THE
c . — ...=s
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
64th Year No. 1
NOMP, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1963
Per Copy I
Castro Unveils
Ground - to - Air
Defense Missile
HAVANA m — Fidel Castro’s
armed forces tndav unve;lnd a
ground-to-air and coastal defense
missile of a tvoe hitherto not <*°n
erallv known to be in his pos
session.
The sleek Soviet-made rockets
were towed bv trucks at the end
of a one-hour disnlav of militnrv
hardware in celebration of the
fourth anniversary of Castro’s
rise to power.
Castro h’mself marked the an
niversary w’th a sneech describing
President Kennedy as a “vulgar
pirate” whom the Cuban regime
had forced to nav indemnity for j
recently released prisoners of the \
Bav of Pies invasion.
“Even though thev try to dis
simulate, the imneri^lists agreed
to pay our country the indemnity
that the revolutionary tribunals
set for the Giron beach invaders.”
Castro declared in a televised
address.
“They call it ransom but the
fact is that thev had to accent the
payment of indemnifications.”
Castro shouted. “For the first time
in its history, imperialism paid an
indemnification of war.”
Castro criticized Kennedy bitter
ly for his warm welcome to the
returned prisoners.
“This man acted like a vulgar
pirate chief to meet with these
cowards and then sav to the world
that their flag would return to a
free Havana,” Castro tnld a crowd
gathered in Havana’s Plaza De La
Revolucion.
He sneered at the remarks Ken
nedy had addressed to “the cantive
people of Cuba,” and declared to
the throng: ‘We are free and we
are the free territory of Cuba. Now
more than ever we are respected
and the best proof is the very re
spect which we inspire in the im
perialists, the respect which is
inspired by a people who cannot
be made to submit.”
Actor Dick Powell
Reported Gravely 111
HOLLYWOOD <*> —- Actor-pro
ducer Dick Powell, suffering from
cancer remains gravely ill.
Powell spent t'ree days at New
port Beach but returned to his
Wilshire district apartment for the
New Year’s holiday. A spokesman
said Powell’s friends appeared to
be more deeply concerned about
him last night.
Shortly before Christmas Dr. J.
Sharpe announced tht Powell was
“a very sick man” and disclosed
that Powell’s hospitalization Nov.
27 evidently indicated the cancer
had spread to the lower back
from the neck glands and the chest
cavity.
Mai. Gen Janies Polk Is
New Commander in Berlin
BERLIN W — Mai. Gen. James
H. Polk became the US. Com
mandant in Berlin today, pledg
ing continued presence of Ameri
can troons in the divided city to
assure its freedom.
“We are here to stay and will
stay with no change in our well
established missions,” Polk said at
a 15-minute ceremony.
He received t^e U.S. Army gar
rison flag from Maj. Gen. Albert
Watson II.
Watson, Commandant for 20
months, is to take command of the
3rd U.S. Army at Ft. McPhearson,
Ga.
JVaffic for Ho'Hav
Weekend Hits Low T?e°o’*'t
The number of persons killed in
traffic accidents during the New
Year weekend appeared today to
be one of the lowest on record
for a four day holiday.
The count, well below the pre- |
holiday estimate, stood at 373 al
though belated reports could boost;
t’ e total. In addition to traff’c
deaths, 84 died in fires and 130 in !
miscellaneous accidents for an
over-all total of 587 for the 102
hour holiday that ended at mid- j
night Tuesday.
The National Saftey Council j
estimated a traffic death toll of!
420 to 480.
The record low traff;c death toll 1
for a four-day New Year’s holi- !
day was 375 during the 1951-5? i
period. The record high four-dayj
New Year’s traffic toll was 409
in 1956-57.
Traffic 373
Fires 84
Miscellaneous 130
Total 587
Bloomer Fad In England . . .
LONDON (4”) — Britain’s freez
ing winter is booming bloomers.
London stores report a sellout on
the knee-length underpants.
“Girls bought bloomers just for
a laugh at first,” said a spokesman
for one store, ‘but they’re finding
out that in this kind of weather
they can’t do without them.”
The bloomers are long, woolly,
warm and unglamorous.
The blizzards ranging over
southern England are the worst
since 1881 — when bloomers were
the fashion.
Badgers Lose, But
Gain Moral Victory
PASADENA, Calif. — South
ern California reigned as a battered
but unbowed national football
champion today while Wisconsin’s
battling Badgers were hailed in
defeat for the wildest finish in
Rose Bowl history.
The Trojans, ranked the Nation’s
No. 1 collegiate power after 10
straight victories, surged to a
42-14 lead early in the fourth
period and then hung on for a
42-37 decision yesterday as time
ran out on t^e Badgers in the
49th annual classic.
“What I wouldn’t give for just
one minute more,” said Wisconsin
coach Milt Bruhn, who beamed
with pride over his team’s 23
point comeback in the closing
minutes.
Apparently hopelessly beaten
after Southern Cal scored its sixth
touchdown in the opening seconds
of the final quarter, the Badgers
refused to quit and rallied for three
TD’s and a safety. The Trojans,
shocked and bewildered, were like
warriors caught in a stampede, but
time was in their favor.
Ron Vanderkelen, a senior ouar
terback who set a total offense
record for the Rose Bowl, nassed
19 yards to All-America end Pat
Richter to draw Wisconsin within
six points with one minute and 19
seconds to play. Gary Kroner then
added his fifth consecutive boot,
raising his consecutive string for
the campaign to 32, before he tried
an on-side kickoff.
Trojan coach John McKay ap
peared more like a dejected loser
and Bruhn more like a victor after
the game. Bruhn, had reason to
be sad as Wisconsin failed in two
previous trips to the Rose Bowl—
losing 7-0 to Southern Califrnia in
1953 and 44-8 to Washington in
1960.
Sen. Robert Kerr
I« Dead at 66
WASTHNOTON (/Pi—Sen. Robert
Kerr. (D-Okla.), a power among
nowerful men, is dead and his
death is expected to have wide
moging repercussions in the White
House, the Senate and his home
state.
'Hm 6'1-year-old multi-millionaire
oilman-senator toppled over yes
terdav morning as he was telling
a storv to his physician at Doc
tors Hospital. He died minutes
later. Death was attributed to a
"orooary occulsion.
He entered the hospital Dec. 16
f°r treatment of a respiratory in
fection .Doctors found evidence
of a heart ailment, but had said
he was makmg good progress.
Kerr’s body will be taken to
Oklahoma City in an Air Force
eia^e. The funeral will be held in
t^e First Baptist Churcs, Oklahoma
City, at 2:30 o.m., Friday.
President Kennedy, who got
word of Kerr’s death while flying
to the Orange Bowl game in Miami
to see the Oklahoma-Alabama
football game, issued a statement
hailing Kerr’s legislative career as
“exceptional.”
Kerr’s deatv> brmgs the Senate
lineup to 66 Democrats and 33 Re
publicans.
Rough hewn, with a cutting
tongue and a keen mind, Kerr rose
to new heights in the first two
years of the Kennedy administra
tion. He became both a powerful
fr;end of some Presidential legis
lation and a powerful foe of other
Kennedy proposals.
He led the forces which defeated
the President’s proposal for a fed
eral health insurance program fi
nanced through Social Security in
the last session.
The death of Kerr left uncertain
the sponsorship and the fate in
the Senate of Kennedy’s forthcom
ing tax reduction program.
Explosion Levels
Meat Packing Plant
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (*> — An
explosion ripped through a meat
packing plant today, leaving 12
feared dead and 47 injured.
Deadly ammonia fumes, steam
and falling debris hampered rescue
operations at the Home Packing
Co., shattered by the dawn ex
plosion.
Indiana State Police listed 10
bodies recovered from the wreck
age. Two other bodies were spotted
in the debris but could not be
reached immediately.
Fears mounted that the toll
could rise even higher George
Obenchain, secretary-treasurer of
the demolished nlant, sa;d 14 work
ers still were unaccounted for.
Some 200 of a total of 275 work
ers were in the plant when the
I explosion, of an undetermined na
j ture, shatered the brick building.
Boddies of some of the dead and
! injured were blown from the plant
! into a parking area, others were
i cohered with tons of brick.
Damages were estimated by
1 comnany officials at close to $2
million.
Hardy Polar Bears . . .
NEWPORT, R.I. MPt — Three
members of the Polar Bears, a
hardy group of swimmers, took
their annual New Year’s Day dip
at Easton Beach yesterday, de
spite the frigid weather.
The group had originally call
ed off the plunge, but a newspaper
story reporting the Polar Bears
had “cold feet,” stung them to
change their decision.
Southern England
Buried Beneath Worst
Snows In 82 Years
LONDON <#> — Shivering south
ern England, buried beneath its
worst snows in 82 years, braced
today for another blizzard on
slaught.
Air Ministry forecasters said
snowstorms, harsher than those j
which already have brought wide- i
spread death and chaos, might!
strike again across wide areas of
the south.
The threat of heavy new snow
falls increased anxiety in scores
of villages short of food and iso
lated for days by mountainous
snowdrifts blocking road and rail
lines.
Southern England was a sea of
snow. Not since Jan. 18, 1881 —
when snow drifted 15 feet high
in London’s Oxford circus — has
the south seen such snowfall.
Six Historic
Landmarks Spelled
Out for Alaska
WASHINGTON — Six sites
considered important in the history
of Alaska have been approved by
the Interior Department for regis
tered national historic landmark
status.
The areas were found to possess
exceptional value of national sig
nificance in commemorating and
illustrating the history of the
United States.
Such sites are not administered
by the National Park Service but
are recognized with a certificate
and bronze maker.
The department made these com
ments on the sites considered im
portant in Alaska’s aboriginal cul
ture:
Palugvik, Hawkins Island, Prince
William Sound — marks the east
ern range of Eskimo archeology
in Southern Alaska and helps
clarify the relationship of Eskimos
to the Tlingit Indians.
Yukon Island, Kachemak Bay,
Cook Inlet — the oldest and most
continuously occupied of the Cook
Inlet sites. They collectively led
to the definition of the Kachemak
Bay culture. A generalized Eskimo
culture type related both to that
of Asiatic groups and of the Salish
Indians further south.
Chaluka, Umnak Island, Aleu
tian Chain — a large village mound
which holds remains of all culture
periods so far identified in the
region. Work there is not complete
but it promises the first careful
stratge;c treatment of a single large
Aleutian site.
Gambell, St. Lawrence Island —
the first in the greater Bering
Strait region to be scientifically
investigated and reported upon.
Investigation of these sites first
provided data on the sequence of
cultures on St. Lawrence Island
and as a result accumulated infor
mation on Eskimo pre-history
could be put in chronological ordrr.
Wales, Cane Prince of Wales,
Seward Peninsula — includes ma
terials dating f’-om around 600 to
800 A. D. to present time. A living
Eskimo community in the area
brings the local aboriginal cultural
record un to the present day.
Nimirk, Point Barrow — the
series of mounds at this site pro
vided material by which arche
ologists have been able to describe
the development of Eskimo cul
ture in this northernmost part of
the United States from around 600
A. D. to the present.
Viet Cong
Guerrillas Down
8 U.S. Helicopters
SAIGON, South Viet Nam (M—
Communist groundfire todav blast
ed a fleet of U S. helicopters fly
ing government troops into battle.
Three Americans — including an
Army captain — were reoorted
killed, and four other wounded.
It was the deadliest blow struck
at the U.S. force aiding President
Ngo Dinh Diem’s pro-Western gov
ernment in the civil war against
the Viet Cong.
Red gunners hit 14 of the 15
helicopters taking part in the mis
sion in the Mekong Delta, bringing
down about eight aircraft.
South Vietnamese forces report
edly suffered an estimated 50
casualties.
The Communists, fighting at
battalion strength of 400 men or
more, stood and fought against
relays of government fighter bomb
ers striking at them instead of
running for cover as the Reds
usually do after an attack.
All American casualties were
reported evacuated under blister
ing automatic small arms and can
non fire.
There were no reports here on
ground casualties but losses were
believed heavy on both sides.
Earthquake Recorded
In Aleutian Chain
SEATTLE UPI — An earthquake
shock strong enough to damage
buildings in an inhabited area ap
parently centered Tuesday after
noon southwest of Dutch Harbor
in the Aleutians, N. Rasmussen,
University of Washington seis
mologist, said today.
The shock was also recorded at
stations at Weston ,Mass„ Berke
ley, Calif., and Honolulu.
Rasmussen said the tremor was
timed here at 3:44 p.m.
The Coast Guard at Honolulu
said it was recorded as of a 6:248
strength on the Richter Scale,
which was too small to set off a
tidal wave.
$41,040 for Sewage
To Two Alaska Cities
JUNEAU UP) — The state’s con
gressional delegation said today
the U.S. Public Health Service has
approved federal grants totaling
$41,040 to Juneau and Yakutat for
sewage facilities.
In a wire to the Associated Press
from Washington, the delegation
said $29,040 was granted to Ju
neau as the federal share of a
$100,000 project which will include
a primary treatment plant, inter
ceptors, outfalls and pumping sta
| tions.
Yakutat received $12,000 as the
federal share of a $162,000 project
which will include the construc
i tion of treatment facilities and
outfalls.
Club Tie for Nikita . . .
MOSCOW W) — Soviet Premier
Khrushchev, accepting a club tie
designed by members of the West
ern Press Corps tin Moscow, said:
“I am delighted and promise to
wear it at my next press con
| ference.”
He hasn’t held a formal nress
conference for resident Western
resident newsmen for more than
two years.
The Premier’s new tie is dark
blue with small golden cupolas
inset with crossed sickles and
quills.