m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LVII No. 14 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1955 Per Copy—15^
President Eisenhower Says
Declaration U.S. Will Defend
Formosa Serves Cause of Peace
By Marvin L. Arrowsimth
WASHINGTON, UV—President
Eisenhower said today the cause
of peace has been served by the
United States’ making it crystal
clear it does not intend to let For
mosa fall to international Com
munism.
He told a news conference he
believes this country’s defend
Formosa declaration, voted by
Congress last week, insures
against any miscalculation by the
Chinese Communists about Amer
ican determination.
The President said there has
been no commitment to use Am
erican ground forces in defense of
Formosa. But he declined to go
into any details as to how this
country intends to protect that
main Chinese Nationalist island
and the Pescadores.
Eisenhower specifically refused
to say whether the Nationalists’
offshore outpost islands of Que
moy and Matsu would be defend
ed by the United States.
He said he was not going to
provide any blueprint for the
Reds.
The news conference, filmed for
possible later use on television
and in theaters, covered a wide
range of topics. They included:
Army Strength—The President
said at this moment he sees no
reason to alter plans for a cut in
Army strength. He made that re
mark in response to a request for
comment on the statement by
Gen. Matthew Ridgway, Army
chief of staff, that the planned
cut of 140,000 men might jeopar
dize national security “to a de
gree.”
The President said Ridgway’s
special interest is the Army, and
it might be called a parochial in
terest. He said Ridgway naturally
had to express his convictions be
fore the House Armed Services
Committee, but the decision to
reduce Army strength has not
been altered and he sees no
chance at this time of its being
altered.
Supreme C o u r 1—Eisenhower
said it is unfortunate the Senate
has delayed action on his nomina
tion of John Marshall Harlan to
be an associate justice. The delay
if too bad, the President added,
but he is not going to stand up
and criticize Congress because of
it.
Dixon-Yates—Eisenhower said
crisply in response to a question
he does not intend to withdraw
the controversial Dixon - Yates
power contract as a result of Dem
ocratic opposition to it in Con
gress.
Fairbanks TV Station
Sends First Test Pattern
FAIRBANKS, UP>—1The farthest
north television station in the
world released its first test pat
tern at 1:C3 a.m. this morning,
Fairbanks time.
General Manager Alvin O.
Bramstedt of the Midnight Sun
Broadcasting Co., said KFAR-TV
is scheduled to start commercial
programming about March 1 over
Channel 2.
Chief Engineer Charles Gray
put the first television picture on
the air in Fairbanks.
f-.
i
Modern Age Accident
Puts Child in Hospital
j DAYTON, Ohio, (#>—Five-year
j old Daniel Pohlabel is in a hospi
I tal here today with two gashes in
' his head from a two-pound metal
bar that fell from a B-25 and
plummeted through the roof of his
Dayton home.
Officials at nearby Wright-Pat
terson Air Force Base said the
12-inch bar was one used to close
the cover over the plane’s retract
ed wheel. It flew through the roof
of the Pohlabel home and struck
Daniel as he was watching tele
vision.
j Christopher Will Vote
For Package Bill Only
WASHINGTON, UPl—Rep. Chris
topher ID-Mo) said today he will
vote for legislation to admit Al
aska and Hawaii to statehood “as
a package bill” but not for bills
to admit either alone.
“In my opinion both are enti
| tied to statehood,” he told a re
I porter. “We have to protect our
j people and our possessions. So we
j might as well admit both to state
I hood.”
Christopher is a member of the
House Insular Affairs Committee
which is hearing testimony on
the statehood bills.
—
Huge Wave Wrecks
i Yacht on Liner's Deck
NEW YORK, (A*)—'The Holland
American liner Noordam arrived
in New York yesterday with $37,
000 worth of wreckage on her
deck. The wreckage is all that re
mains of a 14-ton yacht which
had been lashed to the liner’s
deck. It was smashed by one giant
wave which hit the Noordam dur- |
ing a storm. '
I
Four Major Bills in Legislature
Include Measure to Give $250,000
For Nome - Fairbanks Highway
By JIM HUTCHESON <i
JUNEAU, Uf)—More major leg
islative proposals continue to ap
pear in the Alaska legislature,
with two different million-dollar
appropriation bills among them.
Two other important bills were
also introduced in the House of
Representatives yesterday—o n e
setting up a military code for the
territory and the other providing
for special legislative districts,
something which was turned
down by the 1953 session.
The million dollar bill%, in turn,
would finance territorial roads
and the development and im
provement of boat harbor and
harbor faciities.
It now appears that a record
number of bills will be introduced
in the House. The number reached
45 yesterday on the ninth day of
the session, compared with ap
pearance of the 45th bill on the
12th day two years ago, when an
all-time mark was set.
These are the four different
major measures and what their
sponsors say they are and will do:
Highways (joint resolution in
21,301,000 Veterans
WASHINGTON, Iff)—There were
an estimated 21,301,000 veterans
of U.S. military service last Dec.
31, Veterans Administration sta
tistics showed yesterday.
This was an increase of 843,000
during 1954.
Veterans of the Korean conflict
numbered 3,424,000, an increase
of 1,026,000 during 1954.
Totals for all other wars were
less.
Twisters Kill 30,
Flatten Buildings
In Southern States
MEMPHIS, net—A cluster ol
tornadoes ripped a vicious swath
through the mid-South’s “tornado
alley” yesterday, flattening scores
of buildings, including two school
houses, and leaving an unofficial
ly estimated 30 persons dead and
100 injured.
The twisters, bursting from fur
ious black clouds boiling up from
the Southwest, roared through
five small communities in Arkan
sas, Mississippi and Alabama.
Heavy property damage was re
ported.
Only in Mississippi did they
kill, hitting a bloody jackpot in
thinly-populated areas on the
northwestern rim of the state.
The tornado at Commerce Land
ing, Miss., where 27 were report
ed killed, cut a swath 200 feet
wide through the 8,000-acre
Leatherman plantation, destroy
ing a row of tenant houses, a Ne
gro church, a school and a cotton
gin.
W. V. France said the school
was whipped away before his
eyes, as if a giant hand had
snatched it up and tossed both
wreckage and bodies into the
boiling clouds.
“Afterward men and women
came to the spot,” he said. “They
would find a child and come cry
ing up the road with it in their
arms. It doesn’t seem possible
anybody got out, but they say
two little boys did.”
troduced by Rep. Hubert Gilbert
(D-Fairbanks)—It would set up
specific major highway projects
in each of the four division, each
of which would get $250,000 out
of the first million dollars of high
way revenue available to the Ter
ritorial Highway Engineer. The
Motor Fuels Tax is the main
source of such highway funds,
and legislators generally agreed it
will be increased this session.
These projects would have pri
ority:
First Division—$250,000 to be
spent on the proposed highway
through southeast Alaska to the
Canadian border, known gener
ally as the Taku route.
Second Division—$250,000 for
a highway east from Nome to
ward Fairbanks, with a long
range view toward an eventual
road link between the West
Coast and the Alaska highway
System.
Third Division—$150,000 for a
link between Cordova and the
Richardson Highway.
Fourth Division—$250,000 for
(Continued on Page Two)
Enemy Attacking Alaska Would Face
! Tough Fight For Big Centers But
U.S. Will Not Defend Remote Areas
-,
Young Airman Goes On
Shooting Spree, Wounding
One And Killing Himself
ANCHORAGE, A volley of
shots in one of the main barracks
at the Elmendorf Air Force Base
left one air policeman dead and
another critically wounded yes
terday. More than 200 men in the
barracks heard or saw the shoot
ing.
Killed outright was a 19-year
old man who turned the gun on
himself after firing the shots, Air
Force officials said witnesses re
ported. His name was withheld
pending notification of next of
kin.
Airman 3/C J. A. Haliburton,
31, Waco, Tex., was shot through
the right shoulder and underwent
emergency surgery immediately.
The two men were on the way
to the mess hall when one of them
“just started shooting,” witnesses
said. He had just drawn the weap
on from a supply room. Halibur
ton was unarmed. <
_._ 9
Bombs on Tachens j
As U.N. Waits for
Red China Reply
By FRED HAMPSON
TAIPEH, Formosa, (UP)—Chiang
Kai-Shek’s warplanes hurled new
strikes at Communist Yikiang
shan early today and Nationalist
refugees told how Red bombers
in turn had brought civil activi
ties on the nearby Tachens to a
virtual standstill.
“The bombs fall all over the
island,” one refugee from the Ta
chens said. “There’s no place to
get away from them. They were
falling even when we left.”
A U.S.-built transport today
landed 538 civilians, many of
them children ,at the northern
Formosan port of Keelung. They
were only a trickle from the 15,
000-man garrison and 15,000 civ
ilians sweating out the Red bomb
ings on the exposed Tachen out
post 200 miles north of Formosa.
While the U.N. Security Council
awaits Communist China’s reac
tion to its invitation to talk over
a cease-fire, air and sea actions
swirl almost continuously around
the Tachens. Meanwhile, power
ful U S. 7th Fleet forces support
ed by swift Air Force Sabrejets
await orders to evacuate the Ta
chens.
U.S. Ambassador Karl L. Rank
in conferred for 75 minutes with
Chiang Kai-Shek today. Details
were not disclosed, but the two
are believed to have discussed
announcements to be issued on
the projected withdrawal from
the Tachens.
Jones-Foster Memorial
Asks Aid for Miners
JUNEAU, UP)—The House of
Representatives completed legis
lative action yesterday on a Sen
ate memorial asking the federal
government to set up an ore pur
chasing agency in Alaska for the
aid of small-scale miners.
It was introduced by Sens.
Charles Jones and Neal Foster of
Nome.
By ELTON FAY
Elmendorf Air Force Base, Al
aska, (/PI—An enemy attacking this
northern stepping stone to the
United States would face a tough
tussle for big military bases and
cities, top U.S. military command
ers hold, but he couldn’t draw
American forces into struggles
over remote areas.
This plan of defense of Alaska’s
tremendous territory—it’s more
than twice the size of Texas—was
laid out in a news conference
yesterday by Lt. Gen. Joseph H.
Atkinson, commander-in-chief of
the Alaskan Defense Command.
He was seconded by Maj. Gen.
George R. Acheson, chief of the
Alaskan Air Command, and Maj.
Gen. James F. Collins, com
mander of Army forces.
“People ask,” Atkinson said,
“what we would do if an enemy
landed at some place like a little
spot over on the coast.”
In the first place, he said, “the
enemy wouldn’t be interested, and
if he was we would just leave
him there.”
Acheson said the military’s mis
sion is “not to defend all of Al
aska” but to keep big installations
and important centers out of en- *
emy hands.
Big Alaskan installations men
tioned were Elmendorf, Ladd and
Eielson Air Force Base, with An
chorage and Fairbanks listed as
“important centers.”
Atkinson was asked if he be
lieved there was a possibility of
attack by Russians on the ground
as well as in the air.
“I don’t think there would be
any big land campaign,” he re
plied. “I do not rule out the pos
sibility of at least limited air
borne operations. As a matter of
fact, that is the only way he could
get in except for the possibility of
attempting amphibious operations
in a few spots.”
He expressed doubt that there
would be more major defense
construction in Alaska except for
the possibility of fighter plane
strips.
Acheson said the approaching
advent of guided missiles tends to
rule out fields too far forward
near - Bering Strait because “we
wouldn’t want to lose everything
in one shot.”
(Beyond the Bering Strait is
Siberia and Soviet bases.)
General Collins said plans are
being worked cn for locating Nike
anti-aircraft guided missile sites
in Alaska but that no construct
tion has been started.
The Army commander expressed
the belief Alaska now is garri
soned by adequate military forces
and “if the situation developed
we could get more in a hurry
from the United States by air.”
The commanders expressed
pleasure at the outcome of tests
conducted in the just concluded
“Operation Snowbird,” during
which temporary runways were
constructed of packed snow, that
was rolled and frozen.
Atkinson said the commanders
now believe such strips can be
built anywhere in the arctic dur
ing the winter for use as fighter
and transport bases located close
to or actually within enemy ter
ritory.
The generals felt jet fighters
could use such snowports because
melting action from jet blasts
would immediately freeze.