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PCUNDEID 1651
NlNETY-riFTH YEAR
HP
MTDS
Once again the cutbacks in pro
duction orders on munitions and
"weapons. New plants under con
struction that were ' to turn out
additional quantities ot armored
tanks will not be required. The
aggregate of cancelled orders for
ammunition is estimated at $200,-
000,000. The war department
Tuesday issued & statement " as
follows:
"American production is now at
level which assures American
fighting men of a sufficient pro
duction rate to complete the war
against Germany and provide the
output necessary to supply forces
to be used against Japan."
Yet some ten days ago the mili
tary authorities were demanding
enactment of national service
legislation, the work-or-jail bill,
claiming it was needed to insure
adequate supplies for the fight
ing forces in Europe and the Pa
cific. What a quick and abrupt
about-face!
Senator Morse made his first
full-length address in the senate
on this work-or-jail bill. It was
a very able address and evidently
made a favorable impression on
the senate and the country. One
of his best points was to answer
the argument that this bill was
what the generals and admirals
wanted. He said he was not at all
impressed by that argument, and
- went on to say that in his work
on the war labor board he had
found the attitude of military
tninded men . ill-adapted to ' the
task of settling labor disputes.
Praising the military leaders for
their abilities in their own field,
he discounted their Judgment in
matters relating to civilian life
and work, saying:
"Mr. President, let us be frank
about the matterrBy training, by
responsibility, by' point of view,
on the whole those in charge of
the military and the navy are
men of action. They are men who
want immediate
(Continued on editorial page) .
SchindlerWai
Assist Wallace
WASHINGTON, April ll-P)-Alfred
' Schindler, a 50-year-old
St Louis businessman-, was nora
" inated today by President Roose
velt to be Secretary Henry Wal
lace's right hand man at the de
partment of commerce.
Schindler issued a statement
snent here saying he's ready to
"devote my all to the task of
helping business and industry.
The new undersecretary -sub
ject to approval of the senate
was hand-picked by Wallace. He
first met Wallace over 20 years
ago when Schindler was a : feed
sales executive and Wallace a
farmer.
Laurel Branch Will Be
Design on Peace Stamp
WASHINGTON, -April 1 1-A?)-A
small laurel branch will be the
unusually simple design of the
United Nations commemorative
$tamp to be issued at San Francis-
i co April 25.
Postmaster General Walker said
the stamp, which will go on first-
day sal simultaneously with the
opening of the United Nations
conference, will f be blue and of
- five-cent denomination. '
Oregi
on Dairy
Referendum of
Declaring three bills relating to
pasteurization of milk and milk
products and to fixing of fluid
milk standards' by the state de-;
' partment of agriculture unsatis
factory to a large number of producer-distributors
and particular
ly objectionable to raw milk op-
era tors, Henry Fruitiger announc
ed here Wednesday that fie hoped
by May 1 to file preliminary pe
titions for referendum, of the trio
of measures. ' ,
, Fruitiger, Portland, is president
of the Milk'Producers-Distributors
ot Oregon. His announcement here
yesterday followed a conference
with Sen. W. E. Burke, Yamhill
county, and Attorney General
Neuner. - ; -
Completed petitions, which the
law reauires mustbe filed noU
12 PAGES
Okinawa
U. S. Dead
At 2695
Bitter Fighting
Raging on Both
Ends of Island
By Merlin Spencer
GUAM, Thursday, April 12-P)
-American casualties of 2695
432 dead, 2103 wounded and 160
missing in the first nine days of
the Okinawa invasion were an
nounced today by Fleet Adm.
Chester, W. Nimitz as U. S. marines
and infantrymen fought bitterly
on both ends of that rain-swept
island just 325 miles south of Ja
pan. Doughboys of Maj. Gen. John R.
Hodge's 24th army corps were
stalemated in the southern sec
tor for the seventh straight day
amid a full-blown artillery duel,
and for the firsjt time since the
Easter Sunday invasion the ma
rines in the north ran into organ
ized resistance.
Maj. Gen. Roy S Geiger's Third
marine amphibious corps scorea
some advances but their speed was
slowed materially. The leather
necks hold about two-thirds of
the Notobu peninsula on Okinawa's
west coast. ,
The Americans on the vital
Ryukyu island were killing Jap
anese at the rate of about 11 to 1,
considerably less than the ratio
on Iwo . Jima and Saipan. The
American casualties were up to
midnight Monday. By Sunday
midnight the enemy had lost 5009
dead and 222 prisoners, but much
heavy fighting has been under
way since then. ,
Admiral Nimitz : 8gain. reported
no " substantial changes in the
lines" in the southern sector,
where the strongly-entrenched
Japanese were pouring in artilleryrr
mortar and small arms fire in in
creasing amounts. The action,
fought along the "little Siegfried
line" about four miles north of
Naha, was undeniably the fiercest
artillery engagement of the Pa
cific war.
Spain Severs
All Relations
With Nippon
MADRID, April 11 -(JP)- Spain
severed diplomatic, relations with
Japan today in what apparently
was the aftermath of the killing
of Spanish nationals by Japanese
soldiers at Manila. j
. Japanese Minister. Yakichiro
Suma earlier in the day started to
arrange his departure for Portu
gal but it was reported Spain
would hold him and other Jap
anese diplomats until Tokyo ar
ranged the safe departure of Span
ish diplomats now in the Japanese
capital.
Suma told neutral sources here
yesterday that Japan had ac
knowledged on April 7 receipt ot
Spain's protest about the Manila
killings. The protest was filed
March 24. Details of the diplo
matic exchange were not revealed.
Chile Will Send Two
Divisions to Pacific
SANTIAGO, Chile, April 1H)
The magazine "Vea" said today
that Chile will send two divisions
to the Pacific front as part of a
quota of 1,000,000 soldiers from
Latin-America agreed upon at the
Mexico City "inter-American con
ference.
'Official Seeks
3 Milk Bills
later than June 15 of this yeaf
and must contain signatures of
14,442 qualified voters, would stay
operation of the three measures
until referred to the voters at the
1946 general election.
" Particular objection was voiced
b Fruitiger against house bill
371 which authorizes the state di
rector of agriculture to set stand
Lards for fluid milk and cream.
The law places too much author
ity in one state agency, Fruitiger
said. . -i - - - -. w-.. 'V y -
The ! other bills under attack
would forbid sale ot unpasteur
ized dairy product from herds not
free from Bang's disease or tuber
culosis after a specified series of
four tests and would remove from
the existing law all reference to
dairy product.
Salem, Oregon. Thursday Morning. April 12, 1945
Mule Afraid of
Dark Turns On
Light ill Barn
KANSAS CITY, April 11 -It)
Tobe, a mule, is afraid of the dark.
Guards at municipal farm care
fully turn off lights at the barn
every night. "Recently the bulb In
Tobe's stall has been burning
when employes make their morn
ing rounds.:: - .
Last nigh: Maurice Caenepeel
snapped off a light and started out
the door. Suddenly the bulb lit
up again and Caenepeel saw Tobe
release 'the swilchcord from his
teeth.
2 B-29 Forces
Blast Koriyama
Tokyo Targets
GUAM, Thursday, April 12-(P)-Two
"large forces" of Superfort
resses -today raided the Nakajima
Musashino aircraft engine plant
in Tokyo and the industrial and
transportation center of Koriyama,
110 miles north of the Nipponese
capital. '
The Tokyo raiding force was
escorted by Iwo Jima-based long
range Mustang fighters flying
their second, war mission over
Japan.
Superforts striking Koriyama
flew a round trip of 3800 miles
the longest bombing flight ever
made by 2 1st bomber command
planes.
Tokyo said the Shizuokadist-
rict, south of Tokyo, also was a
target of : "approximately 150"
B-29s which raided the mainland
from 10 a.m. until noon (9 p.m.
to 1 1 p.m. Wednesday, eastern war
time). - '
Rumors About
Hitler Running
Riot in Britain
LONDON, April 11 The
British press reported without
confirmation today that Adolf
Hitler, broken in health and per
haps dying, has been forced by
the nazis to yield control over
the toppling s reich to Heinrich
Himmler.
Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden
was asKed i in commons wnetner
he could confirm a report that
Hitler had been assassinated, but
he brushed it aside in a manner
indicating he gave it no credence.
The U. S. 12th army group
headquarters received information
meanwhile that 102 members of
the luftwaffe, including a General
Baber, were executed by the Ger
mans March 31 in an effort to
quell a rebellion of army officers.
Headquarters said the Informa
tion was reliable.
Fred E. Neely f
Dies 'Suddenly
Chief of Police Fred' E Neely,
56, of 156 Gerth ave., West Salem,
died Wednesday at 4:12 p. m. in a
Salem hospital following a stroke
he suffered shortly after 11 a. m.
Wednesday in his ; home. Ill for
several years: Neely, although suf
fering severely at times, expressed
confidently to his many friends
that he was constantly gaining in
his fight for. health. -Wednesday;
morning he appear
ed as usual in the city hall and
pitched into the multitudinous
jobs over which he presided. Be
sides actively; directing the .work
of the poncel department he also
supervised all street work, the
water department and conducted
the inspections of all building
construction. ;
114 Inches of Snow at 1
Santiam Road Junction
The state highway department
received r word Wednesday- that
there is 114 inches of snow at the
junction of the North and South
Santiam highways with prospects
of additional ' snow within the
next few hours. ?:
; Highway , department officials
said two road clearing crews had
been sent to the scene With snow
plows and other equipment The
snow depth .:. on . the Wapanitia
cutoff was reported at 84 Inches.
Friendship Pact Signed
LONDON, Thursday, April 12
(A1)- The Moscow radio announced
today -that ; a pact of . friendship
and mutual assistance had been
signed by tha soviet union and
Yugoslavia. -
Offense
In It
Goes Well
Eighth Reaches
Santerno River;
5th Also Gains
By Lynn Heinzerling
ROME, April ll.-ff)-The Brit
ish Eighth army has burst out of
its bridgehead across the Senio
river against strong opposition
and reached the Santerno river at
many places, it was announced
tonight.
Other troops of the Eighth army
haCe landed on the shore of Lake
Comacchio four miles behind the
German positions in an amphib
ious leap-frog operation, a special
communique disclosed.
At the same time the American
Fifth army was reported to have
advanced-more than three miles
north of Massa against heavy re
sistance. The Americans also
pushed nearer Carrara.
The success of the Eighth army
put British, New Zealand, Indian
and Polish troops at least four
miles beyond the Senio as allied
headquarters announced the cap
ture of three towns and said the
enemy defenses on the Senio river
had ' been "breached on a broad
front"
(The German radio said a "first
class" battle has developed be
tween Lake Comacchio and the
Via Emilia where the British are
attacking on9 20-mile front.
The Nazi : transocean agency
broadcast claimed the Germans
wiped out the first line of the
British and then withdrew to the
Santerno sector.) u.
Eighth army, troops who landed
behind enemy lines at Lake Com
acchio captured a bridge and more
than 100 prisoners.
Adm. Scheer
Sunk at Kiel
By RAF Fleet
LONDON, April 11 -JFy- The
German 10,000-ton pocket battle
ship Admiral Scheer one of the
two most formidable warships
left in the German navy has been
bombed and sunk at the Kiel
naval base, the British air ministry
announced tonight.
It was another crippling blow
to Germany's fast-waning might.
The loss leaves Germany only one
other pocket battleship, the Luet
zow, ana was tne most serious
disaster to the German navy since
the sinking- of the big battleship
Tirpitz last "November.
British Lancaster sent the Ad
miral Scheer to the bottom with
their bombs last Monday night as
it rode moored in the inner basin
at Kiel naval base, the ministry
said.
aly
Men of Nippon Riddled
- - j
. v
, V
Its decks covered with dead, dying, wounded and cringing crewmen,
; a Japanese frigate wallows in the sea -off the Inde-China coast
,. tmm IC uk Nr hinr attacked h American B-5s. It WU
tiart af & Jan eenvsr of 1C sbrns. (AP wirephoto from Far Hast
air. forces) "
Price 5c
TKe :Berlih Funnel
rrtTjrrrrrjiui'.iy.ri: tit; t
Much of the allied might on the western front is forming Into a funnel
that opens onto Berlin. Today that might has progressed to Madge
burf, only 57 miles from the capital iltj.
Soviets Sever One of Last
German Escape Routes from
Vienna, Storm Across Canal
By Romney
LONDON, Thursday, April 12-0P)-Red army tanks cut one
of the last remaining German escape routes from Vienna yester
day while shock troops stormed across the Danube canal within
the city and freed more than nine-tenths of that part of the Aus
trian capital lying on the Danube's south bank. r ;
Hurdling the canal, a former
Nippiwir Relief
Ship Believed
Sunk by Sub j
WASHINGTON, April 11.h()
The state department announced
tonight that an allied submarine
sank what may have been the
Japanese relief shjp Awa Maru,
travelling under allied safe ton
duct. I
The announcement said the navy
department had reported that a
ship about 40 miles from the esti
mated position of the Japanese
vessel was sunk about midnight
April 1 by submarine action.
A survivor said it was the Awa
Maru. ; f
The announcement said that no
lights or special illumination were
visible at any time. f
; The Awa Maru was returning
to Japan after having delivered
relief supplies for allied internees
and prisoners in Formosa, Hong
kong, - Saigon, Singapore and
Dutch Indies -ports. The supplies
bad been sent to Vladivostok over
a year ago and a long negotations
preceded Japanese agreement to
deliver; them. J
'
Vs.
-'" . a
No. U
y
Wheeler
branch of the Danube, Russian
tommy-gunners captured half of
the nine-mile-long island where fa
natical Nazi troops were making a
final stand between the canal and
the Danube.
The Russians won control of the
southernmost of Vienna's five
bridges across the Danube, but the
Moscow radio said SS men were
dynamiting the spans as part of a
sytematic destruction of the last
of the city in their hands.
nortneast oi Vienna, a massive
tank battle raged on the historic
Napoleonic battleground of the
Marchfeld plain. The Germahs
battled toitave off Red army en
circlement, but "the Russians
slashed across a secondary escape
railroad running north to Lund en
burg and the Czechoslovak city if
Bruenn (Brno).
As the Moscow radio reported
buildings crashing down and
smoke spiralling high over Vienna,
Berlin said that the Red army had
driven 42 miles west of the Aus
trian capital toward Linz and Mu
nich in a sweep along the Danube
valley, a classic invasion route to
Bavaria,
The enemy said that tanks of
Marshal Feodor I. Tolbukhin's
Third Ukrainian army had lanced
westward to the Danube bend be
tween Krems and Melk, 50 miles
from Linz and 75 miles from Ba
varia. If true, it meant the Rus
sians were within 116 miles of
Berchfeesgaden, Adolf Hitler's
mountain top retreat.
Jap General ,
Joins Cabinet
SAN FRANCISCO, April 11. -(V
Lt Gen. Fujiharu YasuL
member of the powerful Japanese
military faction known u the
Kwantung army clique, has joined
the new Nipponese cabinet as a
minister without portfolio, Tokyo
radio said today, t ! - .
Premier Kantaro Suzuki's cabi
net acquired another member
when Natoa Kohiyarna, president
of the south Manchuria railway,
was installed as minister of trans
portation .and - communications
said another of the K Japanese
broadcasts heard by the FCC.
Yasui lifted the cabinet military
membership, to six four navy and
two army leaders. ' " ' 5
Finn Premier Directed
To Form New Cabinet 4
' (By the Associated Press)
- Prsident CarlGustav. Manner
heim of Finland "directed Premier
Juho K. Paasikivi to form a new
cabinet, the Finnish radio' report
ed last (Wednesday) : night In a
broadcast reported by the FCC.
5; Earlier 'the Finnish radio said a
coalition government was expect
ed to be formed under Paasikivi to
replace the cabinet which resigned
following the recent elections.
v " By Austin Bealmear i
PARIS, Thulredayj April 12-CAP) -Armored
columns of the US Ninth
miles: of Berlin and within 115 miles of the Kus
iian front yesterday in a
than 50 miles that carried to the Elbe river at Mag
deburg. A crossing of this last water barrier before .
the German capital was believed imminent. ;
The sensational ; eastward drive, longest sin
gle day's thrust yet made on German soil, was ac
complished by the Second (hell on wheels) ar
mored division, which by-passed the manufactur
ing city of Brunswick and
of the reich against practically non-existent oppo
sition.. .
'i A late dispatch said
within a few hours unless unexpected 'resistance
developed. This would; set the stage for an early-
junction with the red army. Correspondents said
the linkup might be made within a few days, j
' Tit. Gen. William H. Simpson's Ninth army troops were 57 miles
away from the southwestern limits of Greater Berlin, which includes
Potsdam, and the Russians were 32 miles from the capital on the east
with the city itself stretching some 25 miles between these two points.
I Essen and Bochum, great armament cities In the Ruhr trap, fell
to other Ninth army troops, and tonight the Paris radio said Dortmund
also had been cleared in the crumbling pocket.
First army forces to the south sped within 120 miles of a juncture
with Russian troops while the Third army, springing to the attack
PARIS. April lt-(JP)-Ninth air force pilots were aeted by
Stan and Stripes today aa reporting U.S. Third army armor near.
Ing Halle, 15 miles northwest of Lelpxig. Latest official reports,
however, placed the Third army 48 miles from Lelpslg. ' ::
again after five days of comparative inactivity, blazed ahead along a
60-mile front, capturing Coburg and encircling Erfurt " -
Seventh Loses Some Ground
' On the southern end of the front the U.S.Seventh army lost some
ground but at the same time stormed to a point only 29 miles north
west of the big Nazi convention city of Nuernberg.
' British troops in the north punched to within 45 miles of .Ham
burg, but were still held four miles outside the port of Bremen; to
their west the Canadians crossed the Issel river deeper into Holland,
where scores of thousands of Germans were trapped;" '; .1"
:- In making its spectacular dash, to Magdeburg the Second (Hell
on Wheels) armored division by-passed on the south: the big aircraft
center of Brunswick and. plunged eastward on la solid ID-mile front,
meeting only scattered opposition throughout 'the remarkable day.
The Nazi Brunswick garrison still was fighting bitterly through the
streets against doughboys of the 30th division.
SSrd Keaehes Halberstadt . - j
1 ' , Farther south the 83rd division stormed ahead 20 miles and reach
ed Halberstadt, 24 miles southwest of Magdeburg. A huge airplane
factory at Alberstadt was overrun!
The Germans lacked, the manpower even to slow General Simp
son's wave of men and armor. As occasional pockets of resistance wer
encountered the American avalanche simply built up before them and
burst around boh sides, leaving the Nazi garrisons to be cleaned out
at leisure.
"South of Brunswick there were not even any pockets, and old
'Hell on Wheels was moving like it did through Sicily," said Associ
ated Press War Correspondent Wes Gallagher. .
Another front dispatch declared the Elbe could be bridged with
in a few 'hours "unless the Germans decide to fight, something they
haven't really done for two weeks."
Reach River On Bothjsides
The Ninth army troops apparently reached the Elbe on both sides
of Magdeburg, and just to the north of, that big city Is a wide auto
bahn, or super military highway, leading to Berlin.
The swift First army drove across the Thuringian plain south of
the Harz mountains, crushing the small opposition in its path and out
running its communications with; headquarters.
Already the headlong advance of Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges'
forces and the flanking Ninth and Third armies' threatened to bar
German forces irf the north front their last-ditch fortress in the Alps
south of Munich. Yank infantry was mopping up behind the fast
moving armor. , , I
Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's jThird armylashed out again after
several days spent consolidating its positions and quickly fought into
and encircled the city of Erfurt, between Gotha and Weimar some 130
miles southwest of Berlin. Twenty-three Nazi tanks and 18 planes
were destroyed in capturing the Erfurt airport in the northern part
of the city. Coburg, 50 miles south of Erfurt, surrendered to the 11th
armored division. j . ;.
Germans Accused of Killing
5,000,000 Jews
By Thoburn Wiant
.NEAR ERFURT, Germany, Apr.
ll.-(P)-Dr. Bela Fabian, president
of the dissolved Hungarian inde
pendent democratic party, accused
the Germans today of killing 5,
000,000 Jews at the Oswiecim (Au
schwitz) extermination camp; in
Polish Silesia from which he him
self narrowly escaped. I
(The Polish ministry of infor
mation more than a year ago re
ported ,500,000 Jews had been
gassed and cremated at this camp
and the . international church
movement . Ecumenical refugee
committee, in a subsequent, report
on . Oswiecim -and its sister camp
of Birkenau said 1,713,000 Jews
had been killed at the two places.
Ambassador Gets OK ! 4
:r : .: "T : ' 4
BUENOS AIRES, April 11-JP)4-The
Argentine government said
today that' Spruille Braden, pro
posed as U3. ambassador to this
country, would be acceptable here.
Braden now is VS. ambassador to
Cuba. : . I
Hamburg Chief Heei ! ;
" LONDON, April 11 The
Luxembourg radio said today that
the nazi gaukiter of Hamburg
bad fled from the city as Field
Marshal Sir Bernard L Montgom
ery's troops drove toward the big
German port. '
army swept within 57
startling advance of more
roared through the heart
the river could be bridged
at One Camp
(A spokesman fo rthe American
Jewish committee library in New
York said it had been estimated
4,000,000 to .5,000,000 Jews had
been exterminated since the war .
began in Europe, but the library
had no figures to substantiate a
report that 5,000,000 had been ex
terminated in one camp.)
Fabian declared, the executions t
were carried out In a 10-month j
period. . . " j1; ',. .
He said all Jews over 50 were
automatically condemned . to the
gas chamber and crematory as
were the weak , and sickly and
young mothers who refused ' to
leave their children. ?If the. cap
tain did "not like ' the looks ' of
anyone else they were 'gassed
too,". .he said. ; . .: " V rr
Business Activity Up ,
WASHINGTON,' April 1
Business activity as reflected by '
the value of checks caused in the '
first .three months of 1945 was
seven per cent above the corre
sponding period last year." -
Weather
Saa Fraaebee
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