North Carolina Newspapers

\ x / Served By Leased Wire Of The Dedicated To The Progress Of ASSOCIATED PRESS WILMINGTON With Complete Coverage Of And Southeastern North Slate and National News Carolina VOlT74.—NO. 235. _ . WILMINGTON, N. C., TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1941. FINAL EDITION ESTABLISHED 1867 HughesTo Quit Court On July 1 Retirement Request of Chief Justice Is Accepted By President Roosevelt letter is revealed Declares Consideration Of Health and Age Makes Step Necessary HYDE PARK. N. Y„ June 2.— II—President Roosevelt accepted tonight the request of Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes that he be permitted to retire from the Cu preme Court on July 1. The Chief Justice, in a letter made public by the temporary White House, informed the Presi dent that "consideration of health and age makes it necessary that I should be relieved of the duties which I have been discharging with Increasing difficulty. The President telegraphed Jus >ice Hughes that he was “deeply distressed-’ by the letter and that t was his "every inclination” to oeg him to remain. But he said 'deep concern for your health and strength must be paramount.” Hughes' letter was delivered to the White House in Washington late todav and telephoned to the offices of the temporary White House in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., a few miles from Hyde Park. President Roosevelt was at his hilltop cottage, a retreat without 2 telephone, so Secretary William D. Hassett took a transcribed copy of the Hughes letter out by car. The telegram of acceptance was written in longhand. Second Vacancy Hughes’ retirement created a second vacancy on the Supreme Court bench unless that caused by the retirement of Associate Justice James C. McReynolds is filled be fore July 1. (It was predicted in Washington that Attorney General Robert H. Jackson would succeed Justice Hughes.) With the filling of the two va cancies, President Roosevelt will have appointed seven of the nine Supreme Court justices. Senator James F. Byrnes, South Carolina Democrat, has been men tioned prominently for months as a likely candidate for appointment to the high tribunal. Text of Letter Following is the text of Justice Hughes’ letter to Mr. Roosevelt, dated June 2: "My dear Mr. President: "Consideration of health and age make it necessary that I should be relieved of the duties which I have been discharging w i th in creasing difficulty. For that rea son I avail myself of the right (Continued on Page Ten; Col. 3) JOHNSON ELECTED MINISTERS' HEAD Association to Bring Dr. Harris E. Kirk to City For Services The Rev. F. S. Johnson, pastor °f Immanuel Presbyterian church, "as elected president of the Wil mington Ministerial association at a luncheon meeting at Trinity Me thodist church yesterday. He suc ceeds the Piev. James T. Law son. Other officers elected were the Rev. Mortimer Glover, vice-presi dent. and J. B. Huntington re-elect ed secretary. The association decided to make' arrangements to bring Dr. Harris E- Kirk, of Baltimore, Md., to Wilmington in the spring of next Tear, Dr. Kirk is one of the out standing American preachers and !s also a teacher and author. He (Continued on Page Three; Col. 2) Will Retire CHIEF JUSTICE HUGHES BEACH OFFICIALS PRAISE SOLDIERS Mayor Fergus and Penton Say Conduct of Troops Exceptionally Good Unstinted praise for the “gentle manly conduct” of the thousands of Camp Davis and Fort Bragg sol diers who spent their week - end leisure time a*t Carolina and Wrightsville beaches was recorded yesterday in the minutes of the New Hanover board of county com missioners. The laudatory remarks were voiced by R. C. Fergus, mayor of Carolina beach, and echoed by Dan Penton, Wrightsville town aider man, who appeared before the county board in a successful ap peal for additional police held to handle civilian crowds. “We had an unestimated thou sands of soldiers down at Carolina beach over the three-day holiday period,” Mayor Fergus told the county commissioners, revealing that there had been no disturb ances or arrests by or of soldiers at the beach during the week-end. “These new soldiers of the Unit ed States are, if I may be per mitted to say so, gentlemen in every sense of the word. Their conduct at our beaches has been exceptional,” Mayor Fergus re lated. He emphasized that all disorders and arrests on the beach over the Friday-Saturday-Sunday period in volved civilians. Mayor Fergus’ remarks were en dorsed by Mr. Penton, appearing before the county board to ask the appointment of at least two new deputy sheriffs to augment the Wrightsville police force. “Wrightsville this past week-end had the greatest crowd of its long history,” Mr. Penton said. “There were a number of arrests, all of them involving civilians. Soldiers were orderly and conducted them selves in an excellent manner.” As an argument substantiating his request for additional police help—help, he said, which the Town of Wrightsville is in no financial position to give itself—Mr. Penton cited a civilian fight in Lumina dance hall last Saturday night in which a young woman had her left arm severely gashed by a knife. “That fight would never have happened, I’m sure, had we been in a position to detail the proper number of police officers to the ballroom,” the town commissioner told the county board. “The type of people using Wrightsville beach this year are an entirely different element than we’ve had before; they’re people who, for the most part, we’ve nev er seen before, and the only hope of keeping order is more police,” Mr. Penton declared. The county board granted each of the beaches one additional dep uty sheriff for the balance of this month, and went on record as favoring the addition of at least (Continued on Page Three; Col. 5| British Marine In Crete Shoots Down 20 Bombers By LARRY ALLEN ALEXANDRIA, June 2.—UP)—A y°ung British Marine firing the sst anti-aircraft gun in action } Lanea> capital of Crete, brought 20 German bombers before 0 British were forced to with ,raw, on® of his comrades said on 15 arrival today from the Nazi conquered island. -p, 116 gunner, Lance Corporal .°mas Neal, 23, now is missing n five other members of the Crete^ar*ne c*eta(-hrnent to leave Private Patrick Mohoney, of Liv v ?00l> who operated the search hf ' ,near the gun position, told £jy Neal sang and shouted d& *cc% swarms of Stuka bomtfjj ers as he pumped hundreds of two iml shells from a Bofors gun into the attackers. “From the moment the Germans started the attack on Canea with heavy bombing and machine gun ning,” Mohoney related, “Neal, with thri-3 companions helping to operate the gun and two others passing ammunition, fired almost continuously. “Neal’s gun was still firing on May 27, the day the last of us cleared out of Canea. I don t know whether he got away alive. “Each time the group of Nazi dive bombers came over, Neal would let all but the last plane . (Continued on Page Three; Col. 3) Winds And Downpour Lash fW ^Are b. & ^Storm •5? f£— POWEh SERVICE HIT 125 - Foot Police Radio Tower at Fourth and Dock Streets Blown Down Reaching near-hurricane propor tions at its 43-mile-an-hour peak, a freak windstorm lashed at Wil mington and environs yesterday af ernoon, snapping and uprooting trees, breaking plate glass win dows and interrupting telephone and power services over a 10-mile area. The wind was accompanied by thunder, lightning and a heavy fall of rain that in the space of a few moments turned many city streets into miniature gushing torrents. No One Injured No personal injuries or casual ties were reported. The storm struck at the city from the north, coming first as a gusty wind rolling billows of dust before it. It reached its utmost fury at 2:05 p.m. to the accompani ment of deafening thunder and brilliant lightning. At its peak, the windstorm vir tually cleared downtown streets of all mobile and pedestrian traffic, sending thousands of persons scurrying for shelter in stores, ho tel lobbies and theater foyers. Apparently the storm was con centrated in an area bounded by a 10-mile radius of Wilmington, for by the time it had reached Wrights ville and Carolina beaches the wind had subsided. To the northeast, Camp Davis was untouched by the windstorm, although a heavy rain fell there for nearly a half hour. At South port, the storm had abated its in tensity, bringing only a light rain-, fall. Wilmington business and residen tial streets were generously littered with storm-strewn debris, mostly broken tree limbs and loose boards and shingles ripped from buildings. Tower Blown Down The 125-foot police radio tower at Fourth and Dock streets was blown down at the windstorm’s height. Two supporting guy wires to the tower were whipped loose by the wind, and almost instantly the giant tower crashed. Plate glass windows were broken in several downtown stores, and ip the courthouse building four win dows on the north side of the sec ond floor were blown in by the impact of the wind. An official of the Tide Water Power company said last night that the storm had caused an un determined number of line breaks. All available linemen were rushed to duty to restore service at in (Continued on Page Three; Col. 5) TRIBUNAL EXTENDS WATERWAY RIGHTS Upholds Constitutionality Of Southwest Power And Flood Control Project WASHINGTON, June 2.—GP)—The supreme court broadened the Federal government’s authority over the na tion’s waterways today in uphold lng the constitutionality of a $54, 000,000 power and flood contral dam across the Red river on the Okla homa-Texas border. A notable decision earlier in the term, involving the New river in Vir ginia, upheld federal jurisdiction over non-navigable portions of a navig able stream. “And we now add that the power of flood control extends to the tribu (Continued on Page Three; Col. 5) WEATHER FORECAST: North Carolina, South Carolina, Geor gia-Considerable cloudiness Tuesday and Wednesday with local showers and thunderstorms, moderate temperatures. (Meteorological data for the 24 hours ending 7:30 p. m. yesterday): (By U, S. Weather Bureau) Temperature: 1:30 a. m. 74; 7:30 a. m. 79; 1:30 p. m. 93; 7:30 p. m. 79; maximum 93; min imum 69; mean 81; normal 75. Humidity: 1:30 a. m. 92; 7:30 a. m. 79; 1:30 p m. 39; 7:30 p. m. 78. Precipitation: Total for the 24 hours enc.ing 7:30 p m. 0.54 inches: total since the first of the month. 0.54 inches. Tides For Today: , TT (From Tide Tables published by U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey). High Tow Wilmington- 3:44a- 11:29a. Masonboro Inlet- g7^; Sunrise 5:01a.; sunset 7:19p.; moon rise 12:54p.; moonset 12:46a. flH (Continued on Page Three; Col. 6) | i Dies LOU GEHRIG * GEHRIG, FORMER YANK STAR, DIES ‘Iron Horse’ of Baseball Passes After Long Illness Of Rare Disease By JUDSON BAILEY NEW YORK, June 2.—(AT—Lou Gehrig, great first baseman of the New York Yankees for 14 years, died tonight after two years illness of a rare disease that everyone except he'himself believed incura ble. The “Iron Horse” of baseball, who would have been 38 years old June 19, passed away at his home in the presence of his wife after a critical span of only three weeks. He did not lose consciousness until just before death at 9:10 p.m., (EST). The disease which erased Gehrig from the lineup of the mighty Yankees on May 2, 1939 was diag nosed as “amyotrophic lateral scle rosis,” a hardening of the spinal cord which caused muscles to shrivel. He wasted away sharply in the final weeks and was reported 2C pounds underweight and barely able to speak shortly before he died. He had served for a year and a half as a member of the New York city parole commission and visited his office regularly until about a month ago, when he de cided to remain at home to con serve his energy. In his playing days Gehrig was one of baseball’s greatest stars, but was most famous for his great physical feat in playing 2,130 con secutive regularly scheduled Amer ican league games in 14 years. He twice was chosen the most valuable player in the league and over a year ago was voted a place in baseball’s Hall of Fame, joining a score of the game’s immortals. He participated in 34 World Se ries games and piled up numerous batting records of various kinds. Through all the years Gehrig was known for his clean habits and affable disposition and these fac tors made him one of baseball’s best beloved players. They also helped him stand on the ravages of his disease after others had given up hope. Gehrig refused to believe that his disease was incurable and as long as possible maintained a nor mal routine. He had withdrawn voluntarily from the lineup in the spring of 1939 because he was in a slump. At that time no one realized he was ill. But after benching himself while the club was in Detroit, Gehrig went to the Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minn., where the na ture of his trouble was learned. A treatment of daily injections was prescribed and followed faith fully for two years. Gehrig re mained with the ball club for the remainder of the 1939 season, sit ting in a far corner of the dugout and occasionally limping out to home plate to present the lineup to the umpires, but never taking part in another game. The Yankees won their fourth straight world championship that fall, but Gehrig for the first time (Continued on Page Ten; Col. 2) Nazi Infantry Detachment Lands At Syrian Port Near Turk Line; British Prepare For New Battle i . - . ...... QUICK ACTION SEEN Imperial Forces Poised To Strike at Syria to Block Nazi Foothold CYPRUS DRIVE LOOMS London Believes Turkey Will Not Yield to Axis Threats, Promises LONDON, June 2— Quick Brit ish military action against French mandated Syria, where sea-borne German troops already are report ed landing, was expected by au thoritative observers tonight. The conviction was expressed in informed quarters that Imperial forces are poised to strike at Syria to prevent the Nazis from getting a foothold there and also to bol ster Turkey, Britain’s non-bellig erent ally. Expect Assault With Britons conceding the Medi terranean to be virtually an Axis lake and the dangerous turn of events in Syria, British authori ties on Cyprus, island bastion standing between Axis-conquered Crete and Syria, began preparing for an anticipated German air as sault. British women and children were removed froln Cyprus, na tive families rushed to the hills and ground defenses were placed at the ready. Authoritalive informants express ed confidence that Turkey would never yield to Axis threats or promises. But whatever the An kara government does, they said, Britain was determined to get the head start in Syria. A move ino the French man date, occupying a position between Axis positions in the eastern Me diterranean and the middle east oil fields, would stiffen Turkish resistance, it was contended. Hitler In Position Qualified observers agreed, how ever, that Adolf Hitler already is in position to bring extreme pres sure on Turkey through his occu pation of Crete and Greece’s Ae gean islands. He appears to have isolated the Dardanelles from any hope of assistance by the Royal Navy. In addition, the conquest of Crete might be used by the Nazi Fueh rer to show how easily his troops might attack along the whole west end of Turkey. The belief that Syria presents the greatest immediate menace was enhanced by statements here of uncertainty about the situation in the vital northern Iraq oil fields. Despite the armistice ending the month-old conflict in Iraq and the flight of Premier Rashid Ali A1 Gailani, the main pipeline from (Continued on Page Three; Col. 4) M’RAE GIVES PARK TRACT TO COUNTY 15-Acre Tract Is Located On the South Bank Of Smith’s Creek A beautifully wooded tract of land comprising about 15 acres, located on the south bank of Smith’s creek one mile north of the Princess street road, was yes terday donated to the county for a perpetual park by Hugh A, Mac Rae, Wilmington realtor and de veloper. The gift was immediately ac cepted by the board of county commissioners, meeting in regular session at the courthouse, and plans for the tract’s eventual de (Continued on Page Three; Col. 3) Army Asks F. R. Be Given Power To Take Property WASHINGTON, June 2.—UP)—A request by the War department that President Roosevelt be given blanket powers to take over prop erty "of any kind” for defense purposes aroused a mixed reaction tonight on Capitol Hill. Some legislators expressed quick approval, others indicated opposi tion, while etill others would not comment pending further study. Along with its request, the War department sent a bill to carry it out. The measure, it was made known, had been approved in ad vance by the President, the Navy and the Office of Production Man agement. The authority asked was said of ficially to be more sweeping than that exercised sparingly by Presi dent Wilson in the World war. In a letter to Speaker Rayburn, Acting Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson said the proposed leg islation would: “Permit the acquisition of de fense supplies and materials need ed for the manufacture of defense items from recalcitrant owners with minimum delay and prompt compensation. “Tend to stabilize prices and pre vent profiteering and hoarding, which the War department is now powerless to do. For example, ex tremely high prices f or second hand machine tools, which in nu (Continued on Page Three; Col, 3) SYRIA CUTS LINES LEADING TO EGYPT (By the Associated Press) CAIRO, Egypt, June 2—Syria shut herself off from communi cations with Egypt suddenly and without explanation t o night amid growing signs that the French-ruled Middle East state might be the next battle ground of the war veering east ward from the Mediterranean. A broadcast on the Berlin radio wave length said the French high commissioner of Syria proclaimed a state of siege for t the eastern Syrian region bordering Iraq and clamped down new border re strictions. General Maxime Weygand, commander of French forces in North Africa, arrived at Vichy and conferred immediately with Chief of State Marshal Petain. It appeared likely that his unheralded trip to the French provisional capital was connect ed with tiie Syrian proclama tion, a possible precaution against a British “get-there first” maneuver against the Axis. Meanwhile, Syrian airports used by the Germans as way stops en route'to aid the now squelched Iraqi rebels again were the targets of the RAF. While other RAF units cov ered the British retreat from Crete, the Middle East air com mand announced its bombers yesterday destroyed one Axis plane and damaged several others at Allepo airdrome. Germans circulated reports that the wily grand mufti of Jerusalem, long a thorn in Britain’s side, had arrived at the rich Mosul oil fields of northern Iraq to reorganize Iraq resistance to the British. Talks Of Axis Partners Expected To Be Revealed British Chiefs Rapped By London Daily Mail LONDON, Tuesday, June 3. (/P)—The London Daily Mail, in the sharpest press criticism of the British cabinet in weeks, today asked in an editorial: “When are we really going to get down to the job of win ning the war? When are we going to run machines, facto ries and shipyards to full ca pacity; when are we going to see an end of masterly re treats . . .? Saying the country was seri ously concerned about the way things are going, the editorial continued: “Churchill declined to believe there was any uneasiness about Greece. Perhaps he can be per suaded that the people are deeply disturbed about Crete. “We have been surprised in Norway, France, Greece and Crete ... we have suffered from serious mistakes. The Germans seem to have made no mistakes. “Something is wrong. Britain needs new ideas. She certainly needs a radical shakeup on the home front.” HARTIS SERVICES SCHEDULED TODAY Rites Will Be Held From Winter Park Baptist Church at 4 O’Clock Funeral services for the three Hartis children who lost their lives in an automobile collision aunday afternoon between Dunn and Clin ton will be held this afternoon at 4 o’clock from the Winter Park Baptist church. The services will be conducted by the Rev. W. A. Tew and the Rev. Bryan Dosher. Interment will follow in Oakdale cemetery. Pallbearers for the accident vic tims—Harold Henderson Hartis, 21; Martha Hartis, 19, and Betty Hartis, 17-will be mostly from High school friends of the chil dren, the son and daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Harold H. Hartis, Sr., of Winter Park. The children were killed, two of them instantly, early Sunday af ternoon while motoring to Dunn to visit friends. Their car, driven by young Hartis, collided head-on with an automobile operated by Jerome Godwin, of Dunn. Godwin, another young man and two young women, are in a Fayetteville hos pital, confined by serious injuries sustained in the crash, as is also Jimmy Edison, of Saluda, S. C., a passenger in the Hartis car. All the surviving accident vic tims are expected to recover, hos pital attaches said last night. Members of the New Hanover High school graduating class of last week, it was announced last night, will meet in the High school auditorium this morning at 9 o’clock to arrange mass participa tion in the funeral rites for their fellow-graduate, Martha Hartis. All members of the High school ROTC band, of which Betty Har tis was a member, will officially participate in the services for Betty, it was announced yesterday. The list of pallbearers, as an nounced last night by spokesman for the family, will be as follows: For Miss Betty Hartis: Charles Rankin, Kenneth Warren, Murphy * (Continued on Page Three; Col. 5) CONFER AT PASS Observers Inclined to Be lieve Next German Goal Will be Cyprus Isle BERLIN, Tuesday, June 3.—(IP) The world soon will know what Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini discussed yesterday at Brenner Pass on the day the battle for Crete was concluded victoriously, informed German sources said to day. Their conversations will be “clari fying and decisive,” these sources said. Significant The fact the meeting occurred on the day the German high command announced the triumphant end of the fierce Crete battle was regarded as especially significant by Dienst Aus Deutschland, a news commen tary often reflecting Wilhelmstrasse opinion. This reference generally was in terpreted here as meaning that the greater part of the German air force which established supremacy over Crete now was free for new tasks. In this connection an order of the day issued to the German air force by Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering who said “there are no unconquerable islands” was deemed significant. Foreign observers were inclined to believe the next German goal would be the island of Cyprus, since this final British eastern Mediterranean outpost constitutes a permanent danger to any Axis operations in the area. A number of fateful possibilities regarding Africa and the Mediter ranean area lay before the two rul (Continued on Page Three; Col. 6) F.D.R. MAY OFFER BRITAIN MORE AID Chief Appears Moving To ward New and Possibly Momentous Decisions HYDE PARK, N. Y„ June 2.— UPI—President Roosevelt appeared moving tonight in the direction of new and possibly momentous de cisions on stepping up aid to Eng land. The completion of two legisla tive steps to strengthen America’s armament effort—the expansion of mandatory priorities and the open (Continued on Page Three; Col. 5) GEARED FOR SPEED Armored Cars and Mobile Field Guns Are Unloaded On Docks at Latakia MOVE TOWARD BEIRUT French Radio Says Syria May Soon Become Main Theater of War in East ANKARA, Turkey, June 1—(De layed)—UP)—A Nazi Infantry detach ment geared for speed landed last Thursday at the French Syrian port of Latakic just south of the Turkish border, highly authoritaflve sources said today. Armored cars and mobile field guns were among the equipment un loaded from coastal steamers which apparently hugged the coast to avoid British naval interception enroute from the Italian Dodecanese islands. The German units were believed t.j havei moved on southward to Beirut, Lebanon capital, more than 100 miles aWay. A good coastal road connects the two points. Military observers here saw a strong possibility of an imminent German attack on Palestine, timed to coincide with a new offensive by the Axis into Egypt on the western approach to the Suez canal. NEW THEATRE The Free French Brazzaville radio in French Equatorial Africa reported that “Syria may soon become the main theater of operations in the Far East,” the British neWB agency Reuters said. Both Free French and British cir cles in London were discussing the possibility of a British invasion of Syria to counteract Axis moves which has included the landing of German planes in Syria. The end of hos tilities against the British in Iraq would facilitate such a British move. The Brazzaville radio said French army units in Syria had moved out of some of their barracks apparently to majfe way for German troops, that an important amount of ship ping space had been assembled and placed under German control, and that German officials were organiz ing an additional distribution of food rations to the Syrians in order to win their sympathy. (Observers in Turkey expressed be lief that any Axis aerial assault on the British island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean now that Crete has been conquered would | spring from Axis bases in Syria). _____ MANCHESTER HIT BY NAZI PLANES Casualties Are Expected To Be Heavy and Property Damage Extensive MANCHESTER, England, June 2._(/P)—The Luftwaffe broke days of relative calm over England with a smashing explosive and fire at tack upon this midlands factory city early today. Rescuers struggling with wreck age through a pall of smoke hesi tated to estimate the casualties. However, many houses, at least four shelters, a nurses’ home, two hospitals, three churches, three hotels and two movie theatres were hit and observers expected the dead and wounded to reach large totals. Business property was considerably damaged. (The Germans announced they had destroyed factories and ware houses in the British supply center with “numerous” incendiary and explosive bombs causing heavy ex plosions and extensive fires.) The nurses’ home was wrecked by a direct hit and many women were believed to have been buried. A physician crawled into the hos (Continued on Page Three; Coi. 2) Casteen Assumes Duties Of Acting Police Chief All was serene in the Wilming ton police department last night as Charles F. Casteen assumed the duties of acting police chief, and Joseph C. Rourk, ousted chief, with drew, temporarily at least, from the scene, presumably pending a public hearing of charges preferred against him by Mayor Hargrove Bellamy and the city council. The nature of the charges, un derstood to have been communi cated in writing yesterday to mem bers of the Wilmington police and fire civil service commission, were not made public, and, it was an nounced by Edward W. Carr, their nature will not be disclosed until the hearing, should Rourk demand a formal airing of the alligations. Police officers were advised yes terday afternoon, through a letter posted on their department bulletin board, and signed by James R. Benson, city clerk, that Chief Rourk had been relieved of “all of ficial duties’’ with the department, and that Charles F. Casteen has been named acting chief. The bul letin letter stated that Rourk's dis missal had been effective since 12:30 p. m., Saturday, May SI. Yesterday, in civilian clothes, Rourk occupied his office in the department, but issued no orders to the department. Chief Casteen continued occupying the office of assistant chief, and last night it (Continued on Page Three, CoL 4{ -m - . *•