sss NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LX No. 155 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1958 _Per Copy—15c
Japanese Admiral Reveals Reason For
Withdrawal From Battle Of Leyte
LOS ANGELES, Uf) — A Ja
panese admiral has told a United
States schoolboy his fear of a trap
led him to withdraw his fleet
when the Americans invaded the
Philippines in World War II.
The 2,000-word letter of Vice
Admiral Iyohide Shima to 16
year-old Bill Frazer of Pacoima,
Calif., broke the admiral’s long
silence on q mystery which has
puzzled war historians.
Frazer had asked Shima why
he pulled his forces out of the cru
cial Battle of Leyte Gult in Oc
tober, 1944. The youth will use the
''information in a history term pa
per in junior high school.
Expressing gratitude for the ad
miral’s response, young Frazer
added: “I hope I get an A on the
paper.”
While United States forces were
fighting for a foothold on Leyte
Island, Shima withdrew the ships
of his 2nd Division from a run
ning sea battle in Surigao Strait.
The admiral wrote Frazer that
the Japanese 1st Division of Vice
Admiral Nishimura was destroyed
by the Americans. Shima’s own
flagship, the heavy cruiser Nachi,
was crippled by a collision with
another Japanese" cruiser and was
limited to a top speed of 20 knots.
All factors made him decide the
Americans were waiting for him
in force.
“It was quite clear that we
should only fall into a ready
trap,” Shima said. “I considered
all such things — events, circum
stances, possibilities. Then I came,
to my decision that it would be
better to retreat from the strait
and wait a chance to know how
everything went.”
In a preface to his answer, the
admiral wrote:
“I can even now assure you that
j my decisions and judgments of
j the day in Surigao Strait were
! adequate and proper.”
N. Y. Newspaper
Strike Ended
NEW YORK, UP) — The costliest
newspaper strike in the city’s his
tory is over.
Deliverers went back to work
early today with a new two-year
contract. It gave them a $5.30
wage increase asd fringe benefits.
They ratified it Sunday, 2,021 to
537, ending the 19-day walkout.
The strike cost was estimated at
50 million dollars.
All four morning newspapers
published.
They were the first since De
cember 11, when the nine major
daily newspapers halted opera
tions. Deliverers began their strike
on December 9. The papers con
tinued to publish until December
11.
New Yorkers normally purchase
million copies daily and 8Vfe
million Sundays.
The new contract included a
$3.55 pay increase the first year,
and $1.75 the second. Benefits in
cluded Columbus Day off, as a
ninth paid holiday, and three days
of sick leave annually, to begin
in 1960. Unused sick leave will
be paid in wages at the new scale.
The deliverers also won a re
duction from 53 to 50 pounds in
the weight of bundles they handl'e.
The basic prestrike wage was
$103.82 a week.
The new pact is estimated to be
worth $7 weekly to the delivery
men.
Ships Asked To Keep
Watch for British Balloon
LONDON, UP! — A new call
went out Sunday night for South
Atlantic and Caribbean shipping
to watch for the British balloon
trying to span the Atlantic. Vene
zuelan officials decided a report
that it had come down in their
country was a hoax.
The London Daily Mail, spon
sor of the 3,000-mile trip, re
quested Lloyd’s Marine Insurance
Agency to put out the radio mes
sage.
The 46-foot balloon, carrying
four Britons, is trying to float
from the Canary Islands to Bar
badoes in the West Indies. It was
last heard from on December 17.
Although the lack of radio mes
sages has raised fears for the safe
ty of the balloon’s crew, the craft
is npt actually overdue.
Ticket Agents
Prepare To Strike
Against Airline
(By The Associated Press)
The threat of a strike next
month against National Airlines
loomed today as two other major
airlines remained- grounded by
labor disputes.
The Air Line Ticket Agents
Association said in Miami Sunday
it was preparing to take a strike
vote over discharge of a National
employe in New York last year.
A union spokesman said if the.
vote favored the strike, it could
begin early next month.
One third of - the ■ nation’s com
mercial airliners currently stand
idle because of strikes at Eastern
Air Lines and American Airlines.
The New York Times said the
federal-mediators plan to offer a
new proposed settlement of the
dispute between Eastern and its
flight engineers.
The engineers quit work No
vember 24, pro'esting a company
demand that they qualify as jet
Pilots.
Machinists at Easter 1 went <• .
the same day both in support of
the engineers and for an improved
contract.
_
Alaska Highway Paving
Bill To Be Sponsored
By Oregon Senator
PORTLAND, UP>—Senator Rich
ard L. Neuberger (D-Ore) prom
ised Saturday to introduce a bill
to pave the Alaska Highway.
In a speech before the annual
Alaska-Yukon Society dinner
here, the Oregon Democrat esti
mated the section of the road
within Canada would cost 120
million dollars, with each country
putting up half the needed
amount.
“The United States alone is
spending scores of millions of dol
lars to construct the' Inter-Amer
ican Highway in Latin America,”
he said. “So why should not we
put up a million dollars to pave
the road which leads to a great
new state of our nation?”
Neuberger, a member of the
Senate Roads Subcommittee, first
introduced legislation similar to
this after Alaska was granted
statehood at the last session of
Congress.
Holiday Deaths
Traffic . 592
Fires . 93
Mr'cellaneous . 96
Toial . 781
Belated reports today swelled
the nation’s toll of dead from traf
fic accidents over the four-day
Christmas weekend to nearly 600.
Tragic as it was, the number of
fatalities was fewer than the pre
holiday estimate of 620.
Early in the long holiday, with
highway death occurring at a
much faster pace than anticipated,
it appeared the final count would
be far greater than the estimate.
But three-quarters through the
weekend, the rate of deaths
slowed.
Safety experts had expressed
alarm at the slaughter on the
highways from the start of the
102-hour holiday period at 6 p.m.
Christmas Eve to late Saturday.
They had feared if the pace con
tinued, nearly seven killed per
hour, the total would surpass the
all-time record of 706 traffic
deaths set in the four-day 1956
Christmas weekend.
Fires took a heavy toll, includ
ing a rash of multiple death dwell
ing blazes. The worst single fire
took the lives of a mother and
eight of her children in a farm
house near Auburn. Wash. The
record number of holiday fire
deaths was 111 in the four-day
1951 Christmas period.
French Face
Belt Tightening
PARIS, UPi — Stock traders
showed confidence today in the
government’s program for a New
Year’s housecleaning of French
economy. Gold and French stock
issues steadied with a few rises in
the first session after the deval
uation of the franc.
Though ordinary folks received
the news of cheaper money, fewer
subsidies, higher prices and in
creased taxes with a sense of
shock, optimism was reflected
among stock market professionals.
French values went up by only
3 to 5 per cent and foreign values,
which were expected to adjust
automatically to the 17.55 per cent
cut in the value of the franc,
went down only 3 to 5 per cent.
Foreign currencies were traded
slightly under their new official
rate on the free market with the
dollar quoated at 492 against its
official value of 493.706.
At a news conference, Finance
Minister Antoine Pinay spellled
out higher prices for French con
sumers.
Rice, chocolate bread, preserves,
macaroni and other foods will
cost more, he said, adding to the
already known price increases in
tobacco, wine, milk, coal and rail
fares.
The workers’ pay envelopes will
record greater withdrawals for
social security. The employers’
share will also be increased. These
charges already amounted to
about one-third of a worker’s pay.
SEATTLE FISHING VESSEL
SINKS IN PUGET SOUND
SEATTLE, UPi — The 78-foot
Seattle fishing vessel Cape Doug
las struck a submerged object and
sank in Puget Sound at midnight
Sunday, but the four men aboard
escaped safely in a rubber life
raft.
The skipper, O. J. Solnordal, no
tified the Coast Guard of the
sinking off Three Tree Point, on
Seattle’s southwest outskirts. A
patrol boat was sent to the scene
but failed to locate the sunken
ship.
Arctic Underwater World Shows
Ice Age Geological Changes
By JOHN BARBOUR
Associates Press Science Reporter
WASHINGTON, UR — The floor
of the Arctic Ocean may be as
rugged as the Rocky Mountains,
a scientist reported today.
The report was one more close
up of mother earth provided by
United States scientists during the
International Geophysical Year,
which ends Wednesday.
It was made by geophysicist
Kennpth Hunins of Columbia Uni
versity’s Lamont Geological Lab
oratory at a meeting of the Amer
ican Association for the Advance
ment of Science.
Hunins reported on what the
underwater world looked like —
a world through which the nu
clear submarines Nautilus and
Skate worked their way carefully
a few months ago.
Above the path taken by the
submarines United States scien
tists floated on a wandering table
of ice.
Using echoes from explosions,
they charted the Arctic Ocean
bottom.
They found a huge underwater
plateau stretching from Ellesmere
Island, the northernmost point of
Canadian territory, to eastern Si
beria.
In the center, parts of this pla
teau come within 4,500 feet of the
surface. On the sides, it drops to
depths of 10,000 to 15,000 feet.
U. S. Air Force and IGL scien
tists made the first photographs of
the Arctic Ocean floor from their
floating laboratory, Drifting Sta
tion A.
There are remarkable numbers
of rocks strewn over the ocean
bottom, as seen in the underwater
pictures.
Apparently the rocks were car
ried by floating ice from shore
areas and dumped in the Arctic
ooze. This sort of rock-strewn
underwater scene is not seen in
warmer waters.
Later the scientists aboard Drif
ting Station A dredged many of
the rocks from depths of over
a mile.
These rocks are being studied,
with results that may lead to a
more complete story of the past
ice ages and ice movement in the
Arctic, Hunkins said.
There is life on the floor of the
Arctic, he reported — but it is
much more sparse than in other
oceans. Sea animals like brittle
stars, sea cucumbers and bryo
zoans were brought up in the
dredge and photographed. They
were found as close as a few hun
dred miles of the North Pole.
Calif. Residents
Polled On »
Splitting State
SAN FRANCISCO, OR — Public
sentiment favors splitting Cali
fornia into two states, the San
Francisco Chronicle said today.
The newspaper, releasing re*
suits of a poll, said a majority of
participants believe the north and
south have little in common. They
wanted the issue settled by refer
endum, the paper added.
More than a third of the voters
indicated that the question as put
to them was unrealistic, if not
impossible.
Almost half expressed the be
lief that such a division would
benefit both the northern and
southern sections of the state and
a majority of the ballots favored
a partition of California at the
Tehachapi Mountains — the tra
ditional boundary between north
and south.
Former Alaska
Lumberman Dies
SEATTLE, UP) — Roy A. Ruther
ford, Washington state pioneer and
well known former Alaska lum
berman, died here of a heart ail
ment bn his 82nd birthday anni
versary last Wednesday:
He was born in Ohio and came
west to Fall City, Wash, in 1884,
and went to Alaska in 1901. He
built and operated sawmills in
Valdez, Fairbanks and Juneau at
intervals through the years until
1947, when he retired and came
to Seattle.
He still had interests in the In
dependent Lumber Co. in Anchor
age and Fairbanks at the time of
his death. He was a member of
the Washington State Pioneers and
Alaska-Yukon Pioneers, and was
a Mason and a Shriner.
Survivors include his widow,
Juanita; two stepdaughters, Mrs.
Robert Dalton, Seattle, and Mrs.
i Muriel Sasseen, Jupeau; and a
\ sister, Mrs. Lulu Titus, Fall City.
Western Nations
To Ask Russ.
For Berlin Talks
WASHINGTON, — The
West’s next move in the contro
versy over Berlin may be made
early this week.
Diplomatic informants said sim
ilar but not identical notes from
the United States, Britain and
France are almost completed and
probably will be delivered to Mos
cow before New Year’s Day.
The Western powers are report
edly planning to renew their sug
gestion of last September 30 for a
four^power conference to study the
entire problem of Germany. But
they will reject, informants said,
any Russian effort to limit the
discussion to the future of Berlin.
The notes officially will be a
reminder that Russia has not yet
replied to the September 30 pro
posal. Their effect will be to an
swer Premier Khrushchev’s
Thanksgiving demand that West
Berlin be cleared of Western
troops and turned into a free city,
perhaps with c.>me form of U. N.
supervision over the air and
ground routes established for
Western access to Berlin.
New Drug Stops
Birth In Dogs
NEW HAVEN, Conn., (R — Suc
cessful use of a simple drug which
reverses pregnancy in dogs was
reported today by a Yale path
ologist.
“The drug, known as malnci
din, does not cause abortion,” said
Dr. Leon F. Whitney of the Uni
versity’s medical schol staff.
When injected, the drug causes
the pregnant female dog to reab
sorb the embryo into her blood
stream, explained Dr. Whitney.
He describes his studies in Vet
erinary Medicine Magazine.
He said the drug was used on
many bitches between the 10th
and 42nd day of pregnancy, “and
was successful in all cases. The
gestation period of a bitch is m
days.