THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 ' p. o. Box 618
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER .Editors
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943. at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Wednesday, November 19, 1947
Slaves Of ^Democracy’*
J
(By Palmer Hoyt)
A NEW MAP of terror has just been published. It is
• map prepared by the editors of Plain Talk magazine,
depicting slave labor camps in the Soviet Union.
The map and its accompanying text were prepared
from nearly 14.000 affidavits and crude drawings, most
of them made by Polish slave laborers who were re
leased the Russians in their scheme to swallow Poland.
The editors claim 14 million persons are in Soviet
slave labor camps under the administration of GULAG
—charactrized as Slavery, Inc. They say that since the
end of the war 2 million Japanese war prisoners, one
million Germans and 2 million repatriated Russian pris
oners have been added to GULAG’s pile of flesh. They
state that if all territory controlled by GULAG were to
be consolidated, it would make an area exceeding the
size of all western Europe.
In these camps, which dot Rusia like the foul blotches
of leprosy, the inmates perortedly die at the rate of 12
per cent each year. Disgraced Russian generals, ques
tioning intelligentsia and Communist expatriates rub
fleshles shoulders with Japanese and German prisoners.
The editors say the documents are on file to prove
this picture of horror. The western mind may find this
hard to grasp, but it was hard to believe the story of the
Nazi concentration camps, hard to believe Belsen and
Dachau.
We know these facts: Well over a million Japanese!
prisoners are somewhere in the Soviet IJnion. Nearly a
million Germans are still somewhere in Russia. There
is no reason to believe that this picture is not substan
tially true, either from the disappearance of these, or
the general practices of the Soviets.
And while the Soviets keep millions fettered, work
ing and starving, they prate of the new Soviet democ
racy. A democracy where the democrats have a chance
to slave and die.. While they practice slavery, they talk
about terrible conditions in Mississippi, about violation
of national sovereignty and violation of the human
right to live.
The authors say the map is an understatement. Even
if it is a gross exaggeration the simple existence of slave
labor camps challenges the Soviet right to sit at a table
and discuss democracy or human rights.
Lauds Twining Appointment
(Anchorage News)
THAT THE EYES OF THE NATION are on Alaska
and its potentialities as one of the world’s strategic areas
was emphasized recently in an editorial comment by
the Denver Post which commended the appointment of
an air officer to the Alaska Command. The Denver pa
per points out that the announcement from Washington
accompanying Lt. Gen. Nathan Twining’s designat
ed the general as “over-all commander” of the northern
defenses.
“The announcement means,” the Post commented,
“that for the first time Alaska will have a unified mili
tary command, one man to .control the activities of the
air, ground and sea forces.”
This should result in greater efficiency in every phase
of military activity; it should mean a substantial saving
of the taxpayers money; and, most important of all, it
means the setting up of an effective line of northern de
fenses, the paper says. It goes on to say, in connection
with General Twining’s appointment:
“During the war conditions in the Alaskan theater
often resembled a three-ring circus. The naval com
mander wanted to do it his way, the ground forces com
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mander wouldn’t agree and the air forces’ top man had i
a third idea. Result—three loggerheaded programs to
accomplish one objective, and a tremendous increase in
cost.
On one occasion, an army commander wanted to move
some of his troops from one island to another. He con
ferred with the naval head. Plans were made to begin
the transfer on a specific date. At the last minute the
naval chief decided to move his transport equipment to,
another field of operations. The ground troops were left
stranded. Through a forest of military red tape’, which
stretched all the way to Washington the troops were |
eventually moved. The delay was costly both in money'
and morale.
In other instances the air forces and ground troops
were to blame. As long as the various commands were
equal and divided, there was no hope for full coopera
tion. Tradition of pride in each outfit was too great.
But a supreme commander can put a stop to all that
nonsense. And the record of General Twining indicates
he is just the type of officer who will see to it after uni
fication is given every chance to succeed in his theater.
General Twining will make his headquarters at An
jchorage, where Alaskan wartime operations defense
| headquarters were set up. Naval headquarters, at Kodi
! ak, at the head of the Aleutian chain, will be maintained
j but under the supreme command of the air forces three
star general.
For months now, units of the famed B-29 Superforts,
and other outfits, have moved in relays to Alaska.
Ground forces, too, have trained in “Operation Willi
waw” and other maneuvers. But it is the air forces’ pro
gram which is getting the most attention from Washing
ton. 1
Washington could have designated a ground forces
general or an admiral as supreme Alaskan commander.
Instead, an AAF man was named. The significance of
that is obvious. The air arm is the first line of defense
today, just as was the navy in the centuries before.
With too little money and too few men, the air forces,
backed up by the ground troops and navy, is preparing
this nation’s northern line of defense.
Help For Our Friends
(The Dehver Post)
A YOUNG DUTCH NURSE who visited England a
few days ago was forced to sleep in an air-raid shelter,
and later lived in a hotel where the food was “dreadful.”
She said she wanted to go back to Holland to have a
good rest after her trying experiences.
That is some indication as to the paradoxical situation
in Europe today. England, supposedly one of the victor
nations in the war just past, is in worse economic shape
than most of the countries of Europe, worse off than
many of the vanquished nations.
While the British are still rationed on almost every
thing, in Italy, which started the war, it is possible to
buy nearly anything you want—and the onlv food that
is successfully rationed is bread
and flour. Even then, the black
markets function so openly that
strangers do not even know they
are black markets.
This does not mean that condi
tions are good in Italy, but if peo
ple have the money they can buy
goods. Money makes no difference
in England, the goods just aren’t
available.
The Marshall plan for Europe
will be a life-saver for England. It
will help other willing countries
as well, and it is good to know
that the United States is not for
getting its friends. Much Ameri
can money has been sunk into
Italy, Romania and Bulgaria, all
former enemy nations. A great
amount, especially through UNR
RA, has gone into Yugoslavia and
Poland—countries which have
proven ungrateful and unfriendly.
In the United Nations and in the
world press these nations, now
turned Communist, are waging po
litical warfare against the democ
racies. They suffered from the
war, but not more than Britain,
and now Britain is being attacked
by them as a fascist and warmon
ger nation.
, It is good that the United States
has deevloped the Marshall plan,
and it is good that she has includ
ed the nations which fought by
her side on the list of countries
deserving of aid.
That’s That
By BRUCE GUSTIN
The United States would be
dumb indeed to fall for the Soviet
suggestion that both this country
and Russia withdraw their troops
from Korea and leave the Koreans
to set up their own government.
Such a proposal from Moscow
makes it certain the Russians are
convinced they have so thorough
ly organized the part of Korea
they now occupy that any Korean
government would be under their
control. Russian troops, pulled
back across the border, could
move into Korea at any- time.
American forces, withdrawn
across the Pacific, would be too far
away to counter any hostile move.
How can anyone enthuse over
the plea of Chancellor Hutchins
of the University of Chicago for
“world government?” If the
United Nations experiment can’t
be made to work, there is no more
chance of international unity on
such a scheme. The Russians have
their own notion about “world
government” and it is a Commun
ist dictatorship. That is an insur
mountable barrier to any plan for
unifying all the nations of the earth.
Henry Wallace wants to stop
American farmers from feeding
wheat to livestock so more wheat
can be sent to Europe. The surest
way to do this, he says in the New
Republic, which he edits, “is for
Congress to pass a law that will
give the Commodity Credit corpo
ration the right to take over wheat
from any farmer or grain dealer
in the U. S. at not more than the
price on Oct. 1, 1947.” He says
“there should also be a law to pro
hibit the feeding of any except
low grade wheat to livestock.”
It would be a good idea for Wal
lace to read the Constitution of
the United States and try to find,
if he can, where any such power
is vested in Congress. This isn’t
Soviet Russia. When Russian
farmers balked at compliance with
government decrees requiring
them to turn their' grain over to
the government, those who didn’t
y eld to Communist persuasion
were shot? Such a policy couldn’t
be emnloved jn the TTnitAH SUiAfi— •