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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (April 27, 1945)
CRT Stettin, 93QDDQB Bruenn TODlIiOB Captured The war department is plan ning to release, starting at mid year, a number of soldiers who re rounding out four to live years of service. In this group for ex ample would be the national guard which was mobilized in Septem ber of 1940, also the earliest in ductees and the early volunteers in the army and navy. Their length of service has taken a whole lot out of their lives, and they surely have earned first con- sideration for discharge. As is usual with such announce ments hswever, a string is tied to it The qualification is macje that all these men can be spared, and i where they can't their discharge will have to be deferred. Now why can't they be spared? For this reason: the veteran is the best sol dier. You have to havei skeleton " force of .veterans to give an outfit backbone and organization. This is true of the men in the ranks and it is true of officers. Follow the history of a division: First it is activated; its cadre of officers is obtained and their in struction begun. Then come the men to fill the companies and reg iments and battalions. Their train ing begins, first in the manual of arms, then in platoons, and on up the line in larger operations until f inally come the division or corps feor army maneuvers. The division -is then declared trained and is shipped overseas; but it still composed of green troops, of men who have never faced gunfire and artillery fire aimed to kill them. Soon the division gets (Continued on Editorial page) Still More Meat To Be Rationed Next Sunday WASHINGTON, April 26 -JJP) Still more meat was put under rationing control today, effective Sunday, with the average point price higher, but some canned fruits and vegetables were reduc ed in point values. Chester Bowles, price adminis trator, said the point raises for meat,-putting about 99 M per cent of the civilian supply under ra tion control, reflected a supply for May some 2V4 per. cent less than that of April. About 94 per cent cf the meat supply was rationed this month. Processed food ration value cuts were highly selective: In canned snap beans, tomato catsup and chili sause, apricots, and tomato Juice and vegetable juice combi nation. The point price of grape juice went up. (Additional details on page 2) U. S. Sticks by Geneva Rules On Prisoners wicumnmM a ;i Th. ; I Cm nwJb WW compared with the Although there have been plenty!... , k.. k. of instances" of German violations, u . ,M(J ' the war department asserted today ... th. n. neva convention for the treatment of prisoners of war. Th HpnnrtmMit. Brit Gen. R. W.7Berry told the house military commute as n openea us maJlirsil Ti 1.. ef the war prisoner situation, has no other choice. The army's treatment of Ger man prisoners of war is not a question of army policy but - a question of law," General Berry said when committee members .asked it there was any Intention to tighten up on treatment of Ger man prisoners in this country be cause of Axis abuses of American prisoners. -.' ..." '.' '' Work Schedule for Bay Gty Conference . SAN FRANCISCO, April 25-() Tomorrow's work schedule for the united nations conference: Steering committee" (chief of delegations) to meet at 10:30 a. Pacific war time. Plenary sessions of delegations, 1:30 p. m. , American delegation meeting at 8:30 a. m. Weather tui Praacisc aceat ., , Salem PortUad Max. Mia. 4S 41 45 5I Seattle ..ST 4S tUUuatt Tet ft. 4 i, FORECAST: fFrom V. I. weather UrNin field. 8anO CWy today, with scatter Ug ht attawm u4 littla clUBfl tn temperacwt. Maxim am Soviets Extend Big Bridgehead Over Elbe River By Romney Wheeler LONDON, Friday, April 27.-JP) Soviet armies conquered almost two-thirds of Berlin's pulverized and burning ruins yesterday, seiz ed the great German Baltic naval base of Stettin and extended their bridgehead across the Elbe river 17 miles from the American First army. , As the Russians began to forge an inner ring of encirclement within the smoke-blanketed and encircled German capital, infan try and cavalry of a fourth great Russian army toppled the huge armament city of Bruenn (Brno), second largest city of Czechoslo vakia and one of Hitler's last re maining war production centers. Berlin's deadly street battles paled bitter fighting in another German fortress city. Far behind the lines, soviet troops battled into the western streets of the long- besieged lower Silesian capital of Breslau, occupying 26 blocks and several factory districts. Meetings Near As the world waited for a three- power announcement that red army and American forces had linked up, Moscow and Berlin re ports indicated that two historic meetings were imminent. West of Berlin, by German ac count, Marshal Gregory K. Zhu kov's First White Russian army yesterday raced 22 miles west ward, by-passing the city of Bran denburg, to reach a point only 14 Vz miles from the American Ninth army on the middle Elbe. The enemy high command said Zhukov's troops had reached Jthe Rathenow area near Ninth army lines on the Elbe and Ninth army front reports said soviet shells were falling a 'few miles 'from Yank lines. Second Junction Southwest of Berlin aonther junction neared if, in fact, it had not already occurred. Here, Marshal Ivan S. Konev's First Ukrainian army extended bridge heads on the Elbe's west bank and seized Strehla and Riesa only 17 miles from the American First army on the Mulde river. But First army dispatches said Amer ican patrols had struck deep into the narrow corridor between the Elbe and the Mulde, and the Swiss radio said a link-up along many-mile front had taken place yesterday afternoon. Tires to Cost Less May 1 WASHINGTON, April 26-(P)- The public will pay from $.45 to $2.20 less for synthetic passenger tires beginning May 1. The OPA said the new retail prices will be ine lowest since 1942. Ceiling prices on larger sized truck and bus tires will b reduc ed about 7 ',4 per cent at the same time. The new retail ceiling on the most widely used size of passenger tire the 8.00 X 18 four-ply will ceiling of $16.05 which has been in effect since last May 1. Before . 1Q., 4x 1Ufa , that from April, 1942, to May 1, 1944 the ceiling for the same size tire was $17.11. 500 Nazis Reported n.ii6aui. NEW YORK, April 28.-VP-The Swedish newspaper Stockholms- Tidingen said in a dispatch re ported to the OWI today that "total of 500 leading nazis are said to have been killed" in yesterday's allied air raid on Berchtesgaden. Herr Goering Resigns Post Because of Heart Trouble? : By James F. King LONDON, April 26. The German Hamburg radio announ ced tonight that Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering had resigned as head of the dying nazi air force because of an "acute" heart ill ness, while a high-ranking Ger man general staff member cap tured by the Americans predicted that Adolf Hitler would die with his troops in encircled Berlin. The captured German general . - unidentified in a US Ninth army front dispatch but termed "internationally known and one of the best-informed members of the German general staff - - predict ed the war would end within a few days and said that Goering probably already had bees execu ted. NINETY-FIFTH YEAR V x This radio-photo waa relayed from into Berlin. It depicts two red Wedge Driven Into Secondary Okinawa Lines GUAM, Friday, April Tl.-ifP)- Infantrymen of Maj. Gen. James L. Bradley's 86th division drove wedge into the deep Japanese secondary defenses on southern Okinawa yesterday by capturing high ground in the center of the line. , fe ' The heights, just east of Urasoe Mura village, were won in an attack which followed a general Japanese withdrawal under heavy artillery shelling. Fleet warships, meantime, con tinued their close fire support, knocking oat numerous enemy ar tillery batteries, gun emplace ments and defense installations. Maj. Gen. John R. Hodge, com mander of the 24th army corps which includes the Seventh, 27th and 96th divisions reported all key features of the outer Japa nese defense line now secured by the Yanks in the eighth day of their grand offensive toward Na na, the capital city, about" three and one-half miles to the south. Shoe Good August 1 WASHINGTON, April 28 The OPA announced tonight that a new shoe ration stamp will be validated August 1. The agency said 'several weeks ago that shoe supplies were not adequate to permit validation of another stamp May 1, as planned originally. At that time OPA said there would be 'another stamp some time this summer. ' Airplane stamps 1, 2 and 3, in book 3, all valid now, will con tinue to be good Indefinitely along with the new coupon, OPA said. The number of the new stamn will be announced later. The Hamburg station said that the portly Goering, whose proud airf orce has been .blasted almost to extinction, had Jseen succeeded by Gen. Bitter von Grein who was made a marshal. The text of the announcement: ;"Reichsmarshal Goering who had been suffering from heart trouble for some time and whose condition has become acute has asked the fuehrer to be relieved of bis command as chief of the luft- waffe at a time when his strength is needed. The fuehrer has grant ed his request. The new chief of the luftwaffe is Gen. Bitter von Grein who has been promoted to general field marshal. ' - Von Grein was once reported head of German air forces in Rus sia, and- also a commander - at Orel. ICi v" Stamp 14 PAGES Russians Entering Berlin ; x ' i t M M vi or :3? Moscow and Is one of the first army tanks entering the rains of Berlin. (International radlosoundphoto) U. S. 5th Captures Verona, Which Virtually Seals Of f Brenner Pass Escape Gap ,"v By MAURICE IV MORAN ROME, April 26.-(i$Vrhe railway center of Verona in a virtually sealing off the Brenner troops in Italy, and Swiss reports said patriots were seizing control of, all major cities in Turin and Genoa. Nazi armies south of the Alps and prisoners were being rounded up by the thousands. A captured German corps commander, Gen. von Schwerin, who was taken by the British Eighth army, said "I know the situation for German soldiers in north Italy is hope less." The total of prisoners bagged by the two allied armies since they opened their all-out offen sive soared well past 60,000. The Eighth army alone seized 20 en emy tanks and 40 guns and de stroyed nearly 1,000 vehicles as it swept up to the Adige river in the last 24 hours. (A Partisan-controlled radio in Milan reported tonight that the Italian liberation committee had taken over the administration of the whole of northern Italy, said British broadcast recorded by CBS.) (The Swiss telegraph agency received reports from "reliable sources" that Benito Mussolini, who on Wednesday was reported fleeing from his villa near Milan, had been captured by Italian pat riots in the town of Pallanza.) Fifth army- forces smashed through the nazis formidable Adige defense line near Verona, and a terse allied communique said armored units driving up the western coast were "attacking to ward Genoa" against heavy fire from mobile and coast defense guns. - Pacific Lutheran President to Give Talk at Silverton SILVERTON, April 2.-Dr. S. C. Eastvold, president of the Pacific Lutheran eollege at Parkland, Wash, will be the commencement speaker for Silverton high school commencement May 30. The Rev. S. L. Almlie, local pastor, will de liver ? the baccalaureate sermon May 27. . . A class of SI will be graduated, A. B. Anderson, superintendent Of schools, has announced. Robert S. Kemper, whose grades have ave raged 1.27, will be valedictorian. Shirley Barbara Woody whose grades have averaged 1.36, will be salutatorian.' Maceoin Nominated for Presidency of Eire , DUBLIN, April 28 -(P)- Gen. Sean Maceoin was nominated to day by the fine gael for the presi dency of Eire. A prominent member of the opposition in the dail ' (parlia ment), Maceoin once was sentenc ed to death by a British . court martial for bis activities in the Irish Resistance association,' but ' was released after the treaty end- rOUNDDD 1651 Salem. Oregon, Friday Morning, feSfr pictures showing the soviet smash Fifth army captured the Mghtning 20-mile stab today. Pass escape route of German northern Italy including Milan, appeared entirely disorganized Writer Says Allies Lined Along River NEW YORK, April 26.-()-Re-turning from a flight over the Elbe river, NBC correspondent Roy Porter declared tonight in a Paris broadcast that "the Rus sians and Americans are lined up on opposite sides of the river like two picnic parties waiting for ferry to take them across. At one point, which cannot be identified. Porter said he saw the Russians building two , temporary bridges. One was well Under con struction and the other was just being started. "It was all very peaceful and calm, with hardly a German be tween the two armies, he con tinued. "All of which means that German control has ceased to ex 1st in this area, which is in the heart of Germany , . Porter did not identify the area over which he flew other , than to -say we' reached the Elbe at a place north of Leipzig." " "J r- - North Salem Studies Means of Guaranteeing 1 hat It Has Continued Adequate Water Supply A committee of north Salem men was being formed today to work out plans under which the area north of the underpass on the Portland road might be assured a continued adequate supply of wat er. :--r - e?-. ;- . - t ' A score of the sector's business men met earlier this week to con sider the recent action of the Sa lem city council in decreeing that areas outside of the city limits, with no utility or fire protection district or not established contract with the city, should not use city water facilities after a specified time. 1 ':. r:..--" ' ; - v V About 210 users of city water in north Salem would be affected if such facilities were withdrawn. Lawrence N. Brown, Salem city attorney, said Thursday the city's move could not affect utility or fire protection districts already es tablished and using city water, or customers who were served by the old private water system of Sa lem before it was acquired by the dty. Wells Being Used Many of the score or -more of industries in the sector already April 27. 1945 Russian Causes Deadlock Soviet Blocks Chairmanship For U. S. Leader . . By Donrlas B. Cornell SAN FRANCISCO, April Russian Commissar Molotov cata pulted the world security confer ence into a tight deadlock today by blocking the election of Sec retary of State Stettinius to its chairmanship. The stolid Russian also rejected a British compromise. What was to have been a rou tine, initial . business meeting of chiefs of delegates broke off abruptly, its tasks far from com plete, its participants stunned and amazed at prospects of another big-three row. After setting off his explosion, Molotov proceeded calmly into a news conference to give public assurances of an eventual solution to a controversy already flaming among Russia-Britain and the United States over a knotty Po lish problem. Pledges Support And, from here, he moved on to the conference's first plenary session to pledge full cooperation. Russia's "inflexible", support, in erecting a new and powerful peace keeping organization. According to customary proce dure at international gatherings. this was the session which would have ratified the steering com mittee's selection of the leader of the host nation's delegation as per manent chairman or president That was what Britain's An thony Eden had proposed at this morning's steering committee meeting. And that was what Mol otov blocked, along with a British compromise of four rotating chair men. Even Makes Threat At one point Russia foreign commissar even delivered a more or less veiled threat to withdraw his country as one of four spon soring powers. He did not threat en to take Russia completely out of the San Francisco picture but declared that unless his plan was followed the Soviets - would sit among the lesser powers in pro test What drew his greatest ire was the fact that as proposed and voted, the rotating chairmanship would apply only to the plenary sessions with Stettinius still sit ting as permanent chairman of the steering committee. Delegates had no ready reason for Molotov's action. They thought perhaps Russia regarded the chair manship question of such import ance that the foreign commissar was sparring for time in which to consult Moscow. Ignores Problem In the light of what happened have their own wells and have city water piped in primarily for fire protection. ' Some residents are de pendent on the city system for san itary facilities. . The area, so far as the dty is concerned, is served by a four-inch main. Residents outside the city pay 25 per cent more than urban citizens for water used. ':; Discussions in regard to the city's pending limitation have cen tered around possible annexation to Salem; the creation of a rural fire protection district as permit ted by law (and thus assure city water) ; and the establishing of the area's own water system. Rates Increased - Increased fire insurance rates or, rather, the elimination of cer tain credits on premiums became effective last January 1 in many sectors of the state under provi sions of the Insurance Rating bur eau which tookjeognizance of de creased manpower in fire depart ments in cities which previously served areas outside municipali ties more generally than during the war emergency. Lack of manpower, coupled with the fact that fire department em Price Sc. No. 27 SDDUDGJ Comforts of Home Not Aiwa j8 Safe In Fighting Zones IWO JIMA, April 26.-(;P)-Ac-cording to men who saw it happen on Saipan, a major who believed in utmost comfort lugged an air mattress into his foxhole for his first Japanese air raid.' A bomb landed a few feet away. The mattress, simulating a spring board, shot the major out of the foxhole, " and fragmentation from a second bomb nicked him before he could regain the safety of his dugout The major's injuries weren't se rious, but he couldn t sit in com fort for weeks. He gave the mattress to the first private he saw. School Ballot Polls Open at 2 PM. Today SCHOOL ELECTION FACTS lime: t to 7 pjn. today. Place, school offices, 460 N. nigh. Issue: temporary increase in teachers pay. Who can Vote: Salem school dis trict taxpayers. In an effort to retain teachers and procure others to fill vacan ties, a special school election will be held from 2 to 7 p.m. today on the ' plan . to increase available funds by $67,215. The vote is necessitated to al low going outside the 6 per cent limitation for added money, for employes of the Salem school dis met. - lne money would come from surplus income tax funds. The $67,215 approximates the amount the city school system would obtain under the $3,000,000 allocated for schools of the state by the last legislative assembly. Un less specific voter approval is giv en, however, the amount would be used to decrease the millage tax for the next school year instead of going into salaries. The Salem school board has ap proved the plan, under which teachers for one year only would receive about $300 above regular pay. at the steering committee meeting, many in the assemblage at the late afternoon plenary session waited impatiently for transla tions of Molotov's address. He didn't mention the morning ac tivities. Bespectacled, balding, dressed in blue, Molotov asserted: I should like to assure the con ference our country is devoted to the cause of setting up an organi zation to protect the peace. I wish you to know that the Soviet union can be relied upon to protect the peace. Our peaceful people, the Red army and our great Marshal Stalin are - inflexibly supporting this great cause. - , '(Additional details on page 2) ployes are not covered by work men's compensation if injured out side a dty limits, were among rea sons given by cities for a changed attitude in regard to more wide spread protection. Emergencies Answered - Merrill Ohling of Salem, cilivian defense county fire chairman, said Thursday he knew - of no case wherein the Salem fire department had failed to respond to a real emergency call solely because the property involved was over the dty- line, and declared the city had nothing to do with the net in crease in suburban fire insurance rates thus far this year. V t Industries located in the north Salem area include such firms as Valley Packing, Wallace H. Bone- steele Inc., Oregon Textiles, Cas par & Cutler, Dick' Meyer Lum ber, Slentz Feed, Eyerly Tractor, Reimann's, Capitol Lumber, Sa lem Sand, Minden's lumbermill and A. C Haag & company. There have been reports ' tha industries contemplating develop ments in the area have become more hesitant in the belief a suf flcient supply of water was not a Certainty, - , - - , British Capture Bremen Swiss Broadcast -Reports Link-Up Of Reds, Yanks By Bftbert Eanson PARIS. Friday. ADrfl 27 -JP Heavily-gunned U. S. Third arm from Austria' yesterday in a bid - ior a swirt snowdown with last- stand enemy troons massinc at th border, and in the north the Brit ish captured Germany's second greatest port f Bremen. As these blows fell on the north and south segments of dismem bered Germany, allied capitals of Europe buzzed with rumors start ed by a Swiss radio renort that the Americans and Russians had met in the Elbe river area on "a front of many miles," ' Censorshin covered American jjuoiuuua hi uitr reponra junction x ii.. . area, but a front dispatch from the U. S. First army told of a patrol moving a will through Ger man lines between the Mulde afld Elbe rivers. Whirlwind Drive Bremen fell after a whirlwind assault cf two days, and only snipers remained in the rubble to challenge the victorious British moving through the dock area of what once was a city of 350,00 people. While the world await. firmation that the Americans and Russians had met somewhere near Berlin, Gen. Patton's U. S. Third army in ground-eating strides was 95 miles from a junc tion wath the red army in Aus tria that would- convert Czecho slovakia into a giant German trap. In close echelon with the U. S. Seventh and French First armies, Fatten s forces broke - across the Danube at three points, . leaving that river line 'Shredded along a 180-mile front and Munich im periled by three separate Ameri can columns each about 40 miles from the city. Press Southward Some 20 divisions in these three armies were pressing steadily southward, bent on eneulfine the nazi Alpine redoubt before the SS troops could get set for stand. A decisive battle appeared to be shaping up on Patton's front nearest Austria, where Germans were- massing in the mountain passes 70 miles from Hitler's Berchtesgaden to meet the shock of the south-bound tanks and in fantry.' The French .drove un to the Swiss frontier, all the way from Basel, at the Swiss-French-Cer- man border junction, eastward to Lake Constance, and the Swiss said these forces also had captur ed the city of Constance, - where many nazi big-wigs and their families first took refuge. Petaiii Gives Himself Up at Swiss Border PARIS, April' 2May-Marshal Philippe Petain surrendered to French officials at the Swiss bor der today to await trial in France on a. charge of high treason, far which his scheduled prosecutor an nounced he would ask a sentence of death with clemency. ' The 89-year-old former Vichy chief of state was met at the fron tier by Lt. Gen. Joseph Pierre Koenig, commander of the French forces of the interior at the time of the Normany Invasion and be fore. Petain extended his hand, but Koenig did not respond. The Commissar of Dijon and a French guard of 30 men also were present at the frontier station of Valorise to form aa escort for the aged marshal and his wife, whe proceeded by automobile to Les Hopitaux-Neufi and there, board ed a special train for Paris. He k expected in, Paris before dawn. Ed Masonic Is Liberated "My husband was released from a German prison April 1 and I had a letter from him Monday. rWith this announcement, H,arry- ette Masonic, whose husband is Ed Masonic of the 70th infantry division, easily took top honors among members of Toastmistress last night when they told of their "greatest thrilL" ... - ' Masonic had been missing since January 8 in Germany and has written ms wue, a teacher at Englewood school, that he Is in. reasonably good health. Notifica tion by the war department of her husband's' release was receiv ed Thursday Htfay aar 91 e$r