THE NOME NUGGET
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"BERING SEA SEALING
PROBLEM BREAKS OUT
TREATY ABROGATED
By Jack Stinnett
WASHINGTON — The Bering
Sea sealing problem is in again.
This 70-year itch which has
kept the State Department, the
Bureau of Fisheries and the U.
S. Coast Guard scratching heads
since post-Givil War days has
broken out again. It's all because
Japan has announced that she
wants no further part of that
treaty which for 29 years has reg
ulated sealing and prevented
complete extinction of the great
seal herds of the north Pacific.
Russian and Great Britain are
also parties to the treaty, but
Japanese abrogation of it pro
bably will have little affect on
them. It may have considerable
effect on the United States.
Just why the Japanese sudden
ly decided to abrogate a treaty
which has proved so workable
for nearly 30 years is som:thing
of a mystery.
In the official notification, the
Japanese said the seal herd that
bases at the Pribilof Islands, just
inside the fringe of the Aleutians
has got so large that it is a
menace to Japanese fisheries.
Government fishery experts
brand this as bunk, pointing out
that migrations of the Pribilof
seais do not carry them into
Japanese waters.
But if this were so, the ques
tion that immediately follows is
how does Japan plan to r move
this menace? And the inevitable
answer: By destruction of the
great seal herd which for a good
deal longer than 30 years has
been recognized in international
law to be principally the proper
ty of the United States.
FEDERAL OFFICIALS MUM
That isn’t official reasoning. As
a matter of fact, all government
departments affected are cau
tiously mum in this lat st inter
national development in the Pac
ific.
Unofficially however, there are
off thc-r cord hints that the Jap
anese action was just another of
th 5e reciprocal hooks to the
belt-lin that ar? bound to come
vh n nation get to trading punch
t^s.
The background of the story
briefly is this: From the time
when the first wandering fisher
man discovered that seal skins
and o*l brought big profits, it
was open season on these. bark
ing dogs of the briny deep. Seals
are easily caught and killed.
Plowing into the herd at sea, a
fleet of small boats can slaughter
th m by the hundreds. (This is
ca'led pelagic or surface sealing).
On land, they can be herded
like cattle away from the wa
ter’s edge and killed with clubs.
An idea of how simple it is may
be und-rstood from the fact that
the Pribilof herd, estimated to
contain 2,500.000 seals in the
1880’s, numbered approximately
125,000 in 1911.
The story of the Coast Guard
cutter service's heroic efforts to
save the h:rd against the depre
dations of renegade American,
Canadian and Japanese sealers
would fill a volume.
On more than one occasion, the
Coast Guard’s zeal in seizing for
eign boats precipitated interna
tional incidents, but it wasn’t un
til 1911 that all the nations in
volved got together and worked
out a plan.
NATION DIVIDE KILL
The United States was to take
over all killing of the Pribilof
herd and give Canada and Japan
each 15 perc.nt of the skins tak
en annually. Japan was to super
vise the much smaller Robben Is
land herd and give Canada, the
U. S. and Russia each 1 percent
of the kill. Russia was to handle
the even smaller Commander Is
land herd and give Japan and
| Canada ^each 15 percent of the
kill. ^
For five years, the seals were
not to be touched and after that
the only s als to be taken were
the three-year-old males.
The plan worked beautifully.
The Pribilof herd is now over
two million. This year tjre 450
natives there, working under Bu
reau of Fish.ries experts, kill
ed about 65,000 seals. The skins
were shipped to St. Louis for
curing and auction in the fur
market. Japan gut about $44 000
cash. Canada got its share.
As far as sealing went, every
body seemed happy — even th
sea’s — until Japan called the
whole thing off.
BOMBSIGHT DESCRIBED
BY ARMY LIEUTENANT
The air forces of Europe have
I no such device as the Unit d Stat
es bombsight, Lieut. H. B. Mon
son, navigator on the Army am
phibian which recently landed at
Auk Bay, said at a Juneau Cham
ber of Commerce luncheon meet
ing.
Lieut. Monson, who has work
ed with the famous bombsight
for two years said that “nine
times out of ten, we won’t drop
a bomb in a rain barrel, but
we’ll come awfully close.”
Bombing in Europe has been
on what is known as an area tar
get balsis, Lieut. Monson said,
whereas the bombsight allows
U. S. planes to drop bombs on a
“spot target.”
Target Obliterated
The officer said he participated
recently in a bombing demonstra
tion for a visiting military mis
sion. A squadron of planes, com
ing from different directions, re
leased bombs of various weights
on the outline of a battleship
drawn on an island. Lieut. Mon
son who was in the third plane
to come over the island, Said
that when he arrived over the
target there was “nothing left to
bomb.”
The Lieut nant explained the
bombsight as being a box about
the size of a cigar box, which has
within-it gears, wheels and cams
which make all necessary cal
culations for ballistics of the
bomb, movement of the target,
wind direction* drift, speed of
plan and other factors affecting
accuracy and then automatically
re eases the bomb at the proper
moment.
With a new device installed in
bombing planes, the bombsight
actually pilots the airplane, so
the entire op ration becomes
mechanical. -All the pilot has to
do, after the device is put in
operation, is sit and look at the
scenery, Lieut. Monson said.
Great Precautions
The sight is one thing of which
the Army tak s very good care,
he said. When not in actual u'e,
: the sight is kept in a concretq
| room, to which there are only'
two keys. One is kept in a safe
and the other held by the offic r
on duty. A canvas cover remains
over the sight when it is moved
from the storage room to the
plane. Those chosen to work with
the sight are subject to pain
staking scrunity by th Federal
Bureau of Investigation, which
Monson says checks back on ev
ery friend, teacher and acquaint
ance as far back as grade schorl.
Lieut. Mon.son’s opinion of the
homb-ight which he admits was
deve’oped by the Navy and turn
ed over to th Army:
“I must say it’s a damn g":od
gadget.”
I
QUALITY
American
| JBott/dinJ3o,^/r/2i/zy
At your favorite tavern
and package store.
I
I
Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 100 proo..
Schenley Distillers Corp., N. Y. C.
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
No. 627
1 In the Probate Court in and
for the Cape Nome Precinct,
Territory of Alaska.
In tire matter of the estate of
IRA M. RANK. Deceased.
Notice is hereby given that by
order of the Probate Court in
a id for the Cape Nome Precinct,
T rritory of Alaska, the under
signed has been appointed Ex
ecutor of the Estate of Ira M.
Rank, deceased. All persons hav
ing claims against said estate
>ha!l present them with proper
vouchers attach d. within six
months from the date of this no
ticn to the undersigned at Nome,
Alaska.
Dated at Nome. Alaska. Novem
bar 3, 1940.
Kenneth McVeigh Rank
Executor
Publish Nov. 13 20 27 Dec. 4,
‘1940.
Save $2.00 nv e e .-c
• for vrHjr o+inr.
The P e- dent and his family at Hyde Park: left to right, President Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Jr., and wife; John Roosevelt and
wife: Mis. Sarah Delano Roosevelt, the President’s mother, and the first lady of the land, Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt.
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with George Brent — Olivia de Haviland — Claude Rains
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Two Shows FridTay, 7:15 & 9:00 p.m Adm. 55# & 26#
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with BORIS KARLOFF—LORENA GRAY—ROBERT WILCOX
It Ls Weird, Horrifying and Fascinating
and "DEVILED HAMS” also “WANTED — NO MASTER”
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FRONT ST. NOME.
Department of Commerce Weather Bureau
FORECAST, NOME AND VICINITY
Generally fair and colder tonight and Thursday except for a brief
period of very light snow late tonight or early Thursday morning
Lowest temperature tonight about 6 above.
Data For 24 Hours Ending 1:00 pm Today
!
Highest temp — 16 Lowest temp — 10 Precipitation — 0
Total precip this month 1.03 Total since Jan. 1, 1940. 11.73
Temp. Humidity Wind Weather
2 Midnight.... 13 55 NNE-7 Clear
3am _ _ _ _ _ - 14 62 N-4 Cloudy
12:30 p m_——.- _ 14 66 N-5 Cloudy
Tomorrow: Sunrise 9:31' a. m. Sunset 2:09 p. m.
One Year Age Today 4
Highest temp — 10 Lowest temp-5 Precipitation — 0.02