Newspaper Page Text
FORECAST 1 - BENFMBEB jcr Wilmington and Vicinity: Clearing HLPIalllUU■■ and colder today with highest temper- BVSVIV DlDDflB attires about 46 degrees. JrLAAL AAnXfUA 'esterday's temperatures: ijil.-_ AND BATAAN ^ Tl.—NO. 286 ' . JUI ----— WILMINGTON, N. C., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1944 FINAL EDITION _ A Ti *W ^ --—— -- ■■■■ —I II ■■—■I.. I .—I .a. fn ■ ■■■.I.I .1 < . mm .1 *** Rivers, Harbors Bill Killed As 78th Congress Closes; State Nominations Pass# NATIONAL DEBT LIMIT BOOSTED Wartime Lawmaking Ses sion Had Stormy Battle With FDR WASHINGTON. Dec. 19.— •p __ a half billion dollar p0St-war Rivers and Harbors yil Was killed tonight when tl,e 78th Congress adjourned. Stringent opposition against the jrea'ure developed from a House „5Sed rider exempting the $360, POOO Central Valley project (Caiif.i from a 42-year old recla mation law. Spearheading objection to the ri der were Senators LaFollette (prog ,r!;|l an(j Hatch (D-NM) who con tended it would affect the basic land laws of the country and should coi be handled in a hasty manner. The two Westerners suggested, instead, that the Central Valley is me be studied by the Senate Ir Jicjjjon and Reclamation Commit tee. Had the measure passed, it faced s possible veto because of opposi tion of Interior Secretary Ickes to the rider which, he said, would owe -he way fur land speculation in California. The gavel fell in the House at t:59 p.m.. and the Senate ended its prolonged wartime session at 8:22 p.m. ' The final days before adjourn ment saw an eruption of opposi tior, o six State Department nom iutions made bv the President but the Senate final’,-.- confirmed them. Twice during the two years of al most continuous sessions the Presi dent was overridden on vetores of major legislation. Over his objec tions. the Congress wrote into the law the Smith-Connally War Labor Disputes Act and the 1944 Tax Act. [he latter measure, a $2,300,000,000 bill which fell far short of Admin-, istration hopes, so irritated the President that he wrote Congress a stinging rebuke that precipitated the historic but temprorary break ae'.ween the White House and its Senate floor leader. Alben W. Bark !»'• of Kentucky. The President fared better on a third major veto, of legislation out lawing the Administration’s food (.oniinuetl on Page Five; Col. 4) mOLDS URGES DEFINITION OF U. S. WAR AIMS WASHINGTON, Dec. 19.—Oil- ! Senator Reynolds tD-NC) declared in hi.' final Senate speech today : that unless United States war aims; are "clearly defined, I see no hope! that the present degeneration into1 chaos can be arrested.” The Military Affairs Committee: Chairman, who did not seek r 'elec tion, described himself as a “non interventionist,’- and contended' there was "no such thing as an American isolationist.” "There never was but one coun hy in the world that was purely isolationist, and that was our mor tal enemy of today, Japan. "it ve had ever been isolation-, t;"i> e never would have eneoitr trade with all the countries of the world, as we did year in and hoar out. and in a long series of tool's actually expended more, ttiO'Cy m endeavoring to create; dtie than the trade produced fori too manufacturers of this coun try " •'•e must bring the tragic truth j tt toe present state of internatlou-, affairs out into he light,” lie; “"tinned, "if we are honest with, pelves e must admit that thm -r: 1 ru Oaks agreement, ca rian being a long steo for-, n • nth set the world back ••"wars.” , Anieric, . !-,c said, has "to all ln -- •' ai'd purposes turned her back I" fte smaller nations of Europe ■'his most crucial hour of his '-vhen the prestige of America bring some semblance of 'yj:--. < e sen our colleagues con i'".. their gains In power “lilies,’' Americans were told, lie said, Jt they were “fighting for the Continued on Page Seven; Col. 3) r--~ I FDR Denies Exis Of Atlantic C WASHINGTON, Dec. 19.—(,?>)_ President Roosevelt, returning to a Capital seething with debate on foreign policy, today declared he stills stands on the Atlantic Char ter’s principles. He told a news conference that the Charter does not exist as a formal document signed by him self and Prime Minister Churchill but that it was signed in sub stance. It was Mr. Roosevelt’s first op portunity to use the world sound ing board of a White House con ference in more than three weeks —he returned this morning from a restful visit to Warm Springs, Ga.—and he picked his way care fully through a cross-fire of ques tions dealing chiefly with foreign affairs. As a result, direct, spe cific answers were few and far between. Besides the Atlantic Charter, Ihe conference revolved about these key subjects: Poland — A reporter said the Washington Evening Star had a headline yesterday saying the United States opposes the parti tion of Polan dand the Washing ton Times-Herald had a headline saying this country supports the partition. “Which do you pre fer?’’ the reporter asked. He much preferred the Star to the other paper, the President replied, add ing that he did not say other news paper because there was a dis tinction between a decent paper and another kind of paper. (Editor Frank Waldrop of the Times-Herald, asked later if he wished to comment, told reporters he did not.) , Greece—A reporter told him British Labor Minister Ernest (Continued on Page Two; Col. 5) WRITER STRESSES LOCAL AIR ROUTE Paul Neilson Emphasizes City's Plans For Future Wilmington cannot afford to stay off the air map now being charted for the postwar era by leading air lines and Governmental agencies, Paul Nielson, of Washington, D. C., representative of the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of Ameri ca, stated last night in an inter view before a speech to Rotarians of three cities in the Cape Fear Country Club. In his only North Carolina ap pearance in a 40-state tour, the 32-year old veteran newsman, well known to radio listeners as former commentator on Henry Tord’s “Watch the World Go By,” told a dinner meeting of the Rotary club? of Wilmington, labor City and Whiteville that America’s key to future peace and prosperity was air power. He emphasized the importance of a virile aircraft industry sud ported by lively air commerce as of prime necessity to mil tarv air readiness. Introduced by Walter J. Cartier at a dinner session under direction of H. A. Marks and arranged by Eugene Edwards, the former Asso ciated Press man and Blue Net work editor threw a mild bomb shell into the audience by stating that the Germans, hard pressed as they are, have outdistanced us in the newest field of air-assault, that (Continued on Page Five; Col. 3) NAZI INFLUENCE INjPAIN CITED British Envoy Says Coun try Was ‘Morally Occupied’ LONDON. Dec. 19.—Spam was “morally occupied” by the Germans in the early years of the war, and Nazi influence directed much of Spain’s national life, Lord Templewood told the House of Lords today. He resigned two days ago after serving five years as am bassador to Madrid. Reviewing his experiences in the once - hostile Spanish capital, the former Sir Samuel Hoare said that “although Spain was not militarily occupied in those early years of the war, Spain was morally occu pied.” He was assigned to Madrid in 1940 with instructions to kee Spain as neutral as possible. Speaking as a patient man who endured much, Templewood said: “During the greater part of this time, the German armies were on the frontier. German influence per vaded many important sections of the national life. The Germans for instance had great influence with the police and the press.” The conservative, aristrocratic diplomat, who has been under fire frequently at home for alleged ap peasement of Fascists, carefully refrained from criticizing the re gime of the Spanish dictator, Gen eralissimo Franco. (Continued on Page Two; Col. 4) Many Camp Davis Gunners Make It Hot For Germans Special to the Star WITH THE FIRST U. S. ARMY IN GERMANY, Dec. 19.—Antiair craft gunners of the First U. S. Army, many of whom trained at Camp Davis, are making the skies over Germany deadly for planes of the Luftwaffe. Records show that since D-Day, more than 500 German planes have crashed under fire from First Army antiaircraft artillery. Effectiveness of antiaircraft de fenses have made it possible for American forces to concentrate their air power on offensive sweeps, eliminating to a large ex tent defensive patrols against ene my planes. When the invasion was planned, more antiaircraft was included than in any other operation in his tory. If there had not been de lays, more would have landed on D-Day than had existed in the en tire Army a few years ago. Antiaircraft gunners proved their versatility in the bitter fight ing on the beaches. Landing under heavy enemy fire, the-’ fougnl t °ir way to their positions, turning their guns against pillboxes, gun positions and troops. One battalion shot down a Ger man plane so soon after landing, that the pilot, who parachuted to safety, was sent back to England in the same landing craft that had brought the battalion to France. During the fighting at • Cher bourg, four men of an AA bat talion killed three and captured i 132 German soldiers. These men.1 Cpl. Jack M. King, of Leechburg, Pa • T-5 Thomas R. Havilland. Lutherville, Md.; T-5 Edward F. Bolles, Jr Pittsburgh; and Pfc. Carl L. Godwin, Dunn, N. C.. sur prised a German night patrol and laid down such heavy fire with their machine guns that the Ger mans sent out word that they wanted to surrender themselves and the fort they occupied. One officer and 15 men of anoth er AA battalion accounted for three German tanks and 21 men near Paris. In the confused fight ing at Mons, men from this same battalion led by Captain Theodore 3. De France, of New York, am bushed a German troop train, knocked out the locomotive with well-placed shots from a 37-mm gun, and killed, wounded or cap tured more than 100 Germans. Men of the antiaircraft battali ons like to talk about shooting up ground targets, but the swastikas painted on their guns bear evi dence that they have done their best work against enemy planes. On August 28, one AA battalion knocked down 16 of 30 enemy planes while defending a bridge across the Seine at Melun. Of the 14 that turned and fled, eight trail ed streams of black smoke. On October 5, when Germans tried their biggest daylight raid of the campaign, 41 or the 93 planes fell within 20 minutes. Another 36 were blazing as they disappeared. The AA battalion commanded by Lt. Col. William A. Stricklen, Jr., Reform, Ala., leads in the number of enemy planes shot down with a confirmed total of 53. The bat talion has claimed 70 victims, but not all have received the neces sary confirmation which included discovery of the wreckage or eye witness reports from several ob servers. First Army antiaircraft officers attribute part of this success to close cooperation with the Air Force. Another part of their suc cess is the rparkmanship of their gunners. Once early in the cam paign, Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, ;hen commanding the First Army, okingly chided his antiaircraft of (Continued on Page Seven; Col. 7) J, Churchill To Debate n Greece . LONDON, Dec. 19.—I#)—A show own on British policy in Greece ("developed suddenly tonight when it was agreed that a special emer gency debate on the issue should be held in the House of Commons tomorrow. Prime Minister Churchill, who had refused requests to debate the Greek question today, served no tice on his critics that if they wanted a showdown it would have to come on a vote of censure, with h i s coalition government standing or falling on the out come. The minority Labor party ac cepted the prime minister’s chal lenge and agreed to the debate on the vote of censure.. Churchill himself and possibly Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden are expected to plead the Govern ment’s case. Leaders of the Laborite mem bers of Parliament called a spe cial meeting to draft the party’s policy. Just a few hours before the an nouncement of the emergency de bate Churchill hit back at his crit ics in a stormy session of Com mons, defending the policy of in tervention, not only in Greece, but also in Belgium, where, he said, “we are acting upon American in structions.” The prime minister declined to give any review of the military situation to Parliament before Christmas in view of security cen sorship imposed by the military command on the Western Front. “A great battle is proceeding now,” he said. “The question of a temporary news blackout on the Western Front is one for the su preme commander to settle on the spot, and, of course, I support him.” -V FAMED BOMBSIGHT MAKERS INDICTED BY FEDERAL JURY NEW YORK, Dec. 19—(®—Carl L. Norden, Inc., maker* of the famed Norden bombsights, vas indicted oy a Federal Grand Jury: today, accused of conspiracy to| hamper output of the war devices, which have been credited with playing a major part in American; air successes. Named in two indictments were Theodore H. Barth, president, and; Ward E. Marvelle, vice president: of the Norden firm; the efficiency survey company of Corrigan, Os burne and Wells; Navy Cmdr. John D. Corrigan as head of the , concern, and Robert H. Wells, vice!, president. The indictments further charge ! a conspiracy designed to force war , plants to employ the survey com*! ■ pany, specialists in the installation 1 of production control systems. | Carl L. Norden, Dutch-born in- \ ventor of the bombsight who re- , cently turned over to the U. S. ] government all patents, models , and designs, was not involved, ( government officials said, adding j that he no longer was associated t with the firm. I The Norden firm said later in a t statement that the charges were ] “as utterly fantastic as they are < untrue.” ; i “This corporation developed the ; Norden bombsijht, turned the pat-; ents over to the Navy, and has not ] only m?t but exceeded every pro- j duction schedule set up by the j Navy,” the statement continued. 1 Wells, in another statement, de- ! (Continued on Page Seven. Col. b) First Army Massing Forces For Counterblows At Nazis; Enemy Offensive Continues w - - — Superfort Sofa For Tired GI f'-y • ***''' " ' T—... !•«: 'V •M ?. <vr'~TvW! ■ ■ Long night hours of preparation for the first Superfort raids on Tokyo knocked the pins from under Cpl. Garland T. Lee, Concord, N. C., groundcrewman on a B-29, who finds the tire and tube of one of the giant bombers a comfortable spot for a cat-nap at bis base on Saipan. (AP photo from Army Air Forces) Large Japanese Force On Leyte Is Trapped GENERAL MAC ARTHUR’S .HEADQUARTERS, Phil ippines, Dec. 20.—(/P)—The largest Nipponese organized force still in action on West Leyte has been caught in a trap, converging Yanks are within six miles of snapping shut ah even larger trap on the enemy; and no organized resistance __ _. ^ _1_:_3_i n/r;_3_ _x i_— ELAS STORM JAIL, LIBERATE CAPTIVE NAZI COLLABORATOR ATHENS, Dec. 19.— UP) —ELAS roops fortified the Averoff prison onight after a strong mortar and Srenade attack by the Leftwing nilitia had forced the British gar ison and Greek gendarmes and wardens to evacuate the institu ion. A widespread hunt was launched iy the British. Greek and undoubt dly by the ELAS—militia of the .eftwing EAM political party—for ean Rallis, Qusiling premier of Jreece during the German occu lation, who escaped during the ighting for the prison. In addition to Rallis, it was es imated 205 men and 30 women irisoners fled, out of the 475 per ons held at Averoff. Most of the irisoners were awaiting trial on iditical charges. The ELAS attack trapped the Iritish garrison and 115 Greek ;endarmes and 149 wardens in the irison. A communique from the leadquarters of Lt. Gen. R. M. icobie, British commander in (Continued on Page Five; Col. 3) ■ uk jiv U1IUUV.U nmuiu v,i liuu been encountered in twin battles for the Central Philippines. Headquarters announced today that General Sosaki Suzuki’s head quarters town of Valencia and its airfield were caotured Monday on west Leyte by 77th Division troops which have moved eight miles north above Ormoc. Meanwhile, dismounted First Cavalry Division troops driving south from the direction of Cari gara bay have seized Lonoy, six miles north of Valencia, and in so doing have cut to the rear of forces pinned down by anotner south bound element, the U. S. 32nd Di vision. The enemy troops caught be tween the First Cavalry and the 32nd are believed to comprise the largest organized Nipponese force still in action on Leyte. Gen. Douglas MacArthur said today the 77th was “rolling up remnants of the Yamashita Line.” Over a week ago when the 77th made the amphibio landing near Ormoc which led to quick capture of that port, the Yamashita line extended roughly for rome 3U miles from the Palr.nas river 15 miles south of Ormoc to a pcrnl about an equal distance north of Ormoc. Since then, the Yamashita Line has been wiped out south of Ormoc and cut into segments to the north. The enemy’s 26th Divis ion was shattered in the south; his 35th Division is suffering the sams fate in the north. The captured airfield near Va lencia had been used as an emer gency strip by the enemy. This probably was the first time the Yanks under MacArthur ever won an airfield which w'ould be put to immediate use by their own sup porting planes. Suzuki apparently moved his headquarters from Valencia when things became too hot. BRITISH PUSHED BACK AT FAENZA Savage Nazi Counterat tack Forces Eighth’s Withdrawal ROME, Dec. 19.—UP)—A savage counterattack mounted by the Ger mans in an effort to hold their positions on the west bank of the Lamone river northeast of Faenza against a British flanking drive has forced the Eighth Army troops to fall back to the northern edge of the town. Allied headquarters disclosed the action tonight. The grim, tank-supported Nazi defense appeared to indicate the Germans were having trouble ex tricating their forces from a nine mile wide salient between Faenza and the important road center Bag nacavallo. The enemy has concentrated much artillery as well as tanks and infantry in the bulge. The main Eighth Army flanking move struck northward from Faenza, but the armored counter thrust forced the British to draw back to the railway tracks skirt ing the northern sector of the town, the capture of which the Allied command announced Sunday. The counterattack afforded the Germans only momentary relief, however, as another Allied flank ing move was developing six miles west of Faenza. -V 14 more Jap dhips Destroyed By Navy Fliers Over Luzon U. S. PACIFIC FLEET HEAD QUARTERS, Pearl Harbor, Dec. 19.—CP)—Adm. Chester W. Nimitz today reported the additional de struction of 14 ships and small craft in the carrier plane sweeps over Luzon December 13, 14, and 15, raising to 41 the number of en emy vessels sunk in the three-dav attack. f The communique revised down ward from 66 to 61 the number of vessels damaged. 60,000 White Men Forced To Build Jap War Highway LONDON, Dec. 19.— UP> —The Japanese forced more than 60,000 white prisoners to labor under worse-than-slavery conditions to speed through the Tailand-Burma railway and road and then left a monument to 25,000 men who died along the way, the British War Of fice charged today. Citing cases of extreme brutali ty, of sick men carried to work on stretchers, men forced to labor naked in insect-ridden jungles, the War Office declared there also were cases of torture an dkilling. It added: “The Japanese themselves erect ed a memorial at Tamakan to ap proximately 25,000 men who had died on the railway. Of these less than 1,000 were Japanese, the re mainder being represented as “English, Australian and Dutch.” War Secretary Sir James Grigg opened the subject in Commons with an oral statement that “the strongest possible protest” had been made against past conditions existing in Burma and Siam (Thai land).” The number of white pris oners employed was “probably much higher” than 60,000, he said, although he added it was difficult to speak with certainty. “In addition,” Grigg asserted, j “many thousands of Asiatics were! used and the death rate amongst them was almost certainly much heavier than amongst the white men.” Conditions have improved, he said, and are much better in the rear camps. He declared, howev er, that in building the railway and road, the Japanese proceeded “with all speed and regardless ol conditions under which the pris oners worked and of the cost of human life.” The War Office then took over with a formal supplementary statement. It said all the prison ers had been forced to travel from Singapore to Thailand in metal cattle trucks — so jammed together for five days and nights that they could not lie down and could sleep only by leaning against piles of materials or one another. The men then had to march up t 50 miles through disease-infect ed jungles. Their thirst was such, the War Office said, that they drank from muddy puddles, and at the end of each march were so exhausted they fell to the soggy ground, covering their heads with whatever they could as protection against the mosquitos. The prisoners slept 200 to each (Continued on Page Five: Col. 3) Ring Of Russian Fire Thrown Around Kassa LONDON, Thursday, Dec. 20.— (JP)—Bursting through a network of trenches and blockhouses with in nine miles of the Czechoslovak communications hub of Kassa, the Red Army yesterday threw a siege arc around that hinge position of the German defenses and cut the road-rail escape route to the South west. The drive on Knssa was the high spot of a day of general advances on a front of more than 80 miles in southern Slovakia and northern Hungary, the Moscow broadcast communique disclosed, with gains as much as eight miles from pre viously-announced positions and entries into Slovakia at many new points. Both the regular nightly com munique and a post-midnight sup plement stressed the stubborn na ture of the enemy defenses both in men and in engineering works in the forested mountains. In capturing the village of Sen ya, alone nine miles south of Kas sa, the Russians killed 400 Ger mans and Hungarians and captur ed more than 2.000 it was announc ed. They thrust within eight miles . of the frontier south of Losonc in , a series of fighting maneuvers ; that promiser quickly to give them i a solid front of 140-odd miles from ] Kassa on the east to captured i iDoly-Sag on the west ] GERMAN TANKS CRUSH DEFENSE Some Doughboys Die Un der Treads Rather Retreat __. If STOCKHOLM. Dec. 19.—WL The Aftonbladet said in an tut* attributed story today that K was rumored in Berlin a new attempt was made recently on the life of Adolf Hitler. The rumors say the Plessheim cas tle In Bavaria was swept by fire while Hitler was staying there, the newspaper stated. SUPREME HEADQUAK TERS ALLIED EXPEDI TIONARY FORCE, Paris. Dec. 19.—(JP) — The German Christmas counter-offensive on the Western Front assum ed the proportions of an at tempted major breakthrough tonight as the first frontline dispatches trickling through a news blackout disclosed that the U. S. First Army was massing infantry and armor in an effort to stabilize the front. Despite the Americans* desper ate holding fight, the enemy’s tank-led battering ram continued probing into Belgium and Luxem bourg on a front of approximate ly 70 miles extending from above Monschau in the north to the vi cinity of Echternach in the south. The Germans apparently were hammering with the same fury that in the first three days of the assault rolled back the First Ar my at least 20 miles at one point. Associated Press Correspondent Wes Gallagher said the Nazi ad vance had been halted south of Monschau today in bloody fight ing during which "some gallant doughboys stood fast in their fox holes and let themselves actuaUy be run over by Nazi tanks without retreating.*' But farther south file situation still remained fluid and obscure, Gallagher said. While they were not permitted to give specific information as to where and how far the German columns had penetrated, corres pondents at the front told of sav age fighting with heavy casualties on both sides. Kenneth Dixon of the Associated Press reported that there was no doubt the German onslaught was aimed at a breakthrough of the First Army’s lines. He said the enemy in some places had dropped paratroops and also had brought (Continued on Page Twoj Col. 9) -V PUBLIC PROMISED 4 TRUE STATEMENT ON NAZI ADVANCE SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, Paris, Dec. 19. — (iP) — The full and truthful account of the reverses on the American First Army front will be given the pub lic at the earliest moment con sistent with military security, Su preme Headquarters promised to night. The statement was in answer t® protests of American and British correspondents against the new* blackout imposed on the German counteroffensive in Belgium »nd Luxembourg. There \*as no indication, how ever, as to how soon any part of the story would be brought into the open and no likelihood that the restrictions would be removed within the next 24 hours Correspondents here were told that the news ban was imposed upon the specific direction of Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges, com manding the First Army, with th® concurrence of Supreme Headquar ters. The blackout, it was said, would not be lifted until Hodges agreed that Allied disclosures would not be giving the Germans information on the extent and location of th® penetrations which they might not otherwise know definitely due to the fluid battle and extended communications. Correspondents expressed ft® fiew that it should be possible at east to give an account of the :irst day's developments in the counteroffensive, declaring it un ikely to assume that the German command was not now fully aware ion was raised whether continu >f its gains on Sunday. The ques ince of the blackout now was due entirely to security or stemmed in >art from actual inability to com nunicate between SHAEF and r'irst Army headquarters.