m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
Vol. LII. No. 30 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, MARCH 13, 1950 Per Copy—15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
TURIN, Italy, (/P)—Aldo Vila of
Genoa wanted to fly like a bird.
He built a contraption with wings
that flapped by bicycle pedals.
It worked fine for 150 feet. Villa
tried it again. This time it didn’t
Villa is in the hospital with a i
broken leg.
1 - - - ■ ■ ■ ■—
TRIESTE, Free Territory (A*)—
Pro-communist dock workers
struck for an hour here Friday.
Someone has made off with their I
lifesize picture of Marshal Stalin
down by the waterfront.
Soon afterward, two American j
mere hant sailors showed up j
aboard their ship, the African
Blade, with the picture in their
bags.
They turned it over to the ship’s
captain who turned it over to the
communists who called off the
strike.
STRETFORD, Eng., (/P)—Beryl
Oldh, 14, had been nearly blind
in her left eye since birth.
Skipping through the dormitory
of her school, she slipped and
fell,
“Oh, I can see better now,” she
exclaimed.
Two hours later she said her j
left eye was almost as good as her
right.
SEATTE, (/P)—Funeral services
were held Saturday for an Alaska
gold mining veteran, Harry Ray, j
81, who died Wednesday in Brem
erton. Ray worked at gold dredg
ing in Fairbanks and Nome, Alas
ka, for more than 25 years. He re
tired about six years ago to Kings
ton, Kitsap County. He was a
member of F. & A. M., Nome.
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (/P)
Is Russia’s ability to wage atomicI
war increasing more rapidly than
this nation’s ability to resist such '
an attack?
That, says Gen. Hoyt S. Van
denberg, air force chief of staff, is
today’s grave question.
He told an audience Friday
night that Russia soon will be
able to launch an intercontinental
atomic attack in considerable
strength. The continued existence
of this nation’s strategic air force
is the best bet to contain such at
tack, said’ General Vandenberg.
JUNEAU, (/P) — Seward and
Juneau will play a basketball se
ries here, starting tonight, for the
high school championship of Alas
ka. It will be a two-out-of-three
series.
DERBY, Eng. (A3), Mr. and Mrs.
J. Wallis have decided just sitting
by the radio is a dangerous past
time.
They were listening to the
Music Hall star Webster Booth
singing “Rose of England” over
the air.
When he hit a high note, they
said, a drinking glass on the side
board shattered and sprayed
them with fragments.
WALL TOWNSHIP, N. J. (A*)
’ A wheel torn from a “hot rod” i
racing car smashed into a crowd
of spectators yesterday and killed |
(Continued on Page Seven)
Gareth Wright
Wins Dog Mushing
Championship.
FAIRBANKS, (/P) — Gareth;
Wright of Fairbanks and Nenana
won his second dog mushing j
championship in a month yester
day.
He won his third straight heat
to capture the North American
dog racing championship. The
first two heats were 20 miles \
apiece. On the third heat mushed
his team of nine huskies and one
Irish setter for 30 miles in com
paratively mild 36 degree above
zero weather.
Wright took top money of
$2,850.
His time for the 30 miles yes
terday was two hours, 27 minutes
and 12 seconds. His total elapsed
time for the 70 miles of the three
heast was five hours, 24 minutes,
51 seconds.
Other finishers, with their times
for yesterday’s heat, total elapsed
time for all heats, and prize
money won, respectively:
Horace Smoke, 151 minutes, 38
second, 5.34:39, $1,400.
Raymond Paul, 152 minutes,
seven seconds; 5.41:11; $700.
Dan Snyder, 152 minutes, 51
seconds; 5.48:28; $350.
Alfred Wells, 153 minutes, 39
second; 5.47:22; $350.
Lee Edwin, total elapsed time
5.47:33 and $250.00.
Jim Hunnington won $100.
Wright captured the Anchorage
Fur Rendezvous race last month.
Fuchs, Atomic Spy,
Jeopardized All
Of U. S. Secrets
WASHINGTON, (/P)—Dr. Klaus
Fuchs, confessed Russian spy, |
may have stripped the United |
States’ scientific cupboard bare of
all but its latest atomic secrets.
Further, it is considered likely '
among those familiar with the sit
uation that he could have, passed
on to the Soviets highly “educat
ed guesses,” to say the least, about
the rate of U. S. a-bomb produc
tion and the size of this country’s
stock-pile.
Both are closely guarded se
crets. So is all data connected !
with developments of the poten- j
tially more deadly hydrogen'
bomb. Fuchs was familiar with J
the theory of the h-bomb, too.
Members of the Senate-House
atomic energy committee who saw
the Fuchs’ confession for the first
time Friday took a grave view of
the matter. Senator McMahon (D.
Conn.-, committee chairman, de
clined to say what was in it or
answer questions about it.
The confession, passed on by
the British, reached the joint com
mittee through the federal bureau
of investigation and the atomic
energy commission. AEC officials
met with the committee behind
closed doors to go over the docu
ment.
It was learned later that some
information, including dates and
names, had been deleted from the
closely-guarded confession before
It got to the committee.
}{() Die In Diane
Crash In Wales
i
_____
(By John Roderick)
CARDIFF, Wales (/P>—Avaition
experts began an Inquiry here to- i
day into the latest disaster involv
ing Britain’s unlucky Tudor air
liners—the crash of a crowded
charter ship yesterday in which 80
died.
Directed personally by Britain’s
minister of civil aviation, Lord
Pakenham, the experts will try
to find out why the big passenger
plane packed with jubilant Welsh
football fans careened wildly into
a field as it was landing on a
flight from Dublin.
Of the 78 passengers and five
crewmen aboard, only three sur
vived. It was the world’s worst
commercial air tragedy and
brought the toll of deaths in Tu
dor planes—Britain’s first t post
war four-engined commercial air
craft—to 144.
The chartered plane, biggest in
active service in Britain, was pre
paring to land in sunny weather.
Tired but happy rugby football
enthusiasts aboard had traveled
by plane and train to Belfast to
see Wales down Ireland 6-3 in the
United Kingdom championships.
After a night of celebrating in
Dublin, they were returning home
by their chartered aircraft.
The big four-engined plane ap
peared to be touching down at
Llandow airport near here for a
noimal landing when, without
warning, it roared back into a
climb. It smashed to earth in a
field after making a right-hand
turn and sideslipping.
The huge plane crashed 15
yards from a house. It did not ex
plode or burn.
Two of the three survivors,
brothers-in-law, walked out of
the wreckage unaided and virtu
ally unscatched. They had been
setting side by side in the tail of
the plane.
The thixd survivor was critical
ly hurt.
There were five women aboard,
(Continued on Page Five)
Give Gubitchev
His Choice ()f
Two Penalties
NEW YORK, (JP)—'Valentine A.
Gubitchev, convicted as a Soviet
spy, reportedly will accept the U.
S. government’s offer of release
from a 15-year prison term on the
condition that he go home to Rus
sia.
The government had told the
33-year-old engineer that he could
pick his own penalty for conspir
acy and attempted espiona g e
against the United States.
He could get out, and stay out,
or he could go to prison for 15
years.
It was reported that Gubitchev
j plans to leave the United States
March 20 aboard the Polish liner
, Batory—the same ship on which
communist fugitive Erhart Eisler
fled this country as a stowaway
last May.
Both the New York Times and
the New York Herald-Tribune
said they had learned of Gubit
chev’s decision.
The reported sailing date is four
days ahead of the deadline set by
federal judge Sylvester Ryan
I Thursday when he meted out sen
tences of 15 years each to Gubit
chev and his co-spy, 28-year-old
Judith Coplon.
PIONEER WOMEN MET
FRIDAY EVENING
The Pioneer Women of Alaska
met last Friday evening in regu
lar session with Mary M. Roell
presiding.
A highlight of the evening was
the presentation of a beautiful
ivory and silver pin to one of its
oldest members, Emma Lyle, who
was eighty years young recently.
The presentation was made by
President Roell.
The members enjoyed playing
cards after which refreshments
were served by the committee and
a beautiful birthday cak£ was cut
by Mrs. Lyle.
BUILDING BOOK.
$
News of the \\ orhl
At A Glance - - -
Saturday, March 11. 1950
• By The Associated Press)
Disorders were reported in Bel
gium today on the even of tomor
row’s referendum in which the
people will say whether they want
King Leopold III back on the
throne.
Fifty demonstrators were injur
i cd last night in Antwerp where
hand to hand fighting broke out
at a fireworks display staked by
pro-Lopoldists. Five hundred po
licemen were needed to stop the
fighting between the pro and anti
forces.
King Leopold’s surrender to the
Nazis early in the war exposed
the flanks of British and French
forces and resulted in the Dun
' kerque debacle. He was not in
vited to resume his throne when
the Allies liberated Belgium. The
nation’s present ruler is Regent
Prince Charles, Leopold’s brother.
Leopold’s supporters argue that
he surrendered to the Germans
only after all hope of victory was
lost. They contend that he did not
collaborate with the Nazis.
A total of 5,500,000 Belgians
I are eligible to vote in the advisory
j referendum. The final decision
whether King Leopold will be in
vited to return is up to parlia
! ment. Tomorrow’s vote, however,
will strongly affect parliament’s
decision.
The Soviet people are being
asked to endorse communist-ap
proved candidates in their elec
tions tomorrow. There is only one
slate. Prime Minister Joseph Sta
lin is expected to make an election
! eve speech tonight that may throw’
some light on Soviet foreign pol
icy. Western observers predicted
1 Stalin might hint at a new’ effort
to settle international problems
which now split the world. Stalin
himself is an unopposed candidate
for election to the Supreme Soviet
(parliament).
Deputy Prime Minister V. M.
I Molotov in a speech last night
said he believed peace is possible,
but that the Soviet Union must be
i on its guard.
Russia is at present boycotting
i the United Nations because it
wants communist China seated in
the place of Nationalist Chinese.
I U. N. secretary-general Trygve
Lie said at a news conference that
1 Red China is entitled to U. N.
membership. He said his dcclara
i tion did not mean he was surren
| dering to Soviet demands. ‘(It rep
resentes a surrender to interna
tional law and commonsense,’*
Lie declared.
France’s strike problems appear
to be easing. The communist-led
general confederation of labor or
dered its striking Paris subway
workers back on the job. The
workers had been offered a five
per cent wage increase. However,
utility workers ore still on strike
and the ports of Marseille and
- Bordeaux are tied up by a walk
out of port workers.
Chinese Nationalists on For
mosa announced heavy air raids
on communist-held Chushan Is
lands southeast of Shanghai. Na
tionalist guerrillas were reported
(Continued on Page Three)