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OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS - ■
VOL. LIV No. 33 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1952 Per Copy—15^
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Navy Research
Team To Camp
On Ice Island
POINT BARROW, (/P) — Three
planes, 33 men and one womah
were poised early Monday for a
flight to the top of the world
where the Navy hopes to set up
a research base on a floating ice
island near the North Pole.
The expedition, assembled for
the second phase of “Operation
Ski Jump,” was alerted for take
off after a gasoline cache and
three supply stations were estab
lished Saturday progressively
nearer the pole.
The Navy said the aim is to
create an ice island base from
which U.S. scientists can study
the sea, air and agencies relating
to the earth in the Arotic.
“Ski Jump Two” will be in the
nature of a honeymoon for one
of the veterans of last year’s ex
pedition, John F. Holmes, Fals
mouth, Mass. His -bride of a few
weeks is a skilled oceanographer
and the only woman in the group.
Holmes said much more has
been accomplished already this
year than in 1951, when a year
ago Monday the first expedition
of ten men began “Ski Jump One.”
If a base is established in one
of the huge ice islands discovered
in -the Arctic in recent years there
is little danger it would be endan
gered by a breakup. The islands
have been found to be hundreds
of feet thick with only a small
portion of their bulk protuding
above the surface.
World Bank Team
Fails to Settle Iran’s
Knotty Oil Problem
By EDWARD A. CURTIS
TEHRAN, Iran, (£>) — A World
'Bank team wrote “failure” Mon
day on the latest efforts to start
Iran’s oil flowing to the West
again and packed its bags for the
trip home.
The talks with Iran’s govern
ment -broke down Sunday night
in a deadlock and a spokesman
of Iran’s joint oil board announ
ced: “Negotiations are now
ended.”
The Senate, obviously worried
over the breakdown in the oil
talks, sent a three-man delegatiom
to ask Premier Mohammed Mossa
degh what policies he now intends
to follow. The delegation reports
back to the Senate on Wednesday.
Northwest Stratocruisers
To Fly To Japan Via
Great Circle Route
SEATTLE, </P) — Northwest
Airlines statocruisers have been
authorized to fly the Great Circle
route to Japan, Harry Kircher of
the Civil Aeronautics Administra
tion reported in Seattle Sunday.
Northwest plans to install the
stratocruisers on the Great Circle
circuit April 27.
Kircher announced that the au
thorization was being made when
he returned to Seattle at the ter
mination of a survey flight to
Tokyo with officials and pilots of
the airlines.
The survey flight, during which
personnel are acclimated with the
route, touched the Aleutian Is
lands as well as Misawa and Na
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Seattle Midshipmen
To Invade Alaska
On Training Cruise
KODIAK, Alaska — Midship
men from the University of Wash
ington will invade southeastern
Alaska at the end of March aboard
two destroyer escorts.
The USS Charles E. Brannon
and USS Rombach will bring 130
members of the Naval Reserve
Officer Training Corps to Juneau
on the 26th, Wrangell on the 25th
and Ketchikan on the 24th. They
will put into port in the afternoon
and pull up anchor the next morn
ing.
The midshipmen were selected
fcrr NROTC after passing rigid
physical and mental examinations.
This will be one of four annual
cruises they take before gradua
ting from college as ensigns in the
Naval Reserve. The voyage intro
duces 'the midshipmen to ship
board life and the stops at Juneau,
Wrangell and Ketchikan will in
troduce them to Navy liberty. The
schedule aboard ship will include
gunnery practice, navigation sea
manship and engineering.
Tax Workers
Try To Explain
High Spending
WASHINGTON, (JP) — Internal
revenue workers’ explanations of
five-figure spending on four-fig
ure salaries were assessed Sat
urday as “unbelievable” by House
investigators of tax scandals.
The Ways and Means Subcom
mittee headed by Rep. King (D
Calif) centered its latest inquiry
on personal finances of three em
ployes of the New York City tax
office.
One appeared before the sub
committee Friday but refused to
answer all questions. Another told
in a Brooklyn accent how he won
enough at gambling to cover the
$18,350 he spent in a year. His
government salary was $3,500. The
third, agents reported, put $41,600
into the stock market between
1944 and 1946 when his annual
paycheck was $3,900.
Chairman King summed up the
subcommittee’s reaction to the
hectic day:
“A pattern has emerged of high
ly unusual sources of funds. Large
horse-race winnings, bridge sys
tems, caches of currency and loans
and gifts from relatives have been
used to explain expenditures far
beyond salaries.
“Reasonable people are forced
to conclude that in the aggregate
at least these explanations are
unbelievable.”
Disgrunted Japanese
Taxpayers Blast Tax
Office with Gas Bombs
TOKYO, (JP) — It’s tax-paying
time in Japan, too, and some dis
gruntled citizens showed their dis
pleasure Monday. They threw fire
bombs at two Japanese tax of
fices.
One hit and three missed the
Yokohama office. Another bomb
hit the Kawasaki office, south of
Yokohama. Both fires were quick
ly controlled.
Police said the bombs apparent
ly were beer bottle filled with
Senate Committee
> .
May Influence
Eisenhower’s Role
(By the Associated Press*
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s
chances of winning the Republican
presidential nomination could be
helped—or hurt—by a small group
of senators meeting behind closed
doors Monday.
The Senate Foreign Relations
Committee is expected to decide
whether to invite the general
home to testify on the $7,900,000,
000 foreign aid bill.
The general’s - supporters want
him to return and campaign—and
some are saying privately he’ll be
back in time to make a few
speeches before the July conven
tion—but few want him home
on a purely non-political visit.
They feel that a return merely
to testify before Congress could
embarrass him, hurt his chances.
On the other hand, if he testified
and then made talks explaining
his views on foreign and domes
tic policies, it could help.
President Truman was still sil
ent on whether he will seek re
election. He avoided the issue in
a New York speech Saturday.
Kefauver, still jubilant over the
surprise sweep in New Hampshire,
said in a radio interview there
are indications Democratic lead
ers in some northern cities may
back him. And he said he thought
he could mend the North-South
i
split in his party.
Sen. Kerr (D-Okla) wha plans
to run on the Democratic ticket
if Truman doesn’t, said on a tele
vision show he didn’t think much
of military men as presidents. On
the same show, Hep. Herter di
Mass) said he didn’t think the
Senate has such a good record
as a presidential training ground.
Jury Convicts
Tax Collector
Of Misconduct
ST. LOUIS, (£*) — A federal
cdurt jury convicted former in
ternal revenue collector James P.
Finnegan on two misconduct char
ges early Saturday.
The 11 men and one woman
freed him on three other counts
i
—including two of bribery.
Finnegan, 51, personal friend
of President Truman, took the
decision quietly, but members of
his family in the court room ap
peared stunned.
Maximum penalty under the
conviction is four years in prison
and $20,000 in fines.
The counts under which Finne
gan was found guilty involved
acceptance of $5,000 from the
Warwick Hotel Corp. for helping
the firm in a claim against the
Coast Guard for damage during
World War II occupancy, and for
taking $3,000 from the American
Lithofold Corp. to represent the
St. Louis printing firm corporation
loan.
The jurors found that Finnegan,
by accepting these sums, violated
a federal law prohibiting officers
and employes from taking com
pensation from outside parties to
represent them before government
Boxing Clubs of New York
And Illinois Charged With
Conspiring to Monopolize
NEW YORK, (fP) — The Inter
national Boxing Clubs of New
York and Illinois were charged
Monday with conspiring to mono
polize the professional champion
ship boxing business in the United
States. The Department of Justice
complaint was made in a civil ac
tion in federal court.
Owners of the chibs, James D.
Norris of New York and Arthur
M. Wirtz of Chicago, and the
Madison Square Garden Boxing
Corporation, of New York, also
were named defendants.
The complaint says the defend
ants obtained confracts from
champions and leading contend
ers in all major weight divisions
requiring, as a condition of parti
cipation in title bouts, to box ex
clusively for the IBC.
The defendants also were ac
cused of obtaining exclusive use
of all principal arenas in New
York, Chicago and other large
cities suitable for staging cham
pionship bouts.
The charges were announced by
Melville C. Williams, chief of the
Department of Justice’s Anti
Trust Division.
House Committee
Gets Evidence On
Polish Massacre
CHICAGO, (IP) — A former
Russian colonel says a “drunk and
bragging” Soviet captain boasted
to him he was a special execu
tioner during the Katyn massacre,
in which 10,000 Polish army offi
cers were slain.
Vasili Ershov, 45, testified Fri
day before a House* committee try
ing to fix responsibility for the
killings in the Kaityn Forest, near
Smolensk, Russia, in the early
1940's.
Ershov, now of New York, was
the first wartime Russian officer
to appear before the committee,
which plans more hearings in
Washington next week. It heard
the last of a two-day parade of
witnesses in Chicago Friday.
Ershov, who came to the United
States three months ago from
West Germany, said a captain
Borisov told him he was one of
a group of special Soviet army
executioners at Katyn who took
their orders directly from the Pol
itburo and the minister of national
security.
Wrangell BasketbaU
Team Takes Anchorage
To Win All-Alaska Trophy
WRANGELL, (£>) — A hard
playing substitute, Lynn Schwartz,
scored IS roints in as many min
utes Friday night to help the
Wrangell Wolves win the All
Alaska High School Basketball
Championship as they defeated
the Anchorage Eagles, 55-42.
Schwartz entered the game just
before halftime and went out after
three minutes in the fourth quar
ter but he was all over the floor
getting rebopnds and hooking in
shots.
The Wrangell Wolves, in de
feating Anchorage, the defending
champion, have won their first
33 Miraculously
Rescued From
Giant Snowslides
BISHOP, Calif., (/P) — A week
end of wild weather in California
had a fortunate ending Sunday
night in the rescue of 33 persons
whose mining camp high in the
Sierra Nevadas was crushed un
der giant, snow slides.
The 33 rescued were workers
and their families at the U.S. Van
adium Corporation’s tungsten mill
—the world’s largest—9,000 feet
high in Pine Creek Canyon, 20
miles northwest of here.
Saturday a huge slide poured
down from crags above. One end
of the mill was caved in. Four
homes were partially destroyed.
The home of mill superintend
ent Tom Holmes was crushed and
buried. Mrs. Holmes was knocked
out of the house, over an auto,
under a fence and against a tree
60 feet away.
Her 15-months-old son was
buried under 18 feet of snow and
debris. Workers dug for two
hours. They finally found him
nestled between two pet dach
shunds — unharmed. Besides the
dogs, he was protected by his play
pen and a heavy chair.
The 33 took refuge in the mill’s
basement, where the rescue party
found them last night. None was
seriously injured. They were
there for more than a day, pray
ing and watching smaller slides
bounce down the canyon walls.
Chief of Staff Says New
Weapons will “Astound”
Even Military Planners
WEST POINT, N.Y., </P)—Gen.
J. Lawton Collins says the United
States is “on the threshold of new
developments” in weapons that
“completely astound” even the
most hopeful military planners.
But the Army chief of staff
warns that the nation must not
place its total reliance on super
weapons.
Collins delivered the main ad
dress at a luncheon Sunday as the
U.S. military academy observed
founder’s day, the high spot in
the school’s 150th anniversary
celebrations being held this year.
Collins said that “guided mis
siles, atomic weapons, jet aircraft,
tremendously powerful ammuni
tion, and many other advances are
all creating a new framework of
defense.”
Illness Forces Winchell
To Miss Weekly Broadcast
NEW YORK, {A5)—Walter Win
chell became ill just before air
time Sunday night and did not
make his usual weekly broadcast
over the American Broadcasting
Company network.
Winchell’s remarks, as he had
prepared them, were read by
Richard Stark, who usually an
nounces the program.
The 54-year-old columnist’s of
fice said later that Winchell
“against the advice of his doctors
and the protest of Mrs. Winchell,
prematurely returned to his work
following a serious -attack of
virus infection.”
“He will duly resume after con
sultation with his physicians,” the