North Carolina Newspapers

'Served By Leased Wire Of The ",l———— ASSOCIATED PRESS REMEMBER WIDE WORLD r.nT H.fmnn With Complete Coverage Of IrLAIIL I1AIIDUH State and National News 1 AND BATAAN yplja—NO. 259_ ESTABLISHED 186T. Churchill’s Reds Fall Back Government Before Germans Under Fire Angry House Insurgents Move To Challenge Prime Minister NON-CONFIDENCE NOW Group Draws Up Motion On Direction Of The War LONDON, June 23.—(IP)— Angry house of commons in surgents moved tonight to challenge Winston Churchill’s government with a non-con fidence motion condemning the military direction of the war. despite the announce ment that substantial land and air reinforcements now are reaching the battle-weak ened defenders of Egypt. An important group of M. p.'s headed by conservative S'r John Wardlaw-Milne drew up a motion for submission to the house declaring they had '■no confidence in the central direction and strategy of the war." Among the signers were understood to be Leslie Hore-Belisha, David Lloyd George, Earl Winterton and Arthur Greenwood. They will lead the opposi tion in a two-day debate which awaits the prime min ister's return from the United States. Churchill will be away "no longer than is absolutely necessary,” the house was told. A preliminary statement on the Libyan defeat by Clement R. Att lee," Churchill’s deputy, inflamed, rather than pacified the critics of what Wardlaw-Milne called “one of the most serious disasters” of the war. It was evident that the msur gents intended to launch a full (Continued on Page Three; Col. 4) LOCALUSODRIVE BEGUN LAST NIGHT Club Officials Meet With Civic Clubs At Banquet Wilmington’s campaign to raise S23.000 for the USO was launched Tuesday night at a dinner gather ing of representatives of civic clubs and local USO officials at the Friendly Cafeteria, “USO has something, not only a great ideal, but a great program for they have the American spirit and the American way of doing things,” declared the Rev. Walter B. Freed, chairman of the citizens committee in endorsing the organi zation. “I am for the USO,” the Rev. Mr. Freed continued, “because it represents the pioneering efforts of a united program in doing work among our soldiers and civilians whose lives have been terribly dis rupted by this crisis. To do this work, funds must come from us as citizens, not from the government I am sure that we tn Wilmington will raise our quota. “I became interested in what nis group of workers planned to do at the time the program was launched. I have watched it devel op and can say that USO has done a magnificent job. 1 say that after 15 months of cautious and careful study. There were many obstacles in the way. for it. was the first (Continued on Page Two; Col. 4) WEATHER FORECAST North Carolina: Moderate tempera 'Ure Wednesday. (By U. S. Weather Bureau) 'Meteorological data for the 24 hours ending 7:30 p. m. yesterday); Temperature 1:30 a. m. 76; 7:30 a. m. 76; 1:30 p. m. '4; 7:30 p. m. 77; maximum 80; mini Ir-Um 73; mean 76; normal 78. Humidity 1:30 a. m. 75; 7:30 a. m. 84; 1:30 p. m. St; 7:30 p. m. 75. Precipitation Total for the 24 hours ending 7:30 £ m. 1.14 inches; total since the first 01 the month 3.C8 inches. Tides For Today 'From the Tide Tables published by • S. Coast and Geodetic Survey): High Low Wilmington _ 5:36a 12:40a Xil 6:26p 12:55p Masonboro Inlet_3:11a 9:39a 4:03p 10:28p Sunrise 5:01a; sunset 7:27p; moonriss 3:14P moonset 1:50a. Capo Fear river stage at Fayette v,He, 8 a. m. Tuesday, 9.95 feet. (Continued on Page Three; Col. 2) P owerful Nazi Driv Force* Russian Retreat % GET NEW POSITIONS Axis Does Not Admit Heavy Fighting At Kharkov MOSCOW, Wednesday, June 24.— (/P) —A powerful new German offensive on the Kharkov front has forced Marshal Timoshenko’s forces to fall back to new positions while Sevastopol’s defenders continue to hold off numer ically superior Nazi forces af ter closing breaches tom in their fortifications by the enemy, the Russians an nounced early today. “On the Kharkov front our troops conducted operations against advancing German troops,” said the midnight communique. “Our troops were pressed back to new positions.” Violent new fighting erupt ed in this area of the south ern sector Monday after a period of quiet in the struggle for this vital industrial center and one of the keys to the Caucasus. Detailed informa tion was lacking but it was possible that Hitler might be starting one phase of a grand assault in an effort to reach the oil of the Caucasus even before a decision is reached at Sevastopol. Presumably the renewed fighting was in the Izyum-Barvenkova sec tor below Kharkov where the Rus sians stand athwart the rail line running south to Rostov, the main gateway to the Caucasus. It was here that the Russians got the jump on the Nazis and bent their lines back in their surprise spring offensive which broke up Hitler’s own preparations for a massive drive upon Rostov. (The Germans apparently play ing the fox on their operations and intentions, Tuesday reported only “mopping up” activities on the Kharkov front and made no men tion of fighting on a scale as large as the Russians indicated.) In raids up and down the front Monday the Russians listed 20 Ger man tanks, 100 troop-laden motor vehicles and two Nazi infantry bat talions smashed. In the battle for Sevastopol the Russian defenses about the Crim ean base stiffened after Red forces threw the Germans out of their newly-pierced fortifications but de spite this the peril to the Russians there remained of the utmost grav ity. While the haggard garrison con tinued to repulse repeated violent (Continued on Page Three; Col. 6) HOI EPASSES EWARMY BILL Appropriate 48 Billions For Building Army Of 4,500,000 WASHINGTON, June 23.- W — History’s largest legislative check for war expenditures — an appro priation of $42,820,003,606—was en dorsed swiftly today by a House determined to give Uncle Sam’s soldiers a mechanized striking strength surpassing that of the Axis. After five hours of discussion, the House passed the colossal measure 352 to 0 and sent it to the Senate. Military chiefs informed Congress it would pay, outfit and equip an armed force expanding to 4,500,000 men by July 1, 1943. The action came after both dem ocratic and republican spokesmen declared the United Nations were determined to defeat the Axis—re gardless of financial cost. The words of. Rep. Dirksen of Illinois, a midwestem republican reflected the spirit of the House as he stood in the well and, referring to the fall of Tobruk and the attack on Sevastopol, cried: “This bill comes to us in a dark hour. There will be other dark dayi ahead. But out of this bill spring* faith and hope a to what the ulti mate outcome of this show is going to be.” •■This is a measure of America s determination to win the war,’ de clared Rep. Case (R-SD). “When we were thrust in the back on December 7, we realized —one and all—that everything we (Continued on P»ie Two; Col. 6> uaid To Probably Look Like Cologne And Rostock Now LONDON, June 23.— (/P) —The Nazi submarine base and ship building port of Emden was pound ed with a tremendous weight of explosive and fire bombs by the RAF last night in its offensive to obliterate German ports and indus trial cities one by one. Emden, a major base for U-boats participating in the vital battle of the Atlantic, was pictured by one informed source as devastated aft er several hundred bombers in their third raid in four nights dropped hundreds of tons of explo sives and thousands of incen diaries. The Air Ministry said that the raid lasted less than an hour and that only six bombers failed to make the homeward leg of the 500-mile round trip. The naval base “probably looks very much like Cologne, Rostock and Luebeck now,” the source said British fighters continued their offensive in daylight with a mid day sweep over German-occupied territory. The docks at Dunkerque were at tacked by Boston, bombers and their fighter escorts. The Germans themselves aimed a twilight raid at a point on the south coast, stirring anti - aircraft batteries and RAF fighters into furious action. The great bombers, some of which carried eight tons of bombs, had clear weather and little diffi culty in locating targets at Emden, the Air Ministry said. Emden is a low-lying city at the mouth of the Ems-Jade canal and its wharves could accommodate the largest vessels. Its low-gabled houses, many of which lay in smoking ruins, gave the city the appearance of a Dutch town. Before the war, it was a cable center lor undersea lines to Brit ain, the United States and Spain. Its manufactures aside from ships and submarines include machinery, cement, soap, leather, tobacco and chemicals. 3 13 ALLIEDVESSELS ATTACKED BY SUBS Nearly All Sunk; Action Takes Place During 12 Day Period WASHINGTON, June 23.— Iff) — The Navy announced today that 13 United Nations merchant vessels “were victims of enemy submarine action” in the Caribbean area dur ing a 12 - day period beginning June 3. Most if not all of the vessels were sunk, it was understood here, either by torpedoes or by shell fire or in some cases by both. A series of survivor stories ob tained by the Associated Press, each from “a Caribbean port” and covering nine of the sinkings, showed a total of 23 men listed as dead, 186 missing and 354 rescued. Survivors told of suffering and heroism, of encountering English speaking Axis submarine comman ders, and of being photographed by a German cameraman. A Navy gun crew on a United States ship stuck to duty although one torpedo split their gun deck and another exploded below them, survivors said. The gun crew left the ship only when water lapped over the deck’s edge. The survivor stories mentioned victims of torpedoings who were (Continued on Page Three; Col. 5) Services Price Ceiling . To Take Effect July 1 _4 — Power Line Repairs Delayed By Queries SaysTWP Official Long delays in the restoration of electrical service disrupted by short circuits, storms and other emergencies could be avoided if customers would refrain from telephoning the power house, an official of the Tide Water Power company pointed out yesterday. The firm executive used as an example the cable short-circuit which caused the downtown sec tion to be without power for 32 minutes Monday. Seventeen minutes could have been saved if the engineer had been able to telephone the plant. If necessary to report an emer gency, he said, electricity con sumers should call the com pany’s main office. WASHINGTON, June 23— UR — Consumer services, a $5,000,000,000 industry carried on in 1,000,000 es tablishments throughout the coun try, were placed under a wartime price ceiling tonight with top prices pegged at the highest levels of March. The ceiling takes effect July 1. The order covers laundries, un dertakers, garages and all sorts of repair shops. As a general rule, it covers all retail services perform ed on things, such as shoe-shining and piano-tuning; and it exempts services performed on or for peo ple, such as those df barbers, doc tors and lawyers. Household repairs done by the job come under the order. As an example, the ceiling would cover a contract for reroofing a house if the contractor named a price for the whole job. If the house holder bought the shingles and I (Continued on Page Two; Col. S) I Shells Fired From Sea Strike Oregon Coast A shell, apparently fired from an unidentified vessel at sea, blasted this crater in a desolate section along the coast of Oregon north of the town of Seaside. At least nine shells were fired in that vicinity but none did any damage. Lieut. Col. P. T. Gregory (extreme left) directs searchers hunting for shell framents at the bot tom of the hole. The firing broke out several hours after a submarine shelled a lone ly section of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, several hundred miles north of the Oregon coast. CHINESE HOLDING JAPS ON 2 FRONTS Successful Counter - Blows Struck At Many Points CHUNGKING, June 23.— UP)—The Japanese drive to ooen an all-rail route from Shanghai to Singapore and thus obtain communications immune to sea attack, has been stalled at least temporarily on two of the vital fronts and the Chinese are counter - attacking successfully at so m e places, government sources announced today. But the invaders have reinforced their armies in the Chekiang-Kian gsi theater, where they are trying to force one part of the link, and, for effective counter blows, the Chinese need more weapons from their allies, a spokesman said. Since June 16 the jaws of the Japanese trap have remained sta tionary, unable to close a 50-mile gap on the 450-mile loop of the Chekiang - Kiangsi railway looping southward from Hangchow and Nanchang, the spokesman said. Today the high command report ed that the Chinese attacking be hind the east-bound spearhead had captured several points on the out skirts of Linchwan (Fuchow), 45 miles southeast of Nanchang in Ki angsi. A counter-attack behind the west, bound forces also succeeded in re gaining temporary possession of Wuyi, south of Kinhwa, Japanese held capital of Chekiang, the Chi nese said, but a reinforced Japa nese column struck back and oc cupied the town again and advanc ed to the south. Linehqan is 60 miles southwest of Kweiki, where the Japanese are stalled in their east-bound drive, and Kinhwa is 100 miles northeast of Shangjao, where the west-bound spearhead is still engaged in a bit ter fight. On the southern front in Kwang tung province, where the Japanese several weeks ago began a cam paign to complete their railway links, the spokesman said the ene my had been brought to a stop at the Pa river, about 40 miles north of Canton. In the Tsungfa area, 35 miles northwest of Canton, the Chinese have recaptured several villages, he said, while in the Sam. (Continued on Page Two; Col. 6) R o o s e v e 11 - Churchill Attack Ship Problem WASHINGTON, June 23— UP) — The shipping problem, an essential point in any consideration of Al lied strategy, was attacked today by President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and their rank ing advisers. The conference was officially described as one of the most important of the British of ficials’ current visit. In addition, the White House dis closed that the President and prime minister conferred at length yesterday with Dr. T. V. Soong. the Chinese foreign minister. The subject, said Stephen Early, Mr. Roosevelt’s secretary, was “of course, China in a military sense. The Churchill - Roosevelt con sultations. Early said, had not yet reached the stage at which they could be discussed in detail and in public, and Mr. Roosevelt’s usual Tuesday afternoon press con ference was cancelled. Early, how ever, reiterated a previous asser tion that a statement would be is sued when the meetings are ended In taking up the shipping prob lem, Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill dealt with what numer ous officials consider one of tha more acute phases of the war sit uation. American shipyards are working at top speed and turning out ves sels in record time. Their produc tion as yet, however, is lagging below the number of ships destroy ed by Axis submarines operating off the Eastern Seaboard. To date, enemy subs have sunk nearly 300 vessels. Patrol boats are being turned out in numbers, and only yester (Continued on Page Two; Col. 3) COMMUNIST FRONT ATTACKED BY DIES Committee Charges Group With Seeking To Alter Form of Government WASHINGTON, June 23— (IP) — The Dies committee charged to day that communist front organi zations had launched a campaign to “discredit" and “obliterate" Congress and thus alter the Amer ican form of government. A spearhead of the attack, the committee charged was the union for democratic action which it described as an “organization com posed chiefly of individuals who have been a significant part of the interlocking directorate of the com munist movement in the United States.” Efforts have been made, it in dicated, to purge members of Con gress on the ground that they had opposed some measures desired by the executive branch of the gov ernment. These efforts, the com mittee said, were based on the view that the ‘‘sole remaining func tion of Congress is to ratify by unanimous vote whatever wish is born anywhere at any time in the whole vast structure of the exe cutive branch of government down to the last whim of any and every administrative official.” (In New York, Dr. Frank King don, president of the union for democratic action, denied that the union was a communist front or ganization or sought to obliterate Congress. Both charges, he said, were “unadulterated lies.” He said his group wanted a Congress that would win the war and was op I (Continued on Page Two; Col. 8) PATTERSON TALKS BEFORE GOVERNORS Describes Rubber Situation As Dangerous; Nelson Also Speaks ASHEVILLE, N. C„ June 23.-1® —High government officials de scribed the nation's rubber situa tion as dangerous in question-and answer talks before the National Governors’ conference here today. Robert P. Patterson, assistant Secretary of War, outlining the needs of this country’s armed forces and of its allies, told how much rubber they required. “How we’re going to get that rubber for the Army, I don’t know,” he admitted to the assem bled chief executives of 35 states. He told them that the Army had substituted metal treads on its tanks for rubber, reducing the speed and making the machines more uncomfortable for their occu pants, in its effort to aid in the conservation program. Also, he said orders for trucks have been reduced. Donald Nelson, head of the War Production Board, and Leon Hen derson, Price administrator, dis cussed the rubber situation in de tail, including the present cam paign to salvage scrap rubber, but their remarks were off the record. Other phases of the war were discussed by Ralph A. Bard, under secretary of the Navy: Paul Mc Nutt, chairman of the War Man power Commission; James M. Landis, director of Civilian De fense; Joseph B. Eastmen, direc tor of Defense Transportation, and Wayne Taylor, undersecretary of the Department of Commerce, who represented Jesse F. Jones. Bard told the governors that the Navy had convoyed thousands of American soldiers to Australia and Ireland without the loss of a man. Because of its widespread con voy activities, he said it had been impossible to concentrate as ade (Continued on Page Two; Col. 8) ARGENTINAWANTS SINKING EXPLAINED Republic Takes Serious View of Nazi Torpedo ing of Vessel BUENOS AIRES, June 23—— Argentina is taking a “se r i o us view” of the sinking by a German submarine of the freighter Rio Tercero, with the loss of five lives, and will announce, probably to morrow. what steps will be taken to obtain satisfaction from Ger many, undersecretary for foreign affairs Roberto Gache announced tonight. ‘‘It has been clearly proved that the Rio Tercero was sunk by a German U-boat,” Gache said. “We know this because the cap tain went aboard the submarine after the torpedoing.” He declined to give additional details of Capt. Luis P. Scalese’s visit aboard the submarine which claimed the first loss of Argentina (Continued on Page Three; Col. 3) i Axis On March Toward Egypt HOUSE ASSAILS ARMY SPENDING Report Every Type of Waste In War Depart ment Dealings WASHINGTON, June 23 — <2P) — Hitting at “reckless spending,’’ mounting bureaucracy and cost-plus army contracts, the house military committee today issued a strongly worded report asserting that "nearly every conceivable type tff extrava gant waste" had been reflected in its investigation of War Department business dealings. “There has been evidence of wide spread and inexcusable waste of publi funds amounting to millions of dollars," declared the report pre pared by Chairman May (D-Ky), who said the year-old inquiry would continue. The committee split sharply on the findings, with three democrats re. rted to have join.d nine re publicans to approve the report, 12 to 9. The report criticized virtually every branch of the War depart ment, including the air corps, and likewise voiced displeasure with the Maritime Commission. Secretary of Commerce Jones, however, was com mended for “pushing the synthetic rubber program.” The committee urged that an im mediate curb-be placed on contracts awarded on a cost-plus-a-fixed-fee basis, asset-ting: This type of contract permitted excessive personnel, exorbitant salaries and led to the refusal on the part of contractors to sublet special ity contracts when they were total ly unprepared either to plan or execute them. Evidence of reckless expenditures under fixed-fee con tracts, particularly in the air corps branch, continues to increase in committee fil-s.” Of bureaucracy, the committee said there was a tendency on the part of the administration to create new boards, bureaus and commis sions, “whenever a new or varied problem is presented. ’ “Citizens of this country,” the re port warned, “cannot be expected to be faced interminably with indiffer ence in spending on the part of the officials of their government after (Continued on Page Three; Col. 2) WILMINGTONlAN IS AMONG MISSING Robert Archie Wilkes Is On Latest Navy Listing WASHINGTON, June 23 — (ffl— The Navy’s total of dead, wounded and missing announced in the war to date rose to more than 10,000 today with the release of casualty list number 5, Declaring that the “preponderant share” of the casualties resulted from direct action with the enemy while the rest occurred in the line of duty in the sea or in the air, the Navy announced the number of dead in the new list as 98, with 8 wounded and 2,101 missing. The casualties included personnel of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. The list covered casualties re ported to next of kin during the period May 11-June 6. The names and next of kin: Dead: George Rome Clawson, Jr., fire man second class, father, George Rome Clawson Sr. Salisbury. Ernest Josiah Owenby, Jr., fire man third class, father, Ernest Jo siah Owenby, Sr. Candler. Wheeler Holden Rawls aviation (Continued on Page Two; Col. 3) -V French Press Announces Fight Against American And Anglo-Saxon Greed VICHY, Unoccupied France, June 23.—iff)—The anti-Soviet French Expeditionary force has been converted into a Le gion which “will fight against American imperialism and An glo-Saxon greed” as well as the Russians, the French press an nounced today. , “It will henceforth fight everywhere French interests are involved—in Europe as in Africa,” said the Paris news paper Aujourd ’Hui in head lines bigger than those telling of Pierre Laval’s speech last night calling for Frenchmen to go to work in Germany. This newspaper described the Legion as “an enlarged, officialized legion of French volunteers. Thanks to it, to morrow Mers-El-Kebir, Damar, Damascus and Diego Suarez will be avenged and the Eng lish punished for their crimes and their rapine.” Rommel’s Armored Col umns Moving on British Outposts BOMBERS HIT BENGASI U. S. Planes Strike Nazi Supply Base Leaving Numerous Fires CAIRO, June 23.— (iP) —* Heavy Axis mechanized formations, bringing with them the threat of impending attack, rumbled toward hast ily consolidated British out posts near the Egyptian frontier today as American bombers joined with war in the desert with a devastating raid on the Axis supply base at Bengasi. A dispatch filed by an As sociated Press correspondent with the British forces near the Egyptian frontier at noon today said big armored units under the command of Ger man Field Marshal General Erwin Rommel have moved toward the British bordir positions. “There is no indication when the battle will be joined but the enemy seemed to be moving the greater part of his armord forces toward this area,” the correspondent, Harry Crockett, said. The bombing attack, m which the United States flieis and the RAF teamed up Sun day night, left numerous fires in Bengasi, 300 air miles west of Egypt and caused damage to railway sid ings and ship piers, the RAF an nounced. A formation of the four-tnotorea Consolidated*, which the Americans call B-24's and the British call Liber ators, only last week set fire to two battleships and other vessels of the Italian navy. Air scouts reported Axis trucks moving up about 12 miles west of the border, -but the main strength of Rommel's army was said to be still about 50 miles distant. Roving patrols of both sides prowled the desert southwest of Fort Capuzzo, but a British communique reported no great amount of action. Axis reports asserted armored forces already had reached the frontier, and dispatches from the desert confirmed that they had seized Sidi Azeiz airdrome, only 12 miles west. Sldl Azeiz also was the railroad on the line from Matruh, Egypt. The British recently had been extending the line on toward Tobruk. A serious aspect of the situation was the extent of British equipment losses in the past four weeks of fighting, plus the possibility that Rommel would get reinforcement* (Continued on Page Three; Col. !) CANAMTOlEVY INCREASED TAXES Will Help Meet New War Budget of Three Billions OTTAWA, June 29—(#—Finance Minister J. L. Ilsley tonight an nounced sharp general increases in Canada’s income service and com modity taxes to help meet new war budget estimates of $3,900,000,000 for the fiscal year beginning April I—an increase of almost $1,000, 000,000, or one - third over last year’s expenditures. The new taxes will add about $337,850,000 to Canada’s revenue during the year, Ilsley said, but this would still leave the income $1,850000,000 short of the expendi tures. The increased income tax will be collected at the source and will raise an estimated $115,000,000, or nearly one-third of the new reve nue. Under the new law a married man with an income of $2,000 a year and without children will be liable to a tax of $431 a year in stead of $175, the present tax. Of that amount, $231 will be the tax proper and $200 will be consid ered as compulsory minimum sav ings, to be refunded after the war at two per cent interest. Excess profit taxes will be In creased from 75 to 100 per cent, and additional taxes are added to present levies on tobacco, liquor, soft drinks, furs, transportation, telephones, chewing gum, jewelry photographic supplies and other goods and services. The finance minister’s total esti mates for war and normal exendi tures this year were $3,570,000,000 including a $1,000,000,000 gift to > (Continued on Fuse Two; Col. 1)