■as NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
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VOL. 47.—No, 8._NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1945. PER COPY—15c
THOMAS RIGGS
* PASSES AWAY
IN MARYLAND
WASHINGTON, Jan. 17.—(AP)
—Tlhomas Riggs, aged 71, com
missioner on the International
Boundary Commission and for
1 mer governor of Alaska, died at j
his home today in II Chester,
Maryland.
Governor Riggs was an engi
neer for the commission which
surveyed the Alaskan border
from 1906 to 1913. He was in
crarge of the surveying party to
establish the boundary between
* Alaska and Canada, from Cape
St. Elias to the Arctic. He later
served #as a member of the Alas
kan Engineering Commission, in
charge of the location and con
struction of the government rail
roads of the Territory.
• Governor Riggs was appointed
governor of Alaska by President
Wilson in 1918, and has been on
the boundary commission since
1935.
The former governor’s funeral
has been announced for Friday
morning, with burial at his home
in Maryland.
INTRODUCES
NEW BILL ON
TERRITORIES
i
* WASHINGTON, Jan. 17.—(AP)
—Representative Cole of New
York, a republican, introduced
in the House »h,is second bill for
the transf >rring of the adminis
tration of Puerto Rico and the
Virgin Isl ads from the Depart
ment of the Interior to the Navy.
Alaska, the Canal Zone and
Hawaii were excluded from the
# bill last week, after it was re
ferred to the House Territories
Committee of which Ihe is not a
member. His new measure has
been sent the Insular Affairs
committee, of which he is a
member.
* MOVES TO
JUNEAU
Mrs. Leonard Smith, wife of
the newly-elected^ Territorial
highway engineer, left Monday
on, her way to Juneau, where she
will make her residence. She
plans to visit friends in Fair
banks and Anchorage and then
go house hunting in Juneau.
^ Mr. Smith and his son James,
who is in school here, will leave
later.
BRIT ' S H JET-DR EVEN pLAHI -—This British Gloucester plane, driven by Jet prepul*
_ sion, was a type used by Allied fliers with success against robot bombs over Britain*
BRITISH FORCES
ADVANCE
THREE MILES
PARIS, Jan. 17.—(AP)—In
hand-to-hand combat the British
forces advanced three miles be
yond Aachen, with the resump
tion of General Eisenhower’s
winter offensive, which is aimed
at straightening out the allied
line to the upper Roer river, it
was reported today.
bank of the Rhine is held
by the U. S. Ninth Army, while
the U. S. First Army is further
reducing the Belgian bulge, and
drove to within five miles of St.
Vith.
Inside Germany, an undisclos
ed number of German troops are
trapped near captured Butzdorf
by Third Army tanks.
TO HOLD JOINT
INSTALLATION
The Odd Fellows and Rebek
ahs are planning to have a joint
installation Friday evening at the
Masonic Temple, following the j
Odd Fellows meeting at 8*00 p. I
m. The installation will take
place about 9:00 p. m.
All members and their fami
lies are invited to attend.
LEGISLATORS GO
TO JUNEAU
Monday’s plane carried two
more of the Second Division’s
legislators to Juneau: O. D. Coch
ran, senator, and Ed Anderson,
representative. Maor Anderson is
on a leave of absence from his
civic duties.
THIRD FLEET
WRECKS HAVOC
ON NIP BASES
By LEIF ERICKSON
U. S. PACIFIC FLEET HEAD
QUARTERS AT PEARL HAR_
BOR, Jan. 17.—(AP)—Admiral
Halsey’s free-roving Third Fleet
wound up the week’s most auda
cious naval operations in tlhe war
by sending carrier planes up and
down more than 350 miles of the
China coast, it was revealed to
day.
The planes destroyed or dam
aged more than 100,000 tons of
Japanese shipping.
They smashed into choice tar
gets at Canton and Hongkong,
against amazingly puny enemy
air opposition, which suggested
the Japanese air force has its
hands full over the homeland.
The Philippine carrier planes
ruled the skies as they soared
over the French Indo-China
Shore and Formosa.
Formosa was once considered
a very formidably target itself
and was attacked at the same
time other carrier planes were
sinking the enemy oilers, bomb
ing the Royal Navy docks at
Hongkong Harbor and Canton.
The assaults on Formosa by
Admiral Halsey’s planes have
now accounted for well over
300,000 tons of enemy shipping
including several escort warships
and more than 250 planes.
The latter figure is low because
so few planes have been encoun
tered.
NEW CHAIRMAN
TO BE NAMED
ON COMMITTEE
WASHINGTON, J*n. 17.—
(AP)—The probability has de
veloped that Representative
Jackson of Washington, and a
democrat, will become chairman
of the House Indian Affairs com
mitte, it was learned today.
Jackson will succeed Represen
tative O’Connor, who died on
Monday.
Ahead of him in rank on the
committee, is Rep. Murdock,
vrfbo has just been appointed
chairman of the Public Lands
Committee, Rep. White, as new
chairman of the Coinage Com
mittee and Rep. Dickstein of the
Immigration Committee.
If Jackson is named as chair
man, his advancement to this
key position will probably have
been accomplished in the *iort
est time on record. He was as
signed to the committee only last
year, and is one of the youngest
members in the House.
Representative Jackson has ta
ken a keen interest in Indian af
fairs and last summer visited
Alaska as chairman of the Mer
chant Marine sub-committee,
looking for claims of the Indian
territory to settlement by tribal
rights. His report has not as yet
been made public, but it is ex
pected to be disclosed w<hen the
examiner of the Interior Depart
ment makes his report. Probably \
in a few weeks.
Subscribe to The Nugget. ;
RED ARMY
TROOPS ENTER
POLE’S CAPITAL
LONDON, Jan. 17.—(AP)—A
Moscow broadcast, recorded here
by a Soviet monitor station, an
nounced tonight that “Warsaw,
the ravaged capital of Poland,
a once proud and beautiful city
of 1,300,000 population, fell to the
First White Russian Army group
under Marshal Khukiv,” Mar
shal Stalin said in his order of
the day.
Great sections of the city lay
in ruins. It is the tomb of many
thousands of Poles who have been
killed since the battle for the
capital started last July.
The Russians stormed into the
city from two bridgeheads over
the Vistula river from tihe south.
Warsaw was the first Euro
pean capital to fall to the Ger
mans in this war. It is th^ six
teenth to be liberated.
Stalin announced the victory in
his order of the day, in which he
stated other Russian armies were
driving on other sections of the
600-mile battlefield from the
Baltic to the Balkans.
Troops stormed the defense
works of Krakow and German
Silesia itself, the great German
coal and steel region, vital to the
enemy’s ability to make war>
Within 38 milesgpf Konevs, an
other Ukrainian army troops are
driving on Krakow, which lien,
below Warsaw.
The German bastion of Radom
wfhich is the 14th largest city in
Poland, and has a population of
78,000 people, toppled yesterday
; to the Russians, who are report
j ed now far beyond there.
Moscow is silent, but a Ger
man report showed them as driv
ing into East Prussia.
Berlin also said they had
overrun the fortress town of
Schlossberg.
Gen. Zhukov’s victory drive to
Warsaw started three days ago
at Stalin’s order.
MAURICE KING ABLE
TO FLY PLANE AGAIN
Maurice King, veteran flier for
Alaska Airlines, flew as co-pilot
last week to Anchorage for the
first time since the accident at
his home where he fell and broke
his collar bone.
Karl Bale, who has been em
ployed by the Lee Dredging Co.,
made a trip to town this week,
j and plans on returning soon.