FORECAST ^ -— ■§gp==: ilmingtnn i truing s’tar SE" N°. ---WILMINGTON, N. C., WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1944 FINAL EDITION ESTABLISHED 1867 Solons bay Peace Meet Bears Fruit ratification due Senators See Prospects Of Early Agreement By Delegates WASHINGTON, Aug. 22. ^(/Pj__Three senators de clared today they saw bright prospects for the Dumbarton Oaks conference, as British, American and Russian dele gates settled to the task of framing a proposed interna tional organization to keep the peace. Predicting Senate approval of the conference’s work, Chairman Connallv (D-Tex) of the Foreign Belations committee said that the prospects for success were “in deed propitious.” The present con ference, he told the Senate, will be followed by another that brings together higher offices of the Al lied governments. Senator Vandenberg (R-Mich) de clared the conference convened under ‘‘the happiest possible pros pects of good effect” and added: "If this world can not organize to assure permanent peace, the weapons of the next war will put an end to civilization. Only those blind to the realities of global sui cide can fail to make a practical effort to prevent such a develop ment.” Tv, Rhnfllo cnpppVi Rprifl tor Downey (D-Calif) asserted that '•great events” are in the making at the conference—which he de scribed as fulfilling the ‘‘prophetic Vision’’ of Woodrow Wilson. "It is the first formal move to carry out the Moscow declaration which obligated the United States, Russia, Great Britain and China to create a general international organization . . Downey said, j "The Senate by almost unanimous vote already has endorsed the find ings of the Moscow conference, and I think we may safely assume will likewise approve the treaty that will develop out of it and through the present and succeeding con ferences . . .” As the conference work pro ceeded. .John Foster Dulles arriv ed in the capital to submit Gover nor Thomas E. Dewey’s idea on a peace organization to Secretary of State Hull at a conference to morrow. Dulles, foreign policy adviser to the Republican presidential nomi nee. told newsmen he did not know Whether Dewey’s suggestions might I result in a change of American views because he had not seen the formal United States proposals. At the conference itself, there Was an exchange of views behind tlosed doors, with the chief Rus sian delegate, Ambassador Andrei A. Gromyko, leading off. Gromy ko spent an hour and 10 minutes discussing Soviet suggestions, Michael McDermott, American spokesman for the conferences, re ported. One of Gromyko's main tasks, It was understood, was to clear lip different impressions caused by translation of the Russian views Into English. McDermott declined to go into tnv details of the Russian plan, but ke said Gromyko was interrupted several times with requests for clarification. The Russian did not digress, however, and notes were 1 made of the queries so that they I tan be taken up later. I The American delegate, Under secretary of State Edward B. Stet I tinius, was chosen permanent I chairman of the conference, with I Ft Alexander Cadogan, head of ■ the British delegation, or Gromyko I ‘n serve as alternates in Stettinius’ I Sbsence. s --v Imorganton flier KILLED IN CRASH LIBERAL, Kas., Aug. 22 —(API— Names of five officers and two en hsted men killed near Savanah, P"‘" night in the crash of a Liberator bomber from the Liberal jjrmy air field were released to by headquarters of the South ,.est Kansas bomber school of the ‘L/Mces training command. ft hra{t WaS °n 3 com'3a'; bra'n" Arnong those killed were: •st. Lt. Frank S. Cash, 25, flying 1 ructor, son of Mr. and Mrs. cI1k R. Cash, 201 South King st., fclgaTn' N- c- His wife- the Alh Martha Jean Bunger of New Okla" V’ Irid’’ n°W b*ves at Hooker, STrv ..TRADK CUT OFF Sv i°^KH0LM. Apg. 22.—(AP)-The t,J. sb war insurance board an itndenvr 1t°d?^ no lon§er w91 L„ ’ l,e ships traveling to Ger L,Po,Us- This has the effect of tom fl1 a11 Swedish vessels r hading with Germany. On Rocky Road To St. Malo mrnmrnmmmmmm w? i iiiwiiiii ..pm Three American soldiers sit down to smoke and rest on the brok en rock and. debris in a war-torn street of St. Malo, France, where the "mad colonel” Von Auloek held out in an island citadel for sev eral days after the town had been taken by the Allies. Russians Launch New Twin Drives LONDON, Aug. 22.—(/P)—Tremendous new twin Rus sian offensives on the long-dormant Romanian battleground have gained 38 to 44 miles on a 156-mile front, toppling the big industrial city of Iasi and costing the Germans 25,000 dead and more than 12,000 prisoners in three days, Mos rnw nrmniinppfl trmicrht ★ Two orders of the day from Pre mier Stalin and the regular Sov iet midnight communique confirm ed the savage new offensives which the Germans had been pessimis tically reporting since last week end, and Rodion Y. Malinovsky and Feodor Tolbukhin had swept Lip more than 350 towns in the initial stages of their attack. Quiet since April, these two pow erful armies apparently were aim ing at the Ploesti oilfields, Ger many’s chief source of vital petro eum, now 160-odd miles southwest af the battle lines. Already the Russians were less than 65 miles Erom the Danube river. On other fronts of a line now stretching 1,400 miles in a north south zigzag, the Russians an aounced steady successes in an apparent campaign to slice War saw and northwest Poland off from East Prussia and extension of a sharp-pointed wedge into the cen :er of Estonia while combatting :errific German counterattacks on the Latvian gap position west of Riga. Between Warsaw and BialyStok the Soviet communique announced capture of the large highway junc tion town of Zambrow, 14 miles southeast of Lomza. This repre sented an advance of 15 miles Erom previously reported positions. Nearer to Warsaw, the Russians thrust suddenly northwestward and cleared the Germans from the south bank of the Bug river along a 40-mile front from Olekhny to Slopsk. Moscow dispatches said this drive threatened to outflank Warsaw by pushing to the conflu ence of the Bug and Vistula rivers 23 miles northwest of the old Po lish capital. Already it was furthering the iso lation of East Prussia, where an unofficial Soviet account said the border finally had been crossed apparently in the Schirwindf sec tor. ___ I Florence Reported Somewhat Damaged AteJlccupation ROME, Aug. 22.—W-Allied troops “by skill and patience’’ have completed occupation of the world famous art center of Florence without incurring ex tensive damage to its cultural treasures and have sent patrols digging into Nazi positions be yond the city, Gen. Sir Harold Alexander’s headquarters an nounced today. “Unless the enemy decides to engage the city with long range artillery fire the city will rapidly return to normal and full assistance will be brought to the inhabitants by the Allied Military Govern ment,” an official statement said. PAC ICFUERS SH JAPANESE By The Associated Press American bombers, striking with unprecedented fury along the Southern edge of the road to the Philippines, were reported today by Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur to have lashed Halmahera island with the heaviest bomb load it has yet felt. MacArthur reported another aerial sweep into the Philippines a few hours after Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announced air smashes against widely separated Japa nese island bases by bombers of the Central Pacific command. Meanwhile, the Tokyo radio told of a meeting of the Koiso cabinet to hear reports f the B-29 Super foreress blastings of the Nippon rnomeland last Sunday. _ louse Group iJfiors Aids ^io Business SWITCHES EMPHASIS Expansion Of Enterprise Meets With Approval Of Committee WASHINGTON, Aug. 22. —(/P)—Deciding that empha sis should be placed on ex panding peace - time enter prise, rather than anticipat ing large unemployment, the House Ways and Means com mittee today scrapped Senate approved plans for the gov ernment to train discharged war workers for new jobs. It also struck from the Senate legislation a provision for trans porting civilian workers and their families, at government expense up to $200 a family, back to their prewar homes or to locations of new employment. Meanwhile, the House after seven days of debate, passed with out a record vote legislation cre ating machinery for disposal of an estimated $100,000,000,000 of surplus war property. Simultan eously, a Senate committee ap proved a broadly different bill for disposing surpluses. The House measure calls fo- one-man direc tion of surplus property disposal while the Senate bill would put it under a board of eight. After knocking out tne civilian retraining and reemployment sec tion of the Senate’s demobilization and reconversion bill, the Ways and Means committee received a motion by Rep. Mills (D-Ark.) to eliminate provision for paying un employment compensation to 3, 500,000 federal workers. A vote was postponed until tomorrow. Rep. Knutson (R-Minn), ranking committee Republican, said “it is time we began planning to ex pand private enterprise, to ppo vide--j°hfl, instead of spending &ni our time thinking about unem pioymem. we can aeai wun me unemployment problem when we get to it.” He stressed that Congress now aas a staff of experts studying ways of adjusting postwar taxes to encourage expansion of busi ness and industry. Rep. Jenkins (R-Ohio) told news, papermen the cost of administer ing the retraining and reemploy ment program, as adopted by the Senate, probably would “run into billions of dollars,” and “by its uery nature the system set-up by the eliminated section would be upen to all manner of abuses.” The committee action, by a 15 to 5 vote, does not disturb prior .egislation for retraining and re ;mployment of war veterans, nor the wartime retraining and reem ployment program established by jjrecutive order and operated by Brig. Gen. Frank T. Hines. There appeared to be a sharp iivision in the Ways and Means group on the proposal that govern ment employes not be eligible for unemployment benefits. A compromise was understood to oe favored by some members to provide that only those govern ment employes earning less than 53,000 a year should be eligible for unemployment benefits. The Senate bill, sponsored by Senator George (D-Ga), leaves to the states the determination of the amounts and duration of such benefits. The administration has recommended a uniform minimum of 26 weeks of payments running up to $20 weeklv. -V STEALS TRAY OF RINGS HICKORY, Aug. 22—UP)—Robert MacKie. Charlotte Negro, was ar rested and charged with the lar ceny of a tray of 12 rings valued at $1,200 here last night. Wilmington Woman To SponsorShip To Be Named For Heroic Navy Seaman ORANGE, Tex., Aug. 22—UP) _A Navy seaman who refused to abandon his gun in the face of an unrus’ning Japanese tor pedo plane will be honored here August 29 when a destroy er escort vessel named for the late John Leon Williamson, seaman first class, USN., a native of Ashe county, North Carolina is launched at the Consolidated Steel Corpora tion’s shipbuilding division. Sponsor of the vessel will be his sister, Mrs. Sherman Register. 6 Lake Forest Park way, Wilmington, N. C. He enlisted in the U. S. Navy, as apprentice seaman, at Ra leigh. N. C., July 11, 1940. Williamson joined the USS San Francisco in September, 1940. and served continuously on her until he was killed in action with the enemy at Pearl Harbor on December 7, I 1941; In the Battle of Bougain ville on February 20, 1942; and in the battle of Salamaua on March 10, 1942. He participated in the capture and defense of Guadalcanal island, including night surface action against superior forces through No vember 10, 1942, and was com mended for excellent conduct throughout this period. He was also engaged in action with enemy aircraft in the Battle of Savo Island and was com mended for oustanding con duct and performance of duty. For his heroism in the action of November 12, 1942, in the Splomon Island area, in which he was killed, he was award ed the Navy, Cross, post humouslv. with the follow ing citation; “For extraordinary heroism as a gunner aboard the USS San Francisco during action against enemy Japanese forces in the Solomon inlands area on November 12 and 13, 1942. Courageously refusing to aban don his gun in the face of an unrushing Japanese torpedo plane, Williamson, with cool determination and utter disre gard for his own safety, kept blazing away until the hostile craft plunged out of the sky in a flaming dive and crashed on his station. His grim per serverance and relentless de votion to duty in the face of certain death were in keep ing with the highest tradi tions of the United States naval service. He gallantly gave up his life in the defense of his country.” In addition to the Navy Cross, the Purple Heart medal, and the Presidential Unit Ci tation to the USS San Fran* cisco, Williamson had the American Defense Service medal, and the Asiatic-Pacific Area Campaign medal. AMERICANS DRIVE 65 MILES IN SMASH ACROSS FRANCE; TOULON ENCIRCLED, DOOMED ALLIED FORCES NEAR MARSEILLE Other American Columns Head Inland To Reach Wide Rhone Valley ROME, Aug. 22. — (ff) — American and French troops, plunging westward beyond the encircled and doomed- na val base of Toulon on the Mediterranean, were fighting forward tonight within three miles of Marseille, France’s second largest city, brushing aside Nazi forces declared by Maj. Gen. Alexander M. Patch to be “perplexed and stun ned.” An American armored and infan try column, spearing toward the wide Rhone valley — pathway to northern France — was roaring along at a point eight miles west of captured Aix-en-Provence, which is 15 miles north of Mar seille. Another Yank column approach ed St. Cannat, 10 miles northwest of Aix. Still other American units, advancing along both banks of the Durance river toward the Rhone valley, were four miles beyond Les Puy. Yank reconnaissance elements striking toward the northwest were reported in the outskirts of Apt, a highway junction 40 miles north of Marseille and only 30 miles east of Avignon. The Nazis are in ‘full retreat” everywhere in southern France ex cept for coastal defense forces Bf.'SMHt-'hW' -fn and-wear TtsnRm and on the immediate approaches to Marseille, the commander of the invading Seventh army proclaimed in an order of the day. General Patch exhorted his troops to forget their fatigue and the difficulties of maintaining sup ply lines and to devote the last ounce of effort to the pursuit of the fleeing enemy. “The opportunity for decisive re sults is in front of us and we must and will move with the utmost speed and effectiveness,” he told his forces. The furious pace of the Allied push in from the Mediterranean in recent days had expanded the Seventh Army’s grip on southern France to more than 2,000 square miles, more than double the hold ing of late last week. Nazi troops trapped in Toulon by the cutting of their last escape road along the coast to Marseille had pulled back into the center and lower parts of the city, where they were putting up fierce resis tance from fixed fortifications. They had depressed anti - aircraft guns to help shell French troops in the northern and western parts of the city. (A German news broadcast ac knowledged that Allied troops were fighting inside the “fortress” of Toulon.) The French, fired by the pros pect of liberating the first major city encountered by them in theirj invasion of their homeland, fought steadily and brilliantly from house to house, wiping out German resis tance as they advanced. Another hard - driving Allied column was knocking at the gates of Marseille, France’s second larg est metropolis, after sweeping past Aubagne, eight miles to the east, where German infantry, tanks and self - propelled artillery attempted to stem the rush. Just as the garrison of Toulon already was trapped between vengeful French ground forces and the blazing guns of Allied warships pounding them from the sea, so were whatever Nazis who remain ed in or near Marseille faced with the choice of fleeing or remaining to be encircled and destroyed. The sealing - off of the big port promised to be a matter of hours, dispatches said. --V Cherry Stresses Need For Education, Health RALEIGH, Aug. 22.— UP) —R. Gregg Cherry, Democratic nominee or governor, said here tonight that two of the state’s greatest needs are “increased vocational educa tion training for school children and an expanded health program for our youth.” Cherry was the principal speaker at a banquet session climaxing the first day of the state convention of the Junior Order, United Ameri can Mechanics, which continues through tomorrow. ■ ■ - ■ — ....—-p War Flares Throughout France The open arrows on this map show Allied drives to the Calais coast and to the east of Paris, an Allied advance northward through the Rhone valley, a reported penetration to AngOuleme, and the French coast attack by Allied war ships in the Bayonne an|. TJ#j broken arrows denote the Germans’ retreat to the Seine, and the re ported abandonment of their positions in the Spanish border area. French troops have fought their way into Toulon, and the city of Toulouse was reported in control of French patriots. Belfort is re ported to have replaced Vichy as the seat of the Laval government. ord Allied Landing In France Reported HENDAYE, France, Aug. 22.—(A5)—French military authorities said a third Allied landing in France started to night in the area of Bordeaux, which was reported under a coordinated attack by American and French columns. (There was no immediate con- ★-— BIG AIR FLEETS BACK IN SKIES LONDON, Aug. 22.— W —As clouds which had blanketed the western front for 48 hours rolled away, Allied airmen renewed late today their annihilation of Field Marshal Guenther Von Kluge’s re treating German armies and Ital ian-based American heavy bomb ers struck again at German oil supplies. Allied aerial might which had been hobbled by the worst weather since D-Day took to the air as the skies began to clear. Norman dy-based fighter - bombers swept over an area from Lisieux to the Seine and from Dreux to the sea blasting German troops now be ing squeezed into a tight box on the ground. While the clouds had given re spite to the retreating enemy in France, Italian - based Flying Fortresses and Liberators smashed into Germany and Austria earlier in the day, hammering a synthetic oil refinery at Odertal, 80 miles southwest of Breslau, and other oil installations in the Vienna area. ‘Tonight the Allied expeditionary air force continued the aerial as sault on the Nazis. Bulgarian Minister Says Entering War ‘Mistake ’ LONDON, Aug. 22—(fP)—Bul garian Foreign Minister Par van Draganov told parliament in Sofia today that Bulgaria’s declaration of war on the Unit ed States and Britain had been a mistake and that the gov ernment of Premier Ivan Bag rianov now was looking for “ways and means’* to make peace. His short speech was broad cast by the Bulgarian radio and recorded by Allied monitors. Following the line taken by Premier Bagrianov in a speech to parliament last Thursday, Draganov blamed the regime of former Premier Bogdan Fi Iov for involving Bulgaria in the war on the side of Ger many. “Bulgaria is too small to take part In this world war,” V- 1 Draganov asserted. “Though she is nominally in a state of war with Britain and the Unit ed States, this is not due to the wish of the Bulgarian people to intervene in the world con flict.” Draganov told the parliament that his government was pursu ing a policy of friendship with Russia, with which Bulgaria is not at war, and that die hoped her present attitude would be understood by Britain and the United States. There had been speculation that Draganov might announce a Bulgarian decision to get out of the war. The fact that he did not was put to propaganda use by DNB, German official news agency, which said in a broadcast that Draganov in his speech had stressed Bulgaria’s relations with Germany.' NAZIS OFFERING WEAK OPPOSITION Allied Troops Reported Half Way To Germany In Armored Push SUPREME HEADQUAR TERS ALLIED EXPEDI TIONARY FORCE, Aug. 22. —