Oldest Newspaper In Alaska. “The News Of The Day In Pictures" Member Of The Associated Press.
THE NOME NUGGET
VOL. 42. No. 132. NOME, ALASKA, Wednesday, OCT. 30, 1940. PTice p€r copr lf*
5 Million Affected By Conscription
January 22 Date Set Alaska Draft Registration
Greeks Assert Defenders Maintain Unbroken Line
Rome Asserts Italian Troops Smash
40 Miles Into Greece But Athens
Reports Holding Unbroken Front
UNDATED, Oct. 30 (iR) — A
Rome radio broadcast asserted
that Italian troops smashed 40
miles into Greece, capturing the
town of St. Nicholas but Athens
reported reinforcement Greek
fight-rs were holding an unbrok
en front under heavy artillery
fire. The Italian attacks, support
ed by planes and mountain guns
were said to be steadily intensify
ing.
Mussolini’s command with un
usuaul brevity merely report'd
“Our troops continued to ad
vance into Greek territory, ov
ercoming the resistance cf the
enemy’s rearguard.” By contrast
to this 15-word r'(port on the
war in Greece the Italian com
mand cievotou words to the
Fascist campaign in Africa, not
ing mostly indecisive action
about Clayhut outposts in the Af
rican desert and countering Lon
don denial of “troop landings.”
The British information office
at Ankara announced that Brit
ish naval detachments landed on
the Greek Isle of Crete, also on
the island of Cephalonia south
of Corfu in the Ionion Sea.
Turkey kept official silence on
her attitude to the Italo-Gr ek,
conflict but the Turkish press
described Turkey “wholehearted
ly with Greece, and Turkey if
need b: knows her duty to give
all aid to Greece.”
Turkish rail communications
were interrupted, possibly due to
troop movements.
Authoritative Fascist quarters
in Rome acknowledged that the
Greeks were resisting stubborn
ly but denied that their troops
in Greece were driven by a
counter thrust to Albania, the
starting point., Italians in these
quarters said the Italians were
ad'vancil:* deeper into Greece
without encountering “serious
military difficuties.”
Britain stepp d up aid to her
new ally the admiralty announc
ed, mining approaches to key
points on the Greek coast, not
ably the Gulf of Aeginia which
guards Piratus, the port for Ath
ens.
Estimate Million
And Quarter Nazi
Troops in Balkans
UNDATED, Oct. 29. {&) —Ger
r mi. y massed striking forces of
70 divisions, an estimated mil-;
lion and a quarter troops in the
Balkan area to prevent the pos
sible Russian interference in h r
plans, a British military expert
reported while Greece stubborn
ly fought to stave off the Italian
thrust in southeast Europe. The
Bri'.ish expert asserted Germany
has been steadily moving troops
into the Balkan trouble • zone
since France fell, singing the an
ci t war song “We will throw
them into the sea.”
Thousands of Greek reservists
were rushed to bolster the Mex
taxas Line in the mountain pass
es of northern Greece and con
flicting reports gave an uncertain
picture of the twenty-four-hour
old fighting. Diplomatic quarters
in Rome said Italian troops, the
va ^uard of 200,000 massed for
the assault along the Albania
Greek frontier, brok through at
* a point ten miles beyond the
border striking toward Salonika.
Government circles in Athens
said the Fascist invaders were
unable to driv. back Greece's
m intain defenders. The said the
conflict was “localizing along the
border.” Greek troops were de
scribed as clinging stubbornly to
key points guarding the mount
ain passes despite hard Italian
thrusts.
Reports that British troops
landed on the island of Corfu,
in the Ionian Sea just off the
border scene of the fighting,
• touched off a wave of enthusiasm
in Athens. Britain is speeding
help by land, sea and air, under
her pledge to aid Greece if at
tacked.
The British are reported plan
ning to establish an air base at
Corfu so that RAF warplanes
could guard practically the de
fenseless Greek cities and also
be within striking distance of It
alian objective just across the
Ionian Sea.
Says Roosevelt
No ^"‘ator Rut
fn n Role
CAMBRIDGE Act. 27 —
Solicitor General ^ declares
that President Roosevt.it r pre
I
seats the very opposite of dic
tatorship.
The Solicitor General made his
statement in the course of an ad
dress to thij Harvard lawyers
“for Roosevelt” meeting. He
praised highly the solidarity the
President has brought to the re
lations with all the Americas.
Said Biddle: “The President’s
Good Neighbor Policy has solidly
cemented our friendship with
Mexico and all of South Amer
ica.”
ALASKA PILOT IS
CALLED BY ARMY
JUNEAU — Former Juneau
Pilot Gene Meyering. now a Cap
tain with PAA on the Seattle
Juneau run, has been called to
active duty with the naval re
serve it was learned.
Meyering it is understood is
under “short notidsi” orders,
ready for call on 24 hours’ no
tice. He is rated as a lieutenant
with approximately 100 men un
der his command in Scouting
I Squadron 16.
First Number In Draft Lottery
ecty. Stimson
Draft Army Is For Defense Freedom
j
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (/P) —
An estimated 6.175 men holding
draft serial number 158 will be
called up for military service in
the nation's inprrcedented
peacetime conscription. That
number was the first drawn in
today’s histor.d draft lottery.
Secretary Stimson drew it from
the big glass bowl at 12:16 p.m.
PST.
A minute cr so after, the Presi
dent said in his opening speech,
the purpose of raising the draft
army is the "defense of our free
dom." Standing oa the platform
in the large government audit
orium, the some of the lottery.
Roosevelt told the audience
which exceeded the seating cap
acity of 1300, that “Only the
strong may continue to live in
freedom and p ace."
In quick succession other num
bets were drawn by high officials
who like Stimson were blindfold
ed. their hands dipped into the
glass bowl, filled at the start
with numbers put separately in
cobalt blue capsules. Order num
b ;r 2 was drawn by Secretary
IV rgenthau and announced by
R osovelt as seriel number 192.
Order number three was drawn
by Attorney General Jackson
and Roosevelt announced the
serial number 8239. Order num
ber four was drawn by Secretary
Knox serial number 6620 and or
der number 5 was drawn by Sec
retary-tfones, number 6685.
2 Numbers More
Than Needed
Are Drawn
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 UP) —
The grand conscription lottery
which held marching orders for
s ti. five million young Ameri
cans finished with an unlooked
for flurry at 2:40 a.m. PST today
with 6 numbers missing but fin
ally wound up officially with two
numbers mora than there should
have had. In a rainy dawn, after
17 hours and 31 minutes of draw
ing from the big draft bowl the
last solitary blue capsule was
picked from the glass bottom by
Brigadier General Lewis Hersh
ey, Assistant Selective Service
Director. That capsule should
have been the 9,000th number
capsule placed in this- bowl be
fore the drawing opened yester
day. Instead it proved to be
8,994th despite the most elabor
ate precautions, as six number
bearing blue capsules were miss
ing.
Selective Service officials im
mediately started a check to
track down tihe omitted num
bers. The manuel of records kept
throughout the marathon draw
ing confirmed the number of
missing numbers as six but the
master list disagreed however,
showing 8 numb irs unaccounted
for. To make sure every number
missing on the master list be
drawn. General Hershey had a
special “junior drawing” for
those eight numbers. The brief
sweepstakes was witnessed by a
handful and was over in five
minutes. The official last number
accordingly drawn was the 9,002
number 7839. Officials suggested
possibly that the missing num
bers might have been caught in
the sleeves of those who drew
the capsules out, eight falling off
the tablai on which the bowl
rested or they might not have
even been in the bowl at the be
ginning.
Subscribe for The Nome Nuggei
I
Grounding Of
Alaska Have
Fed. Investigation
SEATTLE, Oet. 30 UP) — A fed
ral investigation on the ground
ing of the SS Alaska was an
nounced as eleven of its passen
gers arrived on the SS North
Coast full of praise for the Alas
ka’s crew. It was said hundreds
of gallons of fuel oil from the
ship’s broken tanks caused the
principal hardships. Thomas Al
derson of Gilroy, California said
‘The oil was terrible. It stuck to
the life boat oars and covered
the rocks ashore. I had to crawl
a my hands and knees through
he muck because this/ oil made
the rocks so slippery I couldn’t
stand up.”
The investigation is to be con
ducted by a Board of the Bur
eau of Marine Inspection and
Navigation, with Captain Wil
liam Fisher of San Francisco as
its chairman on its arrival here
probably some tim tomorrow.
Tlie Aleutian bringing the rest
of the passengers is also due to
morrow.
Mrs. Earl K. Goodwin of Ketch
ikan said “The sea was calm and
I was in my stateroom preparing
f r bed. There was a t triffic
lurch and whistles began to blow
I didn’t know what happened un
til I looked out in the lounge
and saw a davenport coming
straight toward me. Then I knew
it was a wreck. I grabbed my
best dr iss and ran up on deck
but saw very little excitement.
Sf meone said we were aground.
I got in a lifeboat and was rowed
ashore.”
WELL KNOWN WESTERN
ATTORNEY PASSES ON
—
COLORADO SPRINGS, Oct. 30
(/PI —Clar.aiee Hamlin, aged 72.
i publisher of the Gazette and Tele
i gram, political leader in Colo
rado for nearly 40 years and one
of the west's best known attor
neys died last night at his home
h re.
Draft Registration
For Alaska Set
For January 22
"
CAMP MURRAY, Wash. Oct.
30 (TP) — Major Gou'd. S-lective
S Tvice inspector announced Al
askan's draft registration date as
January 22nd.
FDR Upholds
Defense Program
V.
Of Administration
NEW YORK, Oct. 23 UP) —
President R 'sevelt, breadcast
ing a major political address
from Mai- n Square Garden ac
jcudd the Republican 1 .aders
i who are now complaining d:
frnses were neglected, of repeat
edly a tempting to "sabotage”
■us: ; ■- of the administration
-to “inch ..se the defenses.” He
i said “I row brand as false the
s'at men/ bong marie by Ropub
j Heart cam-- raters, day after
lday, .night at: r night that the
I
> rearming of America was slow,
that it is hamstrung and impeded
and that it will never be able
to meet the threats from abroad.”
He said the alternative to his
r -election would be the risking
if the future of the nation "in in
experienced hands of those who
in these perilous times are will
ing and recklessly imply that our
boys are already on th-ir way to
the transports.” He didn't refer
by name to Willkie who said re
j.-ntly that if the president's
■ promts s were no better
n seme of his others, the boys
i might as well be on the trans
j ports.
Ft isevelt called the Rr-public
- an leadership record "the same
.coed of timidity, weakness and
ortsightedness which governed
- e policy of confused reaction
ary governments in France and
England before the war.”
In London, a correspondent
i.-. -’s himself fascinated by an air
id "as an abstract . tudy.” F r
he concr .te. one stands beneath
j a fal ing c -mice.
I- ■ imagined the fuehrer al
"dy ha - in mind a cons’, .tution
for his new. amalgamated Eu
rope beginning naturally "I, the
! people—"
ELDER STATESMAN —The satisfaction of seeing mea
sures he often championed now accepted by his country—adequate
defense plans, ship aid for Britain, full-strength peacetime army
—can now gratify Gen. John J. Pershing (left), who was 80 Sept.
13. On that date he chatted with Gen. George C. Marshall (right),
gave speech warning U. S. about the ‘‘imminence of war.”