221 NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS__
VOL. XLIX. No. 151 NOME, ALASKA. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1947 PER COPY — 15c
NEWS IN BRIEF \
_ i
DENVER. (JP) — The mercury
slid to 22 degrees below zero early
* today at Frazer, Colo., which
made it the coldest spot in the
United States, the federal weather
bureau reported.
Fraser is in the mountain about
50 miles west of Denver, near the
p Moffat Railroad tunnel and the
Berthoud Pass ski area along the
continental divide.
(The lowest temperature in
Nome last night was 10.5 above
zero.)
# PHILADELPHIA, (/P) — Detec
tive Sgt. Charles Beckmaf report
ed yesterday a six foot, 200 pound
blind street peddler fatally shot
N his house-keeper because he obey
ed “a sudden impulse.”
Beckman said the vendor, Wil
liaifi Neithamer, 37, then attempt
ed suicide in the darkened North
Philadelphia apartment but missed
with a bullet that he had aimed at
his head.
WASHINGTON, OP) — An $800
increase in the basic salary rate of
all civil service employees and a
boost of 40 cents an hour for those
government workers on an hourly
basis was proposed yesterday in
a bill introduced in Congress by
Rep. Homer R. Jones, <R.-Wash.)
—
LAS ANIMAS, Colo. <jP)—A 12
year-old Las Animas youth who
• “never liked” his sister, Monday
night signed a confession he shot
her to death with a rifle as she sat
in the living room of their home,
Sheriff L. E. Brookside reported.
He said the boy, Jimmy Melton,;
confessed he had pumped five
slugs from a .22 caliber rifle into
his sister, Phyllis Marie 16, be
cause “she was always nagging me
about bringing in the fuel.”
---
P BULLETIN
WASHINGTON, (fl*)-'The Sen
ate Democratic policy committee
today discarded proposals to try to
block consideration of a Republi
can anti-inflation bill and decided
instead to attempt to amend it.
HONGKONG, OP) — Rear Adm.
Tamura Ryukichi, commander of
a Japanese naval base at Kaveing,
New Ireland, during the war, was J
sentenced to hang today for the
4 massacre in March, 1944, of 23
Australians internees.
SEATTLE, (i*P) — A new chart
covering Edna Bay in Davidson
Inlet, southwest Alaska, has been
issued by the coast and geodetic
survey, Jack Senior, supervisor of
the northwest district, reported
yesterday.
JUNEAU, (/P) — Mild weather,1
obviated the customary concen
tration of moose in Alaska’s in
terior and prevented killing of any
great number for food, Charles
Gillham of the U. S. fish and wild- j
^ life service said today. The Alaska |
moose season ended last week. , ,
Gillham said the small kill will
result in an increased number of
the animals being available next
* year.
HELENA. Mont. <£>)—An earth
quake of about eight seconds dur-'
Seattle C. Of C.
To Play Santa
To Shishmaref
I
I
SEATTLE — The 85 youngsters j
of Shishmaref, Alaska, won’t be 1
forgotten by Santa Claus and his
bagful of toys this Christmas.
The Seattle Chamber of Com
merce learned recently through a
letter from George R. Goshaw, op
erator of an Eskimo trading post
in Shishmaref, on the northwest j
tip of the Seward Peninsula, that
the youngsters were facing a de- j
cidedly bleak Christmas . . . little
fur in the section now, earnings
from that source are less than in
former years, and no income at all S
from labor. 1
“Let’s do something about this,”
suggested M. Dederer, chairman of
the Chamber’s Alaska Committee.
This man Goshaw says that the
majority of those kids never have
received a Christmas toy. Let’s
send ’em some.”
Arrangements were quickly
made for several packages of toys j
to be flown north by one of the
regular airlines. . . . And then the
Cub Scout Pack No. 181 of Seattle
stepped in.
“Let’s US do something about it,
too,” they said, and before you
could check on the correct spelling
of “Shishmaref” they had collect
ed and innovated several hundred
toys in Seattle’s Laurelhurst dis
trict.
At their regular Pack meeting
December 12 they presented the
big bundle to Col. H. T. Fitch, who
represented the Alaska Commit
tee. It will be aboard when the
plane carrying the Chamber’s gifts
takes off.
(
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“Judea” Will Be
Neutral State
LONDON, (>P)—A Jewish agncy
leader said today that plans for
Judea—a projected name for Jew
ish Palestine—would provide for
Swiss-like neutrality in any pos-'
sible world war.
At the same time, another Jew
ish spokesman pointed out that an
“indefinite period of conflict”!
with anti-partitionist Arabs was
envisaged for the new state, and
to meet that threat an army of at;
least 10,000 would have to be
maintained. It would mean an ini
tial weekly expenditure of $500,
000 he said.
«
Dr. Nahum Goldman, a member
of the Jewish agency executive,
asserted in an interview that Jew
ish legal experts, now working on
a draft constitution for the Jewisn
nation, have included a neutrality
clause aimed at “eternalizing
friendliness for all, enmity
towards none.”
_ - _j
aiion, accompanied by a loud roar,
rudely awakened residents of this
Montana capital city of some 18000
persons at 5:38 a.m. (MST) this ■
morning. No damage was report
ed. A policemen said the tremor
“felt and sounded just like riding
on a train."
It was Helena's 2,881st 'quake j
since 1935, when several persons
were killed and extensive damage
was caused. 1
rruman Signs i
Foreign Aid Bill 1
—
WASHINGTON, (fP)—President
rruman today signed the $597,
)00,000 stop-gap European aid bill.
Aides disclosed in mid-forenoon
that the bill was signed at 9:20
a.m. in the President’s office with
out ceremony.
Only members of the President’s
staff witnessed the signing.
Yesterday, Presidential press
secretary Charles G. Ross told re
porters a special ceremony was
planned to emphasize the import
ance of the measure.
But Ross told reporters today
that the President found it impos
sible to arrange a ceremonial sigr
ing because of the difficulty of
getting to the White House at ane
time all of those who had a major
part in the passage of the legisla
tion.
The announcement that the
measure had been signed came as
the House went back to debating
the $88,000,000 cut its appropria
tions committee recommended in
the program.
It was part of a 30 per cent
trimming the committee made in
producing a $772,726,000 measure
to finance foreign aid and army
occupation costs.
Navy Ships Race
To Aid Vessels
SEATTLE, (>P) — Navy rescue
ships raced the tossing north Pa
cific ocean today to the aid of two
disabled army vessels — the rud
derless drifting tanker El Caney
and the partially flooded cargo
boat FS-245.
The El Caney, which has drift
ed more than 100 miles since its
rudder was torn loose and its pro
pellor damaged late Monday, was
expected to be intercepted about
9 p.m. tonight by^he navy salvage
vessel Bolster.
The navy fleet tug, the Tekesta,
is enroute to the aid of the FS-245
which hit a rock near Herbert Is
land in the Aleutians in a'storm.
It was not known here what time
the Tekesta would reach the side
of the vessel which has pulled off
the rock and proceeded toward
Secjuam Island to ride out the
storm, the 13th naval district head
quarters said.
Water flooded the chain locker
of the FS-245 but the bulkhead
was holding.
The El Caney, a transportation
corps tanker, was placed about 415
miles southwest of Adak in the
outer Aleutians in a radioed re
port from the master of the strick
en ship, Capt, Ole Svehaug of
Seattle and Portland.
The 6,100-ton vessel, carrying a
crew of 42, was drifting about
four miles an hour east by north
east, the captain said. The ship
rolled moderately but the crew is
‘well” he added.
Two other craft, the merchant
ship Thomas J. Lyons and the
coast guard cutter Wachusett, also
are enroute to the side of the tank
er, but the Bolster is expected to
reach her first.
Russia Devalued
Paper Rubles By
Ninety Percent
J
MOSCOW, (/T*)—Soviet Russia
is converting her paper rubles in
circulation at one-tenth their face
value, effective yesterday, as a
means of checking inflation which
has boosted prices of some goods
to 10 to 15 times their prewar
level.
War profiteers were singled out
in the decree, announced Sunday
night, as a target for an involved
program of "currency reform.”
Coupled with the revaluation
was the abolition of rationing for
food and industrial goods. More
over, price cuts of 10 to 12 per cent
were announced on such commod
i ities as bread, flour, cereals, maca
I roni and beer.
An adjustment between "the ex
I isting high commercial prices
I (those paid in non-rationed stores)
i and the excessively low prices of
rationed supplies was ordered in
a wide variety of other supplies,
: including milk, eggs, tea, fabrics,
| footwear and clothing.
Russia’s banks and stores opened
1 yesterday to orderly early morn
ing crowds and began the well-or
i ganized exchange of new rubles
i for old and the sale of food.cloth
; ing and other unrationed items at
1 lower prices.
The government newspaper Iz
vestia accalimed the occasion with
an editorial declaring:
* “Money reform and the aboli
tion of rationing are ardently ap
1 proved by all our great people,
i The Soviet people see in the his
j torical measures of the Commun
i ist party and the government a
j way toward the further strength
ening of the Soviet State and new
growth of the people’s welfare.”
I
Committee Slashes
Foreign Aid
—
(By William F. Arbogast)
WASHINGTON (/P) — The
House appropriations committee
yesterday made an $88,000,000 *cut
in the emergency foreign aid pro
gram and slashed from $490,000.
000 to $230,000,000 a fund the
army asked for government and
relief in occupied areas.
It sent to the House floor a bill
providing $509,000,000 for aid for
France, Italy and Austria com
pared with the $597,000,000 the
administration asked.
Nothing was recommended for
China.
Only Monday, Congress sent to
President Truman leglisation ap
proving a $597,000,000 program of
help to the three European coun
tries and China. Mr. Truman had
called Congress to special session
Nov. 17 and asked $597,000,000 to
help France, Italy and Austria get
through the winter and resist
Communism.
The bill sent to the President
only gave Congressional approval
for the idea of aid and set $597,
000,000 as the maximum which
could be provided. Separate leg
islation was required to provide
the funds. That is the bill the com
mittee has now recommended.
Will Speed Up
Reconstruction Of
Western Germany
LONDON, — The United
States, Britain and France work
ed yesterday on tentative plans
for economic consolidation of
western Germany, whose industri
al potential may be a major factor
in the European recovery pro
gram.
Diplomatic sources said the fail
ure of the conference of foreign
ministers will intensify efforts to
speed the reconstruction of west
ern Germany. Eastern Germany is
occupied by Russia.
Exploratory conversations will
begin tonight at a dinner given by
French foreign minister Georges
Bidault, who told a news confer
1 ence he would accept a merger of
the three zones of western Ger
j many provided it was profitable to
France. Bidault said he made the
dinner engagement with secretary
of state Marshall a week ago.
FRANKFURT. (/P) — American
observers predicted yesterday that
Western Germany would begin to
take shape as an interim state,
union or confederation almost im
mediately as a result of .the col
| lapse of the Big Four talks in Lon
don.
German political leaders of the
economically-merged British and
American zones already are pre
pared for such a development, and
are expected to take the initiative
in trying to bring it about.
The ground work will be laid at
Continued on Page Three
—
Twelve Die In
Crash Of B-29
i
» _
TUCSON, Ariz. (£>)—Twelve of
, the 20 crew members of a Jamaica
bound B-29 died in the flaming
' wreckage of the four-motored
bomber a few minutes after taking
off from Davis-Monthan field last
j night, Maj. D. D. Burke, press re
lations officer announced today.
The casualty list is being with
1 held pending notification of the
next of kin and an army board of
inquiry will today begin to probe
the cause of the crash.
The base announced that the
ship had just taken off from the
field and was being watched irom
t!ie tower. It was within sight of
! the tower when it crashed ;n
flames.
The announcement said two
planes of the 49th squadron of the
12nd bomb group at Davis-Mon
i than took off shortly after 7 p.m.,
! heavily laden with fuel and bound
j on a non-stop flight to Vernam
field, Jamaica.
One of the ships was slowly
gaining altitude when it is oe
1 lieved to have banked in an effort
! to return to the field and crashed
into the desert approximately five
miles southwest of the base and
in an uninhabited section of sub
urban Tucson. It caught fire al
most instantly.
Seconds later crash wagons and
] fire trucks had been dispatched
from the base tower and rolled
j across the roadless, cactus studded
[desert toward the 50-foot flames.