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Served By Leased Wire Of The - ASSOCIATED PRESS REMEMBER WIDE WORLD BP.BI _______ With Complete Coverage Of "LARL HARBOR State and National News AND BATAAN VOL. 75—NO. 207 “ -—-, -;- ESTABLISHED 1867. Power Rates Roundtable Hearing Set Winborne To Hold Session Between Commission, Tide Water, City BELLAMY WALKS OUT Mayor Is Irritated When Chairman Questions Him Regarding Procedure RALEIGH, April 24. — (IP) —The big men from the little towns of Eastern North Caro lina gave the Tide Water Power company a four-hour shot of hot current here to day, complaining of high rates and poor service, but their re ward was a hollow one. After an afternoon of dis cussion, during which the irk ed mayor of Wilmington walk ed out in seeming disgust, the State Utilities Commission promised a roundtable hear ing between the company, of ficials of the City of Wilming ton, leaders of the electric rate adjustment committee, which represents 52 towns served by the Tide Water; and the Commission — at a date to be announced later. Mayor Hargrove Bellamy was concerned with only one fact — that the people of Wilmington were paving the Tide Water more for electric service than were custo mers in adjacent territories served bv the Carolina Power and Light Co. and the Duke Power Co. Mayor Bellamy said the whole thing was a matter of inequalities and discriminations against the people of his city and that the question was a moral one. Stanley Winborne, chairman of the Utilities Commission, interrupt ed Bellamy to inform the mayor that the commission had no power to arbitrarily reduce rates, unless the Tide Water Power company were to voluntarily agree that the rates were too high. Must Prove Case Winborne said he was anxious to see the rates lowered, but, he told Bellamy, to achieve the re duction. it would.be necessary to prove that either the valuations made by the company on its prop erties are higher than they are actually, or that the company’s ex penses are unwarrantedly large. “In other words,” Winborne de clared. “you must show either that the company’s valuations should be reduced, or its income increased.” Mayor Bellamy teh nasked if it was the burden and expense of the people to prove that the valu ations were incorrect and the ex (Continued on Page Two; Col. 6) ‘GOLDEN"RANGE’ TAKEN BY REDS Soviets Say Conditions In creasing For Russian Counter-Offensive KUIBYSHEV, Apr. 24—— Re capture of the "Golden Range, a German stronghold in the Cri mea, was announced today by the Russians, who said the advance of spring was improving conditions for increasing the Red Army s counter-off en sive. The "Golden Range” was not specifically located in the account by Red Star, official army news paper, but its reduction was de clared to have followed four days of bitter fighting in which the Germans once routed the Russians but finally withdrew or surrender ed. Some indication of the size of action was given in the announce ment that 30 Germans were killed. In that far southern sector and on the Northwest, around Lenin grad and the Kalinin front, minor but bitter fighting continued. The main areas of the central front still were clogged with slush and mud, but Pravda, the com munist party paper, said these con ditions were clearing up and “the Red Army, which beat the enemy in winter, will beat him in the spring and summer.” Pravda declared, we have con siderably more tanks than we had before, and their quality is uni versally recognized as considerably better than that of the Germans. “The Soviet air force has in creased in numbers and strength. . . .Our command continues to hold the initiative firmly despite the immense difficulties involved in our winter counterattack — difficulties unprecedented in th ehistory of warfare ” Fugitive From France Anthony Haden Guest, 4%, described as youngest prisoner of war known to have escaped from the Germans, happily clutches toys he brought with him from France. His mother told in London how she and the small tot crawled through barbed wire past German sentries and how later on a train she was forced to drug prattling Anthony to keep him from talking and betraying the fact they were English. Picture was cabled from London to New York. CLARK TO SPEAK HERE ON SUNDAY Congressman Will Dedi cate New Federal Com munity Building — Congressman J. Bayard Clark will deliver the address at the formal dedication of the Federal Community building, located at Second and Orange streets and op erated by United Service Organi zations, Sunday afternoon at 3 o’clock. The building, which has been in use since January, is the only one in the country where four agencies —Y.M.C.A., Y.W.C.A., Jewish Welfare board and Traveler’s Aid —cooperate in every way. Opening the program will be the invocation by the Rev. F. Smith Johnston, pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian church, the Star Spangled Banner by the U. S. Marine band and the salute to the flag by Boy Scouts of America. Greetings will be brought by Mayor Hargrove Bellamy and Chairman Addison Hewlett of the New Hanover County Commission. Frederick Willetts, who will pre side at the occasion, will introduce Colonel E. C. Flemming, com manding officer at the Army Air base; Captain Leo S. Jobe, com manding officer at the Carolina Beach Recreational area, U. S. Army; Robert Strange, command er of the American Legion; H. W. Sass, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars; L. J. Poisson, chairman of- the Defense Council of New Hanover county; the Rev. Walter B. Freed, chairman of the U.S.O. council, and City Manager James G. Wallace. Preceding the address by Con gressman Clark, brief talks will be made by Colonel O. C. Warner, executive officer of the Officers Candidate school at Camp Davis, and, Brigadier General William Rupertus, assistant divisional com mander of the First Marine Di vision at New River. Captain Alden E. Spees, U. S. Army area engineer, will present a key to the building to Edward C. Crouch, of Washington, assistant director of Region Four Defense, Health and Welfare Services, Fed eral Security Agency, who in turn will present the key to U.S.O. of ficials. E. J. Londow, Miss Agnes An (Continued on Page Two; Col. 1) Crew Of Norwegian Tanker Is Landed LISBON, Apr. 24.—Itfi—1The Por tuguese freighter Cunene arrived today, with 12 survivors of the 10,. 044-ton Norwegian tanker Koll, sunk by a submarine in the Atlan tic. The survivors were picked up in a lifeboat April 11. (The Navy department announc ed three days ago the Koll had been torpedoed and shelled off Ber muda, and that 19 survivors had been brought ashore, 9 at Lewes, Del., and 10 at New York. Three men’ were listed as killed and 10 as missing.) SHIP SURVIVORS AIDED BY U-BOAT Panamanian Tanker’s Crew Is Landed After 22 Days At Sea NEW YORK, Apr.. 24.—(4'—The commander of an Axis submarine, after sending two torpedoes into a Panamanian tanker without warn ing, turned sympathetic «nd acted to protect the survivors in their two lifeboats, members of the crew said in an interview authorized to day by third Naval District head quarters. Only one of the crew of 39 died from the attack, which occurred off Trinidad March 13. The quar termaster at the wheel was burned by flaming oil and died later on a rescue ship which picked up the survivors after 22 days in the open lifeboats. The master and officers of the ship were from Nazi-occupied countries and asked that th e i r names be withheld. There were no United States citizens in the crew. The master said that after the men left the ship in the lifeboats the submarine’s commander ma neuvered his craft so as to make a lee for them and protect them from swamping by the seas of burning oil. The commander also offered medical supplies and other assistance to the men, the master said. A third torpedo struck the tanker, after the crew had launched the lifeboats, the skipper added, but the ship had caught fire immed iately after the first two struck. There was no time for an SOS, he said._ 3 Citizens Urged To Aid In Halting Forest Fires HALEIGH, N. C., Apr. 24.—(4V Governor Broughton today appea - ed to the patriotism of all North Carolina citizens to check the spread of the devastating forest fires .which are raging through thousands of acres of western North Carolina. The Governor issued a statement declaring that persons who care lessly or deliberately set forest fires are acutally aiding the ene mies of the United States. “Every patriotic citizen,” Gov ernor Broughton asserted, "owes a duty beyond that of ordinary times in protecting our woodlands against fires during war time. Whether the incendiarist and the careless setter qf forest fires rea lize it or not, they are weakening the defense of the country by de stroying one of the most vital of all sources of raw materials in our war against aggression,” “One fire may destroy timber necessary for the construction of many ships or hundreds of air planes. The loss is even more se rious during the present time be cause the demands for materials for defense purposes are the heav (Continued on Page Two; Col. 1) FDR Pleased With Output Of Supplies Only Lag, Due To Steel Shortage, Is In Ship building, He Says MAY INCREASE GOALS Greater Production Pro grams Visioned By Presi dent In Surveying Work By RICHARD L. TURNER WASHINGTON, April 24— (tf) — President Roosevelt hinted today that the already gigantic goals of the war pro duction program may be in creased, so well is the pro gram going. The only lag of any con sequence was in shipbuilding, he said, attributing it primar ily to an overall shortage of steel shapes and plates rather than to any management or labor slowdown. Steps are be ing taken, he added, to in crease the nation’s steel pro duction capacity. The president’s statement, made at a press conference, revealed, too, that he believed civilian con sumption of steel was too great, and that the War Production Board held a contrary view. A survey on the question is in progress, he revealed. An indication of the rate at which production is moving came mean while from Harold D. Smith, the director of the budget, in figures which he submitted to the House Ways and Means committee for its guidance in formulating the new tax program. Total spending figures for this fiscal year, (ending une 30) he said, will be $28,000,000,000, instead mated. Next year’s total, he ad ded, has been revised upward from $56,000,000,000 to $70,000,000,000. War spending this month, he con tinued, will total $3,00,000,000; in June it will be $3,500,000,000 and in September it will be running $5,00,000.000 monthly and “still go ing up.” Weekly outlays have jumped from $409,000,000 during the week of Pearl Harbor to $690, 000,000 currently. Originally the nation’s war pro duction goals included 1 8 5 ,0 0 0 planes, 120,000 tanks, 55,000 anti aircraft guns and 18,000,000 tons of commercial shipping by the end of 1943. Some called the figures “fantastic,” and in Berlin it was said the program was impossible of accomplishment, intended pri marily as a bluff. When the schedules were an nounced in January, administra tion officials were admittedly “set ting their sights high.” The fig ures were based not on what the country would need to fight the war, but on what officials thought would be industry’s maximum out put. It was obvious from the presi dent’s statement today that the administration, with an eye to the expansion of war production since Pearl Harbor, has concluded that however “fantastic” the figures might have seemed in January, America’s capacity to produce the tools of war had actually been underrated. May Expand Work The president’s indication that the schedules may be correspond ingly expanded came in reply to a press question on the country’s steel producing capacity. He was asked whether he thought that plants now under construction or in process of enlargement .would be sufficient to meet all wartime needs. Mr. Roosevelt replied in the neg ative and his reason, he said, was that by the time the new or en larged plants were ready for op (Continued on Page Two; Col. 4) WEATHER FORECAS-T: NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLNA— Little change in temperature tonight and Saturday. (EASTERN STANDARD TIME) (Meteorological data for the 24 hours ending 7:30 p. m. yesterday): (By V. $. Weather Bureau) Temperature: 1:30 a. m. 55: 7:30- a. m. 52; 1:30 p. m. 71; 7:30 p. m. 62; maximum 74; minimum 47; mean 60; normal 65. Humidity: 1:30 a. m. 66; 7:30 a. m. 71; 1:30 p. m. 39; 7:30 p. m. 57. Precipitation: Total for the 2£ hours ending 7:30 p. m., 0.00 inches; total since the first of the month, 0.87 inches. Tides For Today: (From Tide Tables published by U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey): High Dow Wilmington _4:55a. 5:31p. 12:24p. Masonboro Inlet-- 2:24a. 3:08p. 9:28p. Sunrise 5:29a; sunset 6:51p; moonriso l:29p; moonset 2:11a. Cape Fear river stage at Fayette ville on Friday at 8 a. m., 9.90 feet. (Continued on Page Two; Col. 2) RAF BOMBERS GUT HEINKEL PLANE PLANT IN HEA VIEST AIR ASSAULT OF THE WAR Cool, Skillful Daring Of U. S. Warships Saves Prize From Subs WITH THE ATLANTIC FLEET, Apr. 23.—(Delayed)— (#1—An Axis submarine am bush to destroy a group of American naval vessels and the huge prize they convoyed recently was frustrated by cool skillful daring as one of the most exciting voyages ever taken by Uncle Sam’s Blue jackets neared a highly suc cessful ending. This thrill - packed venture saw one of our destroyers res cue the survivors of two ships sunk near us. It saw our planes rout a U-boat engaged in a pre dawn gun battle with a Nor wegian tanker and it saw our beautiful ships confuse the un dersea raiders with an adroit series of maneuvers. No less than nine submarines were reported along our course. The first contact with one of them came in the icy darkness at 5:45 a. m. shortly after I had climbed to the navi gation bridge to pay my re spects to the captain. Suddenly a shot rang across the calm waters from our port quarter. Roars and flashes of flame spat angrily into the sky and in the dim distance we could see that two vessels were pouring it on—gun for gun. Our radio told us that one was an armed Norwegian tank er—the other ti U-boat. The captain barked an order for two planes and a destroy er to dash away. “TeH them to double that up on the planes as fast as God will let them,” he said. ‘‘Blast those — to hell,” he roared as the catapults sent the planes away. (We learned later that the planes scared the submarine off and that the doughty tank er, her guns still smoking, had escaped with minor damage.) We were watching the gun flashes at 6:45 a. m. when a periscope was sighted less than 600 yards from our convoy— (Continued on Page Two; Col. 2) Open ing Of 2nd Front In Six-Weeks Hinted •x> Colonel Britton Tells ‘V For-Victory’ Army To Be Ready To Sabotage NEW YORK, Apr. 24— W —The British radio’s mysterious “Colonel Britton” told his “V-for-Victory” army in German-Occupied Europe tonight to make ready for large scale sabotage for “within six weeks from now there may open what may prove to be the greatest battle in the history of the world.” “To win this great battle the .Germans must make the greatest, effort they’ve ever made,” he said in a broadcast beamed to Europe and heard here by CBS. “This will mean more machines, more courage, more skill and more staying power than they’ve ever needed in their history. This is their last chance. “If this onslaught fails they'll never find the strength again. To beat this attempt England needs all the men, the means, the cour age, the skill and the staying pow er that we possess. “The Nazis intend to strike, as I said, within the next six weeks. It may be delayed, but I don’t think for long, because the longer it is delayed the less chance for success . . . But we too will at tack and the Russians will attack and y<5u in Europe will attack. “But you must not be deluded that all these attacks will not nec essarily occur at the same mo ment. And you will be given due warning.” -V Bermuda Naval Units Are Active In War LONDON, Apr. 24.— W) —The Reuters News agency in a dispatch from Bermuda tonight quoted vice Admiral Jules James, comman dant of the U. S. Naval base, as saying in a speech that “very hard” fighting is taking place from the Bermuda base — (apparently a reference to Naval attempts to stop Axis submarine forays). “Lots of people around don’t know how hard our combined navies and armies are now fight ing from this base,” Admiral James said. “I can assure you it is very hard. I’m sorry I can not tell you more about it. It’s hard—and it’s successful.” 3 -V Baltimore ‘Brutality* Protested By Negroes ANNAPOLIS, Md., April 24.—<T) —An estimated 1,800 negroes, pro testing what their spokesman said was “a wave of police brutality” in Baltimore, laid their case directly before Governor Herbert R. O’Con nor at the State House today. The negroes made the pilgrimage to the capitol by train, bus and auto and some claimed they walked the 25 miles from Baltimore. Filing both legislative chambers of the (capitol, the negroes heard their leaders ask O’Connor for increased representaton in the Baltimore city police department and other state organizations. -V JAPANESE AMBUSHED CHUNGKING, China, Apr. 24.— (A1)—'The Chinese announced tonight that Chinese forces near Kao cheng, Honan province, had ana bushed a Japanese supply unit of 100 carts, inflicting 100 casualties on the Japanese, burning 30 of the carts and capturing two machine guns, many rifles and supplies. 3 The Family Budget Would Be Strained WASHINGTON, Apr. 24.— [B — The family budget would be badly strained if the new federal budget had to be paid for on a population basis. Budget director Harold D. Smith announced today that in the next fiscal year the government would spend $76,141,000,000, of which $70,. 000,000,000 will be for war. That’s an average of $577 per man, woman or child, or an aver age of $2,192 per family. The last census showed there were an av erage of 3.8 persons In a family. JOHNlCANNON IS KILLED HERE Meets Death In Accident At Shipyard Extension At Sunset Park John Henry Cannon, 39, Route 1, Wilmington, an employe of V. P. Loftis company, was fatally in jured about 4:15 o’clock Friday afternoon when a load of lumber rolled on him as he was super vising the unloading of a car at the new shipyard extension at Sunset Park. He was rushed to the shipyard hospital but was dead on arrival. According to authorities, his head was badly crushed and this was the cause of death. He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Mildred Cannon, and a sis ter, Mrs. Connor Bullock, Claren don, N. C. Announcement of funeral ar rangements will be made later. -V Fifth Column Active Throughout Ireland NEW YORK, April 24. — (tf) — Senator Michael E. MacDermot of Eire said today on arrival by Clip per that there was “plenty to in dicate that there is contact with the Nazis” in Ireland. IVhile declining to elaborate on fifth column activity in Ireland, the senator asserted that arrests had been made which "proved beyond a doubt that a highly businesslike arrangement has been made with some of these criminals.” -V JAP ENVOY ARRIVES LONDON, Apr. 24.— UPI —The Rome radio reported tonight that Ken Harada, first Japanese envoy to the Vatican, arrived in Rome today. 3 50 PER CENT GAS CUT-SEEN BY MAY 1 Non-Essential Vehicles May Have To Get Along On Six Gallons Week WASHINGTON, Apr. 24.— UP) — Gasoline consumption in the east probably will be cut to 50 per cent of normal on May 1, meaning that non-essential vehicles may have to get along with an average of around six gallons a week, a gov ernment source indicated today. It was understood that deliveries to filling stations would be cut to one-half of normal because of a worsening of transportation prob lems. They already have been cut one-third. Since vehicles necessary to health and safety, commerce, gov ernment, schools and other essen tial purposes would continue to re ceive all the gas they needed, sup plies available for non - essential automobiles might be only 40 per cent of pre-war demand, one offi cial pointed out. There was no definite indication' whether the more severe limita tion would apply also in the Pa cific northwest. One source said it probably would, but petroleum coordinator Harold L. Ickes has described the supply situation there as improved. Such further curtailment for the east would be effective until May 15 when a card rationing program will be instituted. An allowance of an average of about six gallons a week to non essential users would approximate the 25-gallons-a-month that an aide to Ickes said probably would be allotted such motorists at the start of card rationing. All sources were apparently agreed, however, that the allow ance under card rationing could not be determined definitely so far in Advance because of the fast changing supply situation. The limitations in the first half of May and during the first weeks of card rationing probably will be more severe than restrictions im posed later in the year, oil circles said, since transportation services now are engaged principally in building up the east’s industrial fuel oil supplies. It was made clear, however, that transport would continue to be a problem. Ickes said, “we must be ready to take care of ourselves without any tankers,” and emphasized that every available means of trans port — railroads, pipelines, inland waterway barges and tank trucks —were being pressed into service for eastern oil delivery. Railroads delivered 600,000 bar rels daily into the east last week, and pipelines and barges brought in about 160,000 barrels more. Ickes estimated the Seaboard’s (Continued on Page Two; Col. 5) Mandalay Is Menaced By Japanese Thrust NEW DELHI, India, Apr. 24.—iff' —Mechanized Japanese vanguards have reached the Taunggyi area within 100 miles of vital Mandalay in a thrust of nearly 80 miles northward from the region of fal len Loikaw, a Chinese communique disclosed tonight. This force was located at the town of Hopong, 10 miles east of Taunggyi, in confirmation of a pre. vious announcement from British headquarters that t h e Chinese were locked in violent combat with the invader in that region. The Chinese announcement stat ed that 40 enemy aircraft had been f--— continuously bombing the Chinese positions, which are at the left of the Allied Burma line, and that there were heavy casualties on both sides in continuing fighting. On the Toungoo front far to the southwest of this action, Chung king’s communique reported the Japanese had suffered 3,000 cas ualties in a week’s fighting be tween the Swa river and the town of Pyinmana and that in four days about Pyinmana itself 3,000 invad ers had been killed or wounded against Chinese losses of 1,000 (Continued on Page Two; Col. 8) r -* Town And Harbor At Ros* tock Left In Sea Of Flames By Attackers FLUSHING ALSO HIT Damage Wrought Second Only To Destruction Caused At Luebeck LONDON, April 24.—(/P)—* The largest force of RAP fighters ever sent against a single objective escorted bombers attacking the Ne therlands port of Flushing by daylight today, following up a pre-dawn assault on the Heinkel aircraft factories and the German Baltic port of Rostock in which the air min istry said massed bombers loosed the “greatest weight of bombs” in the service’s his tory. Nine fighters were lost In the Flushing raid and in sweeps over northern France, while five Nazi planes wer« destroyed. One of these was a Junkers 52 troop transport, shot down in flames by two American Eagle pilot officers, Arnold Skinner, of Webb City, Mo., and William Daley, of Amarillo, Tex. In saying the fighter group was the largest ever employed, the Air Ministry declined to disclose the actual number. It said the hour-long raid on Rostock and the Heinkel works, which cost four planes, started gi gantic fires visible for more than 90 miles at sea. Town in Flames The “very heavy” explosive bombs set the town and harbor ablaze in an attack officially de scribed as “effective as that on Luebeck.” The tremendous attack of March 28 on Luebeck, 60 miles southwest of Rostock, was a landmark in the campaign to sap the power of the German offensive preparations in the east and'* north by wrecking industrial areas. British authorities said 40 per cent of Luebeck’s main area was destroyed, on the basis of photographic evidence. In striking just as heavily at the Heinkel works near Rostock, the British bombers dropped down to 3,500 feet and did not release a bomb until the center of the fac tory area was in the bomb sights. The Ministry said there were in dications the plant was gutted. Fighters followed up the night attack in daylight today, the Air Ministry announced that nine Brit ish fighters were lost and five Germans destroyed in attacks over (Continued on Pare Two; Col. S) INVASIONISSUE GIVEN IMPETUS Roosevelt In Agreement With Conclusions Reached By Marshall, Churchill LONDON, Apr. 24—Ml—The is sue of an Allied invasion of Eu rope was sharpened today by Lord Beaverbrook’s militant demand for a second front and by the sugges tive information that President Roosevelt had notified Prime Min ister Churchill he agreed with all conclusions reached by Gen. George C. Marshall, United States chief of staff who recently visited Britain, Mr. Roosevelt was said to have sent a message to that effect to Churchill today. (The nature of Gen.' Marshall’s conclusions was not disclosed, but in Britain he said "the time for action is near,” and that Ameri cans "inevitably soon will join the commandos.”) Lord Beaverbrook’s New York speech last night emphasized the British public’s concern over what the government will do with the largest army ever assembled in this country. An army of between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 equipped with tanks and mechanized weapons, is cooperat ing with the largest air force in Europe and is a formidable fight ing machine, according to its own commanders and visiting Ameri can officers. Its employment in a great Eu ropean campaign this summer is an urgent necessity, according to (Continued on Page Two; Col, 4)
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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April 25, 1942, edition 1
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