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Wilmington Wonting &tar North Carolina’s Oldest Daily Newspaper Published Daily Except Sunday By The Wilmington Star-News At The Murchison Building R. B. Page, Owner and Publisher Telephone All Departments DIAL 3311 Entered as Second Class Matter at Wilming ton, N. C., Postotfice Under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY CARRIER Payable Weekly Or In Advance Combina Time Star News tion 1 Week _t -25 $ -20 8 -35 1 Month _ 1.10 -90 1.50 3 Months _ 3.25 2.60 4.55 6 Months _ 0-50 5.20 9.10 1 year _ 13.00 10.40 18.20 News rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue of StarNesvs BY MAIL Payable Strictly in Advance Cocnbina ' Star News tion 1 Month _5 .75 $ .50 $ .90 3 Months __-— 2.00 1.50 2.75 6 Months _ 4.00 3.00 5.50 1 Year _ 8.00 6.00 10.00 News rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue of Star-News Card of Thanks charged for at the rate of 25 cents per line. Count five words to line. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS is entitled to the exclusive use of all news stories appearing in The Wilmington Star. WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 1942 With confidence in our armed forces — with the unbounding de termination of our people—we will gain the inevitable triumph — so help us God. —Roosevelt’s War Message Star-NewsProgram To aid in every way the prosecution of the war to complete victory. Public Port Terminals. Perfected Truck and Berry Preserving and Marketing Facilities. Seaside Highway from Wrightsville Beach to Bald Head Island. Extension of City Limits. 33-foot Cape Fear River channel, wider Turning Basin, with ship lanes into industrial sites along Eastern bank south of Wilmington. Paved River Road to Southport, via Orton Plantation. Development of Pulp Wood Production through sustained-yield methods through out Southeastern North Carolina. Unified Industrial and Resort Promo tional Agency, supported by one county wide tax. Shipyards and Drydocks. Negro Health Center for Southeastern North Carolina, developed around the Community Hospital. Adequate hospital facilities for white. Junior High School. Tobacco Warehouses for Export Buy ers. Development of native grape growing throughout Southeastern North Carolina. Modern Tuberculosis Sanatorium. TOP O’ THE MORNING I like people to be saints; but I want them to be first and superlatively honest men.—MADAME SWEPCHINE. -V Make It Country-Wide The middle West accepted the Eastern ra tioning of gasoline with admirable poise. But now that rationing is contemplated on a na tional scale there is wailing and gnashing of teeth and a great wagging of tongues in pro test. Gasoline rationing, which was due, we are told, not only to a decreasing stockpile along the Atlantic seaboard, but as a means of rubber conservation as well, should never hve been applied to any area. It should have been country-wide from the start. Even though there is plenty of gasoline in many sections of the United States it is im perative that rubber be conserved. Reduction In the quantities of gasoline available for consumers has brought a sharp reduction of motoring in the states affected by the ra tioning order with consequent saving of tires. It would bring the same good results every where, -—V__ If In Doubt, Put It Out Investigation of Wilmington’s night lighting is expected to start today. If it is found that the reflection is liable to direct an enemy tc the city or to ships at sea we may expect tin order for a stricter dimout. Otherwise street, advertising and display window light ing may remain as at present. In either case there is one good rule indi viduals should adopt. "If in doubt, put it, out.” Gen. Thomas A. Terry, commander of the 2nd. Corps area, suggested the slogan in a - radio broadcast in New York. During his ad dress General Terry declared the sky-glow over New York was so bright that ‘like tar gets in a shooting gallery our ships are mov ing in front of a backdrop of hazy light.” Conditions here, of course, are not the same as in New York. But we certainly do not want our lights to cast a sillouhette of pass ing ships for the convenience of enemy U .boats or draw enemy fire directly upon the eity. Whatever the results of the investigation soon to be conducted here, we individually can’t go wrong if we adopt General Terry’s 4$ an. Laval “Consents” No one will fail to understand the assertion that Pierre Laval has “consented" to the train ing of German seamen for handling and op erating French warships is a gross under statement. It is exceedingly doubtful if Laval had anything to do with it. Hitler is dictating the policies of the Vichy government now and Laval is merely his puppet. But the fact that this step has been taken is as clear an indication as could be given that when Germans are qualified to fight the French Navy, the guns of French ships will be discharged at United Nations targets. It is too bad, therefore, that the British did not finish the job they set out to do when it was reported they had blasted France’s Navy off the surface of the waters. Now the task will have to be undertaken all over again under greater difficulties than existed in the first attack. The balance of seapower in the Mediter ranean is growing more and more vital. When the Germans begin to use France’s warships either in direct attack or in convoy service the British Mediterranean fleet will have in creasing difficulty in preventing Hitler from landing more troops, tanks, munitions and other war equipment and supplies on the Afri can coast. If he succeeds in controlling that area, if he is strong enough in Africa to take Egypt and close the Suez canal to Allied ship ping, he will have delivered a mighty blow to the United Nations aqd paved the way either for an offensive on India or the conquest of Iraq and Iran. The French Navy could con tribute substantial, perhaps decisive, help in such a battle program. Italy’s play for Corsica and Nice is but a part of Hitler’s plan to use France as he pleases. When he gives the word Laval will “consent” to this, too. Unless Hitler is stopped soon there will be no more France. _v_ Great Imitators The Japanese are an imitative people. They create nothing but possess rare talent for ap plying what they learn from others to their own advantage. This faculty has been develop ed so thoroughly that up until now the Japa nese have had the edge in the fighting. Years ago, when the Unitel States initiated the “mother ship” for airplanes and then neg lected to carry on because the government and the people lulled themselves jointly into a dream of false security, the Japanese seized upon the airplane carrier as a major means of prosecuting war. When they plotted the attack on Pearl Har bor, when they struck in the Philippines, when they started their southward offensive and cleaned up in Malaya and Singapore and Java, when they lunched their offensive in Burma, they had superiotity in the air because they had provided themselves with a great fleet of plane carriers and could send their fliers aloft where and when they wished. We set the example. Japan applied it. Now that we have relearned the lesson at terrific cost, we have come to place the proper em phasis on ships built or converted for trans porting warplanes into areas marked for at tack. We will not again be caught, nor will our Allies, as we were at the start of the War in the Pacific. And when this war is over, when we assume the obligations and responsibilities of peace, it is to be hoped that we will not again delude ourselves with the belief that war can be prevented through disarmament. -V Abandon This Tax The Carolina Motor Club’s camapign for re moval of the city license on motor cars will be endorsed, and should be aided, by every auto owner in the city, not alone for the reason given by the club, that motorists are taxed out of all proportion to other taxpayers, but because it is an indefensible and unnecessary levy. The $5,000 it produces annually could well be absorbed by all taxpayers instead of car owners alone, and it should be so distributed. Furthermore, it gives suburbn residents who own motor cars and use the streets of Wilmington as much as dwellers within the city limits an advantage which represents un warranted favoritism. It is not so obvious that the second item in the motor club’s campaign, the removal of iron stop signs at intersections, is as greatly in the public interest. They are more visible than the same injunction would be if painted on curbs. While there would be some advan tage in painting the word “stop” in large letters on the surface of, the street itself the high cost of paint is an argument against it. The city is put to heavy expense to paint parking lines and other essential stripes in the streets. With the iron signs already in stalled it would appear that their abandon ment and substitution of painted pavement signs would involve unneeded expense. -V Junior Police Picnic Tomorrow will be picnic day for Wilming ton’s junior police force—t h e grand traffic squads who stand guard over street intersec tions near public schools and see that their fellow pupils have a safe crossing in going to and leaving school. Guests of the police department, these youngsters will go to Carolina Beach for their annual outing to swim and hold athletic con tests and feast on the things growing boys like best. Wilmington merchants, many of them with youngsters in school who enjoy the protection of their own traffic officers, will see to that. And beach authorities and operators of resort concessions will do their part in seeing to it that nothing is lacking, within their power to provide, to make the day a memorable one. It’s a great event for these boys and even a greater day for the regular traffic squad of the police department which acts as a composite guardian and director of the fes tivities. May both have the time of their lives. -V Another Siren Because the wind was from the west when the air raid sirens were blown, the noise they made was clearly heard throughout most of the city and in the suburbs to the east. But along the waterfront many persons fail | ed to hear even a peep. This was particularly true in buildings with west windows only open. The wind was carrying the blasts away. As the present siren set-up is experimental, and the purpose is to create a system of air raid warnings -hat will be effective in every nook and cranny, it is not inappropriate to suggest that an additionl siren be set up on the waterfront for the benefit of Wilmington ians whose work keeps them there for the major part of “the day. Washington Daybook By JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON, May 20. — The Capital in Wartime: The whole country is wondering what it’s going to do about vacations, but part of the answer is getting pretty close for the hundreds of thousands of government employes who work in Washington. They probably will get two weeks. This is about two weeks less than usual, but the theory is that if some rest and relaxation isn’t accorded the war workers, they’ll fold up under the strain. The catch is what the vacationists will do with their time. With no gasoline, pleasure travel on airplanes already out and a similar curtailment threat ened in bus and train travel it looks as if Rock Creek Park, Hains Point and the Great Falls of the Potomac will be swamped this summer. By one of those queer twists which only wartime can bring, this may be Wash ington’s biggest vacation year—with its own inhabitants. The capital is undergoing another perver sity. In spite of all the commuting into town, the commuting out is threatening to outdo it. Sections of OPA, the Census bureau and other agencies now are located at Suitland. The new Army building in Arlington, across the Potomac, employs thousands and will employ thousands more. The Navy Medical center is up the road quite a piece at Bethesda, Md. The list can go on and on. Some workers who live in the District of Columbia are even commuting to government offices in Balti more. It’s a situation that the housing experts hadn’t figured on when they advocated de centralization of government to suburban dis tricts and nearby cities. * • • War hardships are springing up all over the land, but this sad tale came from a treasury employe the other day. In a burst of patriot ism, plus sales pressure from bosses in his own department, he agreed to subscription to war bonds to the extent of 19 per cent of his salary. If present congressional recommenda tions go through his next year’s income tax will amount to ten per cent of his gross sal ary. He claims his cost of living is up eight per cent of his gross salary. Yet in the last two years, on civil service, he had no increase in wages. His war bonds, of course, are NOT only NOT less, but savings at interest. Still, if Secretary Morgenthau wants to dis cover why Washington war bond and stamp sales are not greater than they are, he could ask a few questions of the middle-income bracket employes in his own department. Some of the bigwig government employers around here apparently already have because the agitation for a “wartime bonus” for gov ernment workers in Washington is reaching real proportions. The most favored move on foot at present is to pay the “bonus” in war bonds, to which there hasn’t been the slight est objection. • • • The FBI has come forward with the enlight ening information that automobile accessory thefts jumped 26 per cent in the first three months of 1942 and the thefts of bicycles 29 per cent. That is pretty staggering in view of the fact that such thefts haven’t varied more than a few per cent for many years. Editorial Comment OUTLOOK FOR SPORTS Charlotte Observer Only a confirmed grouse could indulge any chuckles over the outlook for sports through out the nation as the heavy exactions of war are progressively laid upon the public and the nation’s norm of living. That outlook is gloomy and dismal. The consumingly popular outdoor recreations are almost bound to fold up before very long. Baseball faces the inevitable in the minor leagues. It will do well to survive in the majors. If there were no other reasons than auto mobile restrictions, this would be sufficient in itself to seal the doom of this game. People flock to the ball parks in their own cars or they simply do not flock there at all. And now that pleasure riding is virtually taboo, attendance, already far below normal, will keep on shrinking to the point of vanish ment. College football, an even more intensely ab sorbing sport, will fall under the same weight of restrictions. It is largely supported by people from dis tances, far and near, who ride in their own cars and have a day of fun and relaxation. Under the conditions which are now to pre vail, attendance at these games will be main ly confined to student bodies and townspeo ple who are near enough to walk or ride on the public buses. This is a lamentable situation but one that is unavoidable. The public will never need the benefits which derive from these more gripping sport ing events more than under the conditions into which they are headed. The days ahead will be overflowing with dread and anxiety and harassing worries_ the factors that depress and degenerate .Peo ple are going to have to do a lot of living with themselves and some of them make sor ry company. All in all, therefore, the threatened, if not the certain, decease of the great games in which so large a part of the public finds out let for pent-up emotions and its source of re laxation and recreation, can only be sensibly anticipated with deep and honest regret. 4 “JUST AN OLD COW HAND—!”_ As Others Say It STUPEFYING THE STUPEFIED. Hitler’s speech is said to have caused “stupefaction” in Rome. Then Hitler is a miracle worker. Who else could stupefy the stupe fied?—Lynchburg (Va.) News. ♦ * * RUNNERS FOR VICTORY. An increasing number of stock ings with runners in them are in evidence these days. Because such stockings are being worn to con serve material, we suppose run ners should be called victory.— Ohio State Journal. * » * GREECE FIGHTS ON! Reports of Greek guerrilla forces campaigning against the A x is should not have surprised us—in view of the magnificent fight waged against the aggressors in the earlier stages of the war. With Hitler pretty well occupied in oth er sectors, the Greek patriots may deal some effective blows to re trieve their land. —Jacksonville (Fla.) Times-Union. “JOE” Since long before the war, the Filipino scouts who fought with MacArthur have been calling United States soldiers Joe or Joe American. The nickname is now beginning to stick, and the sol diers in this country who call each other Joe are really paying tribute to the scrappy little scouts of Bataan.—From "Our Fighting Men” in Collier’s. * • * POLAND’S DANGEROUS SURPLUS The Nazi press in Poland wages a continuous campaign against the Polish intelligensia. The Nazis use every means at their disposal to discredit this group in the eyes of the Polish working people. One of the Nazi papers editorially state: "The intellecutals m Poland were people who belonged to a privi leged group and assumed the mor al right to be idle. There was a surplus of intellectuals in Poland, intellectuals of the worst kind.”— From News Flashes from Czecho slovakia. Raymond Clapper Says: U. S. Attitude Toward France Plainly Stated By RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON, May 26— Some misunderstanding seems to have grown out of a statement by this government regarding the future status of the French Empire, in cluding its overseas possessions. This matter is kicking around now in unofficial conversations among diplomatic people and oth ers regarding the future world set tlement. It has come into the dis cussion especially in the light of Vice President Wallace’s recent speech advocating an end to po litical and military imperialism aftar this war. * * * On April 13, Sumner Welles, act ing as secretary of state in the absence of Mr. Hull, addressed a note to the Vichy Ambassador here This note was in answer to a pro test from Vichy over the estab lishment of an American consulate general at Brazzaville in Free French Africa. Secretary Welles in his reply was taking the opportunity to express the American Government’s sup port of the French people. In that connection Mr. Welles said, "The Government of the United States fervently hopes that it may see the reestablishment of tne inde pendence of France and of the integrity of French territory.” He also said the United States rec ognizes the sovereign jurisdiction of the people of France over the territory of France and o ver French possessions overseas. That has been construed in some quarters as a pledge that after the war the United 'States would exert its influence toward the res toration of all colonies and pos sessions to France. These include not only Martinique but large areas in Africa, Madagascar, New The Literary Guidepost By JOHN SELBY “WASHINGTON IS LIKE THAT,” by W. M. Kiplinger: (Harpers; $3:5$. THOSE who look wonderingly to ward Washington, puzzled and per. haps abashed by its pyramiding bureaus and services, have found a friend in W. M. Kiplinger. Mr. Kiplinger and a staff of aides have produced a book called “Washing ton Is Like That” which really explains who is who and what is what in the capital. This is not a treatise on government or a so ciological study, although its basic fact might serve as the foundation for books in either of those fields It is simply a collection of in formation. It is objectively written, too, but not in the too-frequent sense of being washed o ut. A too objective approach can make a book read like a mail order cata logue, and be even less useful. Mr. Kiplinger’s book is first rate reading. You know that he has certain opinions and unless you are violently prejudiced one way or another you will feel that these opinions were developed out of experience, and not on a cracker box, somewhere. The book tells you what the President is like. It describes his house, his office, his working day. his staff, his recreation when he lias any. It describes, too, his sec retaries, his wife, tells what they eat when they are alone and what a state dinner consists of. The White House domestic staff and purchasing system are likewise detailed, and the expense of these. It is surprisingly low. At the end of the chapter you know a good deal more about the Chief Execu tive and his life than you would after a week’s visit. So with the other government officials. So with the government agencies, bureaus, departments; so with the Army and the Navy, the information services. Then Mr. Kiplinger goes on to the town itself — its social structure, its houses, its people and its in equalities. Even its “characters,” and the means by which a climber may crash the sacred precincts with skill, with money or by means of both. There is a section of tabloid biographies of key men, and another of standard Washington stories. A glossary of Washington terms has been pre pared, tongue often in cheek even Washington schools and gov ernment publications are de scribed, and means of obtaining the latter are detailed. Mr. Kiplinger has an X-ray eye. 5 Caledonia in the southwest Pacific, and French Indo-China. * * * Some have said that if the United States is giving a pledge to restore the colonial empire of France it should also pledge itself to assist in restoring the colonial empires of other powers, notably Great Bri tain and the Netherlands. So when Vice President Wallace and other officials talk about an end of im perialism spokesmen for other countries in the United Nations group then raise questions as to whether we are being consistent. There has been strong pressure on the White House for som kind of pledge with regard to restoring territory formerly held by other United Nations. So far as I can learn, it is not considered accurate to interpret the letter by Mr. Welles as a pledge to insist upon the return of all French territory. Secretary Hull said a few days ago at a press conference that the United States has had in mind at all times the preservation of the sov ereignity of France and her peo ple. Hut when asked if that meant the United States looked forward to the restoration of the w ho 1 e French Empire after the war and considered itself bound to that in a settlement, Mr. Hull replied that the question had neer been taken up. What we have taken up, he said, was the question of our concern for the French people and our desire rights and benefits that to see restoration of all French popular institutions, that is, the rights and benefits that the French Republic once enjoyed. * * * This government is still engaged in the study of what it would like to see emerge as the peace ar rangements. Until these studies are completed, perhaps within the course of a few more weeks, this government is scarcely in a posi tion to talk seriously with other governments regarding post war arrangements. However, the time is approach ing when it is likely that this gov ernment will begin to move in an attempt to work out at least some tentative and preliminary under standings as to the shape that the peace should take through the United Nations. It is not that anybody here is anticipating an early end to t h e war, but rather a feeling that it is desirable long in advance to be gin preparing for the end. Some also consider it desirable to do this in order to clarify the position of the United Nations in Asia where some elements are representing the Allied effort as merely an at tempt to restore the status quo. -V Factographs If you miss the matal clip that used to hold lead pencil erasers, think that the metal saved would make' about 13,000,000 cartridge cases for our soldiers. * * * Australia has been settled for 150 years. It was proclaimed a commonwealth with dominion sta. tus in 1901, and is governed on the federal plan with a parliament con sisting of a senate and house of representatives. Interpreting The War Allied Offensive Against Germany Drawing Nearer By KIRKE L, SIIVIpsqv Wide World Analyst Long maturing Anglo-American plans to bomb Hitler's home from in grim earnest are nearing -h. action stage to vindicate Prim Minister Churchill’s recent ass»C tion that “now is the time . strike hard and continually.’’*' 0 “The British and presently <• American bombing offensive ,1m be one of the principal feature- '■'! this year’s Wcrld War.’’ Churrtm added in that May 11 broadcast “Now is the time to use our a creasingly superior air strength " . . .now, while the German armi will be bleeding and burning UD their strength against a 2,000-mii. Russian line.” Two weeks later the command ers of American land and sea based air forces are in London flanked by an army operating staff of significantly high rank and as signment. In Admiral Towers and General Arnold and their aides the American command personnel for joint operations by air, and perhaps otherwise, is on the ground. That their arrival in England must intensify both the public clamor on both sides of the At lantic for second-front operations and the growing invasion jitters in Germany cannot be doubted. Nor will the presence of the American naval-military group fail to stir eager hope in Nazi - conquered countries—France, the Low coun tries, Norway—that the hour of their deliverance is nearing. Towers, Arnold and Company ar rived in London just as there were intimations from various sources of rising dissatisfaction in Berlin with the progress of Pierre La val’s “collaboration” program Their coming synchronized also with fresh rumors of German ef forts to obtain the remnants of the French war fleet. Admiral Cunningham. Britain's veteran former sea commander in the Mediterranean, now en route to Washington, admits that those French battlecraft in German hands would create a “nasty” sit uation for the Allies in that sea. His remarks contained a strong hint, however, that American na val forces are disposed to aid the British in meeting that issue if it comes. Nor can the inclusion o! Admiral Towers, Navy air chief, in the group flown to London be overlooked in that relation. Whatever the detailed minion oi the Towers - Arnold group in Eng land, or the time that may elapse before it bears fruit in Joint Anglo-American offensive action against German targets, the fact that such action is in the works for early consummation is unques tionable. Moreover, prompt publi cation of their arrival is an of fensive phase of the war-of-nerves, obviously deemed more important than the possible surprise value of American participation in British bombing operations. The arrival could have been con could from the foe. Instead, it was proclaimed to the world at large. That the underlying pur pose of that is to stimulate grow ing public antagonism to the Nazi sway in France, the Low countries and Norway seems obvious. It tends to throw a new monkev wrench into Laval’s wobbling col laboration machinery at Vichy. There is another angle on the sending to England of this prime American operating staff. Russian and Nazi forces have been locked in a tremendous struggle on a 200 mile front in the Ukraine for more than two weeks. Churchills prediction of Nazi armies "bleed ing and burnig up their streng-n is today an accomplished fact The implication is that An? r'r American moves in the west have been speeded up to take ad'ar tage of that fact. It reflects warn ington-London judgment that ■ ler is now too deeply engaged Russia to halt or turn back. a that he can spare neither men no planes to bolster his western « 1 nor to suppress growing rev ‘ against him in the conquered tries whre the bridgeheads t°- • vasion of the continent lie waiting Is That Soil The story of the Tortoise andin® Hare, with a modern twist, line — “Slow-Moving Blimp u - Super-Sub.” * * * Paraphrasing a noted radio median, Grandpappy Jenkins that, “Doolittle do'd it!” * * * ,• Another way in which this 1 -° war is different than the otnei " is that no one has started a * wearing two-toned shoes. * * * Some alert restaurant ^. have installed tablecloths « . maps of the eastern front P ■ , on them. The amateur g® may now open his campaign > gulfing the soup, then adv n briskly through the entree ■ ' achieving the desert—and vi •• On the other hand, dan*ejj|fst are considered among the t0 - of weeds. And yet they’re ) At that, Herr Goebbels’ W humor” campaign i°r T, rus might have succeeded—if Jn sians hadn’t counter-attache • j * * * ^ The octopus, according to * ed naturalist, is really a fral°'\,t.,v That’s amazing, considering * j well armed he is. ,
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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May 27, 1942, edition 1
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