Newspapers / Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, … / May 22, 1942, edition 1 / Page 1
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["served By Leased Wire Of The -- ■ ■ - associated press REMEMBER WIDE WORLD m Complete Coverage Of MABL HABBOB _Stale and National News BATAAN NO. 230 -- ---- ESTABLISHED 1867. City Today Joins \ William Moultrie Is Among 27 Going Down Ways Today Observance of “Maritime Day” today will be marked with the launching of 27 ships throughout the nation, one of them, the S. S. William Moultrie, from the, ays of the Vorth Carolina Shipbuilding company here. The William Mounrie wiu suae, into the Cape Fear river at 4:40 5 l0Ck following brief addresses hv Representative J. Bayard Clark, i the Seventh North Carolina dis ?rict and S. Duvall Schell, execu te director of the Maritime Com ' iosior The exercises will begin ® 4 ;j o'clock and will be broad est over Radio Station, WPTF, Kslcioh. Miss Marjorie Fletcher, daught er" of Robert I. Fletcher, a director of the North Carolina Shipbuilding companv and comptroller of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock company, will christen the ship. Her maid of honor will be Miss Linda Drexler, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Norman E. Drex ler. of Wilmington. The nation-wide observance is being carried out in accordance with a proclamation by President Roosevelt and will witness one of the largest mass launching of ships in the country’s history. The observance here has been pro claimed in a supplementary proc lamation by Mayor Hargrove Bel amy. The program is being sponsored by the Propeller Club of the Port of Wilmington, and yesterday f. George W. Jeffrey, president of the club, received a message from Admiral Emory S. Land, chair man of the U. S. Maritime Com mission, as follows: “On this observance of National Maritime Day the Maritime Com mission wishes to express appre ciation of your contribution to the nation’s ship building and operat ing effort. The American people are beneficiaries of the men who build and load and take our vic tory fleet to sea. You are fighting our fight as strongly as are the armed forces.. You are as vital to this effort as if you were on the firing line. Carry on, and victory through ships must be ours.” The program at the shipyard will be followed with a dinner to night at the Cape Fear Country Club at which Mr. Schell will de liver the principal address. Arrangements for the affair are being made by a committee com posed as follows: H. E. Boyd, chairman; J. T. Hiers, V. E. Crew, S. P. Ware, Pete Cantwell, M. C. Vendig, W. S. MacMahon, W. E. (Continued on Pace Three; Col. 5) Hopes Of Securing Shipping Brighter Maritime Official Inspects . Wilmington Port Facilities The outlook for lend-lease shipments through the port cf Wilmington is very good at the present, following an inspection of the port by a Maritime Commission represen tative yesterday, it was announced by Louis T. Moore, act ing secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. Contain TT' TT1 Mann a ceiotont ^ ——————————————— district manager of the U. S. Mar itime Commission in Norfolk, vis ited the city and made a complete inspection of the port facilities, Mr. Moore revealed. After inspecting the warehouse (pace, stevedores and docking fa cilities. Captain Nann expressed his approval of the port’s capa bilities. Captain Nann announced at the end of his investigation that the city’s port facilities were good and that he intended to make a def inite recommendation to the Mari time Commission upon his return to Norfolk today. A recommendation to the U. S' M. C. to the effect that the port of Wilmington is well situated ’o handle lease-lend traffic in the interest of the nation is expected, Mr, Moore said. Addison Hewlett, chairman of the county board of commissioners announced upon hearing of Cap tain Nann’s recommendation, “I’m ^hty glad to hear this, and the county will be glad to know that hs efforts have at last borne fruit.’ H. E. Boyd, chairman of the PoPrt Traffic Association: “I think its fine. The port of Wilmington, "hile not as large as many other Ports, is well able to handle its ®are of lease-lend traffic. We’ve Worked hard to get it, and I hope mat we’ll soon get a definite af “fiative answer from the Mari ’I1Tle Commission.” ‘‘Captain Nann’s visit and ap proral is the culmination of a six rnonths effort on the part of the ody, the county, the Port Traffic Ssociation. the Port Commission, ®nd lr‘0 Chamber of Commerce,” ^rented Mr. Moore. MAN AND WOMAN FALL TO DEATHS Broker’s Wife Leaves Note Saying, “I’m Nervous And Can’t Go On” NEW YORK, May 21— (J> —A man and a woman plunged to death within 3 1-2 hours today from upper floors of the RCA building, 70-story skyscraper in Rockefeller Plaza. Leaving a note addressed to her husband saying “I’m nervous and can’t go on,” Mrs. Jean Haskell of BronxviUe, N. Y„ 30, mother of a three-months-old infant, leaped at 4 p.m. from the cocktail lounge terrace on the 65th floor. Her body landed on an 11th floor off set. At 7:30, the body of a man iden tified as William Litzrodt, 36, New York City, was found on a sixth floor extension on the other side ►of the building. Police, who listed Mrs. Haskell as a suicide, said no one saw Litzrodt fall and that his death might have resulted from an ac cident. They said they were un able to determine immediately from what floor he had plunged Later, fellow workers for the Mutual Life Insurance Company, where Litzrodt was employed as an instructor of agents, said they had seen him in the company’s office on the 31st floor shortly be fore his death. “I was just talking to Litzrodt a few minutes ago,” Victor Hol (Continued on Pago Three; Col. 4) strict Nation-Wide Gas Rationing Asked Washington, May 21.— m — st e Brookings Institution urged ^lct nation-wide gasoline ration S today for the primary purpose conserving rubber and automo 8 es for the performance of es SL] 1 services. It foresaw prob pr-e government requisitioning of 1943&tely ’ owned automobiles , in A survey and report by Charles v earing of the private research wUtion s staff estimated that tio^6 27’0n0'°00 automobiles were civilian operation. If this s“Tef drops below 20,000,000, it • “the civilian economy will be threatened with serious disrup tion.” First and hardest hit would be rural areas and the transporta tion of workers to and from their jobs. The tire supply, Deering said, consisted of the tires on the 27,000, 000 cars plus about 8,000,000 new tires now frozen in the hands of dealers and government agencies. "If normal driving habits con tain,” the report added, “the sup ply of tires will be completely ex hausted by 1945, and the number of cars left in operating condition (Continued on P»*« Three; Col. 5) Allies Sink ruiser, Action Is Carried Out In Southwest Pacific By Submarines 14 PLANES DESTROYED Air Raids Are Made Upon Enemy Bases In New Guinea And Timor ALLIED HEADQUAR TERS, Australia, Friday, May 22.—(/P)—Allied submarines have sunk a 7,100-ton Japa nese cruiser of the Kako class and two Japanese cargo ves sels, of 9,000 and 6,000 tons, it was announced officially today. General MacArthur’s headquar ters- also said that 14 Japanese planes had been destroyed or dam aged in air raids on Japanese in vasion bases in Nev/ Guinea and Timor. (There are four ships in the Japanese Kako class, each carry ing a normal complement of 604 men. They are the Kako, Huru taka, Kinugasa, and Ooba, all completed in 1926-27. They are armed with six 8-inch guns). The communique said: “Northwestern sector. New Guinea: Lae—A surprise attack by Allied aircraft from a low alti tude destroyed two enemy bombers and one fighter on the ground and extensively damaged two bombers. The enemy intercepted with eight fighters. Three were shot down. We suffered no losses. “Naval operations: Our naval forces in underwater action de stroyed the following enemy ves (Continued on Pace Ten; Col. X) -V WORK STARTED ON NORMANDIE It Will Take Year Te Raise Hull Of Burned And Sunken Liner BY JOHN M. HIGHTOWER WASHINGTON, May 21—(At—1The Navy undertook its greatest sal vage operation today, to raise the burned, mud-laden, waterlogged, hull of the former French liner Normandie from the bottom of a slip in New York harbor, where it turned over after a fire Feb ruary 9. Work preliminary to the delicate salvage operations has been under way for some days, and an un qualified go-ahead order was is sued by Secretary of Knox today after he had been told by a special advisory committee of experts that the huge ship could be raised. The committee recommended, however, that ,a decision as to whether the ship should also be reconditioned, and for what pur pose, should not be made until later when war shipping needs of the future can be more exactly de termined. But, said the committee, “since there is a possibility that the war emergency may make the recon conditioning of the ship desirable, every reasonable effort should be made to expedite the salvage.’’ The Normandie, which the Navy renamed the Lafayette, was being refitted as a troop transport when the fire which led to its capsizing broke out. Now it will be at least a year, a naval salvage expert said, before it can even be set afloat again. The operation will cost millions of dollars. WEATHER FORECAST: NORTH CAROLINA—Little change in temperature Friday with scat tered thundershowers east and cen tral portions. SOUTH CAROLINA—Little change in temperature, scattered thunder showers Friday. (EASTERN STANDARD TIME) (Meteorological data lor the 24 hours ending 7:30 p. m. yesterday): (By U. S. Weather Bureau) Temperature: 1:30 a. m. 71; 7:30 a. m. 74; 1:30 p. m. 79; 7:30 p. m. 75; maximum 80; minimum 68; mean 74; normal 72. Humidity 1:30 a. m. 89; 7:30 a- m. 83; 1:30 p. m. 58; 7:30 p. m. 66. Precipitation: Total for the 24 hours ending 7:30 p. m., 0.01 inches; total since the llrst of the month. 4.80 inches. Tides For Today: (From Tide Tables published by U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey): High Low Wilmington- 2:34a. 10:06a ! 3:10p. 10:llp Masonboro Inlet-a. 6:32a 12:35p. 6:48p, Sunrise 5:05a; sunset 7:12p; moonrise ■ 11:18a; moonset 12:09a. Cape Fear river stage at Fayette, ville on Thursday at 8 a. m., not ) given. (Continued on Page Three; Col. 1) Germans Start Counter-Blow RUSSIA Line of farthest German advance December, 1941 Led by great 52-ton tanks, Russian armies rolled ahead over fields littered with German dead in the Battle of Kharkov. Meanwhile, the Nazis sought desperately to ease the pressure with a diversional attack 80 miles to th southeast in the Izyum-Barvenkova sectors. This Ger man counter-stroke was made 30 miles east, of Lozovaya, highway junction of Nazi roads serving Kharkov. In the Crimea (1), a second major battle was proceeding on the Kerch peninsula. Russians said the Red garrison of the naval base at Sevastopol was aiding in the continued re sistance^ Salary Deduction Of Tax Is Asked Proposal Would Make Levy 10 Per Cent Of Wage Earned WASHINGTON, May 21. —(A1) —The Treasury asked today for a vast check-off system under which income taxes would be deducted from nearly everybody’s regular pay envelope. , Randolph Paul, tax adviser of the Treasury, revealed to the press that he had made a formal re quest to the House Ways and Means Committee for authority to require all employes to deduct ad vance income tax payments from payrolls. He proposed that the deductions amount to 10 per cent of wages, interest or dividends received in excess of a fixed scale of per onal exemptions. The deductions, in most cases, would fall far short of paying the income tax bill, but would make it easier to meet the usual March 15 deadline and also help the Treasury finance the war between the annual income tax collection dates. Paul said the committee would study the proposal at least another day before making any decision. Congressional sources indicated that the committee favored the plan in principle, but might want to exempt some types of employ ers, such as farmers or house wives, from the trouble of becom ing tax collectors. For most employes, the deduc tion would be similar to the Social Security taxes that they already take out of payrolls, and Paul said it would be a relatively light chore for them. Paul said the proposed personal exemptions were based on the reg ular income tax exemptions which the committee has decided to re duce to $500 a year for single persons, and $1,200 for heads of families. Also figured in would be the $400 a year for each dependent plus a small amount for other de ductions. It would work this way: A single person would pay out of his regular pay check 10 per cent of everything he makes over $11 per week. Thus, if his wage were $25 a week, $14 would be taxable at the rate of 10 per cent which would be $1.40 each week. (Continued on Page Ten; Col. 3) JAPANESE TROOPS LAND AT FOOCHOW Invaders Extend Plans For Hitting Knockout Blow At The Chinese # CHUNGKING, May 21.—(#—The Japanese, apparently intent on knocking China out of the war now or at least seizing forward areas which some day might cradle direct attacks on Japan, have supplemented their broad of. fensive in Chekiang province with a landing in force near Foochow, Fukien province. The Chinese high command an nounced that a dozen Japanese transports yesterday steamed up the Mim river a short distance from Formosa strait, and unloaded troops which, at communique time tonight, were being heavily engag ed by the defenders. The expedition landed on the north bank, below Foochow, under cover of a barrage laid down by escorting warships, It was said. With perhaps 25,000 men in the Foochow expedition, the Japanese were believed now to have a total of 125,000 troops in action or de ployed for action in Chekiang, Fu kien and Kiangsi provinces. The Foochow action created a second highly active front in the Chekiang - Fukien seaboard area and constituted a new threat at the rear of Chinese forces which only a few hours earlier claimed to have curbed the enemy on the 150-mile Chekiang front, throwing : him back in at least one sector. About 1,500 miles to the west, on (Continued on Page Three; Col. 3) New Synthetic Rubber Process Is Developed W__ __ ‘ NEW YORK, May 21.— UP) —A new process by which the raw ma terials for synthetic rubber and an improved quality of aviation gaso line can be produced simultaneous ly from petroleum was announced today by W. S. Farish, president of the Standard Oil Co. (New Jer sey). The new method, worked out by scientists of the Standard Oil De velopment Co., a subsidiary tech nical organization, will be made available to other oil companies under the system of patent licenses now being used, Farish said. He estimated it would increase by 2 1-2 to 3 times the potential capacity of plants now under con struction for turning out butadiene, a synthetic rubber raw material. “We estimate that the new meth od will speed up the war program for production of synthetic rubber from plants already underway and will provide the nation with an in creased potential capacity of raw material for more than 400,000 tons of “Bunas” rubber and 240, 000 tons of Butyl rubber a year,” Farish said. “This is a new thing with us, a (Continued on Pace Ten; Col. i) NAZI DEFENSE LINE GUARDING KHARKOV BREA CHED BY REDS WPB To Limit Supplies Held By Retailers Action May Be Prelude To Extended Rationing Con sumer Goods WASHINGTON, May 21— QP) — The War Production Board announced tonight it was taking steps to limit the volume of all types of mer chandise which may be held in inventory by retailers and wholesalers. Heavy buying by some firms is ‘‘preventing others from obtaining merchandise in sufficient quanti ties to supply the needs of the communities they serve,” the WPB said. ‘‘Forthcoming regulations will specifically purb inventories of all types of merchandise in a way de signed to assure that quantities on hand are reasonable and that equitable distribution among deal _r J _ _i J > ers is provided for. The action was viewed in some quarters as a preliminary to great ly increased -rationing of consum er goods. WPB said it proposed to set “an over-all dollar limitation on inven tories of goods for sale.” No details were divulged, but it was known that one plan tenta tively proposed would prevent any merchant from building inventqry beyond his 1940 level in dollar val ue. Companies which have accumu lated swollen inventories would be forbidden to buy more goods until their stocks were whittled down to a “practicable working mini mum.” This would mean consid erable unloading of merchandise by firms holding excess supplies, it was predicted, through sales back to manufacturers or whole salers or to other retailers. The WPB announcement, touch ing on this point, said the inven tory control would mean that “the presence of excesses in one or more lines of merchandise will op erate to prevent purchases in oth er lines which the retailer or (Continued on Pate Ten; Col. 4) SHACKLEFORD WILL SUCCEED ED CARR He Is Shown By Police For Vacancy On Civil Service Board C. W. Shackleford, well known owner of a radio repaid business here, was appointed to the City of Wilmington Civil Service board to fill a facancy created a few weeks ago by the resignation of E. W. Carr. The appointment of Mr. Shackle ford was announced last night by Chief of Police Charles H. Casteen after a meeting of the police de partment during which Mr. Shackleford was selected. The new member of the com mission will act as the representa tive of the police department, it was pointed out .The Civil Service Commission is composed cf five members; a labor representative, a minister, a specially selected man to represent the police de partment and two others. It was impossible to contact Mr. Shackleford last night to get a statement from him. E. M. Beery, chairman of the board, declared last night that the appointment of Mr. Shackleford was "news to him” and that he had not received any notification as yet. "However, as soon as the board has been officially notified of Mr. Shackleford’s appointment, a meet ing will be called,” he continued, "and it will probably be some time early next week.” -V 99 Per Cent Of Ships for Britain Arriving HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, ftfay 21. —Iff)—Navy Minister Angus Mac Donald declared today 99 per cent of the ships leaving North Ameri can shores for Britain are getting through safely under convoy of warships of Britain, the United States and Canada. 3 -¥ Downed Two Nazi 1 Planes Flight Sergeant C. W. Harp (above) of Columbus, Ga., shot clown two German Focke-Wulff fighter planes over northern France May 19, the British Air Ministry in London has an nounced. Harp is a member of the American Eagle Squadron. DOSS, SIBLEY GET PROMOTION AT ACL Officials Of Railroad Pro moted By Board Of Di rectors In New York R. J. Doss, former General Traf fic Manager of the A. C. L. has been appointed to the post of vice president-traffic of the A. C. L. and G. C. -Sibley, former assistant general manager, has been ap pointed general manager of the railroad, it was announced yester day following a meeting of the di rectors in New York. Mr. Sibley succeeds F. W. Brown, vice-president and general manag er, who will serve as vice-presi dent-operations. Mr. Doss entered railroad serv ice with the Atlanta, Knoxville & Northern Railway, now a part of the Louisville & Nashville Rail road, in 1900. He entered the serv ice of the Atlantic Coast Line m 1913 as Chief Rate Clerk at Sa vannah, Ga. He was appointed As. sistant to . General Freight Agent at Wilmington in 1916 and during the period of federal control was attached to the staff of the South ern Rate committee of the United State? Railroad administration at Atlanta, Ga. He returned to Wilmington as assistant General Freight Agent in 1920, successively holding the of fices of General Freight Agent, Assistant Freight Traffic Mana ger, Freight Traffic Manager and General Freight Traffic Manager prior to his appointment as Gen eral Traffic Manager on May 15, 1941. Mr. Sibley entered railroad serv ice in 1899 as messenger in the offices of the Plant system, now a part of the Atlantic Coast Line, at Savannah, Ga. In 1914 he be came Trainmaster of the Atlantic Coast Line at Savannah, later be ing assigned to the staff of the Regional Director, United States Railroad administration, Atlanta, Ga. In’1918 he became Superintend ent and later General Superintend ent of the Winston-Salem South bound Railway company, return ing to the service of the Coast (Continued on Page Three; Col. 4) 10-Minute Action Wipes Out Key German Strong hold Before City ADVANCE SIX MILES teds Skirt Enemy Flank In Karelia And Kill 3,000 By HENRY C. CASSIDY MOSCOW, May 21.—(/P)—. rhe heavily fortified Nazi de fense line guarding Kharkov las been breached at one point in a furious 40-minute onslaught which wiped out a key German stronghold and carried Marshal Semeon Tim ishenko’s tanks and troops on dx miles into an open battle field held only by German in fantry and scattered pillboxes, Red Star asserted tonight. Along with this swift new sweep toward Kharkov, prime prize of ten days of the fiercest fighting of the spring campaign, the army newspaper outlined these develop ments on the eve of the twelfth month of the war: In the far north: picked Russian troops, wading waist-deep in icy water, skirted twelve and a half miles around an enemy flank in Karelia, killed or wounded 3,000 Finns and Germans in a surpise assault then pushed on twelve miles more, cutting one of the enemy’s main roads to the north. In the south: Gen. Viktor Von Schwedler’s German counter-drive into the Barvenkova-Izyum sector 80 miles southeast of Kharkov, menacing the flank of the Russian offensive, has been checked. In ' the Crimea, outnumbered but de termined Russian troops still clung to the eastern tip of Kerch penin sula, blocking the short cut to the Caucasus. The midnight Soviet communi que said merely that “our offen sive continued on the Kharkov sec tor,” that the Germans had been repulsed in the Izyum-Barvenkova area 80 miles to the south, and that “fighting continued on the eastern part of the Kerch penin sula.” Adding to this, Pravda, the com munist party newspaper, said that behind the German lines strong guerrilla forces recaptured an im portant city of several thousand population deep in Nazi - overrun White Russia, driving the Germans from a large section and holding it against dawn-to-dusk German assault. This may have occurred in the Smolensk area because a supple mentary communique tonight said that a guerrilla detachment had killed more than 3,000 Germans in action there. Destroy “4 Tanks The Red air force was credited with destroying or damaging 74 Nazi tanks, 23 German trucks with troops and supplies, 55 am munition wagons and 31 guns Wed nesday in various sectors. Elsewhere on the central front Russian infantry was said to have slipped through German lines on a raid along rear lines, blowing up two troop trains and killing 1,100 Germans. On the Kharkov front, where the mid-day communique reported on ly that the Russians “continued offensive battles,’’ Red Star said “in a number of sectors our troops again advanced.” (Close military observers in Lon don said most of the Russian gains during the past 48 hours apparent ly were on the northern half of the Kharkov front, a 125-mile arc from Belgorod to Lozovaya, but that German resistance and the danger from Von Schwedler’s scyth-like flanking thrust had brought the Russians to a halt on the south. (This version was borne out by Bucharest dispatches reaching Bern which said the Russians were (Continued on Page Ten; Col. 3) Mexico Believed Ready To War Against Axis MEXICO CITY, May 21— Iff) — Mexico was reported tonight to be preparing to declare war on the Axis following receipt of an un satisfactory reply from Berlin to the note of protest over the recent sinking of the Mexican tanker Po trero Del Llano off the Florida coast. 1 President Manuel Avila Cama cho was said authoritatively to be preparing a manifesto to the na tion, to be read personally before a special session of Congress with in the next few days, demanding that war be declared. Although some members of the i— cabinet were understood to oppose such a step, one informed source said that the chances were "95 out of 100” that Mexico would for mally declare war on the Axis. Diplomatic relations with Germany Italy and Japan were broken last December. The press reported Avila Cam acho had summoned his cabinet, his presidential predecessor, Gen eral Lazaro M. Cardenas, and high military leaders to meet at the National Palce tomorrow to dis cuss the crisis. (Continued on Face Three; CaL It
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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May 22, 1942, edition 1
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