Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 1

Weather Report Warmer Sob rr 6:01 an wt at 9:11 METR0P0UTAN FINAL EDITION On Guard for Over a Century- Friday, July 2, 1943. No. 59 113th Year 28 Pages Four Cents EYEWITNESS STORY OF THE BATTLE FOR RENDOVA How Daring Assault Caught Japs Fiat-Footed on New Georgia Stronghold the drenching seas breaking over me when suddenly the machine gun most brazen attacks against the Japanese it is almost impossible to believe we have accomplished the objective. It was conceded that to succeed in its entirety the should take the Japanese by surprise. We were confident it would, even though we recognized the Japanese must be fully aware that something was in the wind soon.

Indeed, it was not until yesterday morning that the plan went into effect and orders, compiled in painstaking detail over many months, were distributed. From that moment the beach was the busiest scene. Loading immediately was begun of transports, smaller converted destroyer transports and new type invasion ships. By lunch time, when I returned to the beach to board the destroyer which I was accompanying on the operation, the beach was more or less deserted, however. Machine Gun Breaks Loose I was nearly out of the war before I got into it.

I was crouching in the shelter of a machine-gun mounting on a landing boat to escape begun before the enemy shore batteries opened fire at this destroyer screen. It was late in the afternoon before the Japs hit us, but by then we were on the way back to base, having landed every man and all supplies. A savage, persistent Japanese mass torpedo bomber attack came In the late afternoon and a most extraordinary incident occurred. One torpedo crashed into the bow of the destroyer on which 1 was observing the operation and which in future I shall call the Can. Torpedo Bumps Alongside The torpedo failed to explode or damage the destroyer in any way, although the small vessel shuddered and reeled at the moment of impact and as the torpedo bumped alongside before falling harmlessly away.

Now that it is over and we have gotten away with one of the EDITOR'S NOTE: This vivid eyewitness account of the Allied assault on the Japanese New Georgia stronghold has been made available for distribution to American newspapers through the courtesy of the London Daily Express. BY HENRY KEYS London Daily Express War Correspondent Dntrihuted the Aowialrd Pre WITH THE UNITED STATES FLAGSHIP OF A DESTROYER DIVISION BETWEEN RENDOVA ISLAND AND MUNDA POINT, June 30 (Delayed) This eyewitness story is a world beat and should remain so for a couple of days. It was hitch-hiked a thousand miles by sea, land and air to reach the nearest radio. An all-out American assault on the Japanese stronghold of New Peorgia Island got away to a flying start at dawn this morning. The brilliantly conceived and daringly executed plan caught the Japs flat-footed; the landing of men and materials had actually broke loose and hurtled down.

A quick-witted Army boy grabbed and pulled at It as it fell, dragging it to one side. It only caught me a glancing blow, merely scratching and bruising my shoulder. Aboard the Can I quickly met her captain and commander of the destroyer division. Quiet, confident men they were and they imparted sufficient of their sureness to make me glad I had accepted advice to accompany the destroyers. We took off in midafternoon feeling a curious mixture of excitement and, perhaps excusably, apprehension.

In the welcome rain of the pitch-black night some of the small ships unavoidably kept nosing in among the main body of ships. Some smaller ones at night time have the appearance of submarines, and this required all hands to keep a sharp lookout. The boiling wakes and downwaves of these phosphorescent waters Turn to Page 15, Column 5 Ml 5)U He Bragged They'd Never Hang Him Officer Is 34th to Die as Race-Riot Victim Detroit Policeman Was Wounded in Battle with Besieged Negroes -7 Death Sentence Commuted to Life Roosevelt Holds that Tuttle Failed to Consider a Lesser Degree of Crime BY RALPH GOLL Free Prew Staff Writer In an executive order received at 4:55 p. m. Thursday, President Roosevelt commuted the death sentence of Max Stephan, the tavernkeeper who turned traitor and was to have been hanged in Milan prison between 1 and 2 a.

m. Friday. The President fixed the penalty in the case at life imprisonment. The portable scaffold on which Stephan would have died and the rope which would have taken his life were in readiness when the White House issued the order, accompanied by a statement saying that "the sentence imposed by the court was too severe in that it did not sufficiently take into account the statute which provides for the consideration of different qualities of treason." uvJ LAWRENCE A. ADAMS Gunshot wound proves fatal AX OLD GRUDGE RapatPress by Roosevelt Has Purpose BY RAYMOND MOLEY Free Press Special Writer The average reader of this or any other newspaper has a right to wonder what connection there is between the Chester Davis resignation, the Wallace-Jones feud and tne President's answer to questions bout these items of news.

For the President's answer had no relation to the issues involved, but had to do with the honesty of newspapers, their publishers and those who write for them. Mr. Roosevelt's press conference speech about the press was an old record, worn and scratched after 10 years of playing. Perhaps for that reason, any comment about it should be humorous in tone. But the purpose of this oft-played presidential record is not to provoke humor.

Mr. Roosevelt repeats the theme for a wholly different purpose the purpose of inducing the American people to doubt everything they read. HARD TO UNDERSTAND The President's criticism Is mainly directed at a specific group of newspaper men those men who. as employees of newspapers throughout the country, work in Washington collecting and writing the "news of the Government's doings there. A fairly intimate acquaintance with these men makes the President's criticism exceedingly hard to understand.

They are, so far as political preferences go, an extremely assorted Turn to Page 13, Column 6 MAX STEPHAN Mercy comes 9 hours from the gallows Conferees Agree to Give Domestic Funds to OWI Compromise Also Restores to OPA Half of Reduction Made by House By the United Pres Allies Hold All Rendova; Shell Munda Jap Garrison Wiped Out; New Positions in Solomons and ISew Guinea Consolidated By the Associated Pres ALLIED HEADQUARTERS EST AUSTRALIA, July 2 (Friday) Complete occupation of Rendova island in the Central Solomons was indicated today from headquarters of Douglas MacArthur, and artillery has begun to shell the vital Japanese air base at Munda, five miles away. The United States forces which landed on Rendova Wednesday "completed the operation shortly after midday, destroying1 the enemy garrison," said today's communique. While the air arm provided covering protection all over the sectors of the growing Pasific offensive asainst the Japanese, the forces which struck in the Solo mons and on New Guinea consolr dated their newly won positions, the High Command announced. RABAIX IS BOMBED Bombers struck at Rabaul. New Britain, from which the Japanese misrht parry the Allied thrusts, and other planes rained death on enemy forces opposing tne landings near Salamaua, New Guinea.

Nearly 25 tons of bombs were dropped on Rabaul's three air dromes. Two hours after Rendova landing forces had debarked from their ships "our shore batteries opened fire on Munda," the communique disclosed. "The enemy counterattacked throughout the day with medium and dive bombers, torpedo planes and fighters. "Latest advices do not indicate the total number involved in the action, but 101 enemy planes were destroyed in air combat and by antiaircraft fire. Seventeen of our planes are missing." AUSTRALIANS IN" BATTLE (Reports from Washington had placed the number of attacking planes at 101 with 65 downed either by antiaircraft or fighter opposition.

Our losses were stated as the same, 17.) Australians who landed at Nassau Bay. less than 15 miles below Salamaua. were reported attacking the Japanese in that sector, which is just across Dampier Strait i.cm New Britain. In the ground fighting, Allied patrols Turn to Page 15, Column 5 Yugoslavs Score Victory By the Associated Press LONDON. July 1 Yugoslav sources in London asserted today that Yugoslav guerillas had cut the crack Prin2 Eugen Division of German SS (Elite Guards) to pieces and had frustrated an offensive by eight German divisions aimed at clearine Axis lines for defense against possible Allied invasion of the Balkans.

The German offensive began nearly two months ago, apparently hoping to wipe out persistent guerilla attacks, but Yugoslav sources said patriot forces ambushed and slashed at them from Bosnia to Montenegro and had (had their own offensive in full Cswing. Gen. Draza Mihailovich and at least part of his patriot forces were reported concentrated in southeastern Yugoslavia where, Yugo-slave said, they could make early contact with any Allied invasion forces in Greece. WINNIE STEPS OUT LONDON. July 1 (AP) Prime Minister Winston Churchill went to the theater tonight for the sec ond time this week, seeing Noel Coward's "Present Laughter." Last nizht he took in Coward's "This 1 Lincoln Plant Is Closed in First Strike 1,600 Walk Out in Dispute Over New Work Hours; UAW Urges Men Back An unauthorized strike by 1,600 employees over a change in working hours stopped production Thursday night in the Lincoln plant of the Ford Motor according to William H.

Rooks, of the State Labor Mediation Board. The plant manufactures tank and bomber enginess and jeeps. "The employees walked out be cause the company wanted to change their shift from 3:30 p. until 11:30 p. m.

to 4 to 12 shift," KooKs said. "The president of Local 900 of the UAW (CIO) tried in vain to get them to return to work and union committeemen told me that they would do everything they could to have the smaller midnight shift on the job." The strike started at 5:30 p.m in the cylinder block plant of the tank engine division and spread to the jeep department, Rooks said. About 500 workers in the factory putting the finishing touches on bomber motors first refused to quit work, but later joined the strikers, company officials said. WORK FRIDAY. UAW SAYS Charles Silverston, building com mitteeman of the union for the afternoon shift, urged all employ ees to return to work on their regular 3:30 p.

m. shift Friday. "The shift change isn't sched uled to take effect until Monday and every employee should report for work at the regular time Friday," he said. Rooks said that the company would meet to negotiate Friday morning. The company explanation for the change in working hours was that the afternoon workers sometimes got to the plant early and interfered with the last half hour of the shift that ends at 3:30 p.m.

Company spokesman said that to eliminate this interference it, was decided to establish a "dead" period of 30 minutes in the plant from 3:30 to 4 p. m. NO-STRIKE RECORD GONE Lincoln employees who first called the Free Press about the strike bemoaned the fact that Lincoln's record of no major strikes had been broken. They said that the employees who wanted to keep on working had no choice but to walk out. Company officials said that the change In working shifts would not effect the employees who report for work at 11:30 p.

m. on the night shift or those going to work at 7:30 a. m. Big Convoys Cross Atlantic in Safety LONDON, July 2 (Friday) (AP) A large number of American and Canadian troops have crossed the Atlantic during May and June without loss, it was reliably reported today. The figures cannot be given, but one unofficial British military observer said that they came in strength which "has exceeded the highest hopes." dier who had guided her course while his mates, including two from Michigan, dropped 60 tons of high explosives on Hitler's bastions.

The first to alight from the ship was Sergt Tony Nastal, of 4936 Twenty-eighth, waist gunner. He was greeted by members of his family, including his brother, Ted, also sergeant and rear gunner of another famous Flying Fortress the "Thunderbirdy and their sister, WASHINGTON, July .1 Senate and House conferees tonight compromised on a $2,750,000 branch of the Office of War Information and $155,000,000 for the Patrolman Lawrence A. Adams died at 10:45 a. m. Thursday in Harper Hospital of wounds suffered in the gun battle at Brush and Vernor that climaxed a day of rioting at 9:30 p.

m. June 21. His death was the thirty-fourth resulting from the riots. Adams' death was the result of a tetanus condition, an autopsy performed late Thursday revealed. His condition had been improving until shortly before his death.

The battle in which Adams fell was the most extensive and vicious of the day, engaging more than 100 Detroit policemen and State police against a group of armed Negroes besieged in an apartment house at 261 E. Vernor. More than 1,000 shots were exchanged. Adams was shot through the groin as he stepped from a police car to join the forces seeking to reduce the apartment-citadeL The shot that felled Adams was fired by Homer Edison, 28 years old, of 502 E. Montcalm, from the shad ows of a parking lot.

Edison, armed with a shotgun, was shot to death by Adams' partner, Patrolman Howard Wickstrom," of the Accident Prevention Bureau. The Mayor's lnter-racial factfinding committee seeking causes and responsibilities for the rioting which cost Adams' and 33 others their lives, will resume sessions Friday morning. Midwest Due for New Curb on Gasoline Pipeline Takes Oil East; Production Off By the Associated Press WASHINGTON, July 1 The war-time gasoline famine probably will spread from Eastern states to the Midwest shortly and to the Pacific Coast before the year is out. Secretary Harold L. Ickes indicated today, forcing tighter curbs on motorists through out the nation.

Ickes pictured the situation by sections like this: EAST COAST Getting a record supply of oil by railroad and due in two weeks to begin getting more oil as the Illinois-to-New York leg of the "big inch" pipeline from Texas is completed, but unlikely to have anything addi tional for civilians because mill tary demands are huge and grow ing. MIDWEST Troubled by declin ing production that already is insufficient for its needs, already closer than ever to "more severe restrictions" and likely to get them as the eastward pipeline leg gets into fuller operation within, a few weeks, freeing railroad tank cars to haul away more oil from the Midwest to the East. PACIFIC COAST Headed to ward a deficiency of crude oil before the end of the year as military demands bite deeply into supplies while California production falls. Ickes said it was unlikely that the fighting machines of the nation, now on what he called the eve of major action, would suffer from lack of oil through 1944 but he warned that keeping them coins' might require still further dips into civilian supplies. British Nobleman, 87, Guilty of Adultery LONDON, July 1 (AP) Agreed damages of $2,000 were granted in the Divorce Court today against Baron Grantley, 87 years old, eldest member of the House of Lords, who was cited as a co-respondent in a divorce suit.

A decree nisi was granted Harry Sebastian Newman after his wife, Pauline Henriette Marguerite, admitted adultery; with, Grantley. Federal Judge Arthur J. Tuttle, who imposed the death sentence, said that he had "no immediate comment to make." p. m. Warden Shuttle- worth was notified by telephone by James V.

Bennett, director of prisons for tne Department or Justice, that the President had commuted Stephan's sentence. As is customary in such cases the warden called back to confirm the report and also was given im mediate confirmation on the tele type. At 5:10 p. Shuttleworth, with Stephan's chief counsel, Nich olas Salowich, entered Stephan's cell. "Max, nothing is going to happen," Salowich said.

"What do you mean?" Stephan asked. "Just what I say, your sentence has been commuted," Salowich replied. APPEARS INCREDULOUS Stephan's jaws dropped, his eyes bulged and the tension and pent up emotion overcame him. He turned to the Warden. "Is that so?" he asked.

"How about it?" "Yes," the Warden replied. "I just got the official word and the President has ruled that you are not to be hanged and your sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment." Stephan swayed a little and sat down on the stool in his cell. The Warden continued speaking. "And beginning tonight there will be no guard over you and starting tomorrow morning you will go out with the rest of the inmates to work." KISSES WARDEN'S HAND "Thank God," said Stephan as he rose to his feet. His eyes were suffused with tears.

He took the Warden's hand and kissed the back of it and did the same to the hand of Salowich. Salowich, who twice before had saved him from hanging by appeals, had just arrived at the prison gate when a trusty asked him if he had heard the news. The case had been in the courts for almost a year when the Supreme Court rejected Salowich's fourth appeal several weeks ago, leaving executive clemency as the traitor's last hope. PRESIDENTS POSITION President Roosevelt took the position that Stephan's -treason did not come from a plan "maturely initiated by him." The statement noted that Stephan had not been in touch with Hans Peter Krug, leutnant of the German Luftwaffe, before Krug escaped from the Turn to Page 15, Column 1 Eve Curie oins French Auxiliary NEW YORK, July 1 (AP) Eve Curie, author, lecturer and war correspondent, has enlisted as private in the Fighting French unit of the "Volontaires Fran- caises" similar to the WACs in this country, it was announced today. Miss Curie, daughter of the late Marie Curie, discoverer of radium, will receive basic training in England and later will be sent with other French women volunteers to relieve De Gaullist soldiers for combat -duties, the announcement said.

Juror Irate at Sparing of Stephan Woman Says Td Hang Him Myself; Others Support President's Decision Comments of Federal Court jurors who convicted Max Stephan of being a traitor ranged from "I'd have hanged him if I had had the chance," to "No comment to make." "I wish we Stephan jurors had had a chance to do more than find him guilty," said Mrs. Hazel T. Ribble, of Metamora, one of the jurors in the first Stephan trial. "Why, I'd have hanged him with my own hand if I had had a chance." When called to the telephone Mrs. Ribble was very excited and told the Free Press she had been discussing the President's action with the neighbors after hearing the news on a broadcast.

'GOOD AND MAD "We all were good and mad," she said. "I think that Roosevelt has killed his chances for a fourth term. When the boys overseas come back they'll be good and'mad too. "I heard the testimony in the trial and I am convinced that Max Stephan is a very dangerous man to the United States. "I can't believe that the President understood the case.

If he did then maybe he is trying to get back at the State of Michigan for repudiating him in the last election. "All my neighbors are mad and they and I are going to write the President protesting his action. Max still would do anything to help any Nazi flyer and would still try to blow up a defense plant. He was a sergeant in the German police force and still is loyal to Germany. He is not a desirable citizen.

"You know what would have happened to any American in Germany who did what Stephan did. Those Germans would kill 200 innocent men to be sure they Turn to Page 13, Column De Valera Is Re-EIected Br the Associated Press July 1 Eamon de Valera was re-elected Prime Minister of Erie today by a vote of 67 to 37, in the first meeting of the Dail since the general election of June 22. His opponent was William Cos-grave, leader of the opposition Fine Gael Party. The vote was taken after De Valera had opposed a suggestion to suspend the party system until after the emergency and to replace it in the interim with a national government. appropriation for the domestic Wallace-Jones Probe Stymied in the Senate Move Sidetracked to Banking Committee By the I nlted Press WASHINGTON, July 1 Senator Styles Bridges, New Hampshire Republican, today introduced a resolution calling for a Senate investigation of the Henry Wallace-Jesse Jones feud, but the Democratic 'leadership succeeded in shunting it to a friendly committee where it is likely to be pigeonholed.

Bridges sought to have the Military Affairs Committee conduct the inquiry and his resolution so stated, but Democratic Leader Al-ben W. Barkley. of Kentucky, in-: sisted that the measure was a matter for the Banking and Currency and his argument prevailed. The Republican maneuver to bring the dispute under Senate scrutiny with possible political repercussions on the Administration and the Democratic counter stroke came during a lull in the name-calling between the Vice President, as head of the Bureau of Economic Warfare, and the Secretary of Commerce, as head of the Reconstruction Finance Corp. On Inside Pages Amusements 6 Lyons 28 Parade" '5 Merry-Go-R'd 4 My Day 16 Newton 4 Quillen 4 Radio 27 Sports 18-20 Town Crier 28 Washington 16 Women's fi-12 Classified 21-26' Crossword 22 Edgar Guest 4 Editorials 4 Fin? 14-15 Gr ton 16 Horoscope 27 Iffy 28 Lippmann 16 Offipp of Pricp Administration.

The agreement virtually assured continuance at least on a limited basis of the OWI's domestic branch, which the House previous ly had voted to abolish. It restored approximately half of the House reduction in OPA funds, which had been criticized by Administrator Prentiss M. Brown. The compromise left only one controversial point in the 000,000 war agencies supply bill a senate provision requiring senate confirmation of any employee of the 16 affected agencies who makes $4,500 or more a year. House conferees will ask the lower chamber for a separate vote on the proposal tomorrow.

FUNDS TIED UP The war agencies bill is one of four appropriations blocked in Congress, leaving innumerable Government agencies without funds as they entered the new fiscal year. No handicap of Federal functions is expected, however, unless the deadlock is prolonged. Both chambers bogged down in their drive to clean the slate today. The reduced funds for the OWI were $811,499 below the $3,561,499 recommended by the Senate. The conferees chopped another Turn to Page 8, Column 2 Mrs.

Ann Bykowski. The two boys hugged each other, their battle ribbons brushing together. They had enlisted in the Air Forces Dec. 24, 1941, just 17 days after Pearl Harbor. This was their first reunion since they split after they had completed their training at Sarasota, Fla.

Ted was assigned to the Thun-derbird and served with her through seven European missions Turn to Page 13, Column 2 A LADY WITH A PUNCH Valiant 'Memphis Belle9 Visits City BY KENNETH McCORMICK Free Pre 8tff Writer The "Memphis Belle," heroine of 25 dangerous missions over Europe, set herself down gracefully on a runway at tne City Airport Thursday and stood proudly at attention her battle-scarred chin held high. At the controls of the famous Flying Fortress when she landed was Capt. Robert K. Morgan, of Aahville, the dauntless sol JHappy.