™l NOME NUGGET
_OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
VOL. XLIX. No. 121 : NOME. ALASKA. Wednesday, October 8, 1947_PER COPY — 15c
NEWS IN BRIEF !
_ l
TOKYO, Japan, I/P)—The death
toll in the atomic bombing of1
Hiroshima was considerably le-s
than was at first reported, head
quarters officials said today, dis
counting the possibility that a
large number of victims might
still be in unlocated graves.
The latest official estimate at
Hiroshima is 78,150 dead instead
of the 100,000 reported immedi
ately after the bombing, Colonel
Crawford F. Sams, head of the
public welfare section, said.
SCARBOROUGH, Eng., 0P»—
The 1,771-ton London cargo ves
sel, Betty Bindley, struck a mine
two miles off England’s eastern'
coast yesterday, setting off an ex
plosion that killed one crew mem
ber and injured several others. ,
Three of the injured were taken
to a hospital and seven others j
received treatment for shocks.
Small craft stood by to help
tow the damaged ship into ha’--1
bor.
I
TOKYO, Japan, (/P)—Thieves
who ransacked the home of Maj.
C. L. Lecker of Santa Monica,
Calif., showed a fine sense of
the fitness of things. From his
brief case, which was among the
loot, the thieves extracted Major
Lecker’s orders and left them on !
his desk.
___
ATHENS, Greece, (/P)—Press
dispatches from Kalamata in i
southern Peloponnesus reported!
today that a brief earth tremor!
which shook the area last, night
ha*d caused a number of casual
ties and some damage.
Kalamata was temporarily with-1
out electricity as a result of dam- j
age to the local power station, the j
advices said.
► BATAVIA, Java, —A Dutch
military court at Pontianak, Bor
neo, today sentenced Japanese vice
admiral Daigo Tadashige to die
for authorizing the massacre of
1,500 native men, women and chil
dren in west Borneo in 1944.
Witnesses testified at Tada
shige’s trial that at his orders
victims were beheaded in groups
of 100 by Japanese soldiers, who
sometimes required three or four
sword strokes to sever a head.
Natives awaiting execution were
forced to watch the killings while 1
awaiting their turn.
JUNEAU, Alaska, (/P)—Ap
pointment of Frank Metcalf, lo- ^
cal civil and mining engineer, as
territorial highway and aviation
engineer was indicated today
when Metcalf moved into the
offices of the late W. Leonard
Smith. The latter defeated Met
calf for Hhe post in the last el
ection.
—
ST. LOUIS, (/P)—Large Alaska,
martara sealskins brought $123
each Monday, highest price in 27
years, at the opening of the semi
annual auction at the Fouke Fur
Company.
A fur company official said the
high prices for large sealskins
probably resulted from longer
coat styles. The price last Ap
ril was $90 a skin.
urara 95 430 Alaska_seal
Pres. Truman’s
“Waste Less” Food
Campaign Begins
_
WASHINGTON, I/P)—A hike in
margins of the nation’s big grain
exchanges at the insistance of the
government Tuesday ushered in
the first of President Truman’s
“meatless Tuesdays’’ to save food
for Europe.
The markets at Chicago, Kansas
City and Minneapolis doubled the
cash down payment on deals for,
future delivery, as demanded byj
the president to curb what he
called “gamblers in grain.”
As the president’s “waste less” |
food program moved out of the
planning stage and into operation
there were these ‘developments:
1. The National Restaurant As
sociation pledged its members to
serve rio meat on Tuesdays and
no poultry or eggs on Thursdays.
2. Representatives of the dis
tilling industry gathered for a
meeting here tomorrow to dis
cuss the president’s request for
a 60-day shutdown.
3. The agriculture department,
seeking to head off a “meat fam
ine” a year from now, talked of
asking farmers to plan for maxi
mum hog production and gamble
that crops next season will re
lieve the feed grain shortage.
4. The United Nations food and
agriculture organization predict
ed that more people will die of
hunger next year than were killed
in any year of the war, and that
present shortages will continue
beyond the 1948 harvests.
5. The agriculture department
disclosed it stepped up wheat pur
chases for export to 23,963,674
bushels last week compared with
9,089,880 bushels the week before.
Sir Stafford Cripps
Says Britain Will
‘Strangle’ Unless
LONDON. (/P>—Sir Stafford
Cripps told a news conference
today that Britain would “be driv
en” to slash deeper on dollar ex
penditures unless new dollar aid
for Britain and the rest of Europe
came “within the quite near fut
ure.”
Cripps addressed reporters for
the first time since his appoint
ment to the new post of minister
for economic affairs.
He said more cutting of expen
ditures would start a process
which “unless rapidly arrested,
would lead on to a gradual econ
omic strangulation.”
“We have already begun to dip
into our reserve of gold and dol
lars, a reserve which is none too
big and which serves the whole
sterling area,” he recalled, with
an apparent reference tb Britain’s
recently announced sale of $80,
000,000 worth of gold to the Uni
ted States.
Sir Stafford predicted Britain
would skid along “a descending
spiral of depression” which ev
entually would extend to other
countries if further «hom t* tUe
Defense of Alaska
Prime Importance
Says Gen. Devers
—
WASHINGTON, f/P>—With de-1
fense of Alaska considered of
prime importance, Gen. Jacob L.
Devers, commander of the army
ground forces, announced today
that second infantry division
troops will train in Alaska this
winter in “Exercise Yukon.”
The first company has already
left its home station at Fort Lewis,
Washington, for advance training
area at Ranger Creek camp near
the snowy slopes of Mt. Rainier.J
There they will be given equip
ment for the far north and in
structed in its use and care. They
will fly to Rig Delta, Alaska, in
about a month.
This pioneer move will be fol
lowed in successive stages by
other units until four augmented
rifle companies complete training
in “snow and ice’’ tactics. Each
company will remain in Alaska
for three weeks.
The exercises will continue un
j til March.
As part of the exercises, each
of the companies will organize
j a defense for one of the five air
| strips in Alaska.
Maj. Gen. Paul A. Kendall, I
second division commanding gen-,
eral and wartime commander of
the 88th infantry division in Italy, i
said in a statement:
“With the defense of Alaska
considered a prime importance,
these exercises are expected ’to
point the way to the development j
of tactics, strategy and materiel'
to carry on operations success- j
fully in the far north.
Krug Proposes
Hawaii For The
49th State ,
WASHINGTON. I/P)—Secretary
of interior Krug said tonight that
proposed “Statehood for Hawaii
will reinforce America’s efforts
to strengthen democracy every
where.”
“It is an application of the
Truman policy at home, a positive
move to support and encourage
the democratic peoples of the
world,” Krug asserted.
He said granting of statehood
would “demonstrate to the world
that we mean what we say when
we ask for freedom and represen
tation in government the world
over.”
The secretary spoke at a pre
miere of the documentary film.
“The 49th State,” produced by
RKO-Pathe as one of its "This
is America” series. A specially
invited audience under the spon
sorship of the Washington office
of the Hawaii Statehood Commis
sion saw the film at the Mayflow
er Hotel.
Krug was a strong supporter
of statehood at the hearings which
resulted in House passage dur
ing the past sesion of Congress of
a bill by delegate Farrington (R
Hawaii) to enable Hawaii to be
Aom a a of a T'U a a aw a^a U aa w a!
Speaker Martin
Says Republicans
Will Win in 194ft
LOS ANGELES, (/P)—Speaker
Joseph W. Martin, iR-Mass» of the
house of representatives is sure
that the ‘‘Republicans will win
in 1948 by a surprisingly heavy
majority.”
But, <at a press conference here
yesterday» he shed little light on
who the Republican presidential
candidate will be.
Martin declared he is not back
ing any candidate for the presi
dential nomination, nor is he him
self a candidate.
Answering a query, Martin said
he thought Gen. Eisenhower “is
a very good man” but said he
had not found any organized
drive in Eisenhower’s behalf.
Attlee Begins Large
Scale Shake-up In
British Cabinet
LONDON, </P)—1The London
Star reported today that prime
minister Attlee had removed fuel
minister Emanuel Shinwell, the
chairman of the Labor Party,
from his cabinet in a large scale
governmental shakeup.
Shinwell will become war min
ister, a job which does not carry
cabinet rank and puts him under
the immediate supervision of the
defense minister, the Star said.
Attlee saw king George VI this,
morning, apparently to g# through
with the formality of receiving
the sovereign’s assent to changes
in the cabinet.
“The transfer of Mr. Shinwell
is likely to be regarded as a tri
umph for the moderate elements
in the cabinet,” said the Star, a
liberal newspaper.
Shinwell had left wing support
in labor ranks and from Arthur
Horner, communist general sec
retary of the mineworkers’ union,
who called in a recent speech for
Attlee to leave Shinwell in the
position of fuel minister. He
has been a storm center of the
cabinet particularly during recur
ring crises in Britain’s national
ized coal mines.
Secrecy was maintained around
the long rumored changes in port
folios and no official confirmation
of the Star’s report could be ob
tained immediately.
The conservative Evening News
said Shinwell’s dismissal from the
cabinet was “a near certainty.”
The Star’s political correspondent
also suggested that Shinwell’s
deputy in the fuel ministry, youth
ful Hugh Gaitskell, might be
moved—either into Shinwell’s
position or some other higher job.
The Star described Gaitskell as
‘‘one of the successful among jun
ior ministers.”
JOHN MCNEES TO STATES
MOTHER MAY NOT LIVE .
John McNees of the U. S. Wea
ther Bureau was called to the
states by the serious illness of
his mother who lives in Wenat
aa II rnrUim^lAA aMaam
Kussia Agrees To
LONDON. </P)—'The British for
eign office announced today that
Russia had agreed to a ‘big four’
foreign ministers’ council Nov.
25 for a second attempt to write
a German peace treaty, which may
provide a crucial test of world
cooperation.
A spokesman for the foreign
office at the same time declared
the manifesto issued by commun
ists of nine nationis of Europe,
calling on their supporters to re
sist “United States and British
imperialism,” represented “a clear
deterioration of the international
situation.”
The spokesman said the crea
! tion of what the communists called
an information bureau in the
Yugoslav capital of Belgrade was
i "the official resuscitation of the
| Comintern.” the communist agen
cy devoted in the past to world
revolution.
The manifesto was sharply crit
I ical of prime minister Attlee and
i foreign secretary Bevin. The
; foreign office comment came, only
after 24 hours of study.
! The Italian communist leader
Luigi Longo denied in Rome that
(the information bureau constitut
ed a Comintern—an abbreviation
1 for Communist International
'which-the Russians asserted was
' disbanded in May of 1943, when
| German armies were deep in Rus
(sia and U. S. lend-lease supplies
i were flowing freely into the Sov
iet Union.
Longo said the bureau stemmed
from a growing danger of war.
, Forest Fires Do
Great Damage In
Alaska Timber
I
WASH INGTON, (£*)—F orest
fires damaged more thon 1,135,
930 acres of Alaskan timberland
this year, with a loss exceeding
$1^500,000.
Secretary of the interior Krug
reported this today, saying:
“The fire damage of the past
season points up the critical need
for increasing and improving our
fire patrol and fire flighting or
ganization in Alaska. The inter
ior department will ask Congress
for funds and authority to restore
adequate fire protection for this
valuable national resource.
Krug said that i& many areas
of Alaska all standing timber was
destroyed. Animals and birds
were killed and the soil was so
burned that it can not be returned
to production for many years, he
added. The fires were in almost
inaccessible areas and were par
tially the result of a dry spring
and an early summer.
VOLNEY RICHMOND HERE
BUSINESS FOR N.C. CO.
Volney Richmond Jr., general
manager for the N. C. Company
stores throughout the Territory,
accompanied by Howard Rich
; mond, treasurer for the company,
arrived in Nome late last nigh'
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