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 S16.00 A YEAR
Entered as second class'matter October 14. 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Wednesday, March 3, 1948
Third World War Possible This Spring
(Bv Dorothv Thomoson') ^
IT IS entirely possible that World War TIT will start
in ninety days. I say that soberly. The place—if the il
limitable catastrophe happens—will not be Greece. It
will be Palestine. And the constellation of forces could
not be worse for the west.
The United States, under persistent internal political
pressure, assembled in the United Nations assembly the
necessary votes for the partition of Palestine into a Jew
ish and an Arab state, though the Arabs gave warning
they would not accept the decision, arguing that it had
no legality—that nothing in the San Francisco charter
gave the member powers the right to establish new
states.
Partition plans nevertheless went ahead and a Jewish
state was mapped out, which is practically indefensible.
It contains Arab enclaves equal in population to half
the Jewish. It is not a continguous entity. Except on the
Mediterranean seacoast, 600,000 to 800,000 Jews are
completely surrounded by Arab states—with popula
tions numbering over 35 millions. These are supported,
to a greater or lesser degree, by the entire Moslem
world of 200 millions.
Pan Arabia, while asking in the U. N. that the parti
tion question be unrolled again, has given notice that
the withdrawal of the British on May 15 and the arrival
of the partition commission will be a signal for armed
outbreaks.
It is argued that there are no formidable Arab armies,
and that a U. N. force could police partition and keep
peace. But 60,000 to 70,000 trained British troops and
police admit failure. When they go, there will be no Pal
estinian government, for not all the force in the world
can make Palestinian Arabs create a government. What
Palestine faces is not invasion by regular Arab armies,
but guerrilla war.
Now, the Marshall plan, European recovery, and
American strategy and reserves are all dependent on
middle eastern oil. All the oil within Europe is in the
hands of Russia’s satellites. We cannot supply Europe’s
industries from here. We haven’t got the oil. It must
come from the middle east. The main pipeline runs from
Irak to Haifa in Palestine. Though patrolled it is easily
susceptible to Arab sabotage, and if it ceases to flow the
whole American foreign policy breaks down.
The original American recommendation that small
states send a police force to Palestine has foundered. All
have refused. If the U. S. alone sends one, Arabs have
given notice they will sabotage the oil fields—and we
shall be at war with the whole Arab-Moslem world.
The security council will meet in a few days to con
sider the Palestine commission’s report on implementa
tion. I believe Russia will insist on carrying through and
implementing the U. N. assembly’s decision. If the U.
S. refuses a force, Russia probably will offer the Red
army, thus emerging as the only supporter of a U. N. de
cision actually engineered by the U. S., thereby winning
the support of world Jewry, half of whom are American
citizens.
If the Red army goes to Palestine, it will not be to
save the Jews (Stalin once said that Russia doesn’t “pull
other peoples’ chestnuts out of the fire’’), but to defeat
western interests in the middle east and drag down the
Marshall plan. For whoever controls the middle eastern
oil can strangle Europe.
If both Russia and the U. S. send armed forces, a clash
between them will—in my opinion—be inevitable. The
Palestine issue is, therefore, the most serious situation
in the world—perhaps the most serious in human his
tory.
It can be fatal to the Jews, not only in Palestine but
| THIRD PARTY’S GETTING ROUGH
f ' ' 4» »LJJJ. i'JEJliL .1.1
y
also to the tens of thousands of them living elsewhere
in the Arab-Moslem world.
But it also can be fatal for the Arabs, who are threat
ened with becoming mere pawns in a great power strug
gle.
Both Jews and Arabs have been intransigeant. Yet
both have everything to lose in the present situation.
Is it, therefore, beyond hope that they can get together
in a compromise?
The German Danger
(By Jack Foster)
THE RECENT STRIKE of nearly a million and a half
German workers in British-American occupied Bizonia
is just one more proof that the situation there is bad,
and in some ways getting worse.
Some of the highest German officials are guilty of
non-cooperation with Allied authorities that amounts
almost to political and economic sabotage.
The democratization program in German hands has
become a dangerous joke, with even religious leaders
like Pastor Niemoeller openly advocating defiance to
the de-Nazification laws.
Here in America there is a temptation to attribute all
of this to Russia. There is some justification. Russia, de
fying the Potsdam pact for unification of Germany, has,
in effect, partitioned the country in such way as to in
crease chaos. The Communist minority works night and
day to multiply strikes and unrest, and to undermine
British-American authority.
With Russia plotting to absorb Germany as the big
gest prize of all her puppet states, and with Bizonia coal
and steel production to key to Western European recov
ery for Marshall Plan success, continued Soviet sabo
tage can be taken for granted.
Nevertheless, the major factors in West Germany for
almost three years have not been Russian but British
American on one side and German on the other. The
failures, in large part, are either British-American or
German.
On the British and American side there has been in
ternal wrangling and indecision, especially pn key pol
icy issues such as de-industrialization and socialization.
There has been too much delay in recognizing the Soviet
split and in setting up Bizonia with the goal of self-sup
port instead of more American subsidies.
This has perpetrated economic collapse and encour
aged political irresponsibility. Even th'e belated new Bi
zonia quasi-government is a timid reform, and continu
ed failure to provide a new currency is inexcusable.
But with full allowance for British-American blun
ders in a difficult situation made vastly more difficult
by Russia, the fact remains that chiefly what is wrong
with Germany today is the Germans.
The same spirit which welcomed Hitler as its idol,
and which now blames him for losing the war, but not
1 for starting it, is again dominant. Except for a small mi
nority, the democratic Germans are either dead or too
weak to stand against the current
revival of the old spirit variously
called Prussian or Nazi or totali
tarian.
•The average German in Bizonia
today shows no sense of responsi
bility for the war or for his own
suffering—much less for the si f
fering in neighboring Allied lands.
He curses us for most of his trou
bles.
In our proper concern about
Russia, let u.s not forget we stnl
have a big German problem on
our hands. And the biggest prob
lem of all is that the Russian dan
ger and the German danger may
some day merge again as they
merged in 1939.
Thai’s Thai
By BRUCE GUSTIN
No wonder thousands of Ameri
can families have been shivering
because of the fuel oil shortage.
While export quotas on petroleum
products for the first quarter of
1948 were reduced to 12 million
barrels—5 million before the fig
ure for the first quarter of 1947—
the quota on fuel oils actually was
increased 925,720 barrels. Not only
that, but a department of com
merce bulletin shows American
fuel oil is being exported to Costa
Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Bri
tish and French West Africa
where it certainly is not needed to
protect people against zero wea
ther.
Pet roleum reserves haven’t
been exhausted in the United
States. And there is no reason why
this country should lack either
fuel oil or gasoline when the pe
troleum supply is gone. According
to Senator O’Mahoney (Dem.) of
Wyoming, the United States has
such immense coal and oil shale
reserves it need never be depend
ent upon foreign sources. He esti
mates that oil shale deposits in
Wyoming, Colorado and Utah
have 200 to 300 billion barrels of
oil.
Congressman Case of South Da
kota told the House recently that
our liquid fuel reserves in sub
bituminous coal are estimated to
be twenty-five times that of pe
troleum. “Research already car
ried on demonstrates that gasoline
can be produced (from coal) with
present-known processes at less
than 9 cents a gallon,” he said. "It
demonstrates that fuel oil can be
produced at about $1.92 a barrel,
making a synthetic fuel oil com
petitive with fuel oil produced
from petroleum.”
Senator O’Mahoney is sponsor
ing a, bill to extend governmen
| experimentation in production ot
oil from coal and oil shale from
five year to eight and to increase
the authorized expenditure from
130 million dollars to 60 millions.
No better investment of public
, funds could be made. Private oil
and coal interests are investing
| one-fourth billion dollars in a
plant in western Pennsylvania to
; recover liquid fuels from waste
I coal. The government can encour
age and facilitate private develop
ment by expanding its experi
mental projects and working out
commercial methods for getting
fuel oil and gasoline from coal.
There was more hokum in Pres
dent Truman’s tax-cut scheme
than first appeared. In his mes
sage to Congress on the state of
the union, he asked that each indi
1 vidual be given a $40 tax reduc
tion this year, and that corporation
taxes be increased enough to off
j set this revenue loss. Now he
wants to slap on another lavy to
take more than half of this tax re
duction from millions of people.
! In his budget message the Pres
ident recommended another pay