The Daily Alaska empire. [volume], May 13, 1942, Image 1

About The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964

Image provided by: Alaska State Library Historical Collections

                
THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE
“ALL TIIE NEW'S ALL THE TIME”
VOL LIX.. NO. 9033.
JUNEAU. ALASKA, WEDNESDAY. MAY 13. 1942
MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CEN1S
Allied Airmen On Alert For Next Jap Move
INVASION
ATTEMPT
WATCHED
_
Guarding Fleet of Ausiraliaj
Awaits Next Action
on Coral Sea
■ _
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN
AUSTRALIA, May 13—Resumption
of air battles on Australia's outer
island ramparts early today were
predicted by observers ac the ad
vanced bases throughout the area.
Allied airmen are on the alert to
detect the first move of the Jap
anese Navy to renew the battle of
Coral Sea which broke out last
Remnants of the first Japanese
invasion fleet are believed hiding
among the screened islands await
ing reinforcements.
STOCK QUOTATIONS
. NEW YORK, May 13 — Closing
quotation of American Can today
is 62i'i, Anaconda 24, Bethlehem
Steel 52%, Commonwealth and
Southern 3/16, Curtiss Wright 6%,
International Harvester 4lit, Ken
necott 27%, New York Central 71..
Northern Pacific 5'4, United States:
Steel 45 Yi, Pound $4.04.
DOW. JONES AVERAGES
The following are today's Dow,
Jones averages: industrials 97.21,
rails 24.17, utilities 11.55.
Vehicles in public health and j
security services are given first j
preference in the rationing of tires j
in Cuba, the Department of Com- j
merce reports.
The Washington
Merry-Go-Round
By DREW PEARSON—
and ROBERT S. ALLEN
WASHINGTON—Dynamic Assist
ant War Secretary John McCloy
has just come back from an in
spection trip to Pearl Harbor where
he reports that it still is absolutely
essential to use Japanese labor to
help erect Hawaii's bristling de
fenses.
Just after Pearl Harbor, the War
Department issued an order remov- j
ing all Japanese from defense work
in Hawaii. However, new com
mander Gen. Delos Emmons pro-,
tested: “You can’t do that. You
don’t know how many lathes you
are stopping."
In the end he proved to be right.
The Japanese were found to be es
sential to defense work, and the
order was rescinded.
Japanese are now used in digging
ditches to break up possible land
ing fields; building roads; and they
even work in arsenals producing
guns. Suspicious Japanese have
been picked up. But it is impos
sible to test the loyalty of others.
However, to get the vital defense
work done in a hurry, the War
Department is convinced there is no
other out than to use Jap labor.
Furthermore, the alternative of
deporting Hawaii's huge Japanese
population would be a tremendous
job. They can’t be shipped to
California. And they can’t be sent
to a separate island, where they
might establish a landing base for
Japanese attack. So the present
solution is to leave them where they
are, carefully guarded.
Meanwhile, Pearl Harbor is on
the alert with more protective de
vices than ever before in history.
Every hour of the day and night
patrol planes scour the air around
the islands. No fleet, either by
sea or air, could approach Hawaii
undetected.
TROUBLE AHEAD
The day after Leon Henderson
issued his sweeping price freezing
order, the President asked him.
“How are you getting on?”
“Well, I’d put it this way,” said
Henderson with a grin. “I feel like
the boy who threw a rock through
(Continued on Page Four)
Film Stars on Fund Tour
More than two score Hollywood film players, making up the Victory
Caravan, have begun their cross-country tour of 13 leading cities
where they are staging shows to raise funds for Army and Navy
relief” In the photo above, Comedienne Charlotte Greenwood, left,
and Dancer Eleanor Powell are helped aboard the train.
Quick Thinking Army
Sergeant Saves Many
Lives in Plane Crash
Arrested by FBI
Leone Menier (above), former sec
retary to Robert Noble, accused by
the FBI of sedition, is shown in cus
tody at Los Angeles. Police said
she dyed her hair red. changed her
name and wore .colored glasses to
disguise herseU._.
FIVE ARMY
FLIERS ARE
DEAD, CRASH
EVERETT. Wash.. May 13—Five
Army fliers were killed yesterday
in a crash of a two motored bomber
in a wooded area just ofl the Paine
Field airbase.
The crash demolished the plane
and the wreckage was burned.
The bomber was on a routine
training night at the time.
MILES CITY, Montana, May 13—
A quick thinking Army Sergeant
saved his own life and the lives
of 10 others in a crash of a North
west Airline transport which fatally
injured three airline pilots.
Sergeant Carl Dinius, of Miles
City, a passenger aboard the trans
port, battered through a window
and aided the other passengers to
escape from the burning ship.
The fatally injured airline pilots
were Capt. Eugene Shank of Min
neapolis. Capt. R. K. Martin of
Seattle, and First Officer Harold
Nygren of St. Paul. Martin was an
extra pilot.
BOMBERS OF
ARMY(RASH
IN MIDAIR
Four Fliers Found Dead in
One Accident-Three
Others Killed
OAKLAHOMA CITY. Okla., May
13—Army training flights brought
ieath to seven pilots and injury to
two others in a series of widely
cparated Oklahoma accidents.
Two bombers from Will Rogers
airbase here, flying as part of a
formation of three bombers, col
lided in midair and burst into
flames as they fell.
Four men died in the crash and
two others were slightly injured in
parachuting to safety.
Three other army flier* lost their
'iv°s in separate crashes of two
training planes at the Enid Flying
School.
SIX MEN LEAVE
TOMORROW FOR
MINE PROPERTY
Carl Velvestad. oh the Triton, will
leave tomorrow with six men for
the nickel group of claims on Sea
Level. A camp will be erected and
preliminary work will be started for
more extensive development of the
property.
JAPS OPEN
NEW FRONT
IN BURMA
Enemy Attacking Through
Thailand-China In
vadersTrapped
CHUNGKING, May 13—Chinese
units are attacking the Japanese
supply lines in northern Burma
and are disrupting the enemy's,
communications between Mandalay
and Lashio area and Bhamo and
Myitkyina in the north, according
to today’s communiques.
The dispatch reports that the
Chinese command says there is no
change on the Yunnan front, re
ferring to the situation along the
Burma Road, where the Jap forces
have driven well into the south
western part of China.
Jap Units Trapped
Pierce fighting Iras been report
ed in the last several days on this
front where Japanese reinforce
ments have been drawing up to re
lieve trapped units in the Chefang
sector from Lashio. This reinforc
ing group was attacked from the
rear by one of Lieut.-Gen. Joseph
W. StiiweH's forces moving up from
Maymyo.
When the enemy's relief column
sought to break into tue Chinese
ring yesterday, it was intercepted
iContinued on Page Twoi
JAPS SAY
U.S.NOW
3RD RATE
Foreign Office Newspaper
Claims Great Losses
in Coral Sea
TOKYO, May 13—The Japanese
Foreign Office newspapei, the Jap
an Times-Advertiser, today de
clared that as the result of the
battle on Coral Sea the United
States has been relegated to only
a third-rate naval power.
The newspaper says the United
States "has now only half a dozen
serviceable capital ships, hardly
sufficient to guard her far-flung
coastline.”
Th£ official communique said
that 163 Allied planes were downed
or destroyed in Japanese raids on
Port Moresby and Darwin in 19.
days, from April 21 to May 10.
j while Jap losses totalled only 12
i planes.
NEW SUB
BILL IS
I SIGNED
Calls for Construction of
200,000 Tons of
Sea Raiders
WASHINGTON, May 13 — Con
struction of 200.000 tom more ol
United States submarines in the
; move to beat the Axis at its own
jgume is authorized in a bill signed
; today by President Roosevelt.
Just how many more subs thi
I measure provides for is a military
; secret, but Chairman Carl Vinson
of the House Naval Committee, sunf
| it would provide for ' more than
; 100.''
TEACHER VISITS HERE
Norma Whittaker, teacher for the
Alaska Office of Indian Affairs at
• Elin, is visiting in Jiuieau on her
way to Wrangell.
Protected l>y a heavy siimkr screen, future Army Engineers training at Fort Belvoir, Va„ charge through
barbed wire entanglements during maneuvers. All v.car gas masks, carry full equipment.
Army Chief of Staff Reviews A. t. t. in Ulster
• •
m X*
.m
—I. I. N. Radiophoto
Oeneral n(*ree C Marshall. U R Army chief of staff. Is shown (wearing light trousers) inspecting
troops of tne A. K K. soinevvkete in Northern Ireland At the left is Maj. (Jen. Russell I\ Hartle,
field commander of the American forces in Britain. General Marshall now is hack in the United
Slates. His confidential mission to London, where lie remained 10 days, was widely associated with
Allied plans for opening a second front in Europe.
President Regains His
Good Spirits; Cheerful
Mood Is Now Displayed
BY JACK STINNETT
WASHINGTON. May 13— Got a
crowd of Washington correspond
ents together these days ar.d almost
certainly the conversation will
swing at some time to the change
in President Roosevelt’s mood in
iccent weeks.
Alrppst every press conference
lately has found him cheerful and
m good spirits—a mood that has
teen almost totally lacking since
hose gray days that followed the
lap attack on Hawaii.
It is almost a capital axiom that
President Roosevelt wears best in
idversity. When things are going
wrong, he shoulders the load and
ems almost to relish the carrying
,.f it. Certainly there lias been no
ar President who has borne up
.a well as President Roosevelt since
Pearl Harbor. But until recently
omething was lacking. Press con
prences. even those in which the
lure hits of good news were given
at. had an atmosphere of depres
• ion.
It was something that could not
be entirely attributed to adverse re
ports from the war front It was
..unwilling that seemed to flow from
tiie President himself.
It is true that he was working
prodigiously, but the President has
always done that without losing
his buoyant spirit or his confidence
in the future of the United States.
It is true that he was not always
well, being twice threatened with
those annoying colds to wiiich he is
subject. But sometime ago now. Rear
Admiral Ross T. McIr.Mre, the
White House physician, persuaded
him Lo drop some of the late night
detail work which was too much
of a drain on ever* the President's
great energies. Generally, his physi
cal condition has been excellent.
Then suddenly, a week or so ago.
the President changed and the new
mood, or rather resumption of that
old one which Washington news
paper men know so well, has been
maintained.
There are quips again from the
President's desk — like his solemn
iContinued from Page Two)
PLANS FUND
TO PURCHASE
AUTO TIRES
Secretary of Commerce
Jones Makes Announce
ment But No Details
WASHINGTON, May 13 Secre
tary of Commerce Jesse H June.'
announces the creation ol a $150,
000,000 fund to purchase new ano
used tires now owned by consumers
but omitting details of the plan.
The Commerce Secretary did say
further plans will be made latei
after being worked out by the Of
liee of Price Administration.
C, OK C. TuiiiunuOW
Juneau Chamber of Commerce
will meet tomorrow noon in the
Gold Room of the Baranof Hotel
for its regular weekly meeting Rout
ine business will be discussed.
— ♦
KKOKKKS LEAVE
H. B. Crewson and G. L. Rich
merchandise brokers, took passag,
today far Ketchikan.
NAZIS HIT
FROMCRIMEA
TO CAUCASUS
Battle of Kerch Peninsula
Puts Russians on
Defensive
GERMANS CLAIMING
CAPTURE OF 40,000
Soviet Dispatches Say No
Major Gains on Either
Side Yet
(BY ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Hitler's field headquarters as
serted today that the critical five
day old battle to break through
on the Kerch Peninsula "the Cri
mean gateway to the Caucasus oil
treasures” has "decided” the an
nihilation of the Russians encircled
j there.
The capture of 40,000 prisoners is
announced and heavy fighting is
continuing, the dispatches indicated.
After breaching the Soviet lines
I at the entrance to the Kerch Pen
; insula, the Germans still have
i nearly .SO miles to go to reach Kerch
' City, just, across the S-Aiile-wide
Kerch strait from the Caucasus.
Recaptured Area
| This eastern Crimean region was
! recaptured from the Germans only
j live months ago by Russian ex
| peditionary forces from the Cuu
j casus.
The battle of the Kerch Peninsula
' is regarded as a test phase of Hit
i let 's long-heralded Spring offensive,
having started Friday along the
12-mile front of the Peninsula.
Hitler's Spring offensive has long
been expected to strike its first
blow to the south, in tile Crimea or
j the Southern Ukraine and directed
at the Caucasus oil fields.
While the Germans have claimed
j a smashing victory, the midday
communique of tile Soviets reported
j "no substantial changes overnight.”
j This would Indicate neither side
| has scored any major gains.
Bombers Cut Path
The communiques from Russia in
dicate the Soviet troops are on the
! defensive for the first time since
j early last December, adding to the
impression that this is actually the
German offensive's beginning.
A Berlin radio lust night broad
cast a German war correspondent’s
description of the battle, in which
he declared that "more than 2,000
Stuka bombers smashed the first
Soviet lines and cut a path for
the first infantry advance.”
'1 he Soviet dispatches however,
said that the battle is developing
■ Leadily. but gave no hint of a
major Nazi victory.
Strongest Attack
The dispatches from Russia say
t Continued on Page Two)
BIG PUSH
OF HITLER
I DISPUTED
Nazi Commander Believed
to Have Marshalled
Great Force
LONIXJN. May 13— Adolf Hitler
has gathered perhaps two million
of his best combat troops in the
Ukraine and is also reported using
2.000 dive bombers to smash through
'.lie Kerch Peninsula in Crimea.
But. informed quarters here dis
counted the German claims they
have driven a breach into the Rus
sian lines.
One informed source here said
the Kerch attack could be regard
ed as the opening of a three speared
'offensive against the Caucasus and
Other drives may be expected on
Taganrog and Khurkov.