The Morning News from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 1

on Page 8 to Get Ration Book No. 2-Registration Starts Tomorrow First with the Latest News Delaware's Morning Paper Latest City Edition INTERNATIONAL NEWS SERVICE Page 17.) ASSOCIATED PRESS (Weather Conditions, Tides, on UNITED PRESS Wilmington Morning News Rising Temperature. VOL. 123-NO. 45 WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1943 TWENTY PAGES PRICE THREE CENTS POINT SYSTEM CUTS CANNED FOOD 50 PCT.

NAZIS AGAIN PIERCE U. S. LINES IN TUNISIA KEY GATEWAY IS CAPTURED BY GERMANS Veteran Infantrymen Open Path Through Kasserine Pass For Rommel Tank Units After Feint to North Armored Forces Of British Rushed Into Action to Support Green Americans; Mareth Line is Hit By DANIEL DE LUCE Associated Press Correspondent ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN NORTH AFRICA, Feb. 21- German armored columns have captured Kasserine Pass in central Tunisia, smashing through green American troops, and have plunged through that key gateway into the battered Allied front along the Algerian border, it was announced today. This new setback came swiftly after Field Marshal Rommel had flung his veteran Nazi infantry up the mountains early yesterday to clear the route for his armored forces.

The Americans had turned back an armored thrust Thursday, leading military authorities to believe that the "tide has turned," but it now is clear that Thursday's action was only an exploration of American strength on the heights. By striking simultaneously at both Kasserine Gap. 35 miles from the Allied base at Tebessa, and at Sbiba Gap to the northeast with strong armored forces both on Thursday and again yesterday, Rommel was able to conceal which of the two was his main objective. British Rush to Aid British armored units, rushed southward to this grave sector, were thrown into action supporting the hard-hit American armored division. American gunners had only a few hours to select mountain sites for their artillery and to camouflage their weapons before the initial Nazi assaults began.

Their lack of experience may have been a crucial factor in determining the effectiveness of these preparations. The French high command late today said Rommel's thrusts against the French yesterday near Sbiba been "completely checked" after several fighting in which four tanks and 12 armored vehicles were destroyed. This attack was apparently a feint, coupled with infantry attacks at Kasserine Gap yesterday to set the stage for the armored breakthrough against American positions today. Medenine Occupied Meanwhile to the south, the British Eighth Army occupied Medenine and drove eight miles northwestward toward the Mareth Line, the village of Mareth and Gabes, Cairo reports said. (Reuters in a dispatch datelined at Ben Gardane declared the outposts of the main Mareth Line were crumbling before the assault of the Eighth Army.

This army is concentrating the Continued on Page 4 -Column 3 MERCURY REACHES 65; MANY TAKE STROLLS Balmy Weather Comes Week After Drop to 2 Above Thousands of Wilmingtonians took to parks, streets, and highways on bicycles and on foot to enjoy a preview of spring that sent the mercury soaring to 65 degrees yesterday afternoon. Porches were well patronized. Continued warm is predicted for today. Automobiles were conspicuous by their absence on the Park Drive and the highways, police said. Strollers, many of them in family groups, were strung along highways in the Wilmington area, particularly on the highways bounding the New Castle Army Air Base.

Park guards counted "hundreds" of bicycles along the drives in the Brandywine Park during the day. The day was in direct contrast to the previous Sunday, when the mereury registered 16 degrees at 1 p. m. That night the thermometer dropped to 2 above zero. Railroads and bus lines here said that residents were stay-at-homes over the week-end.

Traffic was reported heavy but not unusually so by representatives of both transportation groups. Yank Captures, Loses 15 Nazis At Sidi Bouzid By HAROLD V. BOYLE Associated Press Correspondent WITH AMERICAN FORCES IN TUNISIA, Feb. 19 (Delayed) -How man would you soldiers, like to shepherd capture 15 them Gerthrough a shower of Stuka bombs. lose them during a barrage of tank fire, then have by foot 34 miles at night 'yourself to get back to your own lines? It happened to Lieut.

Robert E. Simons. 25, of Columbus, Ohio, during the recent German advance through Faid Pass to the Sbeitla plains. This was his day of battle: "I was sent out at noon to verify reports that there were enemy tanks in the vicinity of Garet Haded Mountain, east of Sidi Bouzid. Some of our artillery was evacuating the spot, and we received a radio report that some civilians were approaching on the road.

"I looked and saw the German Continued on Page 4-Column 5 C. L. WARD DIES SUDDENLY AT 74; AUTHOR, LAWYER Writer of 12 Books Had Just Finished Work On New Historical Volume Was Decorated by Swedes In 1938; Funeral Will Be Held At 2 o'Clock Tomorrow Christopher L. Ward, author and lawyer, died at the Delaware Hospital Saturday night after becoming ill suddenly a few hours earlier at his home near Centreville. He was 74 years old.

Funeral services will be held tomorrow afternoon at 2 o'clock at on the chapel of Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery. Interment private. requested that no flowers be sent. Mr. Ward was born in Wilmington on Oct.

6, 1868, the son of the late Henry and Martha Potter Ward. After receiving his early education at Rugby Academy and Friends School in this city, he went to Williams College where he received A. B. degree in 1890. Three years later, he was graduated from the Harvard Law School with the degree of bachelor of laws and the same year he was admitted to the Delaware Bar and began the I practice of law in Wilmington.

Since 1920 he has been president of the Corporation. Service Three Co. Histories Mr. Ward first won national recognition as an author with a series of parodies published in the early numbers of the Saturday Review of Literature. Later he turned to novel writing, to verse, and finally to writing the history of his native state.

"The Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware" appeared in 1930. and "The Delaware Continentals," a record of the part that the troops from this state played in the Revolutionary War, was published in 1941. This work won high praise as a penetrating analysis of Revolutionary campaigns and a history Continued on Page 3-Column FINLAND READY TO ASK PEACE, STOCKHOLM SAYS Reported Ready to Use Any Channel To Approach Reds NEW YORK. Feb. 21 (P)-The New York Times' Stockholm correspondent reported tonight Finland had decided to sue for a separate peace at the first.

opportunity, "and through any channel which Moscow can be approached." The dispatch said a friend of Vaino A. Tanner, former foreign minister "credited with engineering the reelection last week of President Risto Ryti," had told the correspondent of Finland's decision. The friend was said to have just returned to Stockholm from Helsinki, Finnish capital. LARGEST U.S. SUB DESTROYED OFF NEW GUINEA Argonaut Sunk by Jap Shelling After Being Forced to Surface Of Sea by Depth Charge Goes Down With 94 Men And Eight Officers; Navy Says.

Destroyer Lost in Battle Of Solomons Was DeHaven By The Associated Press WASHINGTONG, Feb. 21-The submarine Argonaut, largest in the American Navy and possibly the largest in the world, is presumed to be lost on patrol operations, the Navy announced today. A Navy communique also identified an American destroyer sunk January 29-February 4 battle in the Solomon Islands as the 2.100- ton DeHaven, one of America's newest, and greatest destroyer types. The ship was sunk by Jap dive bombers. Jap Ship Sunk in Aleutians The communique added that on February 20 a United States naval unit operating in the western Aleutians engaged and sank a Japanese supply ship, and on February 19 and 20 United States aircraft executed a number of bombing attacks on Japanese air fields at Vila on Kolom-bangara Island and at Munda on New Georgia Island.

Large fires were started and hits were scored on anti-aircraft installations. One United States plane failed to return from these attack missions. Sunk Off New Guinea The Navy did not give the location of the mine-laying Argonaut, a vessel, at the time it was last heard from, but a dispatch from Walter Clausen, Associated Press correspondent at Pearl Harbor said it occurred off New Guinea. His dispatch said: "The sinking of the United States submarine Argonaut with the probable loss of 94 men and eight officers off the southeast coast of New Guinea more than a month ago, was followed within two hours by the destruction of two large Japanese transports by another submarine. "The two transports were in the same convoy that the Argonaut had been stalking.

"One of the Jap transports sunk was a ship and the other of. 7,000 tons. "The two transports apparently were highly prized by the Japanese and possibly contained high ranking officers because six aircraft protection destroyerorind the convoy of three troopships. "Commander Leon J. Huffman, submarine division commander, discussed the loss of the Argonaut at fleet headquarters here.

"The Argonaut, was on offensive Continued on Page 4-Column 1 GANDHI WEAKER; U.S. STUDIES CASE India Government Says He May Die Unless His Fast Over Imprisonment Ends NEW DELHI, Feb. 21 (AP)-MohanGandhi's condition grew increasingly grave today as the Indian Nationalist leader completed the 12th day of his 21-day hunger strike and the Government issued a bulletin saying "if the fast is not ended without delay it may be too late to save his life." The communique, issued at Bombay, embraced a medical board's report on the condition this afternoon of the 73-year-old leader who has subsisted on citrus juices and water since Feb. 10 in his detention quarters at the palace of the Aga Khan in Poona. It said: "Mr.

Gandhi had a bad day yesterday and only four and a hail hours sleep at night. During the day he is apathetic and at times drowsy. "His heart sounds are weak and the volume of his pulse is small. He is extremely weak, SO that even swallowing of water exhausts him. "He drank 40 ounces of water mixed with two ounces of sour lime Continued on Page 8 Column 4 Greenwood Boy Reported Missing On Lost DeHaven Seaman William Robert Chalmers.

17, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Chalmers, Greenwood, was among those reported missing in action in the sinking of the destroyer DeHaven during Jan. 29-Feb. 4 battle in the Solomon Islands, according to word received by his parents from the Navy Department.

The youth, a native of the Greenwood section, enlisted in the Navy from this city last October after his father had signed papers permitting the enlistment. The boy frequently his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. William Houck, 214 West Thirtieth Street, and his aunt and uncle. Police Sergt.

and Mrs. Frank Lee. Seaman Chalmers was assigned to the DeHaven after his training at the Newport Naval Station. JOSIAH MARVEL, JR. MRS.

G. H. WHITNEY WILL WED TODAY Bride-to-Be of Former Secretary of State Is From Strafford, Pa. Quiet Ceremony Will Be Performed Here; Attorney Now Corporal in Army Corp. Josiah Marvel, son of Mrs.

Mary Jackson Marvel, of Greenville, and the late Josiah Marvel, and Mrs. Gladys Hopkins Whitney, daughter of Mrs. Stevens Heckscher, of Villanova, and the late Mark Hopkins, will be married at one o'clock this afternoon in a quiet ceremony. Corporal Marvel was secretary of state the latter part of the term of Gov. R.

C. McMullen. Details of the wedding other than that it will be solemnized in Wilmington not announced, although it was said that Maj. Mark Hopkins, of Boston, expects to give his sister in marriage. Divorced in 1941 Mrs.

Whitney, the former Miss ford, Gladys Crosby and Hopkins, of Philadelphia, vorced Cornelius Vanderbilt (Sonny) Whitney, chairman of the board of Pan American Airways, on May 9, had been married in Strafford on Sept. 29, 1931. One Gail, born March 22, 1939, was given into the custody of her mother. Corporal Marvel, inducted into the Army late last summer, and Mrs. Whitney have been friends for almost 25 years.

After the wedding, to be followed by a luncheon for relatives and close friends at Corporal Marvel's Greenville home, the newlyweds will take a short trip to Florida. Ran for Governor Corporal Marvel, a graduate of Yale University and the Harvard Law Democratic School, was State chairman Committee of the for several years prior to his induction. In 1940 he was his party's candidate for governor but was defeated He is a member of the law firm of Marvel Morford with offices in' the Delaware Trust Building. He is a member also of the Wilmington Club, the Wilmington Country Club, the Vicmead Hunt Club and the Yale Club of New York. This will be his first marriage.

REDS HAMMER NAZIS 34 MILES FROM DNIEPER Soviets Report Gain Of 45 Miles in Russian Push South of Fallen Donets Basin Capital Axis Said to Be Abandoning Dnieperopetrovsk, Huge Power Center; Believed To Be Preparing to Quit Orel By The Associated Press LONDON, Feb. 21-The Red arms hammered at Nazi defenses 34 miles from the Dnieper River tonight and Moscow according to the regular gained midnight communique miles in the drive south of Voroshilovgrad, fallen Donets Basin capital. No new progress was reported 1 the drive toward Dnieperopetrovsk and Poltava southwest of Kharkov after last night's special bulletin told of the capture of Krasnograd and Pavlograd. (According to. International News Service, a Stockholm dispatch to the London Daily Telegraph said the Germans have begun to abandon the great Russian power and industrial center of Dnieperopetrovsk.

But the communique, recorded by the Soviet monitor here, said the Russian army operating south of Voroshilovgrad in the Donets Basin had taken three more localities, including which is 45 miles below Vorcshilovgrad and only, 25 miles of Kuibishevo, taken by another Red army column driving up from conquered Rostov. May Trap Retreating Foe The union of these two columns would seal off a huge area through which German troops have been retreating. The communique said one Nazi infantry battalion was wiped out, and three tanks, eight guns, 22 machine-guns, and other materials captured in the fight below Voroshilovgrad. Dyakova is approximately 60 miles east of Stalino, a rail junction through which Nazi troops had been withdrawing. Red army units have been trying to break through to Stalino from Krasnoarmeisk and Kramatorsk, 25 miles to the northwest, and 45 miles to the north.

The heaviest fighting. described as "extremely violent," occurred in the Continued on Page 3-Column 5 LAGUARDIA TELLS ITALY OF TALK WITH GENERAL Mayor's Radio Speech Discloses Meeting With 9 Prisoners NEW YORK. Feb. 21 (P)-Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia disclosed tonight in a short wave broadcast to Italy that he had talked with Gen. Annibale Bergonzoli, Italian general captured by the British in 1941, and eight other high ranking former Italian military leaders.

LaGuardia did not say where he met the nine but he said that to his eyes they "presented a group of frustrated and hopeless men who were once leaders in their corps." The mayor made the disclosure in holding out a promise to Italy that the United States is ready to aid the Italian people in restoring "what was once a happy land" when the "barrier of Fascism is removed." (The Italian newspaper Il Popolo D'Italia reported Feb. 5 that General Bergonzoli, former commander of the Italian Black Shirt Corps who was captured in Libya, had been taken to Washington as a prisoner of war.) VETERAN OF 24 AIR TILTS WITH AXIS HOME FOR REST Inactivity, Caused by Injured Arm, Worst Feature of Three Months in Africa, Says Lieut. Emil Kielbasa of Milford A veteran of 24 air combats with the Germans in Tunisia, Lieut. Emil Kielbasa of Milford yesterday dismissed them with the disclosure that the worst ordeal of three months in Africa was a three-week layoff caused by a sprained arm. Early this month, Lieutenant Kielbasa, a fighter pilot, received the Air Medal with an oak leaf from Maj.Gen.

Jimmy Doolittle. Now 23. he has (15 days' leave here while en route DRASTIC RULE SETS TOP STAMP VALUES OF PROCESSED ITEMS RATION TABLE WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 (P) -This table shows the ration point values for processed foods in popular size containers and by the pound: Fruits and Fruit Juices: Canned and Bottled 19 to 28 to 45 to Per 22 oz. 32 oz.

48 oz. lb. Apples (Incl. crabapples) 10 15 24 8 Applesauce 10 15 23 00 Apricots 16 24 37 Berries All varieties 14 21 32 Cherries, red sour pitted 14 21 Cherries, other 14 21 Salad Cranberries and and cocktail sauce fruits 14 14 21 21 32 Grapefruit 10 15 15 23 00 Op Grapefruit juice 10 Grape juice 10 15 0 Peaches 14 21 Pears 21 Pineapple 16 24 13 Pineapple juice 14 21 11 Other 10 15 23 8 Frozen Cherries 24 13 Peaches 24 37 13 Strawberries 16 24 13 Other berries 16 24 13 Other frozen fruits 16 24 13 Dried and Dehydrated Prunes 25 38 58 20 Raisins 25 38 58 20 All others 10 15 23 8 Vegetables and Vegetable Juices: Canned and Bottled Asparagus 14 21 32 11 Beans, fresh lima 16 24 37 13 Beans, green, wax 14 21 32 11 Beans, all canned, bottled dry 10 15 23 8 Beets (Incl. pickled) 10 15 23 8 Carrots 14 21 Corn 14 21 Peas 16 24 13 Sauerkraut Spinach 14 21 32 Tomatoes 16 24 37 13 Tomato catsup, chili sauce 14 21 32 Tomato juice 14 21 32 11 Other tomato products 16 24 37 13 Other 14 21 32 11 Frozen Asparagus 16 24 37 13 lima 16 24 37 13 Beans, green, wax 16 24 37 13 Broccoli 16 24 Corn 16 24 Peas 16 24 31 Spinach 16 24 37 13 Other 10 23 8 Soups 10 15 23 8 Baby foods, canned and bottled.

all types and varieties except milk and cereals: Four to five and one-half ounces, inclusive, one point; over five and one-half ounces and including nine SCHOOLS READY TO ISSUE BOOKS 4,875 Persons in State To List Citizens; Pre- Freeze Canned Goods Sale Heavy Approximately 1,875 school teachers, aided by an estimated 3,000 other volunteers, will register Delaware's population for point rationing, starting tomorrow. The registration and distribution of coupon books will be conducted at about 150 cen' rs in the state, mostly schools, between 10 a. m. and 8 p. m.

tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and, if necessary, on Saturday. I Books in Effect March 1 Use of the new books to be handed out to an estimated 275,000 residents of the state will start on March 1. Sale of canned fruits and vegetables, suspended Saturday night, will start again on that day. Grocers reported that Wilmingtonians apparently stocked up on canned goods in advance of the freeze, to the extent of five cans per person. The demand for canned foods was strong on Saturday, but stores had ample stocks and were not cleaned out.

Mrs. Clarence M. Dillon, chairman of the women's division of the State Continued on Page 8-Column Many Commodities 'Cost' from Third To Half of Stamps Spendable During March Per Person Coupons Required To Buy Dried Peas, Beans, Lentils Now On Controlled List Will Be Fixed Later By The Associated Press WASHINGTON, Feb. 21-The Government announced tonight how much processed food the new ration books will buy, a drastic scale of point values limiting consumption to less than half of normal. The 48 ration points allotted to each man, woman and child for March will command two cans of sliced pineapple, or three cans of peas, or 48 cans of baby food.

The 48 points may be spent, of course, on a variety of different foods. Here is what some of them will "cost." in the most popular can sizes: Pease 16 points, corn 14, tomatoes 16, green beans 14, pears 21, peaches 21, grapefruit juice 23, tomato juice 32, soup 6, baby food 1. Prunes and raisins "cost" 20 points a pound; frozen foods mostly 13 points a pound. Detailed Table Issued The Office of Price Administration issued a detailed tabulation of nearly 900 different point values which will determine how much canned and frozen fruits and vegetables, dried fruits, canned soups and baby foods may be bought when the rationing stars March 1. Sale of these items is frozen until then.

The point values for dried beans, peas and lentils which were brought under the rationing only last night will be announced later. To Be Distributed This Week The values announced today are expected to remain in effect throughout March, although they could be raised or lowered at any time. At the end of the month, the OPA will announce the values for April, which may be the same or different. The first 48 points provided by the new ration books to be distributed this week are designed to cover purchases for the entire month Continued on Page 8 Column 1 $20,000 DAMAGE IN 2-ALARM FIRE Police Patrol Car Crew Finds Blaze in Furniture Warehouse of P. Feinberg, Inc.

A two-alarm fire early yesterday damaged the three-story warehouse of P. Feinberg, at 111 Orange Street. Furniture on every floor was destroyed or damaged, and a truck was burned. Firemen estimated the loss at $20,000 The fire, less than two blocks from the McMahon warehouse which burned two months ago, was discovered after 3 a. m.

by radio car patrolmen. When firemen arrived, the flames already had eaten through an elevator shaft and stairways to the upper floors. Seven engine and two truck companies responded to the alarm. Firemen cut a hole in the roof to confine the blaze to one corner of the warehouse, and under Chief George T. Morgan, they kept the flames from reaching other buildings, including another furniture warehouse.

The fire companies were on duty for five hours. Preliminary investigation, firemen said, indicated that the fire may have been caused by a short circuit Continued on Page 4-Column 5 BLACKSMITHS AND BEER VEX CHIPPEWA INDIANS Point to Treaty Promising Shop; Want 3.2 Rule Relaxed pewa Indians arrived in Chicago, CHICAGO, Feb. 21 (INS) Six Chiptoday, vexed over the lack of (1) a blacksmith shop in Chicago and (2) lack of beer to be distributed among the warriors. Chief of the Chippewa Nation William Nywaush said: "In one of the treaties by which my grandfather ceded Chippewa lands to the United States, the White Man promised to maintain forever a blacksmith shop at Fort Dearborn (now Chicago)." The chief also was to discuss with the Bureau of Indian Affairs the possibility of relaxing the rule which prohibits the sale of 3.2 beer or other intoxicants to the Red Man. to the West Coast for a new assignment.

And as for rewards nothing can compare, he said, the mile hop home, with another flier at the controls. He left Africa eight days ago, arrived in the U. S. three days later, and has visited his parents, and Mrs. Andrew J.

Kielbasa, since then. He is in Wil- Continued on Page 4 -Column 2 Index of the News Pages Amusements 17 Births Classified 18-19 Comics Deaths Editorials Financial Obituaries Peter Edson Radio Raymond Clapper Society News 13 Sports 14-15 State Page Westbrock Pegler With the Service Men Woman's Page.