 115 198 644 67 406 603 87 9 94 36 245 192 101 227 168 311 351 319 ki 256 144 459 278 874 36 97 163 dealer, was defeated. Grummett Strong i Young, who ran w#nopposed for |the one-year term, collected the |most votes of any candidate, and | | Grummett showed most/ stfength in | |the contested race for councilman.| While voting Parsons ‘into office, | |however, voters refused to accept| |his suggestion to withhold granting {of the 20-year bus service fran-| lc]usc to Lloyd Reid, voting more iman two-to-one to grant the fran- | chise. | R. E. Robertson, Juneau nlmr-{‘ v defeated Ralph Mize for the {school board director’s position by | la wide margin. | | Results of the separate ballot, which questioned the voters on]| their opinions concerning civ.y‘ |ownership of utilities, showed a |division of ideas. /Incumbent Edward Shaffer, meat| ' | Stanley V. Grummett, insurance | man; John G. Young, accountant,| : 2 |and, Dr. Richard Williams, dentist. | T - | | Thirty Miles of Oil- Rich Borneo By FRED HAMPSON (AP War Correspondent) MANILA, April 4—Veterans of the Forty-First Division invaded | The answer to the proposition Tawitawi at the southern end of the |of a city manager form of govern-|sulu Archipelago—within thirty |ment for Juneau was a thumping miles of oil rich Borneo—Monday, in {“no.” la 200 mile leap southwestward from | Other captured Zamboanga on Mirdanao. Eighth Army Yanks seized the vast Tawitawi Harbor, former Jap- anese naval base, and two small islands at the southwestern end of Tawitawi, Sangasanga and Bongao, along with two airfields within easy striking range of Borneo. “no” votes were cast in public ownership of the telephone system and the bus line. However, |voters in the second and third |precincts favored the city’s owning |the bus line while at the same ‘Lime favoring the granting of a 20- |year franchise to the company, one' General MacArthur's communique inconsistent aspect of the election. said “it places us within thirty The voters showed themselves to'miles of Borneo, and the great oil be in favor of public ownership of (and rubber resources of that area,” Brightman were elected council- the water system, the electric light adding the enemy port and airbase | land power system, garbage collec- at Jolo in the middle of the Archi- |tion and docks. }pelago was seriously jeopardized by Obstacle To Program ithe leapfrog landing. But before Parsons could carry, Freceded by heavy aerial satura- jout his program of city purchase and operation of utilities favored he still had one obstacle to over- |come. Only the city’s taxpayers or |property owners would be able to| , ivote in any election concerning the Amerioang issuance of bonds, and yesl.erday‘s‘ |balloting didn't show just how} many taxpayers were included in:l ARMY IN GAINS, ithe “yes” votes for public owner-i ship. i Several Hundred Prisoners Taken in Two-day The new officers will be sworn, Baftle |the landing was made under cover of |naval guns and planes. Guerrilla |forces aided the landing also, which {was made at small cost to the in this Friday evening during the‘ regular council meeting in the City Hall, and the setup for council | for the next 12 months will be Don Skuse and Harry Lea, hold- overs; Nielsen, re-elected, and new members Grummett, Young and |Dr. Williams. Yesterday's total vote was only 874, extremely light compared with \recent years. e — OM SITKA troops joined up after making land- ings on both sides of a narrow strip of land separating the Valli Di FR | Mr. and Mrs. William B. Boblenz, of Sitka, are registered at the Gas- tineau Hotel. | |riatic Sea on the extreme eastern R end of the Italian front. New Stand Taken Within| !tion bombing for the past two weeks, | = il . (CANADIA NAVY WILL FIGHT NIPS { Cruisers and Aircraft Car- riers fo Be Hurled Against Japan OTTAWA, April 4—The role to be played by Canada in the Pacific War grew clearer with the disclosure that the Dominion intends to send {two cruisers, two aircraft carrlers iand a number of destroyers and fri- gates against Japan after the war with Germany has been ended. | | | | | | | | !“a good deal more than a mere to- |ken force,” Navy Mjnister MacDon- lald told the House of Commons last| inight.- “Canadians generally feel |they have a stake in the post-war | development of the North Pacific jand the Dominion has a grudge to |settle against Japan for wiping out some 2,000 Canadians of the Hong- kong garrison at the outbreak of |the war in the Far East.” “A few French-Canadians are op- posed to Canadian participation in |the war against Japan, however, even larger numbers, including some English speaking Canadians, are op- posed to any fighting they might regard as recovering colonies for Britaint than defeating Japan.” MacDonald disclosed that the Do- minion’s only cruiser, the Uganda, obtained from Britain, already is in |the Pacific. The Uganda, he said, |will be joined By the cruiser, On- tario, being built at Belfast and to be commissioned in a “short time.” | - C { | haplain Weds Pair . Who Wg[gn’l There JACKSONVILLE, Fla. Navy Chaplain Paul R. Hoover officiated at what he considers to be the first Iwedding of its kind. In a double | proxy ceremony here, he united a happy couple, one elsewhere in the |where in the Pacific. “ Chaplain Hoover reported the nec- |essary papers had traveled around legal tape was straightened out and the unattended rite could be The Canaglian uniws will comprise | 7 per cent of the national income. Elected to Council posts were: | FAIRHURST BACK Allied Headquarters said a num- performed. i A PRICE TEN CENTS — ER Okinawa YANKUNITS GET CLOSER 10 BERLIN. ‘Other American, British, Canadian Forces Make B!g Advances PARIS, April 4.—British troops reached the Ems River, 48 miles from the North Sea in their drive to, trap up to 90,000 Nazis in Hollnnd,‘ (while U. S. Ninth Army tanks pulled up to the Weser River, next to the last important stream on the road to Berlin Troops of the Third Army fought down to the last 58 miles toward Czechoslovakia, and for the city (of Gotha, 141 miles southwest of Berlin. Germans reports said Gen- |eral Patton's troops had reached | Arnstadt, 70 miles from Leipzig, and 110 from the Czeck city of Pilsen, where the great Skoda munitions works, Hitler's last major arsenal, are located. Arnstadt is 19 miles ‘southeast of Gotha, Simpson . Nears Berlin General Simpson's Pifth Armor- ed Division reached the Weser at Bad Oeynhausen, 183 miles from Berlin, 57 miles south of Bremen and 103 southwest of Hamburg, as Bat- talion Engineers rode along a h[m over ihe river to the north. e ’Germnn towns of Salzufien, Dien- hide and Hollinde were captured on !the way to Weser. Canadians Cross Rhine The Germans reported Canadian troops had crossed the wall of the Rhine, presumably at Arnheim, in a drive toward the Zuider Zee, less than 20 miles from General Crerar's vanguards. . Luxehbourg radio asserted Ger- man divisions are being shifted from {the Russian front to the disinte- grating Western front. The U. 8. :Nlnth Army is said to have encoun- tered the elite Viking Panzer Divis- |ion, which arrived without tanks. The French First Army has en- tered Karlsruhe, capital of Baden, an important communications and industrial «»:nter, with a population of 189,000, near the upper Rhine. The Ninth Army's Second Ar- mored Division fought past tightly | hbemmed in Bielefeld, into Detnold, 47 miles southwest of Hannover. Many Cities Fall The important cities of Osna- brueck, Muenster, Aschaffenburg, {Fulda, Siegen and Bruchsal have fallén. Stormed and falling were |the cities of Kassel, Gotha, Hamm, Heilbronn, Wuerzbach, Hengelo, and Zutphen. The American Seventh Army has battled to the heart of the Bavarian city of Wuerzbach, within 34 miles of Nuernberg, on the front beyond |the Main River where German resis- |tance is said to be hardening. 3 TARGETS ONHONSHU " BOMBED Over Three Hundred Sup- erfortresses Roar Over Japan's Home Land By ELMONT WAITE (AP War Correspondent) GUAM, April 4. —Japan's home is- !land of Honshu was again raided as {300 or more Superfortresses today | { ) ROME, April 4—Eighth .lu-my:Unned States and the othér some- roared through thick clouds at a low |level in (raid. | This was the first time three sep- a three-way demolition ! Comacchio Lagoon from the Ad-|the world three times before all the arate targets were lashed on the same large scale, as planes hit Shiz- |uika, Tachikawa and Koizumi. Because of bad weather, bombing roads they control, which discrimi- | Trans-Alpine Highway connecting | nated against the South. For years the war arsenals of Austria and —_— . Czechoslovakia with German troops (Continued on Page Four) in Italy. i ber of prisoners were taken in addi-| |was done almost entirely by instru- Hal Pairhurst. has returned from!tion to the 200 or more captured in| D. Cash and family, of White-|ments, and with objectives obscured |Skagway and is staying at the 'the first day of the operation, Mon- 'horse, are staying at the Gastineau by heavy undercast, exact nrge‘u Gastineau Hotel, day. » Hotel. were not specified. {He has championed labor, small Stanley Nelson, grocery manager,| \bus‘lneus, old age pensions, jobs xorilfl.’!; Lee Bettinger, bottling works | (Continued on Page Thiree) lr‘nn;inwd n}t ranr Tu n)_ ’