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Dedicated to the ■ PROGRESS lip p# ■ ■■TB liEOjBVl & ■ WMmb\ i Served by Leased wire of the Of Wilmington and I ilP 3|JN Hall r "NF ASSOCIATED PRESS Southeastern N. C. 1 ™ BljBB^E B^TP-UBUSHep __ |^B ILeE ml W BbJP With Comp,ete Coverage of - -- (gOW®?^®®©®®^ ^M[5) [^fLEASMfSlIlVto State and National News [i.—NO. 17. ~ ~ ' ' ■ ~ - 1 1 • _ —‘ —" " “ --WILMINGTON, N. C., SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 1940 _^ ^_PRICE FIVE CENTS . Delco Mart SlaviMlster-in-Law, Ends Own Life It Motive Discovered For Killing Richard Allen, 35, Uses Shotgun To Kill Mrs. Leotus Allen SO INQUEST PLANNED Coroner Rules It Plain Case Of ‘Murder And Suicide’ Richard Allen, 35, farmer of near Deleo. yesterday morning shot and killed his sister-in-law, then walked behind the barn and killed himself, Coroner Joe Sikes of Columbus county said. Witnesses said the woman, Leotus Allen, was in the barn in rear of the house setting a hen on a nest when her brother-in-law walked in, fired once and missed, then reloaded and shot her squarely in the head. Takes Effect In Head Then he walked behind the barn and blew' out the side of his head with one blast from the shotgun. Coroner Sikes said it was clearly a murder-suicide and no inquest will be held. The only explanation for Allen’s actions was the statement by neighbors that he had been “a little off" for some time. The shooting occurred at about 9 o'clock yesterday morning on a iarm about five miles south of Deleo, the property of TV. L. Hobbs, Columbus county commissioner. The dead woman’s husband was not at (Continued on Page Two; Col. 3) ZELDA MORRISON FREED ON BOND Girl, 13, Held In Slaying Of Father, Says County Home ‘Not Bad’ Zelda Deloris Morrison, 13-year dji girl held in connection with the rifle slaying of her father, William H. .Morrison, member of a promi nent Toronto, Canada, family, was freed from the juvenile detention home yesterday afternoon after Posting bond. for mother Mrs. Morrison, had (Continued on Page Two; Col. 2) JVEATHER V,,,. „ forecast Carolina, South Carolina, Florida: B’air with slowly Haiti,- i "I'orature Sunday: Monday Pl ■ cl°udy and warmer. «£»«>■ data for the 24 hours s P- m. yesterday). i.-m Temperature h 21; 7:30 a. m. 15; 1:30 p. minimum u P' 24; nlaxit»u!1> 27; 18 14, mean 20; normal 46. 1 „ Humidity h. 36- 7-fn 541 7:30 »• m. 6»; 1:30 p. ' ‘ -30 P- m. 50. Total '< o t’reciPitation lone- t„?„,4.hours ending 7:30 p m., lid iin-ijpg Sl,lce first of the month, Tides For Today Ifilminetm, High How st08 -12:11a 7:23a JIasonbnrr, t , a 12:37P 7:54P °°r° Inlet -10:20a 4:12a Sunrise 10:56p 4:40p tisc n,,.,, ' T-a; sunset 5:38p; ruoon •02P; moonset 9:31p. W«»li“hn»0N' JaIluary 27. — (.T) — and rainf..iFeiu records of temperature 8 p. in „ A f°r the 24 hours ending areas J 1, Principal cotton-growing Station t,ls<?"'liere: Asheville , High Low Tree. frlanta 'clenUdy - a7 3 °-°° Atlantic Citv T- 23 5 «•«« Piston oil]: clear — 24 9 0.00 Male, el",- 25 11 0.00 ‘Chicago h ' - 44 3 0.03 Clatiuniti »!r - 4U 2 0.00 ‘ - 21 8 0.00 JJem-er ,- 4U 43 0.00 I'etroiV s’ dy - 45 3 0.00 Ki I'aso , o- 24 43 0.00 Halves,";, 1 Audy- 58 28 0.00 Havre .' clear- 40 20 0.00 La<;hsoiiyj]0ipdy.- 41 —5 0.00 Kansas on,’ cl?ar — 33 18 0.00 % West 'll clAar - 23 ~9 9-9u ’os Angeles “Vdy — 54 50 0.00 -ouisvilie clear — 73 54 0.00 leiaphis ’ , V ea.r - 20 5 0.00 f'ami, cieai°Udy- 27 0 0,00 :e"' Orleans ;r- 47 40 0.00 V"’ Y-J; ma, clear — 36 24 0.00 ;°rfolk, cie»iear- 26 43 °-°° dtshurgh 3 „- 23 44 0.00 - -« - *'A'ma!rieTe0a’tcro"udy 1 53 arnpa, V:1*"- 33 43 0..00 ‘,ashington „,- 40 27 0‘00 iilmihl oS’ „ ear — 24 » 0.00 kl°h. clear 27 14 0..00 ft ICE SKATElv^^f GREENFIELD LAKE f -r-im. ... --unr-1 ...... F°r the first time in 23 years, ice skaters—at least those who had the hardihood to risk it—found the surface of Wilmington’s beautiful Greenfield Lake frozen thick enough for skating. The skaters above, m conventional Sonja Heine-Tyrone Power pose, J. B. Huntington and Herbert YV. Slack, were photographed just as they completed a series of figures, leaving marks on the ice that prove they can’t do Sonja’s famous figure-8 .(Photo by Wolff.) J Bartered Jobs’ Racket Exposed By Police Here • w CHURCHILL SAYS GERMANY WEAKER Briton Says Hitler Has Lost His Best Chance [To Stage Attack MANCHESTER, England, Jan. 27. —(A*)—Winston Churchlil today ap praised Nazi Germany as a weaker foe than the imperial Gremany of 1914 while the Allies “are far ahead of where we were at this time in the other war.” But he cautioned the British in an address on the progress of the conflict against any relaxation, de claring instead “it is a time to dare and endure.” The first lord of the admiralty spoke in this center of British lib eralism and free trade for the first time since he launched a move two years ago to make the League of Nations all-powerful against ag gressors. Hecklers in his free trade hall audience interrupted him by ■ call ing the name of Sir Oswald Mosley, British fascist leader, but the dis turbance ended when a man was ejected after shouting: “We want Mosley and peace!” To Nazi assertions that Britain’s convoy system was ineffective, Churchill replied that “out of nearly 7500 ships convoyed to and from this island only 15 have been lost.” He said half of Germany’s submar ines had been destroyed and new building had "fallen tar short of what we originally estimated.” He charged Germany with ‘‘shame ful records” in the conquests of Czecho-Slavakia and Poland, from which he said “We can Judge what our own fate would be should we fall into her clutches.” “Everything that has happened to the Czechs cannot compare with (Continued on Page Three; Col. 4) I JOHN SAUNDERS HELD Stenographers Charge He Required Them To Pay For Their Jobs John Saunders, elderly white man, operator of a purported magazine publishing house here, was arrested yesterday afternoon by city police on five charges of obtaining money under false pretenses and one charge of passing a worthless check. The business, operating under the name, “The Mine Electrician,” was located in the Tide Water Power company building and has been in Wilmington about two months. How" It Worked Police stated yesterday Saunders’ apparent intent was to hire large numbers of girls as stenographers, requiring each one to put up a cash bond varying from $25 to $100. He admitted that the bonds, supposed to be returned to the employes at the end of 90 days, had not been placed in a separate account at the bank and had been used in the ac tual operation of the business. Saunders stated the enterprise consisted of the publishing of a mag azine devoted to the interests of the coal mine electrician, another branch of the business was a money lending institution and the third was solicitation of printing orders from local merchants. He admitted accepting advertis ing for the magazine from several manufacturers and accepting money in payment for’subscriptions to the magazine, but could not produce a copy of the paper and said he did not know if it had yet been pub lished. He told polic# the actual printing is done at the home of his partner in Charleston, West Virginia, and the presses were located in an old garage in rear of his house. The partner, whose name was given as Cartwright, could not be located in the West Virginia city. Saunders had about 20 young girls (Continued on Page Three; Col. 6) TV. C. Births Outnumbered. Deaths 48,493 In 1939 BY CARL V. REYNOLDS, M. D. State Health Officer RALEIGH, Jan. 27—UP)— L: year witnessed gains on several im portant fronts in the battle against disease in North Carolina. Information that is both interest ing and encouraging: is found in the 1939 provisional report of the atate board of health’s division of vital statistics, of which Dr. R. T. Stimp son is the director. On the other hand, certain weaknesses also are revealed. Any report that simply gives figures, uninterpreted, carries little weight and is soon forgotten. We must bear in mind that a year’s compilation is merely fac ial; that it can, at best, reflect only a “trend,” encouraging or discour aging as the case may be. To get the true picture, we must follow the “trend” through a series of years. Encouraging “Trend” Vital statistics figures in North Carolina for last year, which have just been compiled, do, in some in stances, reflect a very decided and encouraging "trend.” The 80,421 births reported during the year out numbered the 31,928 deaths that oc curred during the same period by 48,493, and there were 1,636 fewer deaths than were reported the pre vious year, bringing the rate down from 9.5 to 9.0 from 1938 to 1939. If (Continued on Page Three; Col. I) /-■< CUSTOMS OFFICE LEADS IN SOUTH Wilmington PortDisfffc [Tops All Others On Southern Coast Wilmington is the headquarters port for the North Carolina district of the U. S. customs service which outranked all customs districts along the South Atlantic seaboard south of Washington in customs collec tions during the past fiscal year, John Bright Hill, collector of cus toms, revealed yesterday. The district was exceeded by only four larger districts north of Wash ington along the Atlantic seaboard, New York, Massachusetts, Philadel phia and Maryland. Hill reported that the district re mained well ahead of the four other districts along the South Atlantic seaboard south of Washington, Charleston, Norfolk, Savannah and Florida. The district was also well ahead of the three customs districts along the Gulf of Mexico and the five districts along the Pacific coast. In the Great Lakes district the Wilmington headquarters port for the N. C. district was surpassed by only one customs district, Chicago, Hill said. The comparison of customs col lections in districts along the At lantic seaboard for the past fiscal year of 1939 was as follows: First, New York, $171,730,302; sec (Continued on Page Two; Col. 4) SWISS BREAK UP NAZI SPY RING Operatives At Work Both In Switzerland And In France BERNE, Switzerland, Jan. 27.— VP)—Swiss police today arrested a retired Swiss army officer of the highest peacetime rank and said the arrest was the first to be an nounced in the cleanup of a large German espionage ring working in both Switzerland and France. The officer was Col. A. Fonjallaz, once active in Switzerland’s dis banded Nazi movement. Col. Fonjallaz was arrested near Schaffhausen while on his way from Zurich to Germany. Also held was a German who crossed the Swiss frontier to the village of Schlethein near Schaffhausen. Swiss counter-espionage police said Col. Fonjallaz was carrying im portant information on French war plans and was to have had a ren dezvous at Schlethein with the Ger man. Informed sources here said Swiss police were put on the trail of the ring by French counter-espionage agents. French police were reported to (Continued on Page Three; Col. 6) Cold Wave May Break Here Today Definite Warm Wave Now Headed Toward Coast, Hess Declares 14 LOW YESTERDAY 15 To 18 Degree Low For This Morning Forecast; State Hard Hit Winter will continue to hold Wil mington in its icy grip today as the temperature drops to between 15 and 18 degrees this morning, Paul Hess, weatherman, said last night. However, slightly warmer marks were forecast for later this after noon and tomorrow. Hess said the mercury will rise steadily after to night. Skies To Be Clear Other than the bitter cold, the weather will be pleasant. Clear skies, no rain, snow or other pre cipitation was predicted. The minimum yesterday was 14 and the mercury did not climb above 27 all during the da>. This gave a mean of 20 degrees, 26 below normal tor this time of year. The remainder of the state was suffering as badly or worse than W'l mington yesterday. Charlotte repor. 11 three degrees below zero. Jther parts of the country reported marks as low as 15 below. However, Hess said, a definite warm wave is apparent in the west tern portion of the nation and is headed toward the Atlantic coast, promising warmer weather within a few days. The city water department re ported last night scores of pipes have burst during the wave of cold, creating much confusion. Otficia.s of the department advised Wilming tonians to shut off their water and to drain the pipes to prevent their bursting. J. P. Herring, countyAgent-at iarge, said last night it is not < known if the cold has done only large amount of damage to the few crops now growing in the county. It will (Continued on Page Two; Col. 1) GERMANS WARNED ‘NOT TO LISTEN’ Death Penalty May Be Im posed For Tuning In On Foreign Talks BERLIN, Jan. 27—UP)—The gov ernment intensified its war against propaganda calculated to under mine German morale by admon ishing law enforcement agencies today to deal severely with all caught listening to foreign broad casts in defiance of a wartime de cree. The admonition came from Ro land Freisler, secretary of state in the justice ministry, who point ed out that under the decree of last Sept. 1 judges have no choice but to impose penitentiary sen tences on offenders—even the death sentence in flagrant cases. Freisler declared that in passing on cases involving the spreading (Continued on Page Three; Col. 7) JAPS SEEK OIL IN MEXICO NOW Trade Expansion Drive Is Termed Result Of End ing U. S. Treaty BY WILLIAM D. PATTERSON MEXICO CITY, Jan. 27.—(^—Re liable sources today reported that expiration of the Japanese-United States commercial treaty already has resulted in an intensive drive by Japan to expand her trade with Mexico—particularly in oil. Japan now obtains most of the oil (Continued on Page Three; Col. 1) Balkan Anti-Aggression Move Increasing demands of warring powers on the Balkans leads Rumania, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey—who form a ring of friendship as the Balkan Entente—to meet at Belgrade in effort to promote more co operation against aggression and to strengthen the neutrality of the small nations of southeastern Europe. 300 Die As 32 Vessels Go To Bottom In Week _ 4-_ Cooper Will Reveal Governor Race Plans Asked yesterday if he still plans to meet newspaper men in Ra leigh Sunday night to “make a statement regarding the gov ernor’s race,” Mayor Thomas E. Cooper said: “In the past month I have been waited on by several gen tlemen who reluctantly admitted their intention to get me out of the governor’s race. “It appears that I am not the right man—for the wrong peo ple. I shall keep my engagement with the gentlemen of the press in Raleigh Sunday night.” FLINT’S SAILORS DESCRIBE CAPTURE U. S. Ship Nazis Seized, Now At Baltimore, Was Held By Reds By DALE CLARK BALTIMORE, Jan. 27—UP)—The weather-beaten American freighter City of Flint, once seized by a Ger man crew and re-dubbed the “Alf,” came home from her wartime ad venture today, her own name in bold, box-car letters on her sides and the Stars and Stripes whipping from her staff. From her 40 crewmen and Cap tain J. A. Gainard came stories of international entanglement with nazis, Russians, Englishmen and Norwegians; of warship searchlights stabbing at her across cold north ern waters; of facing quickly un covered Russian guns as she at tempted to leave Murmansk; and of a threatened shipboard fight. The thin, soft spoken skipper had nothing but praise for his crew, back home for the first time in 115 days. They were freed by the Nor wegian government which ruled the Germans stopped illegally in a neu tral port. “Only once did the crew want to go to work on a German, and that was when I restrained them/’ Gain ard said. He didn’t divulge details, but a crewman said the threatened fight was at Tromsoe, Norway, (Continued on Page Three; Col. 3) NINE ARE BRITAIN’S Norway Also Loses Nine; Other Neutrals Lose 11 Ships (By The Associated Press) Sea warfare cost 11 nations more than 300 lives and 32 ships dur ing the 21st week of the war—the second most destructive week of the European sea conflict. The losses aggregated 63,804 tons, and in addition to the dead, 184 per sons were reported missing. 34 By Mines, Subs Only the 12th week was more de structive; it saw 34 ships go down under a wave of mine and subma rine warfare. England, with nine vessels sunk, was the heaviest loser in the week ending yesttrday. Two were des troyers—the Grenville and the Ex mouth—which went down with 196 perishing and 68 reported missing. Neutral Norway suffered nine losses aggregating 12,436 tons. Forty of her seamen were listed as killed or drowned. Other neutrals lost 11 ships. The latest victim was the French (Continued on Page Three; Col. 3) REP. DOUGHTON NOT TO RETIRE Veteran Congress Member Responds To Demands From Friends WASHINGTON, Jan. 27. — WV Representative Doughton (D-NC), 77-year-o'id chairman of the house ways and means committee, an nounced today that in response to a “spontaneous mandate” of his con stituents, he had reconsidered his decision to retire from public life and would seek re-election. “I am reluctantly agreeing to the use of my name in the coming pri mary,” the veteran of 15 consecu tive terms in the house said in a statement. Doughton declared that pressure (Continued on Page Three-; Col. 8) Lewis Declares Democrats Need Labor Vote To Win BY E. E. EASTERLY COLUMBUS, O., Jan. 27. — CT>— John L. Lewis bluntly advised the democratic party’s leadership today that any hope of victory in Novem ber without labor’s help was "the depth of stupidity.” The CIO chieftain, who has sug gested the democrats join forces with labor for the 1940 presidential campaign, warned it was "fatal strategy” for the party leaders to oelieve that his followers had "no place to go.” While practically eliminating the ■epublican party as a haven be cause of "its frankly hostile alti ude,” Lewis declined to suggest an dternative. i He avoided committing himself on presidential possibilities at a press conference, which followed a week's sessions of the United Mine Workers fraught with political im plications. ‘‘I have no candidate as yet,” he said. The most important question, he said, was not who will be nomi nated for president, but what the democratic party proposes to do for the country. Earlier in the w’eek the powerful leader of the mine workers ant CIO had split with the New Deal, criti cized Vice-President John N. Gar (Continued on Page Two; Col. 5) ■—i Finns Claim New Victory Largest Yet Divisions In Rout Were Once 70,000 Strong, Finns Report THOUSANDS LEFT DEAD Russian Offensive North Of Lake Ladoga Now Fully Broken By WADE WERNER HELSINKI, Jan. 27. — UP) — Thf beaten fragments of four Soviet di visions, once 70,000 strong, were reported by Finnish couriers to MOSCOW, Jail. 27—f/P)—To night's Russian communique said: "Headquarters of the Lenin grad military area January 27: Activities of scouts. Soviet avia tion made reconnoitering flights.’’ night to be scattered in headlong flight after strewing the snows and ice-locked lakes and' rivers with thousands of dead and wounded. The casualties and heaps of abandoned war materials were the price paid in a futile endeavor to outflank the Mannerheim line, to cut behind it by encircling the frozen shores of Lake Ladoga. Worst Disaster Yet When the whole story is told, the Finns said, it will show the worst disaster of the Russian inva sion. The nightly Finnish communique was tersely non-committal on the extent of the victory, but military reports from the front indicated the backbone of the Russian of fensive north of Lake Ladoga had been smashed despite elaborate ad. vance preparations and a week of constant day and night assaults. These reports said the Russians, attempting at point after point to break through the Finnish lines, had been led into a death trap. Moving sluggishly, the Red army columns were caught in a wither (Continued on Page Two; Col. 3) RUMANIA SEEKS ARMS AID PACT Military Alliance Among Balkan Nations Will Be Next Move BY ROBERT B. PARKER, JR. BUDAPEST, Jan. 27—<7P)— Ru mania, high authorities said tonight, will ask her Balkan Entente part ners—Greece, Turkey and Yugo slavia—to promise her military sup port in case of attack by either Ger many or Russia. Otherwise the Ru manian government was understood to have indicated it would be forced to seek agreement with Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin. Formal presentation of the request for military aid, these sources said, will be made when the foreign min isters of the four powers meet in Belgrade Feb. 2. Soundings in Athens, Ankara and Belgrade, however, indicated the En tente powers would be extremely re luctant to give sweeping guarantes to I.umania. The Turkish newspaper Aksam (Continued on Page Three; Col. 8) Today's Cash Raising Rhyme To rent a room, a house or pat, To sell a cow, a dog or cat, To find a job with better pay, Try the sure, time-tested, way: Phone a Want Ad In To day! Call 2800 To Place Your Want Ad Charge If You Like