xnrnrrY-nn3T year
Sodom, Oregon, Friday, Morning, March 2a, 1842
Prlc 3o Ilewstands 5c
No. CC7
Oil Cabinet
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ystem
Weel
8
Need Factor
To Govern
All Sales
r WASHINGTON, March 19
(AP) Gasoline rationing by
a rigid coupon system will be
instituted in the east and Pa
cific northwest as soon as the
millions of cards can be print
ed, probably six weeks hence,
Petroleum Coordinator Ickes
announced today.
H Emphasizing the seriousness of
the fuel emergency, the coordina
tor told his press conference that
the supply situation In New Eng
land," both with regard to petro
leum and coal, had become so
critical that parts of the area, par
ticularly Jn Massachusetts and
Maine, already .were planning "to
rely on wood" for heating next
winter,
Flans for rationing as a war
measure ' were announced on the
day that motor fuel consumption
was cut by 20 per cent in the east
and northwest by a limitation of
supplies ' delivered to filling sta
tions. ,;: - "-
. V Ickes declined to predict the
extent to which the rdinary
motorists gasoline ' gallonage
' might be cut for a given pe
' riod under the card system, bnt
' said t all motorists would be
-classified according to their
-actual needs.
" "Wewill go on a card ration
ing system as soon as Leon Hen
derson (the price administrator)
can get around to it," Ickes told
newsmen.'' : s, -v ' ';-,;
The coordinator expressed
doubt that gasoline could be dis
tributed equitably under the sys
tem that became effective today.
The supply limitation program
places on the Individual "station
operators . the responsibility for
fair, apportionment .
'. Oregon motorists learned
inursaay inai a . zu-per cent re
; duction in gasoline deliveries to
service : stations does not mean
their consumption will be cut by
only one-fifth.
Spokesmen for major oi com
panies said five groups of vehicles
(Turn to Page 2. CoL 5)
Seattle May
fJs E123 shows 1.3W Eritish ColnmbU b considering nooUng up its existing tifhway north of Tan
conver ta t.e new Alaskan hirhway belnr eonstracted north from Edmenton, Alberta., Twe rentes
rrt Ic'.zx considered; No. 1 via Tanderhoof to Dawson Creek; No. 1 from Jnst sonth of Prince Georre
' (j ri.vsca Creek. Terminus of the Northern Alberta r&Swsy is at Dawson Creek, where American
f --rj are already at work on construction of the Alaskan link. Advantages ef the considered Erit
; t "r.Lli hock-en routes are:, proposed cut-off No. t Is less than' f St miles. Ke, 1 route Tia
is sorsewhat longer, whereas the distance from Seattle to Dawson Creek via Edmonton Is
1 "5 1.:3. IT. r ronton route Is the ene decide! c;oa ty the Canadian and United States govern-
Due m 6 if
W egr r -
in
45-64 Group's
Registration
Is April 27
. Oldest Group Under
Law to Be Ready
For Non-Combat
WASHINGTON, Marcm 19
(-The government Thursday
ordered the oldest group of men
under the selective service law
45 to 64 inclusive to regis
ter on April 27, for possible
non-combatant service in the fu
ture. .
The new registration date pro
claimed by President Roosevelt
will leave only one group not yet
recorded, those of 18 and 19 years.
estimates of the total registration
for the 45-64 age group range
around 15,000,000.
. While none of these compara
tive oldsters will be taken Into
the fixhtinr forces, there Is the
possibility that some or many
f them will be assigned eventu
ally to essential war work. Bri.
Gen. Lewis B. Hershey has said
that one purpose of the draft
law was an "accurate and syste
matic appraisal" of the supply
of man power.
. Testifying before a house com
mittee last month, Hershey as
serted that "we must havejnuch
more control over placements of
men than we now. have to. meet
the war , manpower problem.? It
was noted, however, that there is
ho existing law to Compel a work
Hithrcy - uu the previous drafts, Thurs
day's order applied to "male citi
zens of the United States, the ter
ritories of Alaska and Hawaii and
in Puerto Rico. Exceptions are
made for : those already In the
armed forces and provisions made
in certain cases for registration
before or after the April 27 date.
Wednesday's .Weather
Weather forecasts withheld
and temperature data delayed
by army, request. River Thurs
day, LI feet. Max. temperature,
84, sain 17.
Link With Neiv
RICHARD G. CASEY
Casey Named
In Mid-East
1st From Dominion;
visfer to Take
Place at Cairo
LONDON, March 19-iflV-Brit-
ain's government took a dominion
statesman into Its; inner fold
Thursday for the first time in his
tory, appointing Australia's Rich'
ard G. Casey, to be minister of
state In the middle east for the
war cabinet
The handsome and vigorous
Casey now is Australian minister
to Washington.
The appointment, announced
In the house of commons by
Prime Minister Churchill, was
Interpreted in some quarters as
an effort to re-tie the bonds be
(Turn to Page 2, CoL 2) -
Income Tax
Drop Seen
Sprague la Confident
For State Change
Reports Finances
ASHLAND, Ore., March 19-OP)
Gov. Charles A. Sprague said at
banquet here Thursday night
he was "confident we can allow
Oregon - taxpayers to discount
their Income taxes by 20 per cent
in the next biennium and still
not have to revive state taxes on
real property.'
He said this would aid mater-
(Turn to Page 2, CoL 7)
Alaska Road
QJs
A II W
To Subs in Atlantic;
Total Attacked Is 41
Nearly All Crew-Members
Are Rescued; Yugoslav,
Norwegian Craft Listed
By The Associated Press . .
Submarine torpedoes and shellfire, destroying three-al
lied vessels, lifted the toll of
attacked off the United States
Une was the 5402-ton
whose sinking was disclosed
of 37 landed at Lewes, Del
navy as a Norwegian tanker, witn
38 of the 40-man crew saved, and
the third was listed as a medium
sized merchant ship with 38 out
of 47 men surviving,
Survivors of the merchant ship,
arriving in Miami, Fla., from
Havana, said the ship's radio op
erator stayed at his post after the
vessel was torpedoed and man'
aged to send distress signals in
spite of shellfire aimed at the
radio shack.
"Right after the torpedo bit,
the sub surfaced and fired four
WASHINGTON, March 19
(AVThe navy department an
nounced Thursday nifht that
a medians stated merchant ves
sel had been torpedoed off the
Atlantic coast No additional
details were released by the
nvy department.
tunes, one , ; crewman asserted.
"The water ws pouring in, and
the ship sinking about a foot's
minute, but Sparks ktayed on duty
until he could get bk SOS away."
' -When Uld f swlmmlnr la
the ell-eovered water until they
found a big llfebeat capsized.
- They managed to right the boat
and kept picking np stragglers
until there were 38 la the craft.
In New York City, six surviv
ors from the Trepea, who were
among those landed at Lewes,
blamed the lors of their ship on
Friday the 13 th, the wireless op
erator declaring that the ship
sailed from its Caribbean port on
a Friday and It was attacked on
Friday, March 13.
The shuddering explosion of a
torpedo below the bridge in mid
morning was the first sign of a
submarine's presence, the Trepea
crewmen said. Four men, the only
ones known to have been lost,
were killed instantly, two of the
lifeboats were destroyed, and the
radio damaged, preventing an ap
peal for help.
Captain Stanko Marochini de
clared In Lewes that the attack
was carried out "by a cruiser sub,
the largest I have ever seen, ap
parently German."
Survivors ef the Trepea drift
ed three days In pea lifeboats
throng rain, fog and cold be
fore being rescued by a Swedish
frelfhter. Eight men were
placed la a hospital, suffering
from exposure.
' The complete identity of the
Trepea, naval officials , in Wash
ington explained, was given out
by authority of the . Yugoslav
minister, although contrary to the
navy's usual policy of n o t an
nouncing ship names.
Identity of the Norwegian tank
er was not disclosed. Its sinking
was first reported from Nassau,
the Bahamas, on March 10, two
days after 38 survivors of the 40
man crew arrived there.
Decision Near
For Burma . T
WITH THE BRITISH ARMY
IN CENTRAL BURMA, March 19
(&-The decisive battle for cen
tral ; Burma appeared : definitely
Imminent Thursday In the Irra
waddy valley Burma's spinal
columnas Japanese troops mov
ed northward by motor transport,
boat and mule-train toward the
British defenses in the Prome
sector sheltering the Yehang-Ja
ung oil fields. "' V? t. hf
The fight will be for the Prome
road, asphalted western branch
of the old Burma road running
along the broad Irrawaddy to the
rich central Burma oil. fields,
thence f toMandalay." Japanese
forces also are moving op the
eastern branch, or Toungoo road,
and there has been preliminary
fighting In the Kanyutkwin sec
tor of this eastern road to Man
dalay. some 1C3 miles north of
Rangoon. ;
- CD Oi
ships officially announced as
Atlantic coast to 41 Thursday.
Yugoslavian freighter Trepea,
after 33 survivors of a crew
Another was identified b the
Promoted
Army j engineer la 'charge of the
Corvallis army cantonment and
resident engineer at Bonneville
-dam, R. E, IL-Deslslet W a s
, promoted Thursday . from the
rank of major to that of lien-
tenant eoIoneL . He -. beeame a
major January SL 194L .
way Bids9
Award Today
Oregon Projects Are
Limited Qosely
To Defense '
PORTLAND, March
Awards for a Crater lake highway
improvement project to acconW
modate increased traffic for an
army cantonment near Medford
will be made Friday, the state
highway commission announced
Thursday.
Bids ; on a project to improve
the Pacific highway between Cor
vallis and Monmouth to serve an
other army cantonment in that
area probably would be received
at next month's meeting, the
commission said.
Expenditures on the two pre
, (Turn to Page 2, CoL 3)
; Of
High
Nazis Said Burning
Fight Reds Futilely
LONDON, Friday, March 20-
(tf-German troops under assault
in ; Kharkov are blowing up
oil stores and other'equipment,
"apparently Realizing the occupa
tion is at an end," a Stockholm
dispatch to the Dally Mail said
Thursday. 7r
Great fires are raging in the
industrial city which the nazis
captured last October, the re
port said. "
Tne red army was reported at
the gates of Kharkov last Sunday,
"Tank, : gun, and ammunition
depots are being dynamited,' the
correspondent said.
. The Germans are destroying
what they and hordes of forced
labor have recreated during six
months of precarious occupation."
MOSCOW,. March
The nazis are counter-attacking
oa . virtually every front ta
desperately fatlle efforts to
rescue trapped troops and stem
the Russian advance the red
army reported Thursday night.'.
' The ! fiercest fighting of . all
raged in an unidentified sector
of the southern front, the army
newspaper Red Star said. ..
Trying to- relieve several units
from a grave predicament, the
Germans threw In every weapon
of war, but were repulsed and
lost another settlement, Red Star
related, and added that the Rus
sian advance there was continu
ing. i -
A dispatch from the central
Japanese
To, Vale
.... . , . .
Governor Asked
To Aid; Idaho
Makes Proffer
'Migration of Japanese, alien
and citizens alike, to the Vale
district in eastern Oregon will
be opposed unless they are con
centrated in groups and placed
under military supervision,
John L. C a 1 d w e 1 1, jr. Vale
chamber of commerce secretary,
telegraphed Gov. Charles A.
Sprague. Thursday.
- - ---
Caldwell's messager drafted
fouowing a mass meeting at Vale
and directed also to Lt Gen. J. L.
DeWitt, said citizens there did not
want evacuated Japanese except
under tne following conditions:
That they be colonised . or
. concentrated la troops.
, That the-United States gov
ernment provide ample super
vision. That they will not be permit
ted to purchase or lease land.
. That they will be removed
from the area at the conclu
sion of the war emergency
The telegram declared that be
cause ox four large irrigation
dams and canal systems Malheur
County is vulnerable to sabotage
that could destroy the entire ter
ritory in a few hours. i v,
Officials here said any Influx
of enemy aliens Into Malheur
county probably was voluntary
for" the reason that there has
been- aoloreed removal of evae
tt'ees Into that section p to this
thne. . i rs - -'
The telegram . was referred , to
Charles P. Pray, superintendent
of state police, who said he would
conduct an investigation to de
termine the seriousness of the
situation.
BOISE, March lO-tfEstab-
lishment of one or more reception
centers In Idaho for Japanese re
moved from war-vital west coast
areas emerged Thursday as a
possible method of quieting ob
jections against settling the evac
uees in the state.
Gov. Chase A. Clark announced
the centers were being considered
after conferring with Tom C
Clark of San Francisco. , .
The latter, chief of the civilian
staff of,Lt Gen. J. L. DeWitt,
head of the western defense com
mand, said he had asked the gen
eral to dispatch a site board to
look over "three or four sections
of Idaho" where the centers might
be established. The board was ex
pected to arrive Friday.
(Turn to Page 2, CoL 7) t
front said that the Germans were
trying to furnish, the trapped
unit with munitions and food by
plane ' and that captured orders
showed . the f commander:, of the
101st German rifle regiment had
already reduced his men's rations
one-third. j'
In the Staraya Russa sector of
the north central front, the offi
cial Russian government paper,
Izvestia, said Hitler's "starved,
half -frozen, lice-covered 16th ar
my, 60,000 strong, is perishing."
Reserves "rathered with dif
ficulty for his so-called spring
offensive," but sent Instead to
aid this army "find themselves
encircled with these they are
sent to relieve," Izvestia said.
German prisoners " arriving ;
from many sectors were quoted
en the scope ef Hitler's con
sumption of his reserves.
In the Leningrad area the Rus
sians reported two bright devel
opments despite frenzied German
counter-attacks: v';;'.;:f,.X -
.Izvestia said; the red army be
tween Leningrad, 'and Tikhvin
was advancing steadily westward,
capturing settlement after settle
ment. .
; Pravda, communist party pa
per, said it had received word
from a guerrilla commander that
6CC0 square miles of' territory
west of the Leningrad sector had
been cleared of Germans. The ex
act location was not disclosed,
but presumably lay in the vicin
ity of Estonia.
Qbje
cted
71 aT
LW
ission
Guide A dvanced;
"A if Forces Meet
Allies Account for Three
iuore j&nemy snips; nans
; ; ' " : J ,v Bv VERM
MELBOURNE, Blarclr 19 (AP) Guided by nazi Ger
man missionaries, stronz Japanese force was;, reported
Thursday night to be advancing- overland in New Guinea;
toward Port Moresby, enemy-coveted springboard for in
vasion of the Australian mainland, while over the continent's
whole defense periphery the combined US-Australian air
force and Japanese bombers were furiously engaged.
Stilwell Takes
Chinese Lead
Generalissimo Names
American to Work .
In Burma Fracas
WASHINGTON, March
ine umiea states took over a
new role on a distant war front
Thursday with the assignment of
Lieut Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell as
commander of the main body of
Chinese forces fighting with the
British to protect the eastern gate
way to India. .
Gen. Stilwell, a veteran Of IS
years service in China, was given
the command ofthe Chinese Fifth
and Sixth armies, operating with
the British in Burma,
: Bis appointment, made by
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek,
and announced by, the war de
partment, linked more closely
the whole United Nations s truf
fle to halt the Japanese anarch
f conquest. :
During the day, the war depart
ment told Of an aerial stab by
American forces in another thea
tre, the Dutch Indies. Army heavy
bombers raided the Japanese-held
airport at Koepang on Timor Is
land, "scoring several hits on the
runways and damaging" Installa
tions," a communique aaid.
Meantime, the senate east aside
usual , routine to approve swiftly
and unanimously President Roose-
(Turn to Page 2, CoL 3)
Sale Increases Noted
SAN FRANCISCO, March 19
(JP)-Sales in 137 western depart
ment stores, averaged 29 cents on
the dollar higher than a year ago
in February, store reports to the
Federal Reserve Bank of San
Francisco showed Thursday.
Stores in
Hitler Calls Generals
- BERN, Switzerland, March -19
-Confronted by a critical new
situation in Russia and threat
ened with the possibility of an
allied second front against Ger
many, Adolf Hitler has aban
doned his , "intuition" and called
back nearly all the high-ranking
generals he dismissed during the
winter, German dispatches indi
cated Thursday. '?
The fuehrer apparently has be
come convinced now that he can
not direct his war alone, as he
tried to do In December, when he
personally supplanted Field Mar
shal Walther von Braucbitsch as
commander-in-chief. .
: Von Brauchitsch and other keen
military men who quit or. were
fired when the German army's
march on Moscow collapsed early
last winter now have been called
ANKARA, Turkey. March 19
GT)-Germau Ambassador Frans
von Papesj departed Thursday
alxht, la! defiance ef r doctor's
orders, to report to Adolf Hit
ler's eastera front headquarters.
back to Berlin to map a gigantic
offensive expected to be launched
soon on the Russian front, said a
Berlin dispatch to the Swiss news
paper Easel National Zeitung.
Others named are Field Mar
shals Karl Rudolf ; Gerd von
RuncUtedt and Fdero von Bock,
both among those who left their
conmands in reported disfavor.
Radios
MAUr.l.Atm
The Japanese troops, thus sup-
ported by the first recorded in
stance of German fifth column
work in the Australian theatre,
appeared to be advancing west
ward from Lae, their beachhead
on northeastern New Guinea - is
land due north of Port Moresby
and separated from it by a moun
tain : range. The objective of the
drive was to gain the central, pla
teau, then turn south toward Port
Moresby, the most important de
fensive position short of the main
land itself. It lies just across
Torres strait from the, mainland. v
The enemy's immediate aim,
sai dispatches from Port Mor
esby, was to take over the Mark
ham valley with Its system of
ust-rate airports. , ' .
- The missionaries were said to '
have come from pro-owl centers
in Finschhafen and Alexishafen
both towns incidentally , are la
the area of - the enemy,alniual
lanoings on New Guinea-Hand to
have equipped themselves with
a radio transmitter, a small, fac
tory for producing arms and
swastika bands. They maintained 1
good airdromes.
In recent raids en the mis
sions, the anthorities smashed
radie transmitter. They
(Turn to Fae 2i CoL 1)
Jeep Serves
Workers Tea
MELBOURNE, March .
An American colonel assigned
to speed prediction ta a Vic
toria airpUae factory whose
utput la only three planes a
month observed that the work-,
era lost a half hear roinf eat
for their mld-mornmt tea. and.
the same time ta the afternoon. .
I knew that tea Institution
couldnt be eliminated. he ex
plained, "so we used aa army
jeep to bring the staff Into the
factory and thus saved 45 min
utes ef that time.'
Kharkov
Field Marshal Ervtin Rommel,
who remained In command In
Africa throughout the winter cam
paign, also was reported called
to Berlin to take, part In the
planning parleys. '
The generals first job Is to turn
the tide of the desperate fighting
on the Russian front to lay down
a superlative strategy of, "new
and surprising methods," as one
paper put it by which the. Ger
man defense and counterattack
tactics can be turned into the big
spring offensive , which . Hitler
seeks. ' YfX-:::.- .' : 1 ;.'tr
- The second Job Is to work out
abreader detailed plan for the "
spring; and summer which, If the
Russian fighting permits, the
naxl army Is expected to apply
ta Africa and throughout the
Mediterranean area, -. "
The third task Is to advise on
the best method of guarding
against the opening of a second
front by the allies, a subject much
discussed in German news col
umns recently. This may account
for Stockholm press dispatches r
porting a raovemenl of stronger
nail troop detachments Into Nor
way and Denmark. ; , T-Y -? i'
4 Von Brauchitsch is back In Ber
lin, officially 'still convalescent
but available for - staff consulta
tions. Rommel came to. Berlin -to
talk over strategy, and hi ab
sence from, his African pott ' for
the past several weeks - may 1 ac-
count for the comparative lack 0
activity there. - - "