Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 43, Number 119, Decatur, Adams County, 19 May 1945 — Page 1

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IXU 11. No. 119.

BATTLE OF OKINAWA MOUNTS TO NEW FURY

Kfemenf By Sef Stalin ■dens Rift ? ; ’3®enies Negotiations IKith 16 Arrested | Headers Os Poland SHdon, May 19-(UP)-Prem- ‘ n,ly affirmed . Rus : J? I^9 -refusal to negotiate with 16 Polish leaders today in ML.nent which London sour'^Kaid widened the rift between JMhoviets and the western ‘ H on the Polish issue. Qgg..ii,. called for solution of the problem and reeonstructhe Polish provisional g at Warsaw in strict with the Crimean \Kiobs. aS s P rted that the arrests of Polish leaders — among nl( ,n recommended by the states and Britain for inin the coalition regime—in “ no way <' onnected with 4, of the govel, he said, had the Rusever invited the arrested discuss formation of the government. authorities do not and not negotiate with violators law on the protection of of the Red army,’* he , in nftei^B ,e arrestP<l Poles ' including J. S. Jankowski of itihsli exile government in were held by the Red on charges of diversionist. jMrity behind the Russian lines. HBalin's statement was received anxiety bordering on astonin Whitehall and Polish government headquarters. — surprise was express'aj|K over Stalins assertion that 1(1 arrested Poles had nothing with reconstruction of the 1 Wl provisional government. almost takes your breath commented one British IKrt. I M Polish exile government offi- _ ■ called Stalin's reference to | Illi arrested men "pure nonThe exile government it- , M which has refused to recogthe Crimean decisions, was expected to comment, formalstatement generally regarded as putting into pubthe stonewall attitude Soviet diplomatic representan<r^B s have been expressing for weeks. statement was carried on ne'i^B'b' on t pages of Moscow news—a dispatch from the Soviet said. ~~eBB ' o ®catur High School ■Again Approved Deealur junior-senior high has again been approved for by the Nortih Central of colleger and second--1 notification, made by Carl ™ n «n, secretary of the IndstfliiA eonimftle, was received Guy Browu ’ Principal of the who added that “ he SHW" sc ’ 100 ‘ has ißeen ap--36 a 4ully commissioned ■^^■°‘ each year mtica Wio. Square ■*k s Os Germany -H?’ May 19 -(UP)-Supreme arters disclosed today that SB eon ard T. Gerow’s 15th ML. arniy is occupying 14,000' ih?k es of erma ny, includ--18i,.,. Saar basin, the Rhine the western half of area of occupation ■ eig ' lt *’ rnes as large as after e »t ' ,y . the Ameriean '<Be he tirst world war. ■ neceSSar ’ ■ ■Sil. _ THer m°meter fi ®«:oo, ATur E READING iB 0:0 »a'm 46 - - 52 f;. ■ - 55 tod WEATher ’ y * n ” tonight with P , S c!oudin ’w Sunday.

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

Clarence Smitley New Cemetery Head (Clarence Smitley, formerly employed at The Decatur Casting company, i<s t'he new superintendent of the Decatur cemetery to succeed Albert Miller, who will leave June 1 for Washington, D. iC. Mr. Miller has been employed als superintendent of the Washington National cemetery, located a few miles from the national capital. Mr. and (Mrs. Smitley will move into the residence at the cemetery after the first of he month. Mr. Miller intends to remain on the job until after Memorial day, instructing hjs successor in the duties of cemetery care and improvements. o— Two Important Sites Seized In Philippines Australian Forces Complete Conquest Os Tarakan Island ‘Manila, May 19 —(UP)— American troops today seized two important objectives in the Philippines Ipo dam on Luzon and Valencia airfield on Mandanao—and Australian forces completed the conquest of oil-rich Tarakan island. (American planes already were operating from the two aiiistripe at Valencia, flying in supplies and making close air support missions, while Mat division troops had pushed on northward to within 14 milee of Malaybalay. Only 3.2 airlines miles or 40' milee along rhe Sayre highway now separated the two forces splitting Mindanao. (The capture o,f Ipo dam on Luzon restored to Manila the source of one-third of it® water supply. The dam Wats taken Intact by the 43rd division and supporting Filipino guerrilla unite after a powerful firebomb attack on Japanese positions by 283 bombers and fighters. Sev-' eral thousand Japanese were trapped in the Ipo sector. On Tarakan, off Borneo, Australian unitis reached the east coast of the island, virtually winding up the campaign. MacArthur’s communique feaid:: ‘‘All major installations and objectives are now secured and the enemy's remaining forces have been forced into the Central Hills.”

Foochow Liberated By Chinese Troops East Coast Port Is Taken From Japanese Chungking. May 19. — (UP) — Chinese troops have liberated the east coast port of Foochow, which the Japanese fear may becoAe an American invasion gateway to China, it was announced today. The city, opposite Formosa and Okinawa, fell at 5 a. m. yesterday after a bitter week-long battle during which positions changed hands repeatedly. The American conquest of all but the southern tip of Okinawa, along with the neighboring Kerama islands, already has given the allies a passage through Japan’s Ryukyu island chain to the East China Sea and Foochow. Any attempt to force the East China Sea at this time, however, would expose allied ships to attacks by Japanese planes based on Formosa and occupied China. The Chinese opened their assault on Foochow May 10 and 24 hours later smashed into the city itself. Sanguinary street fighting followed. The Japanse rushed reinforcements, presumably from Formosa, into the battle early this week and at one time cleared the entire city of Chinese. The Chinese bounded back with another fierce attack and finally liberated the port early yesterday. Foochow was the last of the great Chinese east coast ports, to fall to the Japanese. Believing an American landing imminent, they had landed on the Chinese coast on either side of Foochow # last Octo(Turn To Page <■ Column 6)

In Battered Berlin, Germans Line Up For Food W*’ r '. r,rv ' IMk w * 1 • • L - - ' IN THE BOMB-SHATTERED Reich capital, now being controlled by the victorious Soviet forces, German civilians line up at the entrance to the Soviet military district headquarters, waiting for their turn to make application for food and clothing rations.

Measures To Protect Roosevelt Revealed Precautions Taken After Pearl Harbor Washington, May 19. — (UP) Now it can be told —just how much President Roosevelt was protected during the war years after Pearl Harbor when the threat of enemy air attack was considered real and immediate. The safety of the chief executive, who was also commander-in-chief cf the armed forces, was so important that the most extraordinary precautions were taken to see that he was kept out of danger. At the same time he had to be in a position to keep in instant touch with events. Relaxation of the voluntary censorship code now permits disclosure that there were huge, concretewalled shelters built beneath the White .House, anti-aircraft guns on the roof above and heavy concrete slabs over White House ventilators to slop shell fragments. Within a matter of hours after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, construction began on a special network of air raid shelters beneath the White House. This led to the construction of a new east wing on the executive mansion. A heavily protected tunnel was also dug from the White House into the lower recesses cf the nearby treasury building. The walls of the east wing at their base were built of nine-foot thick concrete and steel. Two floors below the ground level a deluxe air raid shelter was constructed, heavily shielded with steel rods and reinforced concrete. In this shelter the president had a private compartment made of steel one and one half inches thick. This compartment was furnished simply with chairs and a couch, but the president never had to use it and saw' it only in the course of a casual inspection trip.

The president’s home at Hyde Park, N. Y., was protected with equally elaborate care, except that his old house was never equipped with an air raid shelter. Army planes, however, were kept on constant alert at nearby air fields to protect him should enemy planes ever break through coastal defenses. Small, but speedy and well-armed coast guard craft patrolled the Hudson river in front of his estate when he was there. The only remaining evidence of the wartime precautions are lone sentries, working on shifts, patrolling the president’s grave-in the rose garden near his home. Decatur Student Is Awarded Scholarship Miss Leon-a Hoile, a member of this year’s graduating class at the Decatur junior-senior high school, hats been awarded a scholarship, valued at <l5O, to Western college at Oxford O, She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Otto Hoile of this city.

Decatur, Indiana, Saturday, May 19, 1945.

Pfc. Eldon C. Hann Suffers Broken Leg (Pfc. Eldon Carl Hann, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lyman L. Hann, who was wounded in Germany on April 9, received a fractured left leg when a mortar shell exploded near him, tearing a hunk of flesh from the leg, relatives here have learned. The wounded soldier has been moved to a hospital in England and is progressing as well as can be expected. Hie w’ife is' the former Kathryn King of thie city. 0 Conduct Hearing On State Liquor Code Challenge Veto Os Peaceful Settlement Hammond, Ind., May 19 —(UP) A hearing on the constitutionality of Indiana’s controversial new liquor code will be held today before a three-judge federal court to decide whether Republicans shall take over the beer wholesalers business in the Hoosier state. A dozen northern Indiana beer wholesalers seek to enjoin the Indiana alcoholic beverage commission and state officials from enforcing the 1941 liquor code, which cancelled all dealers’ licenses on May 1. District federal judge Luther M. Swygert granted a temporary restraining order to the 12 deal(Turn To Page 6, Column 6)

Lt Simeon Hain's Navy Plane Blasts Jap Ships, Plane, Radio

Lieut, (jg) Simeon J. Hain, USNR, son of Simeon J. Hain, 217 N. Sixth street, was navigator of a navy Liberator which sank a small freighter-transport and a merchantman, shot down a transport plane and strafed a radio station in recent long-range patrols, in the Philippine area of the Pacific. In additioil the four-motored bomber took a heavy toll of Jap 1 small craft, destroying or damaging numerous barges and luggers. The Liberator caught the freig-ter-transport outside of Hong Kong harbor. Coming out of a heavy overcast, the bomber made three ■ runs in which its gunners poured 1200 rounds into the target. The heavy strafing silenced all antiaircraft and started fires throughout the vessel. When the navy plane left the scene, the ship was dead in the water and sinking. Three days later, a lugger was sighted off the coast and subjected to six strafing runs which left her ablaze from stem to stern. Two other luggers and a barge were also strafed, without noted damage. An hour later, the Liberator sighted a Jap transport plane and, after a 10-minute chase, shot it into the sea in flames. On another flight to Hong

Little Nations Balk At Big Powers Veto Three-Judge Federal Court Holds Hearing San Francisco, May 19. —(UP) — The little nations today challenged the right of big powers to veto peaceful settlement of disputes in the proposed world security organization. The minor powers forced creation of a special subcommittee at the United Nations conference to produce an acceptable interpretation of the complicated Yalta vot ing formula for the proposed security council. The question is whether the veto power of the big five applies to arrangements for peaceful settlement of disputes as well as to enforcement action such as application of sanctions and use of military power. This new complication came as the second phase of the conference wag ready to start. For two weeks committees have been doing the technical work of preparing a world charter. Now they are ready to report some of their work to their parent commissions. Commission IV —one of the four top groups into which the conference is divided—meets this morning to receive reports from its committees on the world court and on legal problems. Committee decisions are subject to debate and vote before final conference adoption. The current debate on voting (Turn To Page 6. Column 6)

vv iMh' ■ O w... Kong harbor, the bomber’s gunners put 600 rounds into a lugger, and a few minutes later laid a blanket of lead on a radio station on the southeastern coast of Victoria Island. Another lugger was strafed and set afire before the plane headed back to base. Two luggers and four buildings were enveloped in flames following an attack on Hateruma Island in the Sakishima group east of Formosa. It was off Miyako Shima in the • (Turn To Pagw 6, Column 7)

Bloodiest Campaign Os Pacific War Goes Into 49th Day-Battle Sways

Japanese War Output Center Rocked By Raid Giant B-29s Rain Demolition Bombs On Coastal City

Guam, May 19— (UP) —More than 300 superfortresses rocked the Japanese war production center of Hamamatsu, 60 miles south of devastated Nagoya, with at least 2,100 tons of bombs at the noon rush hour today. The giant B-29s rained demolition bombs on the city for a half hour through overcast that prevented observation of results. Iwo-based fighters escorted the bonders, which attacked from medium altitude. The raid was the third within six days by 300 or more B-29s against prime industrial targets in Japan. The two previous raids on Monday and Thursday were against Nagoya, now one quarter destroyed. The first of the B-29s attacked Hamamatsu at. 12:30 p. ni. Japanese time and fcr the next half hour bombs crashed on the city at the rate of 70 tons a minute. It was the biggest raid yet on the city. Targets included plants turning out airplane propellers, important railway shops and four airfields. Hamamatsu’s pre-war population totalled 166,000. A Tokyo broadcast said 30 other B-29s sowed mines in Wakasa Bay, on the north coast of Honshu, and 10 more dropped mines in the Beppu channel on the inland sea. Reconnaissance photographs revealed that 5.9 square miles of Nagoya had been burned out in the two raids this week. This brought the area destroyed since the start of B-29 raids on Nagoya to 11.3 square miles. 22 percent of the whole city. The famed Nagoya castle and 33 specific industrial and military targets, including the Mitsubishi aircraft factories, were destroyed or damaged in the last two days. Os the total area, 3.1 square miles were burned out Monday and 2.8 square miles Thursday. This brought the total area destroyed or damaged by superfortress fire raids on six Japanese cities to 59.5 S square miles. Navy search planes of fleet air wing No. 1 sank a small freighter

(Turn To Pag-e 6, Column 7) — o List Teaching Staff At Pleasant Mills Two Vacancies In Faculty Os Schoo! Hansel Foley, principal of the Pleasant Milla school, and B. P. Johnson, trustee of St. Mary’s township, today announced the teaching staff for the Pleasant Mills school for the 1945-46 school year. There are two vacancies on the staff, one in the seventh and eighth grades, to replace Mrs. Neva Ross, who has resigned; and one in the high school to teach social studies and science. Teachers in the grade school are as follows: Mrs. Alma Brayton, first and second grades; Mrs. Justine Cole, third and fourth grades; Mis. Harriett Mills, fifth and sixth grades. The high school staff is as follows: Mr. Foley, principal; Albert Coppess, physical education and coach; Mrs. Eloise Andrews; English and library; Mrs. Agnes Yager, commerce and home economics; Mrs. Owens, mathematics and Latin.

“Bravest Man”

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BACK from the harrowing experience at sea during the Jap divebomb attack on Essex-type aircraft carrier U.S.S. Franklin last March is Lt. Cmdr. Joseph O'Callahan, above. Jesuit priest and Catholic chaplain of Boston, who risked his life at least 10 times during the fateful hours of the ship's explosion and fire. The chaplain was called by Capt. Leslie E. Gehres “the bravest man I ever saw.”

Township Trustees To Meet Here June 4 County School Head Election Scheduled The annual meeting of the board of township trustees will be held on Monday, June 4, at which time a county superintendent of schools will be elected. Lyman L. Hann is concluding his first four-year term in the office and is a candidate for reelection. As far as known there, are no other candidates for the post. Mr. Hann, prior to being elected to the county superintendency, served as principal of the Monmouth school in Root township. He has taken an active leadership In the supervision of the rural schools under his jurisdiction. In polities, the trustees are divided eight and four as Republicans and Democrats respectively. Mr. Hann is a Republican and no change is expected in the choice of the majority of the members who form the elective board.. , At the recent meeting of the trustees, who, under the new law comprise the county board of education, of which Mr. Hann, by virtue of his office, is the 13th member and chairman of the board, the matter of employing an attendance officer for the county was postponed. Action may be taken at the July meeting of the trustees, the law not specifying when the election of the attendance officer shall take place. However, the law does specify that counties Shall employ an attendance officer. The board organized by electing Charles Burdg, trustee of Union township as secretary, and Charles Foreman of Preble township as the treasurer. The salary (Turn To Page 6, Column 6)

Wa5 ■ CBS 7 Effort-

Price Four Cents.

Japanese Troops On Southern Okinawa Battle Americans To Near Standstill Guam, May 19.-— (UP)— Japanea& troops on southern Okinawa battled four American divisions almost to a standstill today as the bloodiest campaign of the Pacific war went into its 49th day on a note of rising fury. Marines and army troops we e inside Naha. Shuri and Yonabaru. the three anchors of the Japanese line, but key hills dominating the cities were changing hands an many as four times in 24 hours in the swaying battle. There were some signs that the Japansc were cracking under the. terrific American pressure and ceaseless land, sea and air bombardment, However, commanders cautiously reserved final judgment. The battle war far from over. A front dispatch said marines of the Sixth division had penetrated as much as 500 yards into Naha, ruined capital of Okinawa and western anchor of the enemy line. The first marine division finally won control of the northern slopes of Sugar Loaf hill northeast of Naha in bitter hand-to-hand fighting. but its crest was a no man’s land. Japanese still controlled tho southern Slopes on the hill, hold--ing up virtually the entire western flank of the Okinawa front. Marines I have tried nine times unsuccessfully I to dislodge Diem in the past week. The cresi changed hands four limes vpstprdfty alone. Complete conquest of the hill well might open up a corridor that would enable the Americans to envelop both Naha and Shuri. A Pacific fleet communique said Sugar Loaf hill had been captured, but front dispatches indicated this was premature. Counter-attacking Japanese were revealed to have stormed to the crest of Conical hill itself Wednesday night, but they were driven off after an hour-long grenade battle. The Japanese were using every trick in the book to defend their positions, even rolling hand grenades down hills into American foxholes. ' Front dispatches reported that a new American-built airstrip has been placed in'operation on Okinawa 325 miles from Japan proper. Hacked from the island's coral, it (Turn To Pagie 6, Column 7)

23 Percent Os State Bond Goal Is Reached Indianapolis, May 19. — (UP) — Hoosiers accounted for approximately 23 percent, of Indiana’s seventh war loan goal of $167,000,000 today, state war finance chairman Eugene ('. Pulliam said. Federal reserve hank reports showed a total of $38,300,000 invested so far. Os this amount, s3l - 500,000 was in series E bonds. Pulliam said. These totals did not include $631.661.25 invested by Butler university students and faculty members during a special drive which began May 2. o— — County Office Audits Received From State Copies of the audit made by O. A. Hutchens and Frank Deutsch, field examiners for the state board of accounts, covering the auditor, recorder, treasurer and sheriff offices, have been received by the county officials. The records were examined for 1942 and 1943 and each public official was given a clean slate. No discrepancies were found in any of the offices examined and no recommendations were made by the examiners. The auditor’s report included the examination of the county infirmary and highway funds, the school funds and the office itself. The reports noted that all balances were intact and that each office was well conducted and in conformity with the law.