™S NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
VOL. LII. No. 29 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 1950 Per Copy—15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
CALGARY, Alberta, (/P)—Bad
flying conditions over Great Falls,
Mont., caused the pilot of a C-54 |
to return to Calgary municipal j
airport Wednesday night with his
crew and 40 passengers. The
United States military transport,
was on a scheduled flight from
Anchorage, Alaska, to Great Falls.
WASHINGTON, (^—President
Truman said yesterday he had
supported statehood for Alaska
and Hawaii a long time when
asked his views at a news confer
ence. He recalled he had recom
mended the action three times.
One of his recommendations was
in his State of the Union message
to Congress in January, and he
said he couldn’t see why he should
change it.
t __.
WASHINGTON, (/P)—'The Sen
ate confirmed President Truman's
appointment of U. S. attorney
general Patrick J. Gilmore, Jr.,
for Division No. 1, District of
of Alaska Wednesday. He had
been serving under a recess ap
pointment.
SEATTLE, (fP)—‘The Transpor
tation Corps vessel FS-210, as
signed to the Seattle port of em
barkation, will be used by some
50 University of Washington ca
dets for their annual spring train
ing cruise, March 17 through 26.
The 163 foot vessel will arrive
at Skagway March 20, Juneau
March 22, and Prince Rupert
March 24.
LOS ANGEUES, CP) — Harold
Martin smells too doggone good.
That’s why he and Carl Lan
caster, a friend, were acquitted
Wednesday of stealing a Great
Dane and a Collie dog, each val
ued at $10,000.
Martin told a Superior Court
jury that the dogs forced them
selves into the defendants’ car
last Dec. 3 and wouldn’t leave.
The reason: ^/lartin is a sales
man and his clothes smell of the
product he sells—dog food.
WASHINGTON, (A*)—The Sen
ate committee on interior and in
sular affairs is expected to con
sider at its regular meeting next
Monday the question of when
hearings will be scheduled on the
House-approved Alaska and Ha
waii statehood bills.
, Proponents of statehood have
urged an early hearing date.
At his press conference yester
day President Truman renewed j
his request that the two territories
be admitted to statehood at this
session of Congress.
VANCOUVER, B. C. (A>)—The
Royal Canadian Air Force offi
cially called off yesterday the
search for five missing crew
members who parachuted from
their burning B-36 bomber Feb.
13. The search has centered about
Princess Royal Island, some 400
miles north of here.
Twelve members of the plane’s
crew were rescued within several
days of the mishap.
-
LOS ANGELES. (>P) — Air con
trol could win any winter battle in I
(Continued on Page Seven)
Acquit Dr. Sander f
In Mercy Killing
CANDIA, N. H., {IP)—Dr. Her
mann N. Sander, acquitted of
murder in the death of a cancer
riddled patient, still faces a hear
ing before the state board of reg- j
istration in medicine.
Dr. John S. Wheeler, state
health officer and secretary of the
board, said last night the board
will decide what medical penalty,
if any, will be imposed on the 41
year-old country doctor.
The board secretary said he will
contact members of the group at
once and that Dr. Sander will be
allowed a reasonable time to “rest
up” before he is called.
The house of delegates of the
I New Hampshire medical soceity,
which generally makes recom
mendations to the board, plans to
meet Sunday afternoon in Con
cord—the state Capital — to dis
cuss the case.
The handsome young doctor
and his wife, who sped off to an
undisclosed place last night after
the jury returned its verdict,
planned to return home today to
the people who swear by him. The
jury was out a little more than an
hour.
The jury deliberated a little
more than an hour before freeing
Dr. Sander for the death of Mrs.
Abbie Borroto.
Lieutenant Bombs
Sub’s Periscope
SEATTLE, f/P)—'The navy’s an
to-submarine warfare practice in
the Strait of Juan de Fuca came
to an abrupt end last Saturday.
Not until Wednesday did the navy
explain why.
The answer, however, was sim
ple:
The sub was “sunk” by a young
Seattle naval reserve lieutenant
who dropped a 10-inch 8-pound
practice bomb smack on its peri
scope from a lumbering navy fly
ing boat.
The bomb, containing a small
explosive charge, shattered the
periscope lense, but did no serious
damage to the submerged sub. No
one was injured.
Transfer Bill Wood
To Ketchikan
SEATTLE, UP) — W. R. Wood
has been named Alaska Steam
ship company agent at Ketchikan,
Alaska, effective March 25, D. E.
Skinner, general manager, an
nounced yesterday.
Wood succeeds W. P. Lockwood,
resigned. • •
For the past three years Wood
has been agent at Nome.
Wood first joined the company
in 1945 as purser of the steamer
Longview Victory and prior to his
Nome assignment also served in
the purser’s department of the
steamer Aleutian.
Wood will leave Seattle for
Ketchikan on the Steamer Denali,
scheduled to sail March 11.
A successor has not as yet been
named for the Nome post.
Goplon Gets 15
Year Sentence:\Vill
I
Deport Gubitehev
—
NEW YORK, (A1)—Judith Cop-!
Ion was sentenced to 15 years in'
jail yesterday for plotting to spy i
for Soviet Russia. Valentin A. Gu
bitchev, her partner, received a 15!
year suspended sentence and was
ordered deported to Russia within
two weeks.
Miss Coplon was sentenced to
five years on a charge of espion
age and 15 years on the count of
attempted espionage, the sen- j
tences to run concurrently.
Gubitehev received a suspended
sentence and was ordered deport
ed by federal judge Sylvester J.
Ryan at the recommendation of
! the government.
The dour-faced ex-pal of Miss
| Coplon read his statement in fed
eral court before he and she were
' sentenced by Judge Sylvester J.
Ayan. The statement in English
was issued to reporters by his at
■ torney before delivery.
As he had at the beginning of
I the trial, the diminutive Gubit
chev, declared:
“The mere fact of bringing me
i to trial constitutes an unprece
i dented violation of rules of inter
national law and of the national
law of the U. S. A. itself. . . .
“I am a Soviet diplomat of the
rank of third secretary of the
ministry for foreign affairs of the
U. S. S. R. . . .
“No proof of my guilt was of
fered despite the fact that the
prosecution worked hard to show
by very ordinary actions—meet
ing with a girl, entering a sub
way, walking into a food store,
etc.—as actions which constitute
a threat to the security of the
U. S. A.”
Gubitchev went on to say that
he was arrested without a war
rant, and subjected to hours of
grilling by F. B. I. agents, who he
said, sought information about
Russia from him. He asserted that
his telephone conversations were
intercepted and that the F. B. I.
(Continued on Page Five)
11 Prisoners Die
In Guardhouse Fire
ALBUQUERQUE. N. M., (/Pi—’
Oilfed flames, leaping lightning
fast through a Sandia Base guard
house, snuffed out the lives of 14
military prisoners Wednesday
night.
Trapped with them in the tin
ier dry wood structure, the pri
son’s other two inmates were in
jured critically.t It was the first
major disaster in the history of
the war-built installation—now a
semi-secret assembly point for the
atomic bomb. None of the victims
were from the Pacific Northwest.
Two guards, alerted by prison
er’s cries, vainly tried to rescue
them from behind bars and mesh
ed wire windows. They were over
come along with six others fight
ing the blaze. Twenty additional
officers and men also were treat
ed for smoke effects.
Investigators said there was no
doubt the fire started from one of
two big oil stoves used to heat the
prison.
It was all over 25 minutes af
ter the first alarm was sounded at
7:35 p.m. Thirteen of the prison
ers apparently died in the first
few seconds; the other succumbed
[ two hours later at a hospital.
Most of the victims were be
lieved to have inhaled the intense,
almost instantaneous heat and suf
i foeated, Sandia authorities said.
Contrary to first reports, Maj.
Kenneth Kolster, Sandia’s intelli
gence officer, said there was no
evidence of an explosion.
Examination of the charred,
(Continued on Page Three!
Valdez Airfield Is
Closed. \o Snow
VALDEZ (/P)—The Cordova Air
Service has been forced to move
the base of its operations to Kobe
Lake, four miles distant.
For the first time in the history
of the 22-vear-old service there
is no snow on the Valdez runway
to land ski-equipped planes.
NERVE WRACKING, ISN'T IT ?
ATTLEE1*
B*msw
&PAULTS
TRENCH
t*rT
-rH'&W/S.—.
News of the \Y orhl
At A Glance - - -
Thursday. March 9, 1950
The powerful Conservative op
posiiton in the British House of
Commons is forcing the Labor
Government today to a life-or
death test.
The Conservatives, under Win
ston Churchill, have offered an
amendment, to government policy,
as contained in the speech from
the Throne, expressing regret the
speech does not clear up the
thorny subject of nationalization
of the steel industry.
The wobbly Labor Government
will have to muster all its mem
bers to squeeze through with a
bare-seven-vote majority. The
government has put out an urgent
call for all Laborites to meet the
opposition threat.
The British Press Association
said the third party Liberals will
support the Conservatives in their
motion against the government.
An American attorney spoke in
the Kremlin last night on atomic
control. Former assistant attorney
general O. John Rogge, a top pol
icy maker in Henry Wallace’s
Progressive party, called for a
; multi-nation body with powers of
| ‘‘unlimited inspection—not con
trol but inspection—of all atomic
energy installations everywhere
in the world.”
Rogge spoke in St. George’s
j Hall of Prime Minister Stalin’s
( citadel. He is in Moscow as a
I member of the World Congress of
I Partisans of Peace. His audience
was composed of members of the
Supreme Soviet (Parliament* and
the Soviet committee for the de
! fense of peace. The world con
gress presented a petition urging
that atomic weapons be outlawed
and all armaments reduced.
Nationalist Chinese warplanes
pounded strategic Weichow Is
land off the South China coast to
day. The Nationalists said they
had lost radio contact with Wei
chow’s small band of defenders
who fought to keep communists
from using the island as a step
ping stone to Hainan, a large Na
tionalist-held island.
T Hong Kong newspaper said
the communists’ fourth attempt to
land troops on Hainan in 36 hours
had been repulsed.
Friday, March 10, 1950
The West German government,
angry over the treaty France
signed with the coal-rich Saar
land, planned a protest today to
the Western Allies.
Under the French-Saar treaty,
France will get the border valley’s
coal output for 50 years. In re
turn, France, which is a care
taker of the area until the final
peace is signed, gave the Saar al
most complete self-government.
West German Chancellor Kon
rad Adenauer said France’s action
created conditions which could
not be wiped out by the German
peace treaty yet to be signed. He
said his government considers the
French deal illegal. The German’s
want the Saar placed under inter
national control similar to that
which rules the industrial Ruhr.
The uneasy British Labor gov
(Continued on Page Six>