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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., Postoffice Under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY CARRIER Payable Weekly Or In Advance Combina Tlme Star News tion 1 week_» -25 3 -20 3 .35 1 Month _—- 1-10 -90 1-50 3 Months _ 8.25 2.60 4.55 6 Months__ 6.60 5.20 9.10 ! Year _ 13.00 10.40 18.20 News rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue of StarNews BY MAIL Payable Strictly in Advance Cotnbina Star Newrs tion 1 Month--——3 .75 3 -6® 3 -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. TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1942 With confidence in #ur armed forces — with the unbounding de termination of our people—we will gain the inevitable triumph — so help us God. —Roosevelt’s War Message ■ . . . ■ 1,1 Star-N ewsProgram 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. 35-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 Wi od Production through sustained-yield methods through out Southeastern North Carolina. Unified Industrial and Resort Promo tion'll Agency, supported by one county wide tax. Shipyards and Drydocka. 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 “Live and let live!” was the call of the Old— The call of the world and the world was cold— But “live and help live” is the cry of the New— The cry of the world with the Dream shining through— The cry of the Brother World rising to birth— The cry of the Christ for a comradelike earth. —EDWARD MARKHAM. -V New Registration Anxious parents need have no fear that their sons of 18 and 19, who are called upon to register today will be inducted into mili tary service immediately. It may never be necessary to call them. We can only hope that it will not. But it is a wise step by the government to register them, lest their services be needed at some future time and a costly delay be caused by failure to have this preliminary work done. With today’s registration, some 43,000,000 men will be on the lists ranging from 18 to J5 years. All may be required before this war Is ended, but as suggested neither the boys nor the old men face the prospect of an early call. -V Last Day Sale of automobile use stamps is reported slow throughout the country. Wilmington has done as well as the average American city, but there are still many motor vehicle owners who have neglected purchasing the stamp which will give them the right to operate their cars during the coming fiscal year. But Wilmington owners will have to do bet. ter in the single day that remains for buying them if they have any hope or intention of driving even the limited mileage that will be possible under the new rationing rule, for it is a part of the rationing program that gaso line will be sold only to owners possessing the stamps in addition to ration cards. It may well be that the necessary $5 is not at hand, in the case of many tardy owners. There have been exceptional demands upon the pocketbooks of citizens not only to meet the rising cost of living but to help support the campaigns for financial support of worthy organizations, and cash is generally low. But the fact that money is short will not excuse anyone for' failure to have the stamp when visiting a filling station for the few drops oi gasoline allowed. By some hook or crook it will be necessary to dig up the money for the stamp or put the family bus away. And the money must be dug up today. -V The Water Bonds Tomorrow’s bond election will decide whether Wilmington is to have an adequate supply of water free from salt infiltration or continue, perhaps for years, to be subject to periodical contamination from ocean water when deficiencies in the rainfall and simul taneous high tides lessen the flow in the Cape Fear watershed. There is on hand at Washington an ample amount of federal money to pay for neces sary expansion of the water system. It is to be available only when the people of Wilming ton provide the money needed to develop a source of supply. Th government’s position is that the question of a water supply existed long before Wilmington became part of a de fense area and while the government is ready to help meet the increasing need for more water as a result of the heavier population resultant from defense projects, the source thereof is still Wilmington’s own problem and must be solved by the city itself. When this attitude was revealed, the Wil mington authorities set to work to examine a variety of water sources, employing the best engineering skill to find the best. After an exhaustive survey, which included ground wa ter at varying levels from eight to 300 feet, and the Northeast river at and above Castle Hayne, as well as the Cape Fear, the ex perts concluded that the only source capable of providing all the water needed for the growing community at all seasons was the Cape Fear river about King’s Bluff, and wrote a comprehensive report giving t h e ii reasons for so deciding. The proposed bonds, therefore, are to cre ate a delivery system of Cape Fear water from King’s Bluff to the city’s filtration plant, the cost of which has been provided through an earlier bond issue. Do Wilmingtonians want an adequate supply of water? That, fundamentally, is the only question involved in tomorrow’s election. If they do not, they must be reconciled to have their plumbing corroded annually and to go to any of the few wells which private own ers are in the habit of opening to public use during periods of salt infiltration. As the cost of the bonds will be fully met by water department revenues, there is no direct expense to be levied upon taxpayers. On the other hand they will be put to the expense of renewing their plumbing yearly, if they can purchase pipe and fixtures, which is doubtful in this period of strict priorities. -V Rommel Forges Ahead The situation in the Egyptian zone of battle becomes more desperate for the British with each succeeding dispatch. With Matruh taken, Field Marshal Rommel’s forces must be stopped quickly or they will be hammering at the gates of Alexandria, and there is no assurance that the British are to be better able to hold that vital port than they were at To bruk or Matruh. The surrender of Alexandria would be as crippling to United Nations operations as was the fall of Singapore or of Java. Seizure of the Suez canal would be the next step and thereafter Syria, the oil fields of Iraq and Iran and either a sweep northward into the Caucasus or eastward against India. Even if these latter operations were blocked, the Brit ish would have lost their last weak hold in the Mediterranean and the chief life line of the British Isles be throttled. The one chance of a British victory, as mat ters now stand, lodges in a large contingent of American bombers and fighter planes, which have thus far been able to fly to Africa under their own power. Whether enough can be rushed into action to stem the Nazi onrush remains to be seen. It is admitted that bombers are not particu larly effective against tanks, upon which Rommel is depending chiefly in his present operations. But they could tear his communi cations to pieces and wreak havoc among be hind-the-lines troop concentrations. The fighting in Egypt is at the crucial stage. Within a day or two it will be known whether Hitler is to dominate the Mi d die East with its great and rich resources, or be driven back. -v_ Rubber From Alcohol The senate Agriculture committee makes out a strong case against dollar-a-year mem bers of the War Production Board’s chemi cals branch, claiming they have held up a program for producing synthetic rubber from grain alcohol lest it create post-war competi tion with firms with which some of them had been associated. This may show business shrewdness, says the committee, but “it likewise displays a se rious failure to appreciate the necessity of keeping America on wheels and winning the war.” The committee demands that the sen ate endorse a proposal for setting up rubber supply agency for producing rubber from al cohol, and adds: “There is no explanation by any responsible official of why this country, in setting up a program for the production of synthetic rubber, gave consideration only to untried laboratory experiments from petrol eum, which will require twice the time and many times the critical material needed to produce the same synthetic rubber from al cohol.” The clearest implication of the committee’s report is that men in key positions in gov ernment are nursing the belief that business as usual is possible during the war emergency and in the period immediately following re establishment of peace. This is tragic. -V Chinese Take To The Air What the infant Chinese air force has done to Japanese invading forces is exceedingly small in comparison with enemy air exploits over China, but it encourages the belief that with more planes and more experience, Chi nese fliers will give a steadily improving ac count of themselves. Trained by American fliers and obviously provided with American planes the Chinese bombers sank two enemy warships in their first adventure at Sinti, in Hupah province, and followed this with a bombing raid on Jap anese positions in eastern Kaingsai two days later, blasting an enemy concentration near Kaingsai’s capital and blowing up pontoon bridges on the Ru river, as they returned to their base. Inasmuch as the Japanese have had their own way in the air for nearly five years of warfare in China, these exploits give promise of stiffening opposition in the months to come, and even justify a hope that the help America is now giving will prove sufficient to turn the tide of battle in the Chinese zone. This hope is the more justified by reason of the recent successes of the American Volunteer Group which is to be taken into the Chinese mili tary force on July 4. There is nothing to indicate a quick change, but that a change for the better will eventually come is a fair assumption. -_V Washington Daybook BY JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON, June 29—In spite of all that has been written or said, I doubt if the reading public, as a whole, is much excited over the appointment of Elmer Davis as chief of the Office of War Information. If it isn’t, it’s one of those mistakes which democracies sometimes make. There hasn’t been a man come to Washington since the war effort started who has had such whole-hearted support—in advance—as Elmer Davis. If he fizzles in his broad task to give the public all of the news, clearly interpreted, which won’t seriously damage us by providing information to the enemy, it will be because there is some thing incurably wrong with our information system—and not necessarily with Mr. Davis. » « * The press relations battle in our government is a four-cornered fight. The people, who after all are entitled to the first say, have as their No. I complaint that they are not being re liably informed; that much information is con flicting; and that too much of it is delayed. There is a second group, centered in Con gress but not exclusively there, which con tends that the present set-up is costly, inept, and concerned principally with grinding its own agency axes. A third faction in the battle royal feels that the public should be fed only propaganda— should be told only what is good for it in the ngnt oi our war effort and tnat all press rela. tions agencies should be coordinated with this in mind. The fourth battalion is composed of certain “ins” and their supporters and some of these, sadly enough, would be willing to sabotage any change to prove their present set-ups are the most effective. Davis enters the arena a topflight favorite with all but the last group and those who think the news should be buttered on both sides before it’s handed over for public con sumption. Davis, in his journalistic endeavors both in print and on the radio, has proved that he belongs to the tougher school which believes that the American people can take it —the good with the bad. * * * His only definite and conclusive statement of objective since his appointment has been that he hopes to give the public “more news, more clearly interpreted.” His powers, laid down by the definitions of the executive order appointing him and set ting up OWI, are broad enough in print to permit him to do exactly as he desires. But there is many a slip between an execu tive order and execution. If this is just another governmental spring house-cleaning which, as one correspondent expressed it, might consist only of sweeping the dust under the rug, then Davis has sacrificed in vain his $1,000 a week job in private life for about one-fifth that in the service of his wartime government. 3 -V Editorial Comment SEVASTOPOL New York Times On the north side of the Bay of Sevastopol is an inlet which is called, or used to be called, Syevernaya Harbor. On its shores are buried 100,000 Russian soldiers who fell during the siege of 1854-55. A little to the east is the site of the “soldiers’ battle” of Inkerman, where French, British and Russian infantrymen butchered each other all one bloody day, with bayonets and clubbed muskets. On the south ern side of the Sevastopol Peninsula is Balak lava, where the Light Brigade made the charge that was magnificent but not war. We have forgotten why that campaign was fought. Much more has been forgotten during the twenty-four centuries since the Greeks came to the Golden Chersonesus, the Cherson of the Romans, to trade in wine and olives. We do not know what deeds of valor were performed between the bay and the Black Sea, and the river and the cape, and not remembered. Today, in a new war, we read of k ghastly battlefield in the suburbs of Sevastopol, “quak ing under shells and bombs falling amid lilacs and poppies such as bloomed on Flanders fields” during the first World War. The fleet • thunders from the sea, bombs and heavy guns over the land. Soldiers come to hand-to-hand conflict, as they did eighty-seven years ago. The Nazis want Sevastopol as a sop to the Austrain painter’s vanity, and as a way sta tion on the road to world dominion. What it costs in German lives is of minor interest to the High Command. The Nazis fight their way toward the city, toward the little squares sur rounded by tall trees, toward the Southern Bay, which reminds an American observer a little of the Hudson opposite Manhattan. They may reach their destination, fighting street by street, house by house, death by death. What one can say, at this distance, is just this: There has been no courage in this region in historic time that can match the courage that is being shown there now; if every position in the United Nation is de fended as this is being defended, with the spirit not of defense but of impassioned attack, we need have no fears as to the outcome of this struggle. The Russian battle is not merely magnificent—it is war. 3 SO RED THE ROSE! —-. Civilian Defense Timetable BASIC TRAINING COURSE All courses meet at 8 p.m. in High School room 109. Fire Defense A — Every Mon day General Course — Every Tues day Gas Defense B — Every Wed nesday SPECIAL COURSE Fire Defense B — Thursdays at 8 p.m., Fire Dept. Headquarters 1st lecture — July 2 2nd lecture — July 9 3rd lecture — July 16 MEETINGS Auxiliary P o 1 ice — Thursday July 2, at 8 p.m. in Recorders Cohrt room, Court House. Casualty Stations — medical Corps, first aid assistants only, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., Church of the Covenant and St. Paul’s Luth eran church. “Before the Doctor Comes’’ High TRAINING FILM School Auditorium, Wednesday July 1, at 8 p.m. (First Aid train ing) -V ‘Before The Doctor Comes’ To Be Shown By Red Cross At High School Auditorium A motion picture, “Before the Doctor Comes,” sponsored by the American Red Cross, will be shown in the High School audi torium Wednesday night at 8 o’clock. The film demonstrates the prop er method of rendering first aid and was loaned to the local Red Cross chapter by the North Car olina Shipbuilding company. All first aid instructors and those having taken Red Cross first aid are urged to attend. The general public is invited. The large auditorium will fur nish a cool place in which to view the picture, it was pointed out. Raymond Clapper Says: Not Yet Time To Expect Immediate Second Front By RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON, June 29—People may be disappointed if they try to read too much into the an nouncement that Maj. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower has arrived in London to take command*of the European theater for United States forces. Tne move works toward the of fensive in Europe that has been planred for some time. But to ex pect it to blossom into an all-out offensive overnight could only lead to disappointment. General Eisen hower’s arrival in England does not mean that arrangements for an offensive are completed but on the contrary that the organization still is in its early stages. Work has been going on for a long time here. Forces and materials have been moving across for some time. The assignment of a commander marks another stage in the prep aration. Announcements made when our air officers were in England re cently suggest that the air offen sive will be opened first. British authorities have indicated that Commando operations will be in creased as another prelminary phase of the offensive. American forces naturally would be expected to play an increasing part in these raids. It is possible they can be expanded to the point where they will open the way for later in vasion operations. Presumably American and British forces would be made ready to take advantage of any opportunity which might appear unexpectedly from Com mando activities. But the heavy striking force that will be necessary unless air attack works a miracle must be much slower in building up. If air proves unable to smash Germany alone, then a heavy invasion attack will be necessary. Building up such a force is not an overnight job. Ship ping must be available to supply the forces as they expand. Enor The Literary Guidepost By JOHN SELBY “DRIVIN’ WOMAN,” by Eliza beth Pickett Chevalier (Macmil lan; $2.75). I first heard of Elizabeth Picketl Chevalier’s “Drivin’ Woman” in a New Haven railway train from the gleeful agent who had the job ot peddling the manuscript. The manuscript had everything, the agent declared. What was nicer for Mrs. Chevalier, it got every thing: magazine serialization, Lit. erary Guild choice, and before publication a nice fat sum out of Hollywood. The impression w as aroused, somehow, that Mrs Chevalier was a starry-eyed young thing just starting in the writing game. She is, however, Wellesley ’18, and has behind her a productive career in several fields, including movie writing. This has been a help in the production of "Drivin’ Woman.” The book began, apparently, with a close analysis of an ob scure book by Margaret Mitchell called “Gone With the Wind.” Es sentially, “Drivin’ Woman” fol lows Miss Mitchell’s formula with remarkable fidelity. There is a heroine with elastic ideas of the proprieties, poorer than she wants to be, determined to get along, in love with a scapegrace. This time her name is America Moncure. There is Fant Annable in Rhett Butler’s role, scapegrace as afore mentioned. Fant is trying to make a.living as a gambler on Mississip pi River boats while waiting for his Kentucky relatives to die and leave him their estates. America’s and Fant’s attachment is mu c h the same as Scarlett’s and Rhett’s. There is the steady admirer, too, played in “Gone With the Wind” by Leslie Howard. I believe. His name in “Drivin’ Woman” is Stone Moncure. The parallel could be ex. tended quite a space, even to the matter of go-getter background. America and the rest of them are mixed up in tobacco. The time is a little later than "Gone With the Wind,” to wit, the reconstruction period after the war. Mrs. Chevalier provides a re- 1 markably amusing group of back ground characters, and her setting . shifts from Virginia to Kentucky, . a cer^a'n earthiness the older book lacks. It will make the ; same kind of movie, and the chief characters can even be played by 1 the same actors, if the producers ’ can forego another world-wide tal- s ent rodeo Although I did not count i m°«dSV I?rivin’ Woman” seems a t lit a than its ancestor, and i a little lighter. ■ •* 1 mous reserves of tanks and other equipment must be on hand or their arrival in steady stream must be insured in advance. Our ship building program ought to have a few months more to make sure that enough ships of the right types are on hand. We must be able to replace the heavy expendi ture of material that would occur once fighting began on a large scale. All of that is in addition to the first task, which is the as sembling and final training of suf ficient number of troops. What we see now is the result of past decisions and past plan ning. For some time military men have pointed toward action in Eu rope, and have hoped to be able to move forward to that end with out having too much of American force scattered in other places. While such an offensive is being prepared we are taking opportun ity to advertise it rather openly. General Marshall, Chief of Staff announced at West Point recently that in time American t r o o ps would land in France. We are using the opportunity to encourage our friends and to worry our en emies. General Eisenhower’s ar rival in London is particularly timely because the loss of Libya has been a severe blow to the British public. It also serves to sustain the hopes of the Russians, who are at this moment engaged in what may be one of the de cisive battles on the e a s t e rn front. During such a time as this when the war news is bad, there is a natural tendency to indulge in fran the clamor, which if it were all heeded would result in dissipating our force by scattering it in so many places that no real blow could be struck anywhere. No reverse anywhere is unimportant. But military men here have to strike a balance and consider what is most necessary to win. They have pretty well agreed that Hit ler must be smashed first even though it is the hardest task of all. Once such a decision is reached preparations must be made over a long period of time. It is nec essary to hew to the purpose re gardless of reveses at other points which may be serious in them selves but which cannot determine the outcome of the war. Every thing one hears here indicates that the decision is fixed and that no attempted diversions by the enemy will succeed in forcing any im portant departure from the pro gram which is highlighted now by General Eisenhower’s arrival in England to set up the European theater of American operations. Kerr Scott To Meet With County Board G. T. Scott of Raleigh, chairman >f the state agricultural war board vill meet here Friday night with he New Hanover county board -ounty Agent R. W. Galphin said ’esterday. Rationing as affecting farmers (till be discussed at the meeting vhich is to be held in the county w/ t °ffic,e lnLthe customshouse. icott has also been invited to at tftanv?®ing^u the facers club }. • °ef°ck Thursday night at Ih-ightsboro school. I | Interpreting The War Axis Desert Columns Closer To Alexandria Whh Fall Of Matru} BY KIRKE L. SIMPSOV Wide World War Analyst Britain’s hard - pressed arniv i. Egypt appeared still on re 1 eastward as Prime Mhi.f Churchill, back in London from conferences with President Rm velt, prepared to face critic* : parliament. cs 111 With the fall of Matru'n the A desert juggernaut has rolled A‘S ominous step closer to Alexandria" That, too, at a moment when expanded German offensive r” Russia gravely threatens Mar-i,") Timoshenko’s lines at a erbi point eastward of Kursk ' ° Churchill expressed Calm rnnfi dence that Egypt could and J,'. | be held before he left Washing but the basis of that confidence was not revealed. The situation deteriorated from Imperial fc “ ; since he spoke. Nor is there an, indication that measures devised Egypt or in Russia have been » readied for action. '5t London observers believe <in Nazi lunge eastward from Ku-u' 140 miles north of Kharkov „v' Hzes the opening of the main Hitler offensive in Russia. They defi^ the Nazi objectives as an effort rip Russian armies of the Sor ( and central fronts apart in ptepT ation for a great southward tun ing movement aimed at Rostov and the Don crossings into the Can casus. Loss of Kupyansk, 60 miles east southeast of Kharkov, had already seriously impaired Russian north south communications. The new drive eastward from Kursk men aces Timoshenko’s supply lines ev en more gravely. Presumably the German attark from Kursk is grooved to the Kursk railroad to Voronej. 130 miles due east. If it should reach that junction point, it would virtu ally cut Russian armies in the south off from the Moscow region except for round-about and inade quate routes. Russian danger is far less im minent than that of the British in Egypt, however. Unless the Kursk thrust is to be expanded on a wide front both north and south, there seems small prospect of an im mediate crisis. In Egypt, the speed and force with which Rommel is driving eastward despite the probable weariness of his troops and the strain of ever lengthening supply lines, harried by British-American bombers, is startling. The implica tion is that British reinforcements have not yet come up in sufficient force to warrant a stand and that the remnants of the eighth army are falling back upon them to a shorter front some 100 miles or more from Alexandria. If the German attack in Russia has now fully developed, it seems clear that rumors of German con centrations in Crete and in the Italian and Greek islands of the Aegean for an air-borne thrust at Cyprus, Syria or behind the British front in Egypt are due for early testing. Expectation of such a sup plemental blow in the Middle East may have led the British to give more ground in Egypt in order w contract the defense area. ! -V As Others Say It TOO TAME While the major reformers rave over their mighty projects to re form the world, while Hitler glares at his crystal ball and vice President Wallace consults fee Delphic oracle, we will contert oursef with the small matter o. chasing “task force” out of fee language. It does not stir our martial ardor.—Chicago Tribune. 'BOBBED HAIR FOR WAACS ; It looks like bobbed hair l°r the WAACS. "A neat and not un military appearance will he objective,” according to a train®!! school officer. A not unmi-ua:.' bob means, it seems, “shearing ajj tresses at the collar-line level —Charleston (S. C.) Evening P» INDOMITABLE WILL The indomitable will of American navy is expressed in the navy boats. When nothin* of the aircraft carrier Lexingt® was left but a blazing hulk s; American destroyer had to 8in* her with torpedoes.—The San.o Herald. TONIC FOR AMERICANS There could be no better ton* for American alertness than >* constant repetition of the phra^ “The war can be won or lost n the next six months.” And tc* would not be a synthetic, unre® slogan. It is quite within no bound s of possibility that, with this period, events will have Pj8’ determined either victory or c{' feat.—Atlantic Monthly. ADVENT OF THE ’SKEITER ( It is said by an old citizen «• Wilkesboro that he never sav’ mosquito in this part of the try until about 50 years ago v'W a storm blew them up here the coast. What annovs hun ; that he’s never been able to *^; in the dark the mosquitos aever have anv trouble *m him.—North Wilkesboro Hustle* ELECTION YEAR BAKOMETE® There may be treasury wa*t logs in Congress who don't ca i fig about the soldiers' votc(!,j be November election, but ^ 'ecord on the pay boos' from ^ o $50 for buck privates reads 1 ■ his: House, 363 to 0: Senate o 0.—St. Louis Post-Dispatcn
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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June 30, 1942, edition 1
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