ssi NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL.LV No. 9 NOME. ALASKA. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1953 Per Copy—151
Mysterious Clusters of Light Sighted
By American Airmen Over Japan
Rioting Convicts Spurn
Ultimatums Until Their
“Gripes'’ Are Honored
BELLFONTE, Pa., 1‘Pt — Shout
ing defiance, some 325 rebellious
convicts again spurned ultimat
ums today in their barricaded cell
block at the Rockview State Pen
itentiary and refused to release
six guards held as hostages until
their “gripes” are honored.
It was the third day of their
surprise insurrection. Last night
400 of Roekview’s prisoners cap
itulated to a demand by Gov.
John S. Fine who warned that
additional jail sentences would be
given to every man who contin
ues to defy authority.
The newest rejection of the
state’s efforts to bring peace to
the prison came in a yelling ex
change between Deputy Attorney
General Edward Friedman, stand
' ing on the ground outside the
cellblock and the convict leader
who peered out barred windows
30 feet above.
At the same time, the first di
rect word came from the host
ages who have been held in the
barricaded cellblock since the riot
broke out. By permission of the
convicts, one of the guards came
to a window and said:
“Tell our families we are well
treated. We are okay. No one has
forced me to say anything. Come
to a decision and give these men
a fair hearing.”
Friedman told the prisoners:
“You have a chance now for a
complete hearing of your gripes.
Release those guards and throw
out those guns.”
“How about our demands,” one
shouted back, referring to the
convicts’ complaints, among other
things, about prison food and the
state’s parole system.
Friedman said he couldn’t go
into that now.
“If you have no authority to
answer questions, you have no
authority to make a settlement,”
one of the convicts replied.
U.S. and Russian Jets Spar
Over North Japan, Only
13 Seconds from U.S.S.R.
TOKYO, iffi — American and
Russian jet pilots are fencing
bloodlessly — and almost daily —
over the frozen wastes of north
ern Japan, a U.S. general re
ported Tuesday in an interview.
Thus far they haven’t tangled,
but Maj. Gen. Delmar T. Spivey
called the situation “tense and
explosive.”
Spivey fathered Japan’s air de
fense—manned by U.S. pilots in
' U.S. planes—and commanded it
2Vz years. He left Tuesday to take
command of the U.S. Central Air
Defense Zone with headquarters
at Kansas City.
He said the Russians have doz
ens of airfields on Sakhalin and
the Kurile Islands—the closest
only 13 seconds flying time from
northeastern Hikkaido.
“We are watching them and
they are watching us,” Spivey
said. “When they fly we see them
and when they head towards Jap
i an that triggers off the air defense
system.”
A U. S. AIR BASE, Northern
Japan, (/P)—Mysterious flying ob
jects— “rotating clusters of red,
white and green lights” — have
been sighted over northern Japan
by American airmen, the Air
Force disclosed tonight.
Intelligence reports placed the
sightings close to Russian terri
tory in the Kurile Islands and
Sakhalin. They added:
“There are too many indica
tions of the presence of some
thing ... to be considered an ob
servation of nothing.” And they
discounted the possibility the
sighted objects were mere “re
flections of light.”
Col. Curtis R. Low, commander
of the northern division of the
Japan Air Defense Force, said the
flying clusters were seen by fight
er pilots and ground personnel
and were tracked on radar.
The reports were similar to
those describing “flying saucers”
| in the U.S. One said the lights
| appeared to hang motionless at
times, and at other times dis
appeared with blinding speed.
Col. Donald J. M. Blakeslee,
World War II ace and commander
of an escort fighter wing, took de
tailed observations on one rotat
ing cluster and tried in vain to
intercept it in a jet.
The sighting occurred over the
frozen, ice-locked reaches of
northern Japan, a land tense with
continued air harrassment by
near-flying Russian fighter planes.
Russian territory in the Kurile
Islands is only 4Vfc miles north
east of Ho'kkaido, Japan’s north
ernmost island.
The Russian island of Sakhalin
is only 30 miles north of Hok
kaido. The Reds have dozens of
air bases on Sakhalin and the
Kuriles.
Chinese Red Ground Fire
Downs U.S. Military Plane
In Strait of Formosa
HONG KONG, GiV—Seven men
were killed and four are missing
in the loss of two U.S. military
planes, one to Chinese Red ground
fire, in the Strait of Formosa, the
captain of a British frigate said
yesterday.
Ten airmen were rescued by
the Halsey Powell, a U.S. destroy
er. Allied warships Monday aban
doned search for the four missing
men. Red shore guns fired at a
U.S. destroyer taking part in the
rescue operations, but it was not
damaged.
Maryland Governor To Urge
GOPs Put "The Damper On"
Washington Cocktail Parties
BALTIMORE, Md., UP) — Gov.
Theodore McKeldin will address
a , temperance mass meeting in
Washington tomorrow to urge the
new Republican administration to
“put the damper on Washington’s
famous cocktail parties.”
Sponsoring the meeting is the
American Temperance Society.
Since McKeldin took office in 1951
no alcoholic drinks have been
served in the governor’s mansion
at Annapolis.
Engineers Recommend
Flood Control Project
For Fairbanks Area
PORTLAND, Ore., — Army
Engineers have recommended a
$7,646,000 flood control project for
the Fairbanks, Alaska, area.
A report released by Col. E. C.
Itschner, North Pacific Division
engineer, proposed the project to
pi'otect the city of Fairbanks and
adjacent areas, including Ladd
Air Force base, from floods of
the Chena and Tanana Rivers.
The engineers’ report proposed
a diversion dam across the Chena
River, an excavated channel from
the Chena leading to the Tanana
River, a control structure to reg
ulate flows in the Chena, 12 miles
of levee and drainage facilities.
In addition to the original cost
of $7,646,000, annual maintenance
and operation costs was estimated
at $70,000.
The engineers’ recommendation
was subject to local interests fur
nishing necessary land and per
forming $10,000 worth of main
teance annually.
Reds Plan Kilometer
Deep “Death Zone”
Around West Berlin
BERLIN, UP\ — Four hundred
East German farmers fled last
night to West Berlin and told re
fugee officials today the Com
munist plan for a “death zone”
around the city is nearing reality.
Most of the farmers said they
had been warned that they would
be forcibly evacuated to the deep
interior of the Russian zone and
their lands confiscated.
The group was largely made up
of men who have been tilling
land near the outskirts of West
Berlin on farms which have been
in their families for generations.
The so-called death zone pre
parations started several months
ago. Communist police indicated
they intended to seal off an area
one kilometer (five eighths of a
mile) deep on the 70-mile West
Berlin border. To be caught in
this area without specific permis
sion could mean abrupt death
from the guns of the Soviet-train
ed border police.
Western Europe Warmly
Hails Inauguration Of
President Eisenhower
LONDON, UP—Western Europe
gave a warm welcome to Presi
dent Eisenhower today and hailed
his inaugural speech as proof of
continued American cooperation.
There were signs, too, that West
ern Europe will pledge its support
to Eisenhower’s anti-Communist
policy just as it cooperated with
outgoing President Truman.
Western Europe’s press took
deep satisfaction in noting that
Eisenhower apparently will follow
the same general foreign policy
lines as his predecessor.
Quite a few newspapers waved
a friendly farewell to Harry Tru
man and said he will go down in
history as a courageous, far-sight
ed leader.
Holland’s Catholic Volksrant
said Eisenhower’s first speech re
flected wisdom and moderation.
“Isolationist Senator Taft surely
did not guide the President’s
hand,” the paper said. “Truman
himself could have made it.”
Eisenhower Pledges to Strive for Peace
But Rejects Aggression Appeasement
Communists Boast Of
“Impregnable” Defense
Line Across Korea
SEOUL, (#) — Allied Sabre jet
pilots shot down seven Commun
ist MIG jet fighters and damaged
three others in battles high over
northwest Korea today, the U. S.
Fifth Air Force said.
U.S. losses, if any, will be an
nounced in a weekend summary.
. On the ground Allied troops
hurled back sharp Communist at
tacks on the frozen eastern front
while the Peiping radio boasted
of an unconquerable defense line
i across the Korean peninsula.
The broadcast asserted thous
ands of Red soldiers, working un
derground by lamplight day and
night, carved out the tunnel net
work which “already proved it
self an impregnable defense line
never before seen in the history
of war.”
The Red claims were reminis
cent of those made by France and
Germany just prior to World War
II. Nazi troops easily overran and
outflanked the French Maginot
Line and the German Seigfried
Line, a similar barrier, failed to
stop the Allied advance into Ger
many in 1944.
By ED CREAGH
WASHINGTON, UP) — Dwight
David Eisenhower took office as
President Tuesday with a pledge
to strive for peace but to reject
any appeasement of Communist
aggression.
Right hand uplifted, the 62
year-old citizen soldier repeated
the solemn oath of office and then
launched his administration with
a declaration of “faith that the
future shall belong to the free.”
In *a brief inaugural address,
Eisenhower named “abhorring
war” as one of nine guiding prin
ciples, and promised continued
aid to all free nations willing to
contribute their fair share to the
common defense against Commu
nist expansion.
But he warned solemnly:
“We shall never try to placate
an agressor by the false and
wicked bargain of trading honor
for security. For in the final
choice a soldier’s pack is not so
heavy a burden as a prisoner’s
chains.”
Cloudy skies gave way to the
thin sunlight of winter just as
the Texas-born, Kansas-bred Eis
enhower and President Truman
left the White House for the ride
(Continued on Page Two)
TDay In Washington Yesterday
T for Inauguration and T for Ike
<*>_
By ED CREAGH
WASHINGTON, (fl —It was a
symbol and a clashing of cymbals.
It was an extravaganza and a
prayer.
It was part mardi gras, part
Saturday night at the country
club, part old-fashioned Fourth
of July celebration, part a simple
appeal for divine blessing.
It was a litle bit of everything
It was a little bit of everything
that is America — a husbandly
peck on the cheek for Mamie
Eisenhower, a cowboy’s lasso flip
ped around her soldier-president,
a sassy display of bare-limbed
high school cuties, a doleful
chorus of “Auld Lang Syne” for
a man going home to Missouri.
All this and much more—that
One of Separated Siamese
Twins Dies After 34 Days
CHICAGO, tP)—Tiny Roger Lee
Brodie, Siamese twin who for 34
days amazed the medical world
by surviving a head-to-head sur
gical separation, died last night.
Death of the 16-month-old boy
was not unexpected.
Roger had been in a deep coma
since the history-making opera
tion on Dec. 17. His brain circu
lation was impaired and his con
dition had been listed “very pre->
carious” since the separation from
his brother, Rodney, until his
death.
Rodney, since the Dec. 17 sep
aration, has undergone two plas
tic procedures to put skin over
his brain. He has shown some
signs he is on the road to.recov
ery. However, he must undergo
further surgery and his condition
still is regarded as critical.
.N .
was Washington on “I-Day.”
The “I” stands for both “In
auguration” and for “Ike.”
It had its solemn moments.
Dwight Eisenhower saw to that.
He broke precedent by opening
his inaugural address with a pray
er, one he’d composed himself in
the silence of the awesome morn
ing before his formal elevation to
the highest office in the land.
Then—
The inaugural parade. Blaring
I bands, whooping Indians, pranc
ing drum majorettes, glittering
floats, West Point cadets and An
napolis midshipmen marching in
machine precision.
Yes—'and elephants, a dog team
from Alaska, an atomic cannon,
a George Washington, and Abe
i Lincoln—name it and chances are
I you could find it in the confetti
showered parade that filed up
i Pennsylvania Avenue with a new
Presid^t of the United States at
its head.
Eisenhower roared with laugh
ter when six pretty girls rolled
past the reviewing stand in Miss
ouri’s “Gateway to the West” float
—wearing fur coats.
“Mink coats!” the cry went up
from spectators — recalling the
corruption scandals attributed td
the administration which had
passed into history a few hours
before.
What of the man who headed,
that administration?
Harry Truman and Bess started
on their way home to Independ
ence, Mo.
And a crowd erf several thous
and gave them a rousing send-off
for a half-hour before their train
pulled out of Union station.