22 NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LV NO. 82_NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, JULY 10, 1953_Per Copy—15?
Three Volcanoes In Aleutian Range
Violently Erupt, Blanketing 80-Miles
Distant Anchorage In Ashes and Dust
Volcanic Ash Interrupts
Disinterment of Bodies
Of Japanese War Prisoners
ANCHORAGE, UR — A heavy
fall of ash from a series of vol
canic eruptions west of here halt
ed work temporarily Thursday on
the removal of bodies of Japanese
war dead from Fort Richardson
cemetery.
About 60 bodies have been dis
interred under the supervision of
three Japanese officials. Nearly
200 more are belived still in the
mass grave.
Eighteen bodies, surprisingly
well preserved, were positively
identified from bits of clothing
and personal effects. They were
prepared for separate cremation
and their ashes will be shipped to
their next of kin.
Miss Alaska Among 21
Beauties Who Arrive For
Miss Universe Pageant
LONG BEACH, Calif., (P)—Miss
Alaska wore a parka though the
temperature was 89, the band
played a tune called “Cheesecake
From the Skies” and males in the
welcoming crowd were all eyes as
21 luscious beauties from as many
nations arrived at Long Beach
municipal airport Thursday.
They were contingents of the
beauties from all over the world
who are congregating here for the
Miss Universe contest next week.
A welcoming crowd of about
1,000 was mostly male and there
were a few low whistles. Each
beauty was met by a chaperone
who will be her constant com
panion during the 10-day pageant.
Eighteen-year-old Muriel Hag
berg, Miss Alaska, actually ar
rived Wednesday night but she
' went to the airport Thursday
wearing her parka, and got aboard
the plane when it landed so she
could march off with the others.
Woman Driver Who Killed
Young Air Force Man Near
Anchorage Charged Manslaughter
ANCHORAGE, []P\ — Mrs. Ruth
Nelson, 39, was charged with
manslaughter Thursday in Third
District Court for the death of
Airman Wm. H. Barnett, 18.
Young Barnett was killed out
right early Wednesday when a car
driven by Mrs. Nelson veered
across the road -while he and his
wife were walking home from a
bus stop.
The car struck the airman, hurl
ing him nearly 60 feet, and then
overturned, pinning Mrs. Barnett
beneath it. She suffered a frac- i
tured leg.
The Barnetts had been married
only three months.
» ANCHORAGE, UP — A black
pall of acrid, sulphurous smoke
thrown over hundreds of miles by
five violent, volcanic eruptions
was replaced Friday by brilliant
sunshine.
But gritty dark ash particles
still hung in the air and the Wea
ther Bureau received reports of
new Activity around the Mount
Spurr area.
The violent upheaval from
three, and possibly more, newly
active peaks in the Aleutian range
80 miles west of here was touched
off early Thursday.
Smoke Reaches 50,00 Feet
In the next 10 hours, five heavy
explosions sent flame, smoke and
lava chunks shooting miles into
the sky. An Air Force pilot said
the smoke columns reached up
ward at least 50,000 feet.
Known to have ripped off their
tops were 10,500-ft. Mount Spurr,
10,600-foot Mount Torbert and an
unnamed cone nearby, 4,500 feet
high. The Air Force said other
volcanoes in the wilderness region
across Cook Inlet may have come
to life.
Smoke and ash still poured
from the angry craters today, and
the possibility was strong more
eruptions would follow.
Danger to human life was .slight
however.
Mount Spurr was the first to
blow up at 5:30 a.m., Thursday.
A mushroom cloud belched out
with a giant roar. Other blasts
followed at 8:55, 10:55 and 11
a.m. Then at 3:30 in the after
non the earth rumbled with an
eruption as large as the first.
The spectacular volcanic dis
play was described as the most
awesome since Mount Katmai, in
the Valley of 10,000 Smokes, went
on a rampage 41 years ago.
4 Inches of Dust on Runways
Runways at ElmendoTf Air
Force base were covered with
four inches of the reddish dust
from the morning volcanic bom
bardment.
Air Force jet fighters and trans
ports were ordered flown away to
Fairbanks to prevent damage to
metal parts from sulphur in the
ash.
City lights were turned on as
the black cloud blotted out the
almost perpetual daylight of the
summer months. Cars groped thru
the eerie, unnatural dusk with
headlights blazing. Townspeople
donned slickers and carried um
brellas for protection from the
dust.
Both airports were closed down
as Anchorage was cut off from
aerial traffic. The Alaska Rail
road laid off crews and territorial
offices shut down.
The siuation improved during
(Continued on Page Two)
Agreement With
Rhee Expected
Any Minute
j
PANMUNJOM, Saturday, UP) —
U.N. and Red truce teams will
meet here Saturday in an atmo
sphere electrified by Washington
reports that President Eisenhow
er’s special envoy is making good
headway in dissolving the opposi
tion of South Korea’s Syngman
Rhee.
Well-informed sources in Wash
ington said the South Korean
President and the special envoy,
Walter S. Robertson, could achieve
a full and final agreement at al
most any minute.
South Korean sources in Seoul
were more cautious but one did
say the talks were making pro
gress.
Peiping Red radio said of yes
terday’s 29 - minute truce session
merely that the two sides confer
red and agreed to .do so again.
But the Red propaganda station
filled the air with tirades against
Rhee, demanding that the United
States force him into line.
—
Ambassador Bohlen Called
To Washington to Discuss
Purge of L. P. Beria
WASHINGTON, UP) —Secretary
of State Dulles Friday ordered the
U.S. ambassador to Moscow,
Charles E. Bohlen, home for con
sultation on the dismissal of L. P.
Beria from the Soviet govern
ment and Communist party.
The State Department said
Dulles wants to get Bohlen’s
views while the Big Three foreign
ministers’ meeting is under way
here.
A statement read to a press con
ference said:
“Ambassador Bohlen, who fore
saw and reported the probable
elimination of Beria several days
ago, is now returning to the U.S.
Bohlen is flying to Washington
from Paris where he went on va
cation after sending in his report
on Beria. Officials said his vaca
tion trip was planned so that if
the Beria purge came off he
would be able to get home quick
ly to discuss it.
American Warplanes Aid
Infantry and Artillery
SEOUL, UP) — Waves of bomb
laden American planes swarmed
to the aid of Allied infantry and
artillerymen today in the struggle
for Porkchop Hill and Arrowhead
ridge in western Korea.
Low - lying jet fighter-bombers
flew more than 200 frontline mis
sions by early afternoon, hurling
tons of explosives and fiery jel
lied gasoline into Communist
trenches which Allied shells and
foot soldiers failed to knock out
irV four days of wild, see - saw
fighting.
Broiling summer weather sent
temperatures to 93 on the front
Thursday.
Nelson David and Jack
Peck of Alaska Airlines
Survey Nome Operations
Nelson David, president of the
Alaska Airlines who has been on
a survey trip of his company’s sta
tions north of Nome, with Jack
Peck, well known bush pilot now
vice president and head of oper
ations arrived Wednesday evening
in a pontoon ship to confer with
the local manager, Bob Curtiss,
on operations in this area.
David is the type of executive
who will know every remote vil
lage served by his company before
the year is out; personally know
all his station personnel and the
problems confronting each part
of the vast territory his company
serves.
He is alert to the potentialities
of the northern area and sees a
great future in travel to Nome and
especially the Kuskokwim and
Yukon areas which are new un
tapped to tourists.
I Mr. David left this morning for
Anchorage, which was closed yes
terday to planes, due to volcanic
eruption and is now open only at
pilots discretion.
Amendment Will Permit
Continued Cost-of-Living
Allowances For Alaskans
WASHINGTON, UP>—Sen. Fer
guson (R-Mich) said Thursday the
Defense Department is expected
to propose an amendment to pend
ing legislation to permit contin
ued cost-of-living allowances for
federal employes in Alaska.
The Defense Department appro
priation bill passed by the House
and now before the Senate Ap
propriations subcommittee con
tains a provision which would bar
such payments to workers em
ployed in territories or possessions
of which they are residents.
Ferguson said he understood the
Department believes Alaska
should be exempt from the pro
vision.
“They \ feel,” he said, “There
actually is a great difference in
the cost of living between Alaska
and the United States.”
10 Americans Killed In
Collision of DC-3 With
Norwegian Thunder jet
STAVANGER, Norway, UP) — A
U. S. military plane and a Nor
wegian Thunder jet fighter collid
ed today over Sola air field, just
outside Stavanger.
' A spokesman of the Stavanger
police said 10 Americans were
killed and two persons were re
ported missing. *
The Thunder jet and the Ameri
can plane — a DC-3 — were just
getting into the landing pattern
over the field when they tangled.
The. right wing of the DC- was
ripped off by the impact and it
spiraled to earth a mile and a half
from the airport. All aboard were
reported killed.
L. P. Beria, Head of
Soviet Police, to be
Trietl as a Traitor
MOSCOW, (IP) — Lavrenty P.
Beria, longtime head of Russia’s
police forces and first deputy to
Premier Georgi M. Malenkov, has
been fired from the Soviet govern
ment, expelled from the Commun
ist party and turned over to his
nation’s highest tribunal as a trai
tor.
The party newspaper Pravda
denounced him Friday as an agent
of international imperialism and.
an “enemy of the Communist
party and the Soviet people.”
A party communique said Mal
enkov himself outlined the case
against Beria at a recent meeting
of the party central committee,
which took away party member
ship and office from the 53-year
old veteran Red.
The party accused Beria of
criminal activities designed at
subverting the Soviet state in the
interests of foreign capitalism and
of trying to put his Internal Af
fairs Ministry “higher than the
government and Communist party
of the Soviet Union.”
Pravda said he had planned sec
retly to “seize the leadership of
the party and the country” in or
der to restore capitalism.
(In western capitals, non-Com
munist observers speculated that
Beria was the first victim of the
power struggle within the Krem
lin following Stalin’s death, and
also that he possibly was being
made the scapegoat for the re
cent East German uprising and
other unrest in the Soviet satel
lites).
The charge that Beria acted in
the interests of foreign imperial
ism was viewed here as a clear
reference to the recent riots in
Berlin and the release of North
Korean prisoners of war by South
Korean President Syngman Rhee.
The Russian press has charged
that these events were related
parts of a western plan to prevent
peace.
Judge Rules Fighting In
Korea Not War—Insurance
Company Must Pay Claim
CHICAGO, OB — Circuit Judge
H. M. Fisher held Thursday that
the fighting in Korea is not a war.
He upheld the claim of Mrs.
Emogene Hawkins who sued the
Metropolitan Mutual Assurance
Co., Chicago, to collect on the
$1,200 life insurance policy on the
life of her son, a seaman in the
U.S. Navy who was drowned off
Nome, Alaska, July 21, 1952.
The company invoked the war
clause in the policy. That clause
provided the policy was voided if
death occurred in Avar service.
Judge Fisher said that no dec
laration of war had been passed
by Congress. He ordered full pay
ment of the policy and attorney’s
fees to Mrs. Hawkins, a Negro.
Youth for Christ Meeting
Assembly of God Church Rev. A. E. Capener, Speaker Saturday, 8 P.M.