as NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. X L V 111. No 118 NOME, ALASKA WEDNESDAY, OCTOBEr“27T946 PER COPY — 15c
War Criminals
Plea For Mercy
Or Firing Squad
♦ -
By (THOMAS A. REEDY)
NUERNBERG, Germany, Oct. 2
N(/P)— Lawyers for the 11 con
demned German war criminals
disclosed today they planned to
appeal to the Allied control coun
cil to change the death sentences
from hanging to shooting if all
pother pleas for clemency failed.
The last court of resort for Her
mann Goering, Joachim von Rib
bentrop and the others from the
ignominy of the hangman’s rope
was formed of the four allied gen
erals sitting in Berlin as occupa
tion authorities were sentenced in
absentia to be hanged.
As attorneys drew their petitions
the four power commission repre
0 senting the allied council held an
all day session on arrangements
and details for the executions to
be held in the near future in
Nuernberg, once the festival city
of the Nazi party. They talked
also of transporting seven of the
war criminals to Berlin to start
serving their prison terms.
A redoubled force of American
• soldier guards surrounded the an
cient courthouse and jail where
the convicted men were held, and
\hey had orders to shoot to kill on
provocation.
All three men acquitted in the
history-making international trial,
which established planning ag
gressive war as a supreme crime,
remained in jail overnight. They
had no other place to go immedi
ately. Hjalmar Schacht, will re
main in jail at least another night,
• saying he had no money, ration
card nor home.
Franz von Papen asked for a
visa to the French zone, in which
he has two castles near the Taj
lukl. Hans Fritsche may have to
return to the Russian zone,
whence he came for trial as a
prisoner of war.
German lawyers for Field Mar
shal Wilhelm Keitel and Col. Gen.
. Alfred Jodi, both relegated to the
gallows, led the legal staff in mak
ing appeals for clemency, and for
shooting rather than the rope if
mercy is denied.
The doomed militarists were re
ported making a special request
for a firing squad, which they
considered a more honorable
death for a soldier.
A lawyer for Fritz Sauckel, con
demned labor leader, attached to
" 'us application for commutation
undreds of letters from Germans.
^ffJther attorneys sadi they were ob
aining similar documents to bol
ster their appeals.
Four delegates, representing
Britain, France, Russia and the
{
j
. Ba i
Hollywood To
Have “D-Day”
HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 2. (/P) —
Four hundred steel-helmeted
pickets marched up and down the
street in front of Metro-Ooldwyn
Mayer studio this morning in the
cloudy dawn of what line captains
predicted would be “D-Day” in
the movie industry’s latest labor
quarrel.
More than 100 sheriff’s deputies
packing gas masks and gas gren
ades, kept the bulk of the strikers
away from the studio entrance,
leaving only eight pickets at the
gate, in conformance with court
orders.
Klieg lights erected on studio
grounds illuminated the murky
j scene.
Herbert Sorrell, president of the
AFL conference of studio unions
whose members are striking in
protest against mass dismissals of
CSU men who refused to work on
sets constructed by civil AFL un
ionists, told newsmen a mass
demonstration would be staged
today.
He said CSU carpenters from 25
studios not yet involved in the
strike against seven of the “Big
10” plants would augment the pic
keting force.
I Chamber Working
To Release Ship
I
Duke Mitrovitch, president of
the Chamber of Commerce, was
informed today, through Thomas
J. Keating, local agent of the
; Alaska Steamship Company, of a
J response to a message sent to the
i Seattle office of the company last
evening.
The message stated: “The strike
of longshoremen and engineers
has held up sailing of the SS Cor
dova, and the crew walked off
Monday night. We are exerting
every effort to have this ship re
leased account of the close of nav
igation. The SS Victoria left aboUt
fifty tons of miscellaneous grocer
ies and flour, fifty tons beer, one
hundred tons hardware, and about
two hundred tons army cargo.”
Mr. Keating states that the SS
Victoria will arrive on or about
the 7th of October, contrary to the
rumors on the street that the ves
sel was in distress.
Mr. Mitrovitch announced that
the Chamber would take whatever
action was necesasry to have the
SS Cordova released for sailing.
United States met in secret today
in the deserted court room where
for 10 months Nazidom’s leading
figures were tried on war crimes
charges.
Yugoslavs Accuse
U. S. And Britain
Of Betrayal
PARIS, Oct. 2. (/P)—Yugoslavia
accused the United States and
Great Britain before the peace
conference today of betraying the
i Big Four agreement on the free
state of Trieste in order to estab
lish a British-American military
I base on the Adriatic.
In an angry torrent of rapid
fire French before the Italian po
‘ litical and territorial commission,
Yugoslav delegate Mosha Pijade
declared the “Anglo-Saxon pow
ers” had renounced the “most im
portant” decisions of the foreign
i ministers’ council pertaining to
; Trieste.
“Democratic principles, in the
British, American and French pro
posals,” Pijade declared, “have
gone with the wind.”
The Yugoslav delegate assailed
the British proposals for a statute
I governing the new international
ized area of Trieste as putting the
i port on a par with a British col
i ony. Recalling the foreign minis
i ters’ agreement that Trieste’s leg
islative and executive authority
; should be organized along demo
i cratic lines, Pijade declared:
“We cannot see why the people
! of Trieste should be forced to ac
: cept a colonial-type regime in a
j military stronghold.”
He said both the British and U.
S. proposals for the Trieste statute
—there are five different propos
als altogether, one from each
member of the Big Four and one
from Yugoslavia — plus speeches
I yesterday by U. S. Senator Tom
' Connally and British delegate
Gladwyn Jebb, “reveal that Tri
este in their minds is not to be
come a truly free state, but a mil
itary base under an Anglo-Amer
ican condominium.”
“The American, British and
French proposals in no way cor
respond with the foreign minis
ters’ council decisions, he added.
Pijade spoke so rapidly to
crowd his remarks into the com
mission’s ten-minute speech limit
that official stenographers were
unable to keep up with him.
P.A.A. AUDITOR
HERE ON BUSINESS
Maury Kaufman, auditor from
San Francisco, for the P.A.A. is
in Nome on official business for
his company.
NORTHWEST AIRLINES
OFFICIAL VISITING NOME
A. B. Hayes, regional manager
for the Northwest Airlines from
headquarters in Anchorage, is
visiting Nome and getting ac
quainted with Nome and Nome*
ites.
Total Civil War
Threatens China
PEIPING, Oct. 2. (/P)—Stepping
up their retaliatory offensive
against the northern section of the
Peiping-Hankow railroad, Com
munist forces today drove close to
Paoting, capital of Hopeh prov
i ince. Government reinforcements
| poured southward out of Peiping
' to meet the assault.
In Chahar province, govern
i ment troops captured Hwailai, 80
miles southeast of Kalgan, with
little resistance and continued
I
their advance toward that Com
munist military base. Another
government column was reported
within 35 miles of Kalgan.
The Communists’ surprise of
fensive in Hopeh province was in
retaliation for the Government
assault on Kalgan, which Red
truce negotiator Chou En-Lai said
signaled total civil war.
Government military sources
said the Communists were attack
! ing every station along a 92-mile
, stretch of the Peiping-Hankow
i line.
The Peiping Catholic newspaper
! Social Welfare, reported the gov
ernment still planned an offensive
against Harbin in northern Man
churia. It quoted Gen. Hsiung
Shi-Hui as saying he would move
I Chiang’s Manchurian headquar
ters from Mukden to Changchun
(Continued on Page Eight)
Chamber Discusses
Freight Tie-Up
Guests at the noon luncheon of j
the NWA Chamber of Commerce,
meeting in the Nevada Lounge, j
were Commander H. L. Miller,'
from the Navy Depot, Washing- j
ton, D. C., and M. R. Kaufman,
auditor from the San Francisco
office of the Pan American Air
ways.
A. Polet stated he was in re
l oeipt of a telegram from Larry
Galvin, who was in Seattle, re
garding the sailing of the SS Vic
toria from Seattle, “leaving flour,
sugar and milk on the dock,” ask
ing the chamber to use its influ
ence in getting another boat to
bring the supplies.
The Chamber went on record
favoring the motion of Mr. Carl
Lomen to get in touch with the
maritime strike committee by
phone from Nome to have the
chamber president, Duke Mitro
vitch, present the case direct to
than.
It was also suggested that he
wire the Alaska Steamship Co.,
for information on the longshore
strike which is holding up the
sailing of the SS Cordova.
Convicted Japs
Plead For Mercy
GUAM, Oct. 2. — Thirteen
Japanese, convicted of cannibal
ism and other war crimes against
downed American fliers, pleaded
for mercy before a U. S. military
commission today. They will be
sentenced Friday.
Seven of 14 defendants were
convicted of cannibalism on Chi
chi in the Bonin islands early last
year. Six others were convicted of
other atrocities. One, Army Lt.
Gunji Isogai, was acquitted.
Chichi’s army commander, Lt.
Gen. Yoshito Tachibana, and two
of the other four top defendants
were convicted of violating the
laws and customs of war — the
only charge the prosecution could
find to cover cannibalism. The
fourth, Vice Adm. Kunzio Mori,
was convicted of neglect of duty
for not preventing atrocities.
Eight U. S. airmen were mur
dered on Chichi.
Armv Explodes
Half Million
Pounds Of TNT
POCATELLO, Idaho, Oct. 2 (/F>
Satisfied with the controlled ex
plosion of one-half million pounds
of TNT, naval officers today
planned additional blasts next
week but none to compare with
Tuesday’s charge which sent a
fire-red glow one-third of a mile
high before it mushroomed into
a towering black cloud.
Although other igloo-type mag
azines—containing an additional
1,500,000 pounds of explosives and
located at varying distances from
the blast center—failed to go off,
the thick cement housings were
cracked open.
Both army and navy observers
said the blast served three pur
poses: determining that the igloo
type magazines may be set as
close as 200 feet apart, disposing
of obsolete munitions and provid
ing scientists with a measure for
shock waves.
Perhaps the most curious part
of the explosions—set 75 miles
north of here on the desolate
Idaho lava flows—was the shock
wave which could be seensigzagg
ing from the blast center. Capt.
Walter E. Brown, commander of
the Pocatello naval ordnance
plant, said moisture in the air
condensed in front of the shock
wave making it visible.
A similar wave was noticeable
during the atomic bomb tests at
Bikini Atoll.