HUtmttgtmt mgrntttg £tar North Carolina’s Oldest Daily Newspaper Published Daily Except Sunday By The Wilmington Star-New* At The Murchison Building B. B. Page, Owner and Publisher_ Telephone All Department* _DIAL 3311__ Entered as Second Class Matter at Wilming ton, N. C., Postoffice Under Act of Congres* of March 3. 1879. SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY CARRIER Payable Strictly in Advance Combina Time Star News tion 1 Week .—.$ -25 $ -20 $ 33 1 Month . 1-10 -90 J.SO 3 Months .. *-25 2.60 4.55 5 Months . «-50 -S-ZO 9.10 1 Year . 13-00 10.40 18.20 News rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue of Star-News ' BY MAIL Payable Weekly Or In Advance Combina Time Star News tion 1 Month .* -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 exclusve nse of all news stories appearing in The Wilmington Star. MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 1943 With confidence in our armed forces — with the unbounding de termination of our people—we will gain the inevitable triumph — so help us God. —RooseveltV War Message Our Chief Aim To aid in every way the prosecu tion of the war to complete vic tory. _ — THOUGHT FOR TODAY Whatever be one’s lot it is best, as someone has wisely said, “to make the most of the best and the least of the worst.’’ —From “The Lutheran.” -V Chile The nineteenth Latin American country to unite with the United Nations, Chile places in the balance against the Axis almost illimi table resources of vital materials for war. From the Peruvian border southward to Cape Horn, Chile unrolls in a narrow ribbon for 2,600 miles through three distinct zones— the mineral-studded deserts of the north, the agricultural midlands, and the forest belt of the south. Throughout its entire length, this marginal strip of South America, averaging about 100 miles in width, is edged by the Pa cific ocean on the west and by the towering Andes on the east. In the north, stretches of gray and yellow green sand and rock indicate the famous ni trate country,' with by-product and additional resources in iodine, sa<*, borax, and sulphur. In this region are also copper, iron, manga nese, gold, silver, and other ores. Farther south are sizable coal deposits. Nitrate provided the chief source of national income during the first World war. Although copper exports now amount to more than half the total value of mineral shipments, ni trate shipments to the United States last year were estimated at more than 800,000 tons. Half way down the coast, Chile becomes in sular as well as continental. This insular do main, the Patagonian archipelago, comprises a loose mosaic of islands and islets extend ing to the tip of the continent. Gulfs, bays and inlets abound. Patagonian channels, in general, are deep with steep shores. The sea has much influence on Chilean life. It modifies the extremes of climate, offers many good harbors and anchorages, changes the course of ships by the strong “set” of the Humboldt current, shapes plans and fortunes by its winds and tides and fogs, is the where withal of sizable fishing and whaling industry, provides routes for the shipment of strategic materials. It gives access to needed ma chinery, textiles and petroleum, sustains a coastal trade amounting to 1,600,000 tons in 1939. Moreover, the sea serves for boundary all of Chile’s twenty-four provinces, except three, extend from the Pacific to the interna tional frontier. Of the country’s twelve cities with 25,000 or more people, five are ports. Through all ports in 1940 passed imports valued at $101,422,000, and exports amounting to nearly $140,000,000. Compared to the ease of using the sea gate way, the mountain wall to the east is a formi dable barrier pierced by few passes. Moun tain-bred rivers, seeking a ready-made out let, head for the coast. | Some peter out in desert region. Midland rivers are the biggest, and are navigable for about 850 miles. Nowhere is there a community far from the coast. A railway zigzags along the shore line, the longest link in the nation’s 5,750 mile network. Coastal and interior highways fit for motor traffic total about 20,000 miles. A chain of naval wireless stations operates from coastal sites. Cables linked with the country’s telegraph system connect the chief ports with the outside world by way of the Panama Canal, and by overland linkage with cables terminating at Buenos Aires. $ A | Outlook Brighter The Axis still occupies much more Russian territory than has been retaken in the Red counter-offensive. Total victory in North Africa is still to be achieved. Nazi-occupied countries in Europe are still under Hitler’s heel. The Japanese still have the upper hand in the Pacific. These are indisputable facts. They point to a long-drawn-out and bitter war. On the other hand, the Nazis are not hold ing in Russia, but retreating with tremendous losses in men and war tools. The fighting in North Africa, save where French troops are unable to hold in the central Tunisian up lands, is going against the Axis. And the Japanese, despite repeated desperate attempts to regain lost footholds in New Guinea and Guadalcanal, and expeditions intended to in crease their conquests, are steadily losing their grip and suffering losses in men, planes and ships that even they, with their vast re serves, cannot well overcome. The situation, then, in the global war and on the hundred and more fronts, is not as grave as might appear by referring to the Atlas and measuring territory under enemy control. The fact that counts most is that the Axis has lost its striking power. When once it was using a sledge it now seems to have nothing more powerful than a tack ham mer. The persistent and effective bombing of Ger many’s war industrial centers and Axis-operat ed rail lines is breaking up Hitler’s replace ment system. The activities of planes, sub marines and surface craft in the Mediterra nean are hampering his attempts to get an effective force into operation in North Africa, despite the eastern Tunisian posts he controls. The blasting of Japanese bases and particu larly, of late, Rabaul, which is Tokio’s sec ond strongest outpost, second only to Truk, and Japan’s inability to get its new airfield at Munda into heavy operation, is placing a handicap upon the Oriental enemy’s opera tions in the Pacific. These things do not show on the maps, but they certainly reflect a brighter, more heart ening, outlook. They may even justify the thought which has taken deep root in public and some official thinking that the war may be brought to a successful conclusion in 1943. At the same time, and in the way that a baseball team plays the harder the moment it sees the other team weakening, these en couraging signs ought to signal greater effort on home fronts all around the world, wherever i the United Nations extend, that the victory j may be hastened. In no case, at no place, should they bring complacency or a slacken ing of effort. -V Don't Forget Montgomery General Alexander, whose planning has been rewarded with the capture of Tripoli, is mentioned in London dispatches as possible commander in the next major United Nations offensive. It detracts nothing from his splen did exploit in Africa to note, however, that without General Montgomery, the commander in the field, General Alexander would have found his task more difficult and even, per haps, impossible. There is generally too great a predisposi tion to undervalue the work of the men who actually fight battles, the ’men upon whom rests the execution of plans drafted at head quarters and who must make instant decisions according to the trends of fighting, of which headquarters cannot have foreknowledge. Throughout the 1,300-mile pursuit of Rommel out of Egypt and across Libya, Montgomery, with the general battle plans drafted in Alex andria, had often to change his tactics and his route to prevent the wily Nazi commander from fanning his forces out for effective coun ter-thrusts. If he had lacked ability to meet emergen cies, if he had been unable to keep his supply and communication lines functioning properly, General Alexander would have lost precious advantages and Rommel might have saved a great part of his forces to fight another day. As it is, the tattered remnant of his army is somewhere in that corridor called “bomb al ley” seeking a junction with Axis forces in Tunisia. This inclination to minimize the execution of orders from above in successful war opera tions was illustrated in our own war with Spain, at the Battle of Santiego, when the Spanish fleet in Cuba was wiped out. The man who fought that battle was ^Commodore Schley, but credit for the victor?/ was claim ed by, and went to, Admiral Sampson who at the time was cruising at a distance on his flagship and had no part in the conflict. True, plans had been drawn for dealing with the Spanish fleet if it attempted to escape. But if a man less capable than Schley had the exe cution of those plans in hand when the at tempt was made the enemy ships might have escaped. It was Schley’s prompt action, and his clear vision of the need, that won the Battle of Santiego. By the same token we believe that credit for winning this victory in Africa belongs to General Montgomery, even though it was his superior who planned it. -T-V-- ' Help the Doctors So far in this war, the doctors have quietly endeavored to comply with military as well as civilian needs. Out of a total of 155,000 medical men in the nation, over forty thousand are giving their skills to the military services. And the heroic job they are doing in faraway 4 comers of the world is well attested to by the recent comment of Admiral Ross T. Mclntire, Surgeon General of the Navy: "On Guadal canal scores of doctors and hundreds of mem bers of the medical corps operate American field hospitals under continuous fire. . . . We have suffered heavy casualties among our medical personnel in these operations.” The Marines are no exception. The doctors are everywhere that battles are being fought. As far as civilian health is concerned, one of the toughest problems is the nurse and the general labor shortage. But the doctors re maining at home are taking steps to alleviate this shortage, even as they are working out a definite program of civilian medical care. All that they need is cooperation on the part of the public. Securing this cooperation is not made easier by the activities of hysterical extremists who would arbitrarily ration doc tors like bicycles, with the ultimate aim of socializing medicine. -V Banks on the Job Small business must be saved if the free enterprise system is to be saved. No one knows this better than large business. How to keep small business afloat in the growing flood of restrictions on the supply and distri bution of materials, is a grave problem. Senator Murray of Montana, chairman of the Special Senate Committee on Small Busi ness, has pointed out in effect that the banks are carrying the main burden at present in keeping small business alive. The local banker, more than any other agency, is in a position to aid the local business in meeting financial and operational difficulties. Consultation with the banker often spells new life for an enterprise otherwise faced with extinction from the exigencies of war. And every enterprise thus saved is as valua ble to the cause of freedom as a military vic tory. Conversely, every independent enter prise that closes its doors is in the nature of a defeat. CONGRESSIONAL 'SUTTLETIES' The Inside On The Washington Scene Of Interest To The Carolinas BY HOWARD SUTTLE (The Star-News Washington Bureau) DRY DOCK FOR WILMINGTON WASHINGTON.—Efforts of Senators Josiah W. Bailey and Robert R. Reynolds and Repre sentative J. Bayard Clark to obtain a govern ment-financed dry dock for Wilmington have apparently at last borne fruit. Although its exact size and specifications are not yet decided, officials of the Navy De partment and Maritime Commission are un derstood to have agreed to lay plans for a dry dock to be constructed for"the North Caro lina port city, Senators Bailey and Reynolds and Representative Clark have been so ad vised. It was understood, however, that present plans do not contemplate dry dock facilities sufficiently large to enable treatment at Wil mington of the new Liberty vessels construct ed at the yards of the North Carolina Ship building company. Because of this uncertainty, J. T. Hiers, secretary of the Wilmington Port Commis sion, has been in Washington the past week seeking to ascertain definitely just how far the Navy’s Bureau of Ships plans to go with reference to creating facilities that will make the New Hanover port city adequate for maxi mum utilization in the war effort. Mr. Hiers will doubtless be unable to in fluence the Army’s services of supply divis ion, headed by General Brehon B. Somervell, to declare Wilmington a port of embarkation. It is possible, however, that the North Caro lina port city may be accepted as a sort of sub-port to the port of embarkation at Charles ton. Certainly General Somervell and Navy offi cials are pleased with the cooperation ren dered by Wilmington leaders and with their eagerness to be of greater aid. This spirit has influenced Washington to at least give more consideration to the Wilmington port’s possibilities and will doubtless mean more shipping—but how much more is still a matter of conjecture. OIL BARGE TERMINAL SET UP When* the trans-Florida pipe line is opened about February 1, bringing an additional 35, 000 barrels of petroleum for shipment to South eastern and Eastern points over the inland waterway, Wilmington will become a terminal for inovement of oil into the interior. Senator Reynolds expects that opening of the pipe line will provide a measure of relief to citizens of the petroleum famine area, but warned North Carolinians not to expect any substantial increase in gasoline rationing al lotments. The winter has been unusually severe and supplies of fuel oil have run very low through out the Southeast and East, the Senator point ed out. "It will, therefore, be necessary to utilize all posible facilities to make more ade quate the fuel oil supply and thus prevent citizens whose homes are heated by oil from becoming ill from exposure. Then, too, Senator Reynolds said, the petro leum demands of the military, increasing as the United Nations launch greater offensives, must be met. ARTHUR FARMER DECORATED When, a squadron of 14 enemy bombing planes attacked the merchant ship whose arm ed guard crew included Coxswain Arthur L. Farmer, of Wilmington, the New Hanover lad “courageously” manned his gun, remained at his post throughout several raids and aided in bringnig down inflames two of the attack ing bombers. Because of his bravery in these encounters, Coxswain Farmer, son of Mrs. Katie Teresa Cox, of 110 North Eighth street, has earned the Navy’s Silver Star decoration. The award was made, according to the Navy Department, “for conspicuous gallan try. . . .in courageously manning his gun during persistent raids which swept down upon the convoy, he contributed to the withering hail of fire Which disrupted 14 low-lying bombers »nd shot two of them down in flames.” $500,000 ARMY IMPROVEMENTS Contracts for expansion of Army facilities in New Hanover county totalling approximately $500,000 were awarded bv the War ^part \ GROUNDED *5% MAT Ll . HEKT V? - Civilian Defense Timetable BASIC TRAINING COURSES New Hanover High school, room 109, at 8 p. m. Monday night. Fire Defense A Tuesday night General Course GAS DEFENSE B Classes to be held at the New Hanover High school room 109, at 8 p. m. every other Wednesday commencing Wednesday night Jan uary 27, February 10 and 24. All volunteers registered with O. C. D. are urged to make plans to com plete the course. FIRST AID 10 HOURS All volunteers registered with O. C. D. are urged to make plans to complete the course during the week beginning January 25. High school—Room 106, at 8 p. m. January 25, 26, 27, 28, 29. FIRST AID 10 HOURS Each Thursday night, at Trailer Camp Office at 7 p. m. Lewis Weinberg, instructor. NEGRO CLASSES Will be announced at earliest date possible. ment here during the past few days. Specific sites of the expansion were not made public. Neither were exact figures of each con tract. Biggest slice of the total went to R. F. Kirkpatrick, of Burling ton, assigned the job of construct ing temporary frame buildings, utilities, a sprinkler system and walkways. Another contract for temporary frame buildings went to T. A. Lov ing and company, of Goldsboro. P. S. West Construction company, of Statesville, was authorized to remodel barracks, a storehouse and mess hall, while F. D. Lewis, of Greensboro, was given a sewage lift station assignment. The West company also received a contract for construction of a repair shop, remodeling of a dormitory, remod eling of a control tower and in stallation of an induced-draft fan. -V The Literary Guidepost By JOHN SELBY “Guadalcanal Diary.” by Richard Trekaskis (Random $2.50). “Guadalcanal Diary” is the day by-day record of the things Richard Tregaski saw when our forces land ed on Guadalcanal, and after. It is not a polished and balanced book, but a diary as the title indicates. It was not written from behind the lines, but from the lines. And Mr. Tregaski is rather a different type of correspondent. He is a New Jersey man who graduated from Harvard, worked on The Crimson while in college and on the Boston American afterward. When he went to the International News Service he had a good record behind him, and one unusual quali fication for foreign service. This was a thorough knowledge of Portu guese. His superiors sent him to Hawaii, where nobody speaks Por tuguese, but where war had begun. Trekasgi did well in Hawaii, and was chosen to cover the South Seas offensive when it was plotted. The ship that took him down was later sent off on a less dangerous mission and Treskasgis changed vessels so that he could be in on Guadalcanal. It was a good assignment for him he is a very fine swimmer, has his health, eats enormously, according to his associates, and is six feet sev en barefoot. He makes little of the additional fact that he has nerve, and was not annoyed when told that if he were captured he would be swarmed over by the Nipponese dwarfs, who would use him as an observation post. Like Pepys, Tregaskis has a ge nius for diary-keeping, albeit there is little similarity of content between the two. He, meaning Tregaskis, mixed well. Boys from Carolina, Ne wark, Boston, talked readily with him. He remembered little things— the fiwst casualty on Guadalcanal was a youngster who chopped his own hand with a machete, trying to open a cocoanut; there was wild re joicing when the men turned a cap tured Japanese safe into an oven and baked real bread. He also re membered to get names and addres ses, most of which are included with the benediction of the censor, no doubt. But the heat and the hell are in the book, too. The original landing on the island was accomplished with amazing ease; the trouble came later, and plentifully. Perhaps be cause Tregaskis has not tried for a connected narrative, the sense of immediacy is very great in his book. And the book will be good for the Book-of-the-Month audience which receives it Raymond Clapper Says: Proposal To Limit Army, Increase Supplies Heard By RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON—A proposal mat the United States limit its armed forces, and supply munitions and food while leaving our allies to provide the bulk of the soldiers, has been tossed in for considera tion in Congress. This suggestion is sponsored by Senator Bankhead of Alabama, one of the leaders of the farm bloc. It is receiving sympathetic interest from farm-bloc members, and Sen ator Wheeler, the chief pre-war iso lationist, indicates interest and concern at the rate men are be ing taken out of production into the Army. Senator Bankhead’s idea, as he explains it to the Senate, is that we have 7 million men in uniform ar.d that to continue to draw, per haps at ths rate of 400,000 men a month, will endanger war produc tion, both agricultural and indus trial — although he is especially worried about the loss of men from the farms; Senator Bankhead has offered a resolution calling for a study of this situation by the Sen ate Appropriations Committee with a view to considering fixing a limit for the armed forces. He offers the suggestion that Russia and China are populous countries and are in contact with the enemy, so that they could well furnish the Oulk of the soldiers instead of our w-uding troops thousands of miles across the ocean. The United es would concentrate on send ing munitions and food. If there is any public encourage ment for such a proposal it is like lv to gain strength in Congress. Among other things, the shortage of farm manpower provides very real incentive for some readjust ment. This general idea also feeds m the feeling of some in the war agencies that we are raising a larger army than can be shipped abroad. Then thdre is another line of talk from some of the United Nations people to the effect that the large American army is a new form of military isolation and that the Wa*r Department is thus eating up equipment at home when we would be doing more against the Axis by mobilizing fewer men and releasing more equipment to send aoi oad. So there are numerous pulls in the same direction. The Army’s ansyer to all this is, blunt and simple. It is that those who want to cut down or hold down the size of the Army are in effect suggesting that the Army defeat the Axis with smaller forces than it considers necessary to do the job. The Army’s answer to all this is search for the most direct ways to defeat Germany and Japan they must consider manpower, shipping, v;ar production and every other limiting factor, and then make their best practical estimates of w'l at is needed and of what can be oone. They argue that the Army is considering all these questions— and with more complete informa tion perhaps than others possess. It makes sense. The siege of Leningrad, and what the Russians are doing, sug gests that we have hardly begun to tap our real reserves of man power and grinding effort at home. We are doing nothing compared with what the Germans are doing or the British, in utilizing our la bor resources. We are still honey combed with jobs as usual and life as usual. The submarine menace is as great as ever. Almost ahead of everything else for the time being should come escort ships and all that goes with anti-submarine war fare. But the Army people know that. They know that their aif foice will be grounded unless gaso line is tanked across the ocean in "umcient quantity. They should be as much interested in striking a practical balance as any civilians in the Administration or in Con gress could be. Thdse matters, and how much “ "my we should raise, are ques tions that public discussion can ra se but cannot hope to answer. Congress may ask questions and serve some useful purpose in forc ing officials to double-check 'heir programs. But Congress can't ans wer such questions. -V You’re Telling Me A fair sight indeed will be the post-war conventions of veteran or ganizations of the Waacs, Waves and Spars. » * * “Food Hoarding Continues”— headline. Who’d ever thought a can of beans would ever become a collector’s item? ' * * * Even if there is a meat short age, says Zadok Dumkopf, this is no time for any pork barrel legis lation. • • ♦ Nazi propagandists would have us believe Rommel is just backing up for a flying start. A flying start for home? Interpreting The War By JOHN M. HIGHTOWER If the Germans have found a way to make practical use of ov. -_en j operating a submarine's Dies°| mo_ tor while submerged, as they claim then they have made one of the greatest advances in undersea war, fare since the modern submarine was first developed about '0 yea” ago. But great stress must be la-;fl on the "if” in view of thorny pro', lems involved in supplying and ing oxygen equipment in place o( standard electrical propulsion ma! chinery. The German radio reported Satur. day night that a new type of marine which would operate on com pressed oxygen was under construe tion. An inventor identified only a, "Andre” was credited in th» broad, cast with having found a way to compress the gas to a decree 4oo times greater than heretofore possj. ble. The gas, the Germans sav, j, fed into the regular Diesel engines of the submarine which arc, how-, ever, equipped with special cy|jn. ders. Much skepticism arises from the fact that the Germans made the an nouncement at all. If they were building such a U-boat they mi'lit be expected to keep quiet about it until they could employ its revolt:, tionary characteristics to good ad vantage in combat — to use it as a "secret weapon.” The broadcast may have been de signed, however, to alarm the Al lies, already seriously concerned ov er U-boat successes in the Atlantic and to cheer up the German peer,It! who may need a propaganda shot in-the arm to counter Axis setbacks in Russia and Africa and in the air war over Germany. The advantages of a submarine which could be driven under the sea by other than electrical ■ power are enormous. Standard American subs, like those of other nations, are driven on the suffice by Diesel ra. gines which simultaneously charce huge banks of storage batteries ito furnish the power for propoision when submerged. There are four disadvantages t„ this system: The batteries weigh many tons, They occupy about one fourth o( the total space inside the hull. When salt water comes into contact with them, a constant danger, they give off a highly poisonous gas. When a submarine is driven at full speed while submerged the batter ies run down quickly, and even at slow speed they are exhausted in a few hours. These factors limit the amount of torpedoes and other "pay cargo whic ha submarine can carry and also circumscribes its operations. Thus, in dangerous waters a sub marine normally stays down by day to prevent discovery, but surfaces at night to charge Us batteries. Scientists seeking a method of us ing internal combustion motors while a submarine is submersed have had two primary problems: The first was how to store the oxygen in sufficient quantities to provide adequate fuel for submerg ed operations on long voyages or else how to make lightweight oxy gen plants, built into the subs, which could extract and purify the gas from the air. Second, what to do with exhaust gases. Assuming that they could be blown out of a submerged submarine under great pressure, they would still leave a tell-tale wake of bub bles on the surface of the ocean. That would destroy the submarine's most valuable characteristic — its ability to hide from surface and air craft The German radio suggested a possible answer to the first of these problems by claiming that inventor “Andre” had found how to compress oxygen to a degree 400 tomes great er than heretofore possible. That would mean that a one cubit foot container could hold as much of the gas as a 400 cubic toot container previously held. Hut this is only a partial solution to the problem. The radio did not say how heavy the containers have to be to bold the highly compressed gas without danger of explosion nor how many containers were required for a long voyage. The Germans claim that elimina tion of batteries in the new typ sub saves 60 tons of "eight an much space. If that is true, it "ou be a great gafn in submarine con Struction, but it implies almost ■_ believable strength combined light weight in the oxygen ,u’1' But the Germans whipped a insuperable engineering did-. ^ during World War 1 to pro<l«« successful type of submarine. . ■ over, in the present war the ^ man subs reputedly arc mr 1,1'a , ed over the U-boats of V !'<* in their ability to descend to ?r dephths. Thus there can be no qiii.-tion the great technical ability of enemy in U-boat design. ){ This very fact, however, ' relied upon by German propas* ists to lend the color of !:ut , claims of a formidable rev. urt1' sea war craft which in fact does exist. -V Factographs Would-be military experts c*”j seem to agree on when the ‘ conflict will end. Some ol eu> 1 ur been predicting ■•>. short quite a long time. * * • re W" No special snow trams ^ ing operated by the Canadian tional railways this season ^o . ter sports centers in the ^l{ri0 tian mountains, but result11 frJ service will be available u enthusiasts I

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view