m NOME NUGGET
_OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PBESS_
Vol. HI. No. 32 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 1950 Per Copy—15c
nejvs IN BRIEF
WASHINGTON, (/P) — Violent
storms off the Pacific Northwest
killed hundreds of Alaskan fur
seal pups and cast them ashore
on the Washington and Oregon
coasts in January, the fish and
wildlife service said yesterday.
Of the dead animals, 16 bore
tags that had been applied last
summer at the Pribilof Islands in
the Bering Sea. The year-old pups
are a part of the island crop
which will be ready for the seal
skin harvest in 1952.
FAIRBANKS, (/P) — Lt. Cmdr.
John Morton arrived from Kodiak
yesterday to activate one or more
naval reserve groups.
Morton is assistant chief of staff
for the naval reserve of the 17th
Naval District headquartered at
Kodiak.
OTTAWA, Canada (#*)—A high
ly secret defense conference open
ed Wednesday attended by Cana
dians, United States and British
scientists.
Discussions on radar, germ and
physchological warfare, and Arc
tic conditions are said to be on the
agenda. Atomic energy is not up
for discussion.
PARIE, (/P)—The price of gold
hit a low of 439,000 francs a kilo
gram on the free market yester
day.
It was the lowest price since
free trading in gold was officially
authorized over two years ago.
The price is equivalent to $41.75
. an ounce, against the official $35
price in the U. S.
WASHINGTON, (/P)—The geo
logical survey turned thumbs
down today on Lake Chackacham
na in Alaska as a source of water
power in the near future. It based
its conclusion on the lake’s re
moteness and inaccessibility. The
lake is 100 miles west of Anchor
age.
JUNEAU, (/P)—Maxim Schapi
ro, Russian concert pianist, re
turned here last night to dedicate
the city’s new grand concert pi
ano. The dedication packed the
city’s largest theater,
The national anthem was the
first music played.
Schapiro started the piano fund
several months ago when concert
goers bid to hear particular selec
tions played.
JUNEAU, (/P)—A combined bid
by two Fairbanks firms—Williams
Equipment and Reed Marin—was
low for two road projects near
Fairbanks yesterday.
The bid was $389,713.10 for
grading and surfacing 4.37 miles
of the Fairbanks College road,
and 1.37 miles of the Steesc High
way.
Only other bid submitted, a
combined offer by Birch Sons and
Morrison Knudsen Co., was for
$397,751.
PETERSBURG, (£>)—Mayor' Ed
Locken officially opened the third
annual Alaska Junior Chamber of
Commerce convention yesterday.
Among out-of-town delegates
(Continued on Page Three) i
Military Planning
Many Secret
Installations
WASHINGTON, (A>) —Requests
for about $70,000,000 . worth of
highly secret military installations
—described by the armed forces
as imperatively needed—came un
der new study on Capitol Hill yes
terday.
Military witnesses have told the
House armed services committee
that thees projects should have
“high priority.” They are part of
a $187,142,000 amendment to the
defense department’s $477,974,000
public works bill which the com
mittee previously had under con
sideration.
In addition, chairman Vinson
iD.-Ga.i instructed the marines to
submit two amendments for $27,
476.000 bringing the grand total
in requests for public works to
$692,592,000.
The classified (secret) installa
tion requests are very hush-hush
but they indicate intensified ac
tivity in radar, special weapons,
guided missiles, biological and
chemical warfare. Considerable
attention is given to the defense
of Alaska.
The largest single request is by
the navy. The navy is asking $23,
316.000 to develop naval facilities,
including housing, at a secret lo
cation “outside the continental
United States.”
An intensified buildup in Alas
(Continued on Page Two)
Navy Wants To
Continue Arctic*
Oil Exploration
WASHINGTON, (JP)—The navy
has asked an appropriation of
$10,595,000 to continue its oil ex
ploration in Arctic Alaska during
the fiscal year starting July 1.
Commodore William G. Green
man, director of the office of na
val petroleum and oil shale re
serves, told a House appropria
tions sub-committee that as of De
cember seven test wells had been
drilled and another was under
way. He said five new tests are to
be started this year and next. His
testimony was made public today.
Greenman said the navy’s pres
ent plans call for completion of
the project after the summer of
1952 if no substantial oil discov
ery is made by that time.
Col. Ottman F. Kotick, deputy
director of naval oil reserves, told
the committee that drilling in one
of the wells has reached 11,400
feet and there is some evidence,
though meager, that it will reach
a Mississippi limestone formation
between 13,000 and 14,000 feet
feet down.
“We are anxious to get to the
top of that limestone to see whe
ther it is permeable, to see if it
has any oil in it because it is pe
troliferous in the outcrop sec
tion,” he testified.
“Incidentally, that particular
well has been developing some
very high gas pressure of a rea-1
sonably wet gas. Whether that i$
going to mean anything I do not
know. We have not tested it yet.”
New York Stages
World’s Largest St.
Patrick's Parade
NEW YORK, (yP) — Flanagans,
Hannigans, O’Tooles and O’Flynns
. , , the boys from Cork, Dublin,
and Limerick swing up Fifth Ave
nue today in the world’s largest
St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Murphys. Kellys, Sullivans and
O’Briens . . . transplanted Irish
from Gaelic-speaking fishing vil
lages, from mountain cottages,
from Dublin’s fair city will march
proudly past St. Patrick’s Cathe
dral in Jionor of their beloved
Saint.
Raffertys, Muldoons, Hogans
and Morans. . . . They and their
dark-eyed colleens will get the
day’s festivities started when the
two-and-one-half mile march gets
under way at noon.
It will last at least five hours,
and if the marchers were all in
one line it would stretch over 15
miles—more than the length of
Manhattan Island itself.
Always the world’s biggest par
ade on the Saint’s day, this year
it is the “biggest ever”—expected
to surpass even New York’s pre
vious efforts.
There are more Irish in New
York City than in Dublin. A good
share of them will be on hand.
JERSEY CITY, </P)—'The Irish
men were arguing in a tavern yes
terday about exactly what the
angle of slant was of the rooftops
from which rifleman fired in Ire
land’s Easter Monday rebellion of
1916.
The pre-St. Patrick’s Day argu
ment grew hot. When a fight
seemed imminent, the bartender
put in a Trans-Atlantic telephone
call to William Sweetman, editor
of the Irish Press in Dublin.
It is not recorded just what
Sweetman said the slant of the
roof-tops was in 19’6, but. it set
tled the dispute.
The phone call cost the barten
der $15.
STAR SALESMAN
House Committee
Denounces Alaska
Reservations
i
(By Charles D. Watkins)
((jT*) Special Washington Service) I
WASHINGTON, (JP), A House
sub-committee was said yesterday
to have denounced the interior
department’s plans for setting up
native reservations in Alaska.
The question came up in closed
sessions of the sub-committee on
interior department appropria
tions at which a witness told the
committee that one election had
been held and two others are
pending.
The committee was reported to
understand that additional reser
vations were to be sought and was
said to have decided that such ac
tion was devoid of merit, retro
gressive, unnecessary and inde
fensible from the standpoint of'
settling native land claims.
The sub-committee decided it
was learned, that none of the
funds appropriated for use by the
bureau of Indian Affairs in the
fiscal year starting July 1 should
be used in connection with the
pending reservation orders or res
ervation orders that may be sign
i ed later.
The sub-committee it was
j learned, approved appropriation
(Continued on Page Two)
I
Icc 44 Inches
I Thick At Nenana
_
(Special To The Nugget)
(By Slim Avery)
NENANA, </P)—The ice in the
Tanana River is about 44 inches
thick. We have been having very
; nice weather since the 18th of
1 Februax-y and it is still nice wea
| ther. It doesn’t seem that the nice
j weather we have been having will
1 have any effect on the breakup.
Most of the people I have talked
| to heer seem to favor an early
j breakup, but there is no use of
'giving my opinion as your guess (
' is as good as mine.
News of the \Y orld
At A Glance - - -
Thursday, March 16, 1950
<By The Associated Press)
U. S. Secretary of State Dean
Acheson used a west coast plat
form to project warnings to the
communist world against further
expansion in Southeast Asia.
Speaking at San Francisco yes
terday he promised non-commun
ist countries in the chadow of Red
China limited aid in their fight
against "Soviet-communist im
perialism.”
His speech coincided with the
return to the United States of rov
ing ambassador Philip C. Jessup,
who has just completed an on-the
spot survey of Asian conditions
which may prove the basis for a
new American Far Eastern policy.
In a display of American
> strength and as a token of sup
port for the new French-spon
sored state of Vietnam, U. S. navy
carrier planes flew over the Indo
Chinese coast.
The French forces are fighting
insurgents under Moscow-trained
Ho Chi Minh, whose regime has
been recognized by the Soviet
Union.
The planes were launched from
the aircraft carrier Boxer while
two U. S. destroyers with a
French escort sped 50 miles up
river to Saigon to show the flag.
On Formosa, stronghold of na
tionalist Chinese, President Chi
ang Kai-Shek took direct control
of Nationalist forces. He abolished
the office of Southeast Asia com
mander, which had been held by
Premier Chen Cheng until he as
sumed the Premiership this week.
In a colorful ceremony, Chiang
received pledges of loyalty from
Formosan chieftains representing
140,000 tribesmen and promised to
improve the living standards of
the island people.
The French National Assembly
today ratified bilateral accords
through which the United States
will furnish nearly $500,000,000 in
arms aid to France. The measure
was opposed by the communists
but passed by a vote of 416 to 181.
It now goes to the upper house
where approval is certain.
The debate over the arms air
program was quiet compared to
the riotous scenes in the assem
bly last week when fistfighting
between communists and non
communists and a communist fili
buster delayed for a time the
passing of an anti-sabotage bill.
Business was back to normal in
Venice. Italian city of canals, as
a communist-led 24-hour strike
ended. The strike, called to pro
test the wounding of seven work
ers by police gunfire during a
demonstration Tuesday had
spread through nine Tltalian pro
vinces.
Observers in Washington inter
preted Poland's sudden withdraw
al from the world bank and fund
as a Moscow-directed move to
strengthen the Russian ruble.
Friday. March 17. 1950
U. S. Secretary of State Ache
son has laid down America’s peace
terms for ending the cold war
with Russia. He predicted in ad
(Continued on Page Seven)