Valdez News
* VOL. 1, NO. 17
VALDEZ. ALASKA. FRIDAY. JULY 7, 1950
PRICE 10c
WS APPOINTS
HALLEY GATES AS
LICENSING AGENT
Halley Gates, Valdez city clerk
and last week appointed deputy
tax collector for this district, this
week added another chore. Gates
has been appointed licensing of
ficer for the district from Ellamar
to Tonsina by the Fish and Wild
life Service. His appointment
became effective on June 30.
Mr. Gates replaces U. S. Com
missioner Margaret Harrais, who
vresigned the office.
Resident hunting, fishing and
trapping licenses, non-resident
and alien licenses, and for export
permits all will be issued by Mr.
Gates. Mr. Gates will conduct his
license sales and his deputy tax
collector’s duties at his home at
306 Keystone Avenue between
the hours of nine and twelve, and
one to five, daily, Monday
through Saturday.
The clerk-collector-license sales
man expects to take care of his
city duties at City Hall between
seven and nine p.m., daily, Mon
day through Saturday.
VALDEZ MAN FINDS
Steve Starbuck
Marks Birthday No. 1
Mrs. Stuart Starbuck enter
tained at a birthday party for her
son, Stevie, last week. The party
was in celebration of Steve’s first
birthday. The host and his small
friends enjoyed birthday cake and
ice cream.
Stevie’s guests included:
Judy Johnson, Sally Huddles
ton, Dean and Darrell Blakesley
and Dean Taylor.
Mothers who attended the party
were:
Mrs. David Johnson, Mrs. Bill
Blakesley and Mrs. Lou Taylor.
Valdez News Reporter
Vacations, with Company
Mrs. Helene Thatcher, corre
spondent for the Valdez News, her
three sons, a house guest, Peter
Germain, a pet pigeon and a pup
py, are enjoying an Alaskan va
cation in a tent at Tazlina Lodge
this week. Mrs. Thatcher’s daugh
ter, Lee Ann, is employed at the
Lodge.
She plans to remain at Tazlina
until the end of the week, before
-returning to Valdez.
— i
FROZEN FISH NOW CAN BE SHIPPED EAST
AS CHEAPLY VIA SEATTLE AS VIA CANADA
Kodiak Fishermen
Want Boat Harbor,
Kodiak fishermen want a small
boat harbor at the island city,
and aren’t particularly interested
in an alternative plan to improve
the city dock. The city of Kodiak
has $50,000 to spend, as its share
of the territorial gasoline tax.
Originally, the money was to
have been applied on construc
tion of a small boat harbor, but
the city council changed the plan
when it was found that the $50,
000 wasn’t enough for the entire
job.
Joe Kerrigan, union secretary,
has written territorial officials
asking that the money be spent
for its original purpose. The
union threatens legal action, if
the city goes ahead with dock
improvement plans. They strong
ly disapprove, according to Ker
I rigan, of tax money being spent
I on facilities which will be in com
i petition with private industry.
Through a rate reduction which
has been in effect since June 17,
frozen fish may be shipped from
Juneau via Seattle to eastern
cities, at the same through rate as
that in effect via Prince Rupert.
That announcement was made in
Juneau last week by E. M. Stev
enson, representative of the
Northern Pacific Railway.
Mr. Stevenson said the rate re
duction was the result of five
years of planning. The through
rate includes wharfage handling,
handling in Seattle, and the three
percent Federal transportation
tax.
To Chicago and points west, |
carload lot shipments will cost
Ketchikan fish shippers $2.44 per
Cwt., Juneau shippers $2.52 per
Cwt., and Wrangell and Peters
burg shippers, $2.47 per Cwt.
The freight agent estimated
that Juneau alone should ship
15,000,000 pounds of frozen fish
through Seattle, with the reduced
rate in effect.
CATCH ESTIMATED
AT FIFTY PERCENT
OVER LAST YEAR’S
Red salmon runs were definite
ly better this year than they have
been in several seasons, a re
capitulation of catch figures
shows. In the Copper River area,
which closed in late June, the
run was estimated to be 50 per
cent over last year’s, and the
catch was reported the best in
many years.
The Copper River area will
open in the fall for the cohoe run.
By the end of the third week
in June, the Fish and Wildlife
Service figures showed that es
capement and catch of red salm
on both were increased over the
previous year’s.
The story was not so bright
at Alitak and Chignik. Alitak
was still closed on June 24, with
the escapement there shown to be
smaller than last year’s. Chignik
was closed in mid-June, when
catch figures exceeded the es
capement by six times.
Germany Has Goods For Sale, But No Money to Buy
After 25 years of absence from
his German homeland, Hugo Dali
of Valdez found present-day Ger
man cities swollen almost double
their normal population with war
displaced refugees. On a trip to
the land of his birth, in the win
ter of 1949 and spring of 1950,
Mr. Dali noted there was little
that money couldn’t buy in any
of the countries of western Eu
rope. He also found there was
little money with which to buy
the palatable delicacies and lux
uries displayed in the store win
dows of European cities.
He tells of attending plays and
stage shows, where nearly half
the seats are empty, because there
isn’t money enough to buy tickets.
Speaking of the day he made a
purchase in his native city of
Flensburg, Mr. Dali said, “I felt
guilty buying the smoked eel,
when poor people were watching
through the shop window.”
Countless crowds thronged
the streets of Flensburg and
Hamburg in the weeks before
Christmas, "window - shopping
for the things they could not
afford to buy."
Mr. Dali visited a father and
brother in Germany and a sister
in France, during his five and a
half months’ trip. He flew from
. aldez to Anchorage, from An
chorage to Seattle and New York,
and from New York to Washing
ton, D. C., where he picked up
the military permit allowing him
to enter Germany.
He sailed from New York on
a Norwegian steamer, on Oct. 29,
and the Valdez traveller was more
than happy to see the New York
skyline fade from sight. “I want
ed to leave that place,” he wrote
in his trip journal. “There are
too many people there, and the
stop-and-go lights seem to be
for cars only.”
■"he Atlantic and North Sea
crossing was uneventful, al
though the Norwegian fish
menu grew a lilile monolonous
to one not over-fond of fish.
He remembers that the daily
breakfast table offered a selec
tion of all kinds of fish, salads,
spiced and pickled fruits, cold
meats, sausages, bologna and
kippered herring — he says 1
the Norwegians actually ale
most of the assortment for
breakfast, too.
He describes the trip south
from Bergen, Norway, to Oslo in
this manner: “We wound our way
southward between rocky little
islands, small and large, too. It
seems strange to see houses stuck
on these hillsides, with small
patches of green around them,
and yet there are hundreds of
them. Norwegians tell me that
these people have a cow or two,
a few chickens and sheep and so
supply their own needs. They
even make their own clothes out
of sheep’s wool. Their main in
come is from fishing. Most of the
islands consist of bare rocks with
a few trees scattered here and
there, much like Alaska.”
In 13 hours of travelling, Mr.
Dali crossed a portion of three
European countries and visited
two capitals, Oslo and Copen
hagen. He exchanged his ship’s
stateroom for train space at Oslo,
and travelled by train from that
city to Flensburg, Germany. The
train is ferried across the water
way separating Sweden from
Denmark.
The traveller arrived at his
Flensburg home on Nov. 12, the
j eightieth birthday of his father,
a retired school teacher. In the
| first few days of his stay at
; home, he learned he "could buy
| anything but eggs." He notes,
however, that while prices are
j high, wages have not risen;
I probably, he feels, because of
the vast sources of labor avail
able in the over-populated
cities.
While at Flensburg, he visited
a displaced persons camp, the
spot where Admiral Doenitz and
his staff were captured at the
end of the European war. The
camp is in charge of two Eng
lishmen, who told him that they
send many, many displaced per
sons to the United States. One
case they particularly remem
bered was that of a 100-year-old
woman, who had been evacuated
to the states. The camp’s biggest
problem, in 1949, was unmarried
mothers, the Englishmen said.
The Alaskan visited the place
of his birth in Hamburg. He was
deeply surprised at the disap
pearance of some of the familiar
landmarks of his memory, and
the sameness of those which still
remained. “The hedge was gone,”
he said, “but the old schoolhouse
still looked the same. Only the
English magazine in my hands
seemed strangely out of place.”
Roses still were blooming in
Flensburg on Nov. 27, and it was
not until Jan. 1. 1950, that the
; first frost was recorded.
! The visitor roamed through
Flensburg, Hamburg and other
nearby cities, renewing friend
ships of his youth. He tells of
discussing the occupation forces
with the husband of a former
j schoolmate. The German classi
I fied the foreign occupation troops
j in this way:
"The most ruthless are, of
course, the Russians—but not
so much the Russians them
selves as the Poles and Czechs
in the Russian army. Second
are the French, who bring their
families to live in Germany.
Third are the Americans, al
though I blame the Jews in
the American army—they are
trying to get even with the
Germans for the way the Ger
mans prosecuted the Jews in
Germany. The Limies are the
best of the occupation forces."
Speaking of reconstruction in >
Germany, Mr. Dali said Hamburg
still “looked a mess in places, al- j
though they are doing a lot of |
rebuilding.” There still are acres i
of rubble "and burned-out factory }
buildings. Hamburg harbor shows
the marks of destruction yet.
The giant shipyards that em
ployed as many as 24,000 men in
pre-war days, still are idle. Bro
ken quays and burned ware
houses still bear evidence of the
late war, and harbor buoys still
mark the graves of sunken ships j
which lie in such shallow water
that they remain a menace to
navigation.
There remain some evidences |
of injustice, in both western and j
Russian occupied Germany. The j
visitor tells of meeting a man j
who was ordered out of Russian j
Berlin. He was given two and a j
half hours notice to hand over :
his property and leave. His prop- j
erty included three stores and his |
home.
In another anecdote, he tells
of a mother and her two small
sons who fled their home in
Russian Germany by night. ,
They lived miserably in a base- j
ment kitchen and a first-floor
bedroom, which they shared, j
but insisted they preferred it
above their own comfortable
home in Russian Germany.
Another couple told of the ex- ,
cessive taxes they must pay on
their apartment house in Kiel, j
although that house has been
nothing but a rubble heap of i
broken brick since it was bombed j
out during the war. !
He talked with the 55-year-old |
proprietor of his hotel, who told |
him he had been sent to the ;
front in France in the late months
of the war. He spoke with men
who had been Russian prisoners,
and men who had been prisoners
of the Americans during the war. !
There is no bitterness reflected 1
in the stories he brought back.
There seems, rather, to be a spirit
of looking forward to the time
when cities will be rebuilt and
life will be normal again in Ger
many. In the meantime, many
seem to look on America as a
sort of promised land, and are
envious of Americans because of
their opportunities for work and
more comfortable living.
Yet they find time for movies,
shows, singing, and eating and
drinking together. A spirit of
fun, even of gaiety, moves
through the whole story that
Mr. Dali tells of his stay in
Germany. There was coffee
cake and whipped cream c.i
many an evening, smoked e • l
on occasion, roast gooso on
Christmas and CARE turkey
for New Year's. Coffee, tea and
ether staple items appeared
hard to get. Fruit was purchas
able, but very high in price.
Mr. Dali ended his visit with
a train trip to Marseille, France,
to see a sister he had not met in
23 years. From Marseille he took
a bus to Cannes to board an
Italian steamer for his return to
New York. That trip he considers
the highlight of his experience.
“It is the most beautiful country
I have ever seen,” he wrote. “It
even beats California.”
His ship touched at Naples
briefly on the visit home. This
city, too, he found well on the
road to recovery, but beset with
throngs of beggars, peddlers and
solicitors. “The shops have every
thing from high-priced radios to
sausages,” he said. “The people
look prosperous and well-to-do.”
Searching his memory for high
lights of the almost six-months
trip, Mr. Dali thinks the funniest
thing he saw in Germany was
the Bing Crosby movies. Der
Bingle spoke in proper German,
but he sang all his songs in
English.