The Key West Citizen Newspaper, May 17, 1954, Page 5

Page views left: 0

You have reached the hourly page view limit. Unlock higher limit to our entire archive!

Subscribers enjoy higher page view limit, downloads, and exclusive features.

Text content (automatically generated)

Agreement On Evacuation Of Wounded From Dien Bien Phu Canceled By French Command All-Out Air Attacks On Rebels Will Be Resumed Shortly By LARRY ALLEN HANOI, Indochina uw) — The French high command announced today it had canceled its agree- ment with the Vietminh for evac- ation of wounded French Union forces from Dien Bien Phu. The French said they shortly would re- sume all-out air attacks on the rebels streaming eastward from the fallen fortress toward the vital Red River delta. Only 11 of the French casualties have been evacuated. The Viet- minh had agreed to let 753 “seri- ously wounded” go but the French said they refused to repair the fall- en fortress’ two wrecked airstrips so larger planes could land and speed up the operation. In exchange for removal of their own wounded, the French had stopped bombing the 70-mile road |~ between Dien Bien Phu and Son La so that Communist Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap could transport his own casualties from the battlefield he conquered May 7. Agreement Not Kept But Giap, the French. charged, was using the road to transfer ar- tillery, antiaircraft guns, other war material and combat troops along with the wounded toward the delta. The command in Hanoi fears that vital area and Hanoi will be the target for another ma- jor rebel offensive, perhaps in June, The French estimated it would take at least a month to move out the 753 “seriously wounded” by helicopter and small single-engine planes, the only aircraft that now can land at Dien Bien Phu. The French figured Giap during that time could move his éntire battle- tested force from Dien Bien Phu unmolested, a price the French military judged too high to pay. Estimates of the total French Union wounded captured at Dien Bien Phu range between 1,300 and 2,000. ‘Controls Asked Reliable sources in Saigon said the French had demanded they be allowed to set up controls on the Dien Bien Phu-Son La highway to prevent movement of other than rebel wounded, but Giap refused. The sources in Saigon said bomb- ing of the highway would be re- sumed at 6 p.m. today. The French’ in Saigon indicated more negotiations would be sought with the’Communists in a further effort to arrange for removal of the wounded, to which the rebels agreed in principle at the Geneva conference. These sources insisted the evacuation plan had only “broken down locally but is still in effect in general.” The French had charged earlier that Giap had refused to release any Vietnamese wounded along with the other French Union troops, though Soviet Foreign Min ister V. M. Molotov had agreed specifically to this in Geneva. Indoctrination Feared The French feared the Red rebel leaders were holding on to their countrymen in an effort to indoc- trinate them with communism. Two French officers flew by heli- copter to Dien Bien Phu yesterday to negotiate further with the Viet- minh. The French Press Agency said they reported back that to re- pair the airstrips so they could ac- commodate 40-place Dakota trans- ports would require hundreds of workers and a de-mining opera- tion. One of the officers was quoted as saying French medical person- nel captured with the garrison had been barred from treating their own wounded and Vietminh doc- tors only were taking care of them. They have been grouped around the former battlefield in tents made from parachutes dropped in by the French air force along with food and medical supplies. Three of the 11 casualties al- ready arrived in Hanoi, in their first interview with newsmen last night, said air force nurse Gene- vieve de Galard Terraube, the only woman in the fortress, had survived the fall of Dien Bien Phu unhurt but later had been taken away a prisoner. These men reported that Brig. ing: Gen. Christian de Castries, the commander of the fortress, also had been captured unhurt. LEE SAXTON JOINS FAMILY FOR VISIT Lee A. Saxton, petroleum engi- neer for the California Company of New Orleans,’ yesterday arrived here to join his wife and nine- month-old daughter, His wife is the former Doris Bo- za. She and the daughter have been vacationing with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ri pap udolph Boza, 833 The Saxtons will week with the Oiet Bete, Ss Cuban Government to attend the two-day celebration of Cuban In- dependence at Santa Maria del Ro- BEAD THE CITIZEN Dany & KEY WEST'S TRAFFIC BOX SCORE ‘0 May Date 27 211 Traffic Deaths _ 0 0 Traffic Injuries _ 3 38 Property Damage $5,740 $54,526 -Reports of eight traffic acci- dents, with a total of $1,660 in property damage, and one in- jury ensuing from them, sent the accident score soaring over the weekend. Some of the accidents hap- pened earlier in the week, but were not put on official report in time for Friday’s box score. Two collisions were caused by following too closely, with the result that the rear cars crashed into those in front when they stopped. A good safety solgan to keep in mind is “When crowding the driver ahead of you remember this: He may have better brak- es that you have.” Costliest in the accident tally ‘was one which happened at Du- val and United Streets last Fri- day at 5:18 p.m. The driver of the offending car in this case was charged with “driving while under the influence.” Pro- perty damage amounted to $575. Report On Scout Camp Maintenance Asked By Johns County Commissioner Frank Bentley today said Acting Gover- nor Charley E. Johns had asked for a report from the State Road Department on the maintenance of the Boy Scout camp on West Sum- merland Key. Bentley had wired the governor, urging state aid in cutting grass and weeds on the camp site. The Overseas Road and Toll Bridge District formerly maintain- ed the site but since seis ta sion of the district the grass has gone uncut. S Accidents Dien Bien Phu Survivors Tell Of Final Stand Defenders Hung On Until Ammunition Supplies Failed By LARRY ALLEN HANOI, Indochina (®—The val- iant French Union defenders of Dien Bien Phu fought their Com- munist-led assailants furiously and without letup until all their ammu- nition was gone. Then, as one by one their guns fell silent over the remnant of the fortress bunkers, they carried out Brig. Gen. Christian de Castries’ last order—‘‘Give up when you can no longer fight.” This account of the fortress’ last hours on May 7 was given to news- men last night by three badly wounded survivors of the epic siege, part of the contingent of 11 casualties released by the Viet- minh rebels before the airlift evac- uation was suspended Saturday. General Is Captive At Hanoi’s overcrowded Lanes- san Military Hospital they said both Brig. Gen. Christiaan de Cas- tries, their heroic garrison com- mander, and the only woman in the fortress, air force nurse Gene- vieve de Galard Terraube of Paris, both were captives of the Viet- minh. gaa was wounded, the trio said. All three men lay badly wounded. with some 1,400 others in the bat- tered, shell-torn fortress’ under- ground hospital while the human tidal waves of rebels swept over in the final engulfing blows. His right leg badly shattered by Vietminh fire, Pfc. Marce Cham- pougny said he thought the last hours of fighting would never end. “It seemed like there were thou- sands of shells and machine-gun bullets hitting against the hospital bunker. “Some of them. buried some of the wounded alive as the Vietminh a fired over everything they Vicious Battle “From outside we could hear the wild screaming of the Vietminh and the answering cries of the French as everybody fought vi- ciously, hand to hand, “At times a soldier would tum- ble into the hospital bunker, badly wounded, and say he was out of ammunition.” That was the way every defend- er fought, said Champougny—until he no longer had anything to fight Bentley today received a copy of | with. a letter Gov. Johns wore to R. C. Bannerman, Jr., maintenance en- gineer of the State Road Depart- ment. The letter follows: “Dear Mr. Bannerman: “The Boy Scout Camp on West Summerland Key is apparently un- der the supervison of the State Road Board, and I have received a telegram from Honorable Frank Bentley, County Commissioner of Monroe County, urging that the State Road Department assist in maintenance of that Boy Scout Camp. A copy of this telegram is enclosed for your information. “Will you please let me have a report on what you can do, if any- thing, to assist in cutting the weeds and grass, as requested. Sincerely, Charley E. Johns, Acting Governor.” Wilder Visits In Key West M. J. “Jim” Wilder, who served for some time in Monroe County as State Highway Patrolman, is in Key West for a visit with his friends. Wilder was transferred about a year ago to Orlando where he is conducting a safety education pro- gram. While in Key West, Wilder was very active among the city’s youth. He was the founder of the Jay- teen Center and was named by the Jaycees in 1952 as the county’s .most outstanding law enforcement TODAY'S STOCK MARKET NEW YORK #—The stock mar- ket was higher today in early deal- Ss. The market opened higher and then extended its gains a trifle. Increases went to around a point. Losses were small. Better acting major divisions in- cluded railroads, steels, motors, chemicals and aircrafts. Atlas Corp. opened on a block of 2,000 shares up 1% at 34% and then subsided a little. Consolidated Gas & Electric had a block of 5,100 shares up % and a block of 2,800 up 4%. Also higher were U. S. Steel, Studebaker, United Aircraft, Amer- ican Cyanamid, Atlantic Coast Line, Union Pacific, and Cities Service. Lower were Goodyear, Anaconda Copper, Westinghouse Electric, General Electric, Southern Rail- way, and General Motors. Wyoming produced five million tons of coal in 1953. “De Castries’ last order to the men in his bunker,” Champougny continued, “was ‘Give up when you can no longer fight.’ To do anything else. would have been butchery.” i The private said about 6 o’clock that Friday night the shooting sud- denly died out on the battlefield and “then everyone knew the bat- tle was over.” Nurse Praised Miss de Galard, he continued, was still bravely ministering to the wounded in the hospital bunker as the rebels rushed in. There was no attack made on the wounded men, he continued. Instead, -the Vietminh announced all were captives of Ho Chi Minh, the rebels’ Moscow-trained chief. Their captors, said Champougny, were almost apologetic. One Viet- minh officer declared in French: “Ho Chi Minh and we are fight- ing for our country. There are things worse than that, and we are no worse than others. You are now prisoners and will get the at- tentfon prisoners of war deserve.” Some of the rebel soldiers in their mud-caked uniforms were laughing hysterically, but none at- tempted to mistreat any of the French wounded. Nor did Champougny, after he was catried out to the battlefield, see any rebels mistreat any of the unwounded—reportedly 8,000—they rounded up. Champougny said Miss de Gal- ard disappeared for awhile after the invaders entered the hospital section “‘but I saw her come back to help the wounded, and later she was taken away by the Vietminh.” “She looked as brave and un- afraid and courageous as ever.” Later, Chmpougny said, he was carried out of the bunker to the battlefield. . SIGHTLESS PEOPLE . MARCH FOR AID ORVIETO, Italy, (P—A ragged column of blind people shuffled down the road from this hilltop city in Umbria today, soaked by rain but vowing to complete their 250-mile march to Rome The 70 men and women, led on their sightless way by sympathiz- ers, are campaigning for more government aid to the blind. They started their “march of misery”, as they call it, from Florence May 8 Voodoo Note Injected COLUMBIA, S.C. ™ — Police found a Negro woman unconscious on the floor of her home and rushed her to a hospital. Around her neck was a voodoo bag. It contained a burnt silver coin, ashes and a dead frog. Doctors said she had suffered a heart attack, see r Monday, May 17, 1954 THE KEY WEST CITIZEN PLASTIC BOAT—One of the Navy’s newest type boats is this experimental plastic 26-foot motor whaleboat. It was on display Armed Forces Day aboard the destroyer-escort USS Darby— Official U.S. Navy Phoio. Man Hunted As Killer Is Found In Ga. MOULTRIE, Ga. (A—-A Negro ex-convict pursued by men with bloodhounds as the throat-cutting killer of four was taken in a swamp last night and hustled to the state prison for safekeeping. He is Tom Williams, 45, paroled in 1949 from a life murder term and now charged with a mad two- day carnage which in addition to the dead left two persons seriously wounded. One of the slain was former Col- quitt County prison warden W. C. Rowland, who personally appeared before the parole board to obtain the Negro’s release from prison. Lt. W. E. McDuffie of the Geor- gia Bureau of Investigation, who captured the killer, said Williams admitted fatally slashing the 70- year-old Rowland and his wife, Gladys, at their home Saturday night. The officer did not have an op- portunity to question the Negro about the similar deaths of two men who were shot, clubbed and slashed at an all-night drive-in here early Friday. Sheriff Eddie Gordon said he had ordered ballistics tests to link the Negro with the Friday double mur- der: The tests will be run, he ex- plained, on a bullet which was fired into the head of one of the drive-in victims and on a rifle found hidden among planks at a sawmill near the house where the Negro lived. The capture of the Negro ended three days of terror in this south Georgia farming center. McDuffie said that Williams gave up quietly with the bloodhounds all but snapping at his heels. The GBI officer and Lt. J. D. DeVane of Valdosta police quickly shoved the Negro in the trunk of their car and hurried him away. They were afraid, they said, that there might be violence if “trigger happy” pos- semen learned of the capture. The officers at the time would say only that the prisoner was being taken to a “safe place.” Later, it was learned that he was lodged about 3 a. m. in a fourth floor death cell at the state prison near Reidsville, Bedspring Trap Is Nearly Fatal . LOS ANGELES (#—An automo- bile seat and a bedspring resulted in serious burns for Doe Jefferson Jr., 42. Police said Jefferson discovered the back seat of his car smolder- ing, dragged it from the auto onto the front porch of his house and tossed a bucket of water on it. Then he went to bed. Several hours later the blaze flared up and caught the house on fire. Jefferson awakened and dis- covered his mattress burning. As he tried to stamp out the flames, his foot caught in the bed- springs. Firemen found him un- conscious, Motorcycle Heads Straight For Bar NEW ORLEANS @—Charles Waldrop, 20, borrowed a motorcy- cle yesterday to take Fiera Watts, 18, home. But Miss Watts wanted to see if Waldrop could ride the machine first and told him to try it out. The machine’s owner, Merrill Radford, said Waldrop started well but a few blocks away the cycle xeeaceen and disappeared into a ar. Bar patrons scattered. The ma- chine hit the bar and jammed be- tween it and a ceiling support. Waldrop was taken to a hospital, unconscious with apparent head and internal injuries. Bar patrons suffered only minor scratches. - Japanese Women Voice Appeal: Against H-Bomb . TOKYO (#—The Osaka City En- franchised Women’s League, in an appeal to American women as “the most civilized people in the world,” today asked an end to hy- drogen bomb tests. The letter, written on the league’s sixth anniversary, was de- livered to U. S. Ambassador John M. Allison. The league claims to have 3,000 members. The letter said: “The amazing results of the re- cent hydrogen bomb tests at Bikini have shown that the United States is the possessor of the most power- ful weapon in the world and also the most excellent scientific power... “On account of recent hydrogen bomb testa made by your country, our people have become the victim of an advanced science, and dam- ages both mental and bodily, suf- fered by us are very heavy.” Five Die As Car Crashes Train TRENTON, Ill. (—A car carry- ing six young people home from a dance smashed into a fast Balti- more and Ohio passenger train yesterday, killing five of the oc- cupants and critically injuring the other. Dead were Raymond L. King, 22; Marlin J. Goff, 19; Horace H. Hooks, 19; and Kenneth Ray Stewart, 18, all of Edwardsville, Il, and Eleanor Clark, 16, St. Jacob, Il. The only other occupant of the car, Donna Reed, 18, Highland, Il. was in a critical condition. Sheriff Henry Klutho said wit- nesses in another car told him they had stopped for the railroad cross- ing as the train, bound from St. Louis to New York, approached. They said the victims’ car, trav- eling at high speed, swerved around their automobile and into the path of the train. New Platform Is Necessary Now COLUMBIA, S.C. #—If State Rep. George Davis tells voters he’s got a new re-election platform, they can be sure it’s true. The legislator’s campaigning platform — not the political one — was flattened by a truck that went out of control and turned over on top of Davis’ campaign platform car. The car was a trademark of the attorney. Plastered with campaign signs, it bore a water barrel filled with ice water and mounted on the rear bumper. Davis’ hasn’t said what his new platform will be, but the last one was 20 years old. HUNT FOR MISSING SHIP CALLED OFF MANILA (#—U.S, ‘naval head- quarters at Sangley Point today called off the search for the miss- ship Tatsuwa Maru. Planes from the carriers Boxer and the Philippine Sea searched 5,000 square miles west of Manila starting Thursday night after the Tatsuwa radioed that four holds were flooded. U. S. Air Force planes from Clark Field rescued seven survi- vors. The ship carried a crew of 50. DRUNK DROWNS IN ESCAPE ATTEMPT i: ge man, James Calvin apparently drowned ang (cue party.could be summoned, No Debates This Week For Candidates By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Acting Gov. Charley Johns and LeRoy Collins plan no more de- ates in this last week of the cam- turday to say, whether appear for a formal de- Miami’s Bayfront Park night. Johns said proposed that each man be 30 minutes to present his and 30 minutes for rebuttal. terrogators and a moderator on that program and time limits were set on answers to questions. Col- lins said he gave Johns until Sat- urday night ‘to reply and received no answer. Won't “Waste Words” “I do not intend to waste any more words on this, but to get on with my campaign,” Johns said in Palm Beach. “I was anxious to meet Sen. Collins face to face again and I believe that my proposal was fair and impartial. I had to set a dead- line because I had made previous commitments to visit other sec- tions of the state.” Johns said he did not think the two-minute time limit to answer questions on the television pro- gram was sufficient. Other Plans Collins, - in Jacksonville, said that ever since the Miami debate Johns “has sought only to grab headlines and keep my schedule uncertain.” He said he would leave it to the people to decide “who came out worst in last Thursday’s appearance.” Collins added that Johns’ own Wednesday at the annual water melon festival in Leesburg. Both nen ek be 7 gory for sev- eri jours an speak 30 minutes. “ie Be He replied to Johns’ that Collins is a caters Federalists, an organization which Johns says would have the United States drop its nationalism and subordinate itself to a world or- ganization. schedule shows he had no plans! Collins explained both he and for being in Miami next Thursday. He said Johns has made plans to be in Polk County and St. Peters- burg that day. Johns yesterday sent Collins 12 questions he said he would like him to “answer for the people of Florida.” “T would like to have him answer these questions to me personally,” Johns said, “‘but I will be satis- fied.if he will answer them from wherever he may be.” Collins retorted that the ques- tions were “phony” and had “noth- ing to do with the real issues. This tactic just proves his desperation.” One of the questions, Collins said, was whether Collins was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. He said that “‘makes no more sense than for me to ask him (Johns) if he ever has been a Commi va To Speak At Leesburg Although Johns and Collins will not get together on another TV program, the two candidates will be on the same speaking program Think again before you cross. Traffic lights and pedestrian lanes are there to make that one life of yours safe. Use them. And why not diseousage others from jaywalking, too? erelton with the Nafional Safety Council. the life you save may be your own! ~~ Johns voted in 1949 for a bill to let Floridians vote whether this nation could participate in some form of world government. At the next session, Collins add- ed, he was co-sponsor of a pro- Posed amendment to a bill on the subject. He said the amendment, which never came to a vote, “was to make sure that the Legislature did not commit itself to strict iso- lationism such as followed World War I and which in effect caused World War II.” Collins’ Schedule Collins also spoke today at Day- tona Beach and is to make a night telecast from Jacksonville. Tomor- row he goes to Lakeland for a morning speech and then to Mi- ami. Yesterday Collins spent the day resting, taking a long walk and conferring with aides at a hide- away spot. Johns will spend the day in Palm Beach County, then fly to Orlando for a Tuesday breakfast meeting. Sponsored in the interest of iratfic safety by, The Key West Citizen IN COOPERATION WITH THE KEY WEST SAFETY COUNCIL

Other pages from this issue: