the NOME NUGGET
_OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_^
. No. 112 NOME, ALASKA. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19~i949 Per Copy—15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
PALMER, Alaska, (^( — Satur
day night was charter night for
the Palmer Kiwanis Club, and the
club left signs around for all to
see. Literally.
The club decided to name all
Palmer streets and erect street
signs. Members cut and painted
120 posts, and stencilled the names
on them.
After this Palmer, trading cen
ter foj- the 750 to 1,500 in the Mat
anuska Valley, will be able to tell
people where they -are.
JUNEAU, (/P)—A decision on le
gality of Alaska’s new law quad
rupling the tax on fish traps now
is up to federal judge George
Folta.
The case was placed in his hands
late Friday after completion of a
hearing started September 8.
Fish trap interests contended
the new tax, -approved by the last
Territorial Legislature, is exces
sive and discriminatory.
FAIRBANKS, UP)—'The longest
military-type Bailey bridge in the
north was officially opened Satur
day.
It was constructed by the 807th
Engineer Aviation battalion. The
340-foot structure spans the Chena
River at the Ladd Air Force Base.
Michael Gaffney, five-year-old
son of Gen. Dale Gaffney, Ladd’s
commanding general, cut the tra
ditional ribbon.
JUNEAU, </P) — The Alaska
Housing authority, in session here
since Monday, completed its plans
for Alaska housing Friday.
The plans can go into effect af
ter Congress passes a $10,000,000
fund about Oct. 1.
The group approved 75 units for
Juneau in the subsidized rental
low income housing bracket, with
other sections to receive attention '
following reports.
SEATTLE, i/P> — The scheduled
sailing of the Alaska Steamship
company vessel Baranof Sunday
was cancelled Saturday when it
was discovered the vessel had a •
cracked tail shaft. The sailing, or
iginally set for Saturday had been ;
postponed until yesterday.
The vessel now will be put |
through her annual inspection and i
overhaul in addition to the repair j
of the tail shaft.
- - --—
CANTON, Eng. </P)—'The U. S. j
Ryder Cup team rallied to win j
six out of eight singles matches
from the British Saturday and re
tain the international golf trophy
by a point score of 7 to 5. One Bri
tish had won three of Friday’s
four Scotch foursomes.
NEW YORK, i</P)—Will Cuppy,
65, humorist and critic, died today.
Cuppy, in failing health for sev
eral years, had been in a hospital
since Sept. 9.
He had a wide following among
Saturday Evening Post readers for
his humor and surprising facts
about the animal world.
SEOUL, The defense ministry
reported today 225 prisoners of a
group which escaped last week
(Continued on Page Five)
Committee Will !
Investigate Alaska
Native Conditions
((JP) Special Washington Service*
WASHINGTON, i/P)—A seven
man team will leave Nome, Alas
ka, next Friday to study conditions i
among natives from the Aleutian
Islands to the Eiering Strait off Si
beria, the interior department said
today.
In New York City, the associa
tion on American Indian Affairs
called the study a “hopeful first
step” in* improving conditions
among the natives.
Secretary of interior Krug said J
the group will include Albert H.
Day, director of the fish and wild
life service, and John R. Nichols,
commissioner of Indian affairs.
| The party will visit Nunivak,
Makushin, Unalaska, Akutan and
Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians; St.
Paul and St. George in the Pribil
offs. and lonely St. Lawrence Is
f land, nearest U. S. point to the
Soviet Union, and King Island off
the Seward Peninsula.
The party will sail from Nome
aboard the Indian Service vessel
North Star, and will return to An
chorage by air about Oct. 11.
Oliver la Farge, president of the
Association on American Indian
Affairs, said in a statement that
natives of the Pribilofl's ‘ may be
in virtual peonage.”
“They are wards of the fish and
wildlife service, exclusively en
<Continued on Page Seven)
Miners On Pension
Strike; Coal Mines
Shut Down
PITTSBURGH. i/P)—Coal mTnes
shut down across the nation today
as John L. Lewis’ diggers struck
again on their own—this time cry
ing “no pension, no work.”
Production o! anthracite (hard 1
coal’ and bituminous isoft coal)
is being choked off by anger of
the United Mine Workers over i
President Lewis’ suspension of'
pension and welfare fund pay
ments.
Actually, miners’ pent-up feel
ings are aimed at southern coal
operators who refused any more
20 cent per ton payments into the i
welfare fund until a new contract
is signed. The refusal prompted !
Lewis’ suspension of welfare ben
efits .
Most of the UMW's 480,000
members in 20 states are expected
to be idle by nightfall.
Lewis said the welfare pay stop
is due to the fund running low on
cash. But it’s all part of the UMW
fight for a new contract. He’s
deadlocked with operators after
prolonged talks.
Walkouts started last midnight
and gained headway over the coal
fields today as come-to-work
whistles blew in vain. UMW lead
ers insisted the union’s rank and
file is acting on its own initiative,
that Lewis has issued no strike
call. He never does.
West Virginia, biggest soft coal
producing state, reported its 120,
(Continued on Page Eight)
England Devalues
Pound Sterling:
Chaos Reigns
_
(By Hal Cooper)
LONDON, (/P)—A 30.5 per cent
cut in the dollar value of the
pound sterling hit the British pub
lic like a blow in the face. There !
was financial turmoil the world !
over.
The Labor Government, in a !
desperate gamble to save the na- j
tion from threatened bankruptcy,
hunger and misery, slashed the
worth of the pound last night from
$4.03 to $2.80.
Banks were closed. The London
stock exchange and those in
France, Holland, Greece, South
Africa and many other countries
were shut down. Foreign exchange
trading was forbidden in much of
Europe and the sterling area. In
London, harried brokers traded
stocks and bonds on the sidewalk.
Business was at a virtual stand
still in this great city which once
was the financial and economic
heart of the world.
Eleven nations of Europe and
Asia quickly cheapened their
money to match the British move.
Cabinets in other world capitals
held emergency session to decide
what to do.
It was the biggest financial tur
moil the world has seen since Bri
tain went off the gold standard on
another September Sunday night !
•almost 18 years ago to the day.
Revaluation of the pound was
intended to solve Britain’s grave
financial crisis by selling more
and cheaper goods to America.
The new cheaper pound means
that American may buy Scotch
whiskey. English tweeds, Staf
fordshire china and many other !
British products at lower prices.
By mid-day 2.000 stock brokers !
and clerks jammed into the street I
in front of the stock exchange.
They had an open air market go
ing especially in booming gold
shares.
The British economic boss Sir
Stafford Cripps said last night in |
a nation-wide radio address that
England is banking on a big boost
in dollar earnings — enough for
Britain to become self-supporting
by the time the European Recov
ery program ends in 1952.
“That is the only permanent so
lution for our difficulties—earn
more dollars,” Cripps declared.
He warned that if Britain’s gold
reserves continue to drain away
as fast as they have in recent
months, Britons will suffer “lower
standards (of living* and wide
spread unemployment.” 0
The same problem faces most of
the other countries of the world
outside the Soviet orbit, where
economic policies are dictated by
the Kremlin.
Within a few hours after Bri
tain’s announcement, similar cuts
in the value of their currency
were announced by Australia.
South Africa. India, New Zealand,
Ireland, Israel, Norway, Denmark,
Malaya, Burma, and Egypt.
France, Italy, Sweden, Holland,
Greece and Finland suspended
dealings in foreign exchange. In
Canada, linked with trade ties
(Continued on Page Four)
Many Die \\ hen
m
Canadian Vessel
Burns Al Pier
TORONTO. OP) —A middle-of
the night fire roared through the
Great Lakes cruiser Noronic at her
pier Friday night and by noon Sat
urday, police said, 177 bodies had
been removed from the wreckage.
Officials of the Canada Steam
ship Lines said earlier 226 passen
gers, firemen and crew were not
accounted for but that they ex
pected the total to be reduced as
other survivors were found.
In addition they said three per
sons died in hospitals and four
were recovered from the water,
making a known death toll up to
noon Saturday of 192. Investigat
ing officials at the scene of the
Great Lakes worst shipfire in a
century said they thought the
number of dead might mount as
high as 226.
The fire, which raced through
the 36-year-old vessel, broke out
while most of those aboard were
i sleeping.
Operating officials said there
were 512 passengers and 170 crew
members aboard the veteran 6.905
ton cruiser, which tied up here
Friday night with holiday trip
pers, bound from Detroit and
Cleveland for the Thousand Is
lands.
Most of the passengers were
asleep, but hundreds escaped in a
frantic, screaming, pushing mob
awaakened by cries of fire and the
first alarms.
Others were trapped and their
uncounted bodies were still be
lieved to be huddled in the sub
merged C-deck. The death toll
rose as firemen kept bringing up
the charred, broken bodies of the
victims.
They said it might be several
days before the fate of all those
(Continued on Page Three)
More Hungarian
^Plotters*’ Confess
To Treason
(By Endre Marlon)
BUDAPEST. Hungary. (JP) —
Five more defendants pleaded
guilty today to plotting against the
government of Hungary and
against the Soviet Union.
Like the other three defendants
before them, none of the 5 show
ed any hesitancy in admitting to a
people’s court that they took part
ina plot backed by Premier Mar
shal Tito, the communist outcast
wh rules Yugoslavia.
Fr. Tibor Szoenyp, 46, former
chief of the communist party’s
Cadreo section, publicly announc
ed that neither drugs nor force
was used on him to obtain a con
fession.
The others who pleaded guilty
included Anbras Szalai, 32, Szoen
yi’s deputy in the communist
party.
Szoenyi named Allen W. Dulles,
head of the wartime American in
telligence service, the office of
strategic services (SS> in Europe,
as the man who hired him to spy.
But he had difficulty identify
News of the \\ oriel
At A Glance —
Saturday, September 17, 1949
<By The Associated Press)
The former chief inspector of
the Hungarian army told a peo
ple’s court trying him for treason
today that he plotted with others
to overthrow the Hungarian gov
ernment.
The testimony of Lieut. Gen.
Gyorgy Palffy followed closely
that of Laszlo Rajk, Hungary’s
former foreign minister and com
munist leader, who yesterday con
fessed a similar plot.
Rajk testified the plot was back
ed by United States officials and
was part of an anti-Soviet crusade
led by Premier Marshal Tito of
Yugoslavia, who Rajk said plan
ned a military invasion of Hun
gary and the incorporation of Al
bania into Yugoslavia.
Hungary and Albania are com
munist-led nations and members
of the Cominform. Tito, also lead
ing a communist regime, is at outs
with the Cominform.
In Berlin, the Soviet army news
paper Taegliche Rundschau re
flected Russia's interest in the
Hungarian trials and their explo
sive threat. The newspaper said
Rajk “finally unmasks the Tito
clique in Yugoslavia as an agency
of foreign imperialists.”
Lieut. Gen. Palffy, one of eight
defendants, testified: “We had
formed three special shock troops
of 12 members each which were
to arrest and eventually kill the
three top communist ministers
headed by Matyas Rakosi.”
Belgrade observers said the
trial, with its confessions so fa
miliar in communist court rooms,
is moving the Cominform-Tito is
sue toward a major Balkan crisis.
Chinese communist forces prob
ed the defenses of Canton today.
One Red group invaded Canton’s
province of Kwantung and reach
ed within 125 miles of the nation
alist capital.
Fear Palmer Duck
Hunter Drowned
PALMER id*)—Athorities feared
today that Eugene Marsh, Palmer
garage employee, may have
drowned Friday o na duck hunting
trip to Snowshoe Lake on the
Glenn Highway.
He left unaccompanied and bor-»
rowed a kayak to cross the lake.
Tht kayak, an Eskimo-type canoe,
was found later, drifting over
turned near shore, with no trace
of its occupant.
Float planes from the Tenth
Rescue squadron at Fort Richard
son conducted a lake search.
Marsh’s wife now is visiting at
her home in Spokane, Wash. They
have two children. Marsh, about
26 years old. was born in Anchor
age. His father Arthur Marsh, re
sides here.
ing photographs of Dulles in court.
He spotted only one, after hesita
tion.
The judge told the courtroom
that the defendant had failed to
recognize Dulles.