2E NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LI. Na 62_NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 1949 Per Copy—15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
WASHINGTON, </P)—'The Sen
ate passed a bill Monday to au
thorize the agriculture department
to cooperate with Hawaii, Alaska,
Puerto Rico and the District of
Columbia in its poultry improve
ment program.
Federal assistance in poultry
breeding and control of poultry
diseases now is confined to the
States.
WASHING TON. </P) — The
House public lands committee to
day approved a bill directing the
Interior department to convey
abandoned school properties of
the Alaska Native Service to local
town or school authorities of the
Alaskan Territory.
W A S H I N GTON, (>P) — The
House public lands committee ap
proved today a bill to permit
members of the Hawaii Legisla
ture to serve as delegates to a con
stitutional convention to draft a
state constitution for the Terri
tory.
A bill to make Hawaii a state is
pending in Congress.
PIRTMARNOCK, Ireland </P>—
Willie Turnesa, American ama
teur gold champion, reached the
third round of the British ama
teur championship yesterday by
defeating D. P. Choyce of London,
4 to 3.
Francis Ouimet, 56-year-old
former American champion from
Boston, was eliminated in the sec
ond round by B. J. Scannell of
Ireland, 3 and 1.
TOKYO, (P) — Sixty-one Euro
pean Jewish refugees from China
emplaned yesterday for Vancou
ver. B. C., after five days in
Japan.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, (P)
A hundred enlisted men at Vor
dintborg barracks, southern Sjael
land, have gone on a hunger
strike. Tneir complaint: They do
not get enough food.
—
WASHINGTON, (P)—The gov
ernment has dropped its perjury
charges against former Maj. Gen.
Bennett E. Meyers.
The wartime air force purchas
ing officer, now serving 15
months to five years for inducing
another man to commit perjury,
still faces an additional charge of
income tax evasion. He will be
eligible for parole from prison on
Sept. 15.
NEW YORK, (P) — Brazilian
President Eurico Gaspar Dutra
left in President Truman’s per
sonal plane today to begin a visit
in southern states.
GLAMIS, Scotland, (A1) — The
Earl of Strathmore and King
home, brother of Queen Elizabeth,
died today at Glamis Castle. He'
was 64.
The Earl was the eldest of the
Queen’s three brothers. He had |
been ill for several months.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, (/P)
Four members of the crew of the
1,291-ton Norwegian freighter
(Continued on Page Seven)
Shanghai Falls
To Communists
_ %
(By Fred Hampson)
SHANGHAI, (£*) — Communists
marched into Shanghai today, and
a roaring battle far worse than
the seige developed.
Retreating nationalists, trying
to fight their way back to Woo
sung and escape, were blowing up
everything they could. At 9 p.m.
the whole horizon to the north
seemed to explode.
Apparently the government sol
diers, pulling back before the ad
vancing communists, bl^w up the
fuel dumps, bombs and ammuni
tion installations at Kiangwan
airfield.
All the while cannonading
shook the city as the Reds smash
ed with everything available at
Woosung fortress. The commun
(Continued on Page Seven)
News of the World
At A Glance —
Tuesday, May 24, 1949
i By The Associated Press*
The Big Four foreign ministers!
got down to deciding Germany’s
future today, with the western
powers hopeful Russia would con
tinue an attitude of conciliation.
At yesterday’s opening session
in Paris Russia’s peppery Andrei
Vishinsky quickly agreed to a
western agenda.
The Soviet foreign minister also
agreed without argument to a
western proposal that if there is
time after German problems are
discussed, the council should try
again to agree on an Austrian
treaty.
Western diplomats are keeping
their fingers crossed, however. In
formants said they expected to get
a better line today on how long
Vishinsky will keep on smiling
and agreeing.
For today the west plans to pro
pose discussion of its plan for uni
<Continued on Page Two*
•
Archbishop Beran
Threatens Czechs’
Excommunication
PRAGUE, (JP) —Archbishop Jo
sef Beran threatened yesterday to
excommunicate all Catholics col
laborating with Czechoslovakia’s
communist government against
the church.
The archbishop charged that an
attempt was being made to set up
“a new Catholic church without
its current bishops and its princi
pal head in Rome.”
The statement was the sharpest
the archbishop has made in a
mounting church-state conflict
here. It was contained in a per
sonal letter to Alois Petr, minister
of transport and head of the com
munist-approved Catholic Peo
ples Party.
The letter’s contents were dis
closed by a well-informed and re
liable source.
It accused Petr of “sins” and of
distorting information in the press
about Catholic activities!
Yukon Receding;
Kuskokwim Rises;
Aniak Evacuated
FAIRBANKS, </P) —Rainstorms
flailed southwestern Alaska Mon
day night, adding to the flood
peril faced by native villages
along the swollen, ice-jammed
Kuskokwim river.
Muddy waters were swirling
through Aniak, about 150 miles
from the mouth of the river, but
all of the 200 villagers were re
ported evacuated to high ground.
An amphibian Seabee plane
carried the residents to safety, six
1 at a time, in a long series of shut
! tie flights.
Air force bombers from Ladd
and Elmendorf fields still awaited
clearing weather to resume bomb
ing of huge ice jams on the Kus
kokwim near Aniak and Bethel,
approximately 100 miles down
stream.
Low ceilings and poor visibility
were expected, to delay the flights
for more than 24 hours.
The ice blockades, following in
the wake of the spring breakup,
have backed up the Kuskokwim’s
waters along nearly its entire
course from central Alaska to the
Bering Sea, bringing the worst
floods in the native villages.
At McGrath, 200 miles upstream
from Aniak, the flood waters
were reported still high and por
tions of both runways at the big
air force field w’ere inundated.
Small planes will be able to land
there, however, when the weather
improves.
Reconnaissance flights over the
(Continued on Page Three)
1 Unified Military
Buying Would
Save Huge Sums
By Jack Bell
WASHINGTON, UP) — A mer
ger of army, navy and air force
buying was demanded yesterday
by Senator Morse <R.-Ore.) to
cover what he called “a big loop
hole” in a new armed service
unity bill before the Senate.
Morse is the sole opponent of
the measure among 13 armed
service committee members. He
said he would offer an amendment
requiring the three military bran
ches to get together on their pur
chases.
“There won’t be any real unifi
cation until there is unification in
procurement,” he declared in an
interview.”
Morse said that the “economic
pressure” of those who prefer to
have the three services bidding
against each other on some items
has kept out of the pending bill
any provision of the kind he
wants.
While chairman Tydings (D.
Md). said secretary of defense
Louis Johnson had put “a No. 1
priority” stamp on the legislation,
Morse said Johnson admitted in a
closed committee session that even(
greater savings would be possible!
under some conditions.
The Oregon Senator said he
also will propose that the civilian
(Continued on Page Seven)
Bethel Sure
To Be Flooded
_
FAIRBANKS, </P)—Whether to
try to circumvent nature by bomb
ing out a 100-mile solid sheet of
ice in the Kuskokwim river to
prevent further destructive floods
was the question perplexing the
Alaska Air Command last night.
W h a tever \ the decision, the
river-mouth village of Bethel was
feared in grave danger from the
rampaging Kuskokwim, which al
ready has pushed over its banks
along the 200-mile course from
McGrath to Aniak.
Bethel, populated by about 400,
mostly natives, is situated where
the Kuskokwim—Alaska’s second
largest river after the Yukon—
broadens into an estuary emptying
into the Bering Sea.
It’s “the end of the line” for
the destructive downstream jour
ney of the giant ice floes.
Air force fliers, after a recon
naissance hop, said water is flow
ing over the ice pack and already
is within two feet of flood stage.
In their opinion, Bethel is going
to be under water whether the ice
is bombed or whether nature is
allowed to take her course.
Meanwhile, pilots of two B-17s
and one B-25 at Ladd air force
base are awaiting orders to take
off with bomb loads and join the
B-26s from Elmendorf air force
base at Anchorage in case the
bombing tactic is decided the best
way to prevent disaster at Bethel.
Bad weather kept the bombers
grounded more than 48 hours, but
skies were reported clear i n g
slightly below Aniak yesterday.
Damage at Bethel could be cost
ly to the entire Kuskokwim basin
(Continued on Page Eight)
Harry Bridges
Ordered Inflicted
SAN FRANCISCO, (A>) — The
CIO longshore union charged to
day “the administration has or
' dered” the indictment of Harry
Bridges, the union president.
U. S. attorney frank Hennessey
Said a federal grand jury today
would consider aq “important in
dictment.”
He declined further comment
except to say, “I have strict or
ders from Washington not to say
anything about this.”
The statement issued by the in
i ternational longshoremen’s and
warehousemen’s union headquar
ters did not say on what grounds
indictment of Bridges had been
“ordered.”
One of the key figures in the
1939 Bridges deportation hearing
arrived here from Washington.
He is John P. Boyd, special assist
ant to attorney general Tom Clark.
He declined comment on his mis
sion. He told a reporter last night,
“I’ll be happy to talk to you to
morrow.”
Bridges, an Australian, was
termed an “energetic radical” but
not a communist in findings sub
mitted to the then secretary of la
bor Frances Perkins after the 1939
hearing. He became a U. S. citizen
in 1945.
I
Bridges was reported in New
York City. I
Gunman Again
Tries To Slay
Victor Reuther
DETROIT, \/P)—A stealthy gun
j rpan, firing through a window,
shot and wounded Victor Reuther
of the CIO United Auto Workers
union at his home last night.
Badly hurt, the 37-year-old
unionist faces the possible loss of
his right eye, pierced by a shot
gun pellet.
Dr. C. R. Lam, surgeon attend
ing Reuther, said at 10 a.m. today
that his condition was “good.”
There were injuries of the face
and neck as well as the eye from
six pellets.
Several blood transfusions had
been made.
Thus, for a second time within
13 months, police today sought
man, or men, apparently bent on
murder in the UAW-CIO’s Reu
ther family.
The union's president Walter
Reuther escaped death at the
hands of a mysterious assailant
the night of April 20 last year.
That attack remains unsolved
despite one of the most painstak
1 ing investigations in Detroit’s po
lice records.
Walter called h i s brother’s
shooting “another dastardly and
(Continued on Page Three)
Secy. Forrestal
Now Rests In
Arlington
WASHINGTON, — The na
tion paid last honors today to
James V. Forrestal.
Led by President and Mrs. Tru
man, high officials of the govern
ment and leaders in the United
States business life gathered
where the unknown soldier lies, in
funeral services for the first sec
retary of defense. Bright sunshine
bathed Arlington National Ceme
tery for the ceremonies.
Forrestal died, in the early hours
o{| Sunday in a leap from a tower
at the Bethseda naval hospital
where he had been under treat
ment after a collapse from over
work.
The 57-year-old former secre
tary of defense was buried with
(Continued on Page Six)
Congress Will Not
Act On Most Of
Truman’s “Musts”
(By Jack Ball)
WASHINGTIN, (A5) — Congress
seemed about ready today to
shelve until 1950 most of the po
litical hot potatoes of President
Truman’s program.
Marked for delay until next
year—when most of the members
will be beating the bushes for re
election—are measures involving
civil rights, farm subsidies, health,
insurance, tax increases and social
security expansion.
Congress may be voting on
some of these while primary cam
(Continued on Page Three)