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FORECAST 'Wtfw grVef r+ I igr-Mtimtttntnn morning #iar — ------- ~ --- - _WILMINGTON, N. C., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1945 FINAL EDITION ESTABLISHED 1S67 1 Nazis Report Russians 45 Miles From Goal; Berlin Resident Hear Thunder Of Red Guns;1 French, Amei /cans Open New Alsatian Drive I_ “ ' —-+ _ -A. ■ --- House bans Anti-Union Amendment tyay Is Paved For Speedy Passage Of National Service Law WASHINGTON, Jan. 31——The House took its longest and most important stride toward passage of a limited National Service bill to jjv. Two amendments some mem bers had feared would jeopardize the whole bill were firmly rejected. In succession, the membership burned down the proposals that a man compelled to go to work in a "closed shop” war plant need not join'he union; and that race, creed \ or color should not be a condition of employment. Disposition of the two explosive issues left nothing in the way of ! final approt al except a host of less j controversial amendments, gener ally considered as minor. ! There was a likelihood, though, that a record vote would be forced on the anti-closed shop proposal when the bill comes up for final action probably tomorrow. But in dications were that the 178 to 142 teller vote that rejected the pro posal today would be sustained. As it neared the end of its run in the House, the legislation pro vides that local draft boards may •freeze'’ men between the ages of 18 through 45 in essential jobs or direct them to move into jobs de rated essential by the Director if War Mobilization. A registrant disregarding a board order would be subject to immediate induction into the armed forces or to five years imprisonment and a fine of $10,000. T”n n * • i' r\ A w-\ nrvrl rv\ rtnip 4Vv V a pi threatened to kill the bill were turn ed down in rapid order after Speak er Rayburn warned the House that either o' them would alienate suf ficient votes to jeopardize the plan ‘Continued from Page One) which President Roosevelt reques ted as a means of stepping up war production. A majority of Republicans and a laige group of Democrats backed me amendment of Rep. Wadsworth 'R-Vi to provide that no man tsk.r.g a job in accordance with the ml should be required, as a con dition of employment, to join a onor,. But sufficient Republicans joined a majority of Democrats to defeat the amendment, i The vote on the so-called FEPC amendment, intended to give stat Wory backing to the program of he Fair Employment Practices Committee set up to prevent em ployment discrimination because of race, creed or colo ■. followed party 1- es fairly closely. Most Republi cs supported it. with Democrats “most unanimously against it. Through parliamentary steps, a 'ecord vote may be obtained on ■e labor amendment, although "one was likely for the FEPC pro E)0ffered by Rep' cias°n (r . York’s new Negro mem V."eP- F' veil, a Democrat, call Ifie amendment a “deep parti ■ if trick to play on racial preju ln wder to defeat the bill. Spinster Drops Dead, | Two Sisters Perish In Freezing Cold Weather njgEMHICR. Md., Jan. 81. — ter bhree elderly spinster sis !■]:_„ ' '■Uen- Fannie and Lillie wre lound dead un‘ • hr lrcu®stances indicating that ™»n hermorrhage suffered by s mdn-ecUy caused the deaths ”■ 'he others. ed D,e tragedy was discover Hefr * *',v*’lc delivering groceries. 83 „n ° ne*ro«n body of Ellen, I,;'1 ;OanKed path near her tered m C;! !ed the police who en bodies rfu house and found the p of her sisters ,PC ^agedy. au Fanni d„e,ernu|ied that: Sl'»«ed a fatal brain »l:pprri s mnnon aid, but and- unabT^ ifeD • °n the icy path in the 0 ;ir,se- froze to death i..p ’ '•■.-ai>ove-zero tempera l.iliip vs ... , from evnrsnd bed-ridden, died ed fire 'Ahen the unattend an unde','1 °Ul' C1°thed only in ‘W' her body was floor room n°°r of a second Nursery Fire Takes Lives Of 16 Babies AUBURN, Me., Jan. 31—(UP) — Sixteen tiny tots and a middle-aged nurse-maid died in their beds early today when a boarding home for babies was demolished by fire and tonight authorities began an inves tigation to fix the ultimate respon sibility for this Downeast disaster. In perhaps 30 horrow-filled min utes just as the wintry dawn was breaking, a flash Tire belched through the story-and-a-half dwell ing and only eight of the 25 occu pants reached the safety of the snowy dooryard. These eight included two infants, two nursemaids. Mrs. Sva La Cos te, the owner, and her three young sons. But of these none could tell more than that the fire started in the kitchen which contained among other things a wood-burning range. Mrs. Blanche Tanguay, a sister of the owner, gave the first alarm when she went to the kitchen to get milk for one of the babies and found the “whole ceiling of the kitchen on fire.” mi &. i-ict sctiu sue auiang from her bed after being aroused by “an explosion.” Eut with both arms burned and confined to bed at at neightbor’s house under opiates she could only mutter deliriously: ‘The babies . . . get the babies. . They're burning. They’re all burn ing up.” Flames spouted from every door and window when the first firemen reached the scene after a perilous trip over ice-glazed roads. “We carried out babies—God, 1 don’t know how many babies,” said Fire Chief Ralph B. Harnden. his face stained by smoke and tears. It was fully 20 minutes before the flames were quelled sufficient ly to permit firemen to enter, said Chief Harnden in a voice that broke again and again as he recounted the sights he saw within. “I put my hand on a baby’s face and it was plumb cold,” he said. “We got two babies out of the front room and eight out of the next room. “Then we lost count. We kept lugging them out, one after an other. “If you had ever been through it—lugging out dead baby after dead baby—you wouldn’t be able to describe it.” The heads of some of the dead babies had been thrust through the slats of the cribs, as though they had tried to escape. Chief Harn den said. Some of the infants slept on the first floor, some in the section of the second and others in an ell that recently was built to accommodate the multitude. In the shambles of smashed cribs water - soaked bedding and other wreckage were charred teddy bears, rattles and soft woolly dolls that peered out grotesquely. The (Continued on Page Three, Col. 4) Self Service Heat While her husband ;s busy help ing fight a war, Mrs. Laura Breen, of Brooklyn, N. Y., is doing her share on the home front. She is shown carrying a bag of coal that she had just obtained at an emer gency depot for her home. WALLACE BACKERS SEEK COMPROMISE Barkley Calls Conference Of Democrats Before Showdown WASHINGTON, Jan. 31—M5)—Ma jority Leader Barkley today sum moned Democratic senators to an emergency conference in an elev enth-hour effort to compromise the disputed Henry Wallace Cabinet appointment. The Democrats, split wide open over the issue of granting the for mer vice president power as the government’s chief loan agent as well as the Commerce secretary ship, are to meet at 10 a.m. tomor row, two hours before the Senate convenes for what may be the stormiest meeting of the new ses sion. The importance which the Dem ocrats attach to tomorrow’s cau cus was emphasized by the fact that Barkely will have to leave a sickbed to marshal his forces for the widely heraled parliamentary dispute. The Kentuckian has been (Continued on Page Three, Col. 3) Local Merchants Prepare To Comply With Brownout Merchants in Wilmington yester terday stressed their intentions to cooperate with the brounout order of the War Production Board, and many suggested that people in their homes also cooperate with the fuel saving measure, Walter J. Cartier, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, said last night. Although no merchants, other than dealers of the Ready-to-Wear Division have met, Cartier pointed out that retailers and others as sociated with the Chamber would meet soon to discuss plans for making the brounout in the city a success. The WPB order lists seven types of electric illumination which must be extinguished. They are: Outdoor advertising and outdoor promotional lighting. Show window lighting, except where necessary for interior il lumination, marqee lighting in ex cess of 60 watts for marquee. White way street lighting in ex cess of that determined by local public authority to be necessary for public safety. Outside sign lighting of most types. Exceptions are signs needed for fire and police protection, traf fic control, transportation terminals or hospitals, or other directional or identification signs providing es sential public services. Also exempt are lights, not exceeding 60 watts, serving to identify doctors, hotels and public lodgings. The order does not apply to electricity used strictly for resi dential purposes. Local police have been instructed to see that Wilmington merchants carry out the order, and wilful failure to comply may result in the discontinuance of all electric ser vice, jail or fines. Violators will be warned by police at the request of the WPB, who will notify the Tide Water Power Co. of no-compliance. The local power company will contact the merchant by letter, a copy of which will be forwarded to the State WPB, after which violators will have 24 hours to comply, or all power will be cut off. Cartier pointed out that window signs noting compliance of the brownout order are on hand at the office of the Chamber of Com merce in the Wilmington hotel building, and merchants may send for them. The stickers, asking for public indulgence and cooperation, may be pasted on the inside of dis play windows. According to the United Press, most of the Nation’s show windows, theater marquees, advertising and ornamental lights were “browned out” tonight for an indefinite per (Continued on Page Five; Col. 4) Yanks Seize Naval Bases At (Mangapo Other Forces Capture Cal umpit, 28 Miles From Manila GENERAL MACARTHUR’S HEADQUARTERS, Luzon, Thurs day. Feb. 1.—(®—In a series of significant successes, Eighth Ar my troops have captured Olongapo which already is being developed as a Naval base in Subic Bay and have landed on an island at the bay’s entrance while the Sixth Army seized Calumpit and crossed the Pampanga river, 28 miles from Manila. The successes were announced today by Gen. Douglas MacArthur. The surge of the Sixth into Cal umpit, in an advance of 13 miles southward down Pampanga prov ince, carrie I motorized units of the 34th Army Crops safely through a narrow stretch of land compressed between two swamps. Beyond, the plains open wide to Manila with no good defenses for the Nipponese in between. **xixx*; mic x aims i_a ±jv. VTcII. Robert Eichelberger thus advanc ed more than 20 miles from Mon day's beachheads on the Zambales coast to win Olongapo, Sixth Ar my columns rolled 10 miles south west of San Fernando toward a juncture with the Eighth which would seal off Bataan peninsula. The two army elements are pushing toward each other along a winding road of 60 miles from the Zambales coast to San Fernando. Other Eighth Army units land ed on Grande Island at the en trance of Subic Bay, whose waters can supply the U. S. Seventh Fleet a find base on the very fringes of Manila Bay. The Yanks were on the move in all sectors. They cleaned out ene my pockets at Fort Stotsenburg. They punched closer to the sum mer capital of Baguio to the north. They seized highway junctions near the foothills of the Sierra Madre range flanking the Luzon plains on the east, thus severing enemy routes of retreat. Seizure of Olongapo gave the Americans a drydock and ex tensive ship repair facilities. At Calumpit, scene of a gallant stand by Americans and Filipinos at the start of the war, the Amer icans secured bridges spanning the Fampanga river. -V 73 NEGRO TROOPS FOUND GUILTY OF MUTINY IN HAWAII HONOLULU, T. H„ Jan. 31. (UP)—The Central Pacific base command of the U. S. Army an nounced today that 73 Negro sol diers had been found guilty of mutiny and sentenced to 'long terms at hard labor, following two extensive courts martial. It was announced that the mu tiny took place the night of July 31, 1944 when the men—all mem bers of Company E, 1320th Engi neers, General Service Regiment — “refused to obey orders of their superior officers to report to a work formation on the company area at an airfield on Oahu.” What caused the mutiny was NOT told in the official announce ment from the headquarters of Maj. Gen. Henry T. Burgin, com mander of the Central Pacific Base Command, but it was pointed out that the trials which convict ed the men were the first for such a charge in this area since the outbreak of the war. None of the names of those con victed was disclosed. Five Negroes charged under the 66th Article of War as ringleaders who incited and jointed the revolt were tried separately after a pre vious court martial convicted 68 of the 69 men accuser of joining ' in the mutiny. The 69th man was convicted but was granted a retrial after a re- ! view by Burgin. Two of the five defendants in ' the second trial were convicted, ^ one being sentenced to 30 years at hard labor and the others to : 25 years. Both sentences called • for dishonorable discharges and I total forfeiture of pay and allow- i ances. t Entire Front Moving Into Full Action Third Army Within Rifle Range Of Siegfried Fortifications PARIS, Thursday, Feb. 1—(UP) —French and American forces have launched a new Alsatian of fensive along a 65-mile front north and south of Strasbourg and have killed more than 5,000 Germans and captured some 2,500 prisoners in the first 48 hours, it was dis closed today. Virtually the entire Western Front was stirring into offensive action. Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army drove into Germany at two new points along the Our river, while the two divisions of the U. S. First Army invaded Ger many along a four-mile front east of Malmedy, advancing to within rifle fire of the Siegfried Line un der cover of a thundering atrillery barrage Gen. Jean de Lattre de Tassig ny’s French First Army, which in cludes American troops, gained up to four miles in what dispatches from the Alsatian front called a “multiple offensive.” North of Strasbourg, the Ger mans appeared not only to have yielded the offensive but to have gone on the defensive, and French troops smashing a mile and a half from Kilstett occupied the impor tant road center of Gambshein, eight miles north - northeast of Stra shnnrff. South of the city, they smashed forward four miles along a four mile front from Erstein to Benfeld. striking across the 111 river and reaching the Rhine-Rhone canal. To the south, American and French troops captured Fortsch wir, about 3 1-2 miles east of Col mar, and deepened their bridge head over the Colmar canal to three miles. Below Colmar, the French nar rowed the Colmar pocket to less than 20 miles by capturing Witten heim, four miles north of Mulhouse. and drove into Wittelscheim, 4 1-2 miles to the west, where they bat tled Germans in the streets. Eitter street fighting also was re ported in the highway town of Cernay to the west. Patton’s Third Army, which is the nearest to the French First and American Seventh Army, on the north, expanded its bridgehead on the German side of the Our to an area at least six miles wide and one and a half miles deep. Widening the bridgehead on its left flank, one thrust carried across the Our in the vicinity of Auel, Belgium, driving on more than a mile, while other Third Army elements captured Stein brucke on the border and pushed across to clear Elcherath cn the German side The deepest penetration was east of Welchenhausen, where the Amer icans threw back a German coun ter attack by 299 troops, but un (Continued on Page Three, Col. Z) 17-Months-Old Boy Reported Kidnaped By Elderly Woman YAKIMA, Wash., Jan. 31.—(UP) —Brown-eyed 17-months-old Rus sell Peterson, left alone for two minutes on a bench in a bus depot waiting room, was reported kid naped today by a middle-aged Amman. The infant, dressed in a gresn ski suit, had gone to sleep in the arms 5f his mother, Mrs. Stanley Peter son, Seattle. She put him on the oench while she went to the res* mom. When she returned the bady was ;one and no trace could be found >f a grajn-haired woman who had been admiring the baby a few ninutes earlier. Mrs. Peterson, wife of a truck iriver, reported the woman had aid: “I certainly like ‘ children and svery time I see one I would like o pick it up and take it.” Other persons in the waiting •oom said they saw the middle iged woman pick up the sleeping >oy and carry him out, breaking nto a run outside. She was about 5 and shabbily dressed. _ 1 House-To-House Fight For City Is Expected Germans Forcing Civilians Into Home Guard; Prussian Officers Reported Desert ing; New Blood Purge By Nazis Rumored LONDON, Jan. 31.— (UP) —The rumble of Russian guns was re ported audible in Berlin tonight as indications increased that Adolf Hitler had determined to defend the city along Stalingrad lines. Radio Paris gave the report that the terrified, homeless refugees in Berlin along with the city's own people could hear the roar of guns as the Red army captured Lands berg, only 67 miles to the east, with its spearheads thrusting steadily closer. (Stockholm dispatches quoted by the BBC said that the German High Command was expected to declare Berlin formally a fortified city, to be defended street by street.) Hitler, in his anniversary speech last night, had called on every German to rally to the country’s defense. Today, German radios or dered stragglers in the path of the Russian advance to report to the nearest Volkssturm unit for service and threatened that “cow ards” who wished to desert would be killed. (A British broadcast recorded by the FCC reported that high German officers, abandoning their men. were leaving East Prussia by plane. (CBS heard a Paris broadcast reporting that for the second time in two weeks a mayor of Breslau had been shot for cowardice. The first mayor was shot for trying to desert his post. Paris, quoting a German broadcast, said that his successor had been executed for the same reason. (CBS reported from Stockholm also a new blood purge in Ger (Coiitinued on Page Three, Col. 3) ALLIES TO WIDEN PUNISHMENT PLAN War Crime Penalties Will Extend To Gestapo Inside Germany LONDON, Jan. 31 —W— Richard Law, British minister of State, de clared today that the Allied nations intended to punish Nazis respon sible for persecution of Jews and other anti-Nazis inside Germany itself as well as to punish war criminals. Disclosing the most far-reaching Allied plans yet voiced by an of ficial spokesman, Law said that at tempts would be made to plug any technical loopholes through which some Nazis guilty of atrocities might escape. “Crimes committed by Germans against Germans are in a different category to war crimes and can not be dealt with under the same procedure.” he explained. “But in spite of this, the British govern ment will do its very utmost - to insure that those crimes do not go unpunished.” Herbert Pell was withdrawn as American representative on the war crimes commission for lack of funds after he insisted upon punish ing such persecutions as “crimes against humanity” and when Sir Cecil Hurt resigned as British rep resentative diplomatic sources said they understood he broke with the British Foreign Office on the ques tion of bringing Nazi leaders to trial. Acting Secretary of State Grew said Monday it was the policy of the United States Government “to see to it that the Axis leaders and their henchmen who have been guilty of war crimes and atrocities shall be brought to the bar of justice” and renewed a request for a special appropriation to finance fulltime American participation in the commission. THREE PLANS SEEN FOR EUROPE PEACE Big Three Expected To Form Machinery For Future Affairs WASHINGTON, Jan. 31.— (/P) — Creation of at least three definite types of Allied machinery to con duct European affairs is expected here to result from the Big Three meeting. The form of this machinery will depend on (1) the spend of offensives against Germany in the nextnext few days and (2) how far Churchill and Stalin are willing to go in accepting American princi ples for handling liberated coun tries. The military picture Is consid ered of utmost importance at this conference. Regardless of when the Big Three met, it is possible that before their talks are con cluded the nature and duration of German resistance may be more j exactly estimated than at any time ! since the conflict began. Partly i this will be shown by the force of enemy counter-measures to the Russian drive along the Oder river line. Partly it will be shown by enemy retreats in the west and to some extent it may be reflect ed in indications from inside the Reich of arrangements for a re treat into mountainous southern Germany and a last-ditch fight in that area. The more accurately Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin can foresee the end of the war in Germany, the more accurately they can plan for long range German control pol icies, for the liberation of Austria and for the tapering off of mili tary activities. The end of the European war is expected also to mean a slow but certain change in the European supply picture. . U. S. To Leave Supplies In Europe After V-E Day WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 — (£>) American troops shifted from Eu rope to the Pacif c after Germany's defeat will leave the bulk of their equipment behind, under present plans, and will be armed anew for Japan Purpose of this military decision, it was learned tonight, is to hasten the final outcome by bringing sub stantial forces to bear against the Japanese “months and months” ahead of the time otherwise pos sible. The sending of new arms and supplies from the American produc tion arsenal, however, will require continued large-sca.e war produc bon and slower reconversion to civilian industry after V-Pay in Eu rope. This strategic decision was said to stem from these military con siderations: First, that the giant strides al ready made across the Pacific Ocean will make it possible to em ploy large bodies of troops—pre sumably in operations on the Asi atic mainland—much earlier than was anticipated six months ago. Second, that it would be more expedient, in view of transport problems, to let soldiers from Eu rope and munitions from America converge for the showdown assault against Japan, than to undertake the slower task of shipping both from Europe. Otherwise months of effort would be required, the plan's proponents held, in reassembling the weapons, vehicles and supplies from depots and bases spread over the map of Eruope; in preparing them for re shipment; and in hauling them over Europe’s battered transportation system to ports congested with troop movements. It held further that the heavier (Continued on Page Three, Col. 3) Soviets Take BeyersdorfIn Fast Advance German Report Places In vaders North Of Frank fort-On-Oder I IjUINDUIN, inursuay. icd. i.—un —The Red Army, dashing un. checked across the frozen ap proaches to Berlin, was 63 miles from the Nazi capital by its own account today and a scant 45 ac cording to the alarmed German radio. The Soviet communique late last night announced the capture of Beyersdorf, 63 miles northeast of Berlin—a distance equal to that from Philadelphia to Neward, N. : J. This represented a 10-mile ad vance in 24 hours for Marshal Zhukov’ s First White Russian Ar my, which took the big communi cations center of Landsberg in passing. One report from the German ra dio placed Marshal Zhukov's men north of Frankfurt-on-the-Oder in the Oder river valley, not more than 45 miles from the capital, and driving on Kustrin, a rail cen ter 41 miles east of Eerlin, scarce ly more than the distance from Washington to Baltimore, The Soviet communique report ed continued advances along th.? I entire eastern front, from East Prussia, where surrounded Ger man divisions were squeezed in side less than one-fifth of the prov ince’s territory, to beseged Buda pest, where 8,200 prisoners were taken Tuesday. mi T\ |T ^ ^ M „ — a mention of besieged Breslau and the Silesian sector where Marshal Ivan S. Konev's First Ukraine Ar my is operating, but the Berlin radio, contending that the line west of Eireslau had been stabiliz ed, acknowledged Russian cross ings of the Oder at many points in that area and placed the north ern end of Konev’s line at Sorau, 47 rniies inside Ge.many ana 30 miles west of the Oder. Sorau is 84 miles southeast of Berlin. In the First White Russian Ar my’s sector directly east of Ber lin, the Soviet communique an nounced capture of Topper, 70 miles due east of the capital and 11 miles west of Schweibus, a town which fell to Zhukov's army earlfc er in the day. The northward spread of the First White Russian Army in Po merania brought the capture of Flatow, Jastrow and more than 50 other populated places. The thrust to Jastrow represented an ad vance of 12 miles in a drive which threatened to cut off the greater part of Pomerania from Germany and endangered Stettin, Berlin’s port on the Baltic. West and southwest of Katowice in Polish Silesia, the communique continued, Oderwalde, a town on the Oder river 11 miles inside Ger man Silesia and 28 miles west of Katowice fell to Konev s First Uk raine Army. A German Transocean agency broadcast said First White Russi an tanks and mobile infantry were locked in battle with German re serves on a 40-mile front from the vicinity of Zielenzig, 62 miles east of Berlin, to the area of Soldin, 58 miles northeast of the Capital. There was no confirmation of (Continued on Page Three, Col. 1) -v Yank Dental Officer Braves Shellfire To Pull Soldier’s Tooth WITH THE 43rd INFANTRY DIVISION, Rosario, Luzon, Jan. 31 — (UP)—Capt. John S. Engenberger of Omaha, Neb., a regimental den tist, heard a report that a Yank infantryman was suffering tooth ache in a foxhole on hotly contested Hill No. 600 near here. Engenberger crawled and crept half a mile through artillery and sniper fire, found the foxhole and patient, administered novocaine and yanked out the tooth. He of fered to evacuate the infantryman out the latter cuddled in his hole ind said, "I had rather stay here :han go back through what you ust came through.” Engenberger crawled back. i
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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