NEW PRESIDENT RESIGNS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23968, 8 June 1943, Page 5

NEW PRESIDENT RESIGNS

Military Regime In Argentina

GENERAL RAMIREZ AS SUCCESSOR (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) , (Rec. 11 P.m.) LONDON. June 7. Agency messages report that General Arturo Rawson, the new President of Argentina, has resigned. He took office at the week-end. following the armed revolt against the Castillo Government and the formation of a military government. General Pedro Ramirez is reported to have succeeded General Rawson. General Ramirez was Minister of War in the new Government, and held the same post in President Castillo’s Government. He was one of the leaders of the military rising. Messages say that the new situation came after an all-night meeting. General Rawson announced that the impossibility of agreement on the constitution of the Cabinet had forced him to resign. General Ramirez, in a state, ment, said that he had refused the posts of Chief of the Government and Chief of the Armed Forces, Arrangements which had been made for a national holiday on the formation of the new Government have been cancelled. Diplomats representing all foreign and American nations last night discussed General Arturo Rawson’s coup d’etat in Argentina at the home of the Chilean Ambassador to Argentina (Sr. Conrado Gallardo). Sr. Gallardo later announced that the meeting had decided that the diplomats would await formal advices from the new Argentine Government concerning its constitution, “before negotiating its recognition by the Governments we represent.” “It is reported without confirmation,” said the Buenos Aires correspondent of the Associated Press of America, in an earlier message, “that General Rawson has informed foreign diplomats that his Government ‘will work for a better understanding with the other American nations, but is not prepared to relinquish its neutrality in the war.' No official statement is expected before noon to-morrow, when the new Cabinet will be sworn in, "Meanwhile, calm prevails in Buenos Aires. The Government is carrying on business as usual. Political Meetings Banned “On General Rawson’s orders, the headquarters of all political parties were virtually closed when a ban was placed on meetings of more than three persons of any political committee. “The anti-Communist character of the revolution is revealed in a special order to the police to suppress any statement which the Communist Party, as is reported, may be secretly preparing. “The newspapers published as usual, including the pro-Nazi ‘EI Pampero’ and ‘EI Cabildo.’ “General Rawson and members of the Cabinet attended the burial of 19 soldiers who were killed in the brief fight at the naval engineering school at the outset of the revolt. No casualty list has been published, but it is believed that at least 50 soldiers and 15 civilians were killed and 150 injured in the only clash of the revolution.” “Most of the revolutionary troops have been withdrawn from Buenos Aires, but artillery and anti-aircraft units are still posted on the Casa Roda. which is the chief Government building, while police armed with rifles and fixed bayonets are preventing the nubile crossing in front of the Presidential offices, ’ said the Buenos Aires correspondent of the United Press of America. “The Rawson Government has obtained the support of at least two important Liberal political groups. The leaders of the Union Civica Radical, the largest party in Argentina, stated that the party put its faith in the revolutionary leaders’ aims. They said: ‘We are convinced that it is possible to improve the nation's moral and political health.’ The leading nonpolitical anti-Fascist group. Accion Argentine, announcing its support, said that the revolution’s immediate succeed was unequivocal proof that the Castillo Government has not, interpreted the popular will.’ “Socialist Party leaders said they were withholding a statement until the Government clarified us policy on foreign affairs and the political status of the provinces.”

SOLDIER’S FLIGHT TO ENGLAND BTH ARMY MAN ON LEAVE LONDON, June 6. How a private of the Bth Army “hopped” an aeroplane to England to pay a visit to his wife and mother, from whom he had been separated for four years, is told by the British United Press correspondent in Cairo. The private, a Yorkshireman, was on 14 days’ leave in the Western Desert. He went to an American air training ground and there saw a colonel. He asked him whether there was an aeroplane going to England and returning, as he had not seen his wife for four years and would like to pay her a visit. As it happened there was a machine going to England and the colonel arranged for the private to go with it. The aeroplane was delayed on the return flight and the private was two days late in reporting back to his unit. When his commanding officer asked him for an explanation the private said: “Sorry, sir, I could not get back from England any earlier.” His story was confirmed a few days later when the American colonel wrote to the private’s commanding officer enclosing a demand for money which he had advanced to the soldier.

LANDING FORCES ON CONTINENT

TRAINING OF BRITISH NAVAL COMMANDOS (8.0. W.) RUGBY, June 6. i The naval commandos are the men whose job will be to put the Army .back on the beaches of the Continent. They serve in landing craft, which range in size from lumbering tanklanding craft to fine fast boats which will rush infantry into battle. For many months they have been training on shore and at sea, learning to land their fighting cargoes in seconds on beaches where two years ago it would have been thought impossible to make the attempt at all. They do not know when or where the landings will be made, but they are determined that they will get there and stay there. An officer explained to a correspondent who visited the naval commandos at their training, that beaching the craft was a skilled task. If It was not done properly the ships would be just stranded wrecks. Most of the men were volunteers who had built up this new branch of the Navy, which they would be able to hand over to the regular Navy when the war was over.

DEVICE FOR AIRCRAFT MACHINE-GUNS (Roc. 7 p.m.) NEW YORK, June 6. The Bell Aircraft Corporation is producing for aircraft machine-guns a recoil damping device which has alreadv prominently assisted American gunners to establish phenomenal records in shooting down enemy aeroplanes. The device weighs 31b. It enables the gunner to train his sights on the target and keep them there, and also reduces fatigue. It is used on Flying Fortresses. Liberators. Mitchells, Marauders, and ether American bombers, and also on British aircraft

RATIONING IN AUSTRALIA

COUPON SYSTEM TO BE EXTENDED MANY ARTICLES ALMOST UNPROCURABLE (Special Australian Corresp., N.Z.P.A.) CRec. 9.20 p.m.) SYDNEY. June 7. "Every man, woman, and child will be affected by the extension of coupon rationing. Australia has commitments to her Allies and these must be fulfilled even if they result in a further reduction of Australia’s pre-war living standards.” This statement by the Commonwealth Minister of Customs (Senator Keane) • foreshadows an increased restriction of the goods available to Australians in their second ration year, beginning on Tuesday. The new ration scale has not yet been announced. In the last week the buying rush to use last year’s coupons before they became valueless reached almost the proportions of the preconpon “panic” buying. Many stores, their stocks seriously depleted, remained closed on Saturday. About 4,500.000 new ration books, almost double the size of last year’s, were issued throughout Australia on Saturday. Eight new pages of coupons cover undisclosed extensions of rationing. The chairman of the Commonwealth Rationing Commission (Mr A. W. Coles) said that rationing had worked “exceedingly well.” He expects that Australia will be able to maintain essential civilian supplies during the new ration year, but he has forecast coupon rationings for certain cotton goods which have so far been couponfree. Many Australians returned clothing coupons when they applied for new ’ration books, and only one person in 50 has used last year’s full tea and sugar quotas. Cutlery, Crockery, and Clothing In their second year of rationing Australians face a diversity of shortages. Cutlery, crockery, and many articles of civilian clothing are almost unprocurable. Importers say that Australians may soon be forced to eat meals with their fingers and drink from cups without handles. Already most cafes serve tea and coffee with wooden stirrers because of the spoon shortage. The only crockery likely to be imported during the current rationing year will be thick pottery cups, without handles. These are easier to pack and take up less shipping space than cups with handles. Cafe proprietors are finding it impossible to replace breakages. They say that customers may soon have to provide their own cups. Stores are selling cups on a ration basis —they often limit one to each buyer. Warm clothing is in short supply. Woollen under-garments and flannelette pyjamas are almost unprocurable. Heavy winter overcoats which are made of imported materials are equally scarce. Under the new manchester goods rationing regulations, boarders, hospital patients, and tenants of furnished flats will have to surrender three coupons every six months to enable the replacement of household linen. Newly-weds will be granted a special coupon allowance to cover their “minimum requirements.” Food Shortages

In addition to the foodstuffs brought under the rationing regulations (butter, tea, and. sugar), Australian metropolitan areas are short of many other foods. Sydney householders have had their normal milk supply reduced by one-third, and the position is not likely to improve before the middle of July. Cream is unobtainable without a doctor’s certificate. Eggs have disappeared temporarily from retail shops. Most greengrocers limit their customers to one pound of potatoes. Cabbages now bring up to 2s 6d each, cauliflowers 3s, and peas and beans Is 3d per lb. These prices are much lower than during the midsummer months. Apples are up to 7d each, and bananas are 3s 6d a dozen. Some meats are in short supply. With the introduction of butter rationing to enable the maintenance of exports to Britain, dietitians "are. adVOr. eating that Australia should'copy England’s national wholemeal loaf. It is contended that wholemeal bread would make up much of the vitamin losses resulting from the lowered butter con. sumption. Margarine is not available.

AWARD OF V.C. TO MAORI OFFICER AMERICAN SENATOR’S COMMENT (Rec. 7 p.m.) NEW YORK, June 6. “This is an event which should be applauded by all the United Nations,” said Senator E. D. Thomas, commenting on the award of the Victoria Cross to Second-Lieutenant Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu, of the New Zealand Military Forces. “New Zealand, for the past century, has set an example to the world in the relationships she has established between her people of European and Maori stock. “When the United States Minister. Brigadier Patrick J. Hurley, resigned last March, he said that New Zealand had always endeavoured to apply the golden rule to the solution of her problems. Undoubtedly he was thinking, among other things, of New Zealand’s admirable policy towards the Maori. What might have become a racial problem has become racial partnership, and a priceless source of strength to New Zealand as a nation. “The Maoris to-day are taking an honourable part in the government of New Zealand, in learned professions, and in many walks of New Zealand life. Their sons on the battlefield are showing the same pioneer courage that their ancestors revealed in the early days, Americans as well as New Zealanders feel that the Victoria Cross was never more worthily bestowed.”

“ APPEAL TO GERMAN YOUTH”

CO-OPERATION AFTER THE WAR

(Rec. 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON. June 6. “In the prevention of World War No. 3, much will depend on just how we handle German youth immediately after this war,” said the Vice-President of the United States (Mr Henry A. Wallace) to-day. “We must appeal to the Axis youth, especially to German youth, and if possible get their cooperation. “The present false attitude of the German people towards war finds its roots in the Prussian school system, and especially in the type of militaristic education which became more prevalent as a reaction to the defeat by Napoleon,” said Mr Wallace. “We must not repeat the mistakes made after the last war. Germany must be completely defeated.” He also commented that the Danish educationist, Nikolai Grundtvig, in 1838, had predicted that the system of education adopted in Germany would eventually destroy the Germans.

PATROL ACTIVITY ON BURMA FRONT

BRITISH AIR ATTACKS (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, June 6. A communique from India says: “Land operations on the Arakan front in Burma were restricted to patrol activity, chiefly in the Maungdaw and Buthidaung areas. “The Royal Air Force yesterday successfully attacked the ferry ana warehouses at Buthidaung. Hurricanes damaged bridges, river craft, and a steamer in a sweep on the Mayu Peninsula. Other fighters damaged some enemy aircraft on the Kangaung airfield. None of ours is missing.”

RRITISH BOMBER IN AUSTRALIA

LANCASTER CREW’S EXPERIENCES MANY RAIDS” ON ITALY AND GERMANY (Special Australian Corresp., N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 7 p.m.) SYDNEY. June 7, The present air raids in what the Royal Air Force calls “the Thunderbolt Run" will substantially shorten the war against Germany, in the opinion of three members of the crew of the Lancaster bomber which is now in Australia, and is shortly to tour New Zealand. These three men have made 45 raids together on German and Italian targets. The crew of eight, all Australians, have been together on 15 raids. They describe the Lancaster as the "biggest and best bomber in the world" and say that no other can compare with it. Their aeroplane did the 14,000 miles trip across the Atlantic. America, and the Pacific in 72 flying hours. Seven giant hops were made, at an average speed of 194.4 miles an hour. The Pacific section took 42 hours, including a six hours’ delay when a cyclone turned the aircraft back.

The captain of the aircraft is Flight Lieutenant Peter Isaacson, D.F.C., D. aged 22. The navigator is Flight Lieutenant S. M. Neilson, D.F.M., and the radio operator is Pi'iot Officer E. M. Copley, D.F.M. The trio made their first operational flight in the first 1000-bomber raid *on Cologne early last year. The current raids were on a much heavier scale, said members of the crew. They regard Essen as the most difficult target in Germany. In one concentrated attack on Berlin their Lancaster was deluged by a load of incendiary bombs dropped by another Lancaster flying above them. They were forced down below 1000 feet before Flight Lieutenant Isaacson got the machine under control.

In recent raids the crew has been in the famous “pathfinder” squadron, which seeks out targets and illuminates them with flares and incendiaries for the main bomber force. Their bombaimer is Flight Lieutenant Alan Ritchie. D.F.M., who added romance to his homeward flight by becoming engaged to a Sydney girl after a long-distance telephone call costing £6 12s 6d. Seen alongside the United States heavy Liberator bomber the Lancaster seems to dwarf the American machine. In flight the Lancaster does not give an adequate idea of its size, when taking off it rises rapidly, almost like a fighter. Lord Burghley, the British Controller of Repair and Overseas Supplies, who was a passenger in the Lancaster, told interviewers that Britain looked forward to the day when she could give Australia and New Zealand more direct help in the fight against the Japanese. A main purpose of his visit to Australia is to discuss assistance for the Commonwealth's expanding aircraft industry.

SHOOTING DOWN OF AIR LINER

BERLIN RADIO STORY DENIED (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, June I. The Berlin radio has announced the shooting down over the Bay of Biscay of the British air liner which was missing between Lisbon and Britain. The radio gave a detailed account of how the Douglas liner was attacked and destroyed by Junkers fighterbombers last Tuesday. “The air liner was travelling in I zone of war operations where the Allied forces are using Douglas machines as bombers operating against U-boats," said the radio. "When the Junkers opened fire the British radio aboard the Douglas signalled: ‘We are being attacked.’ Immediately afterwards four members of the crew bailed out, without making the slightest effort-to save the machine. After the crew had abandoned ship, the air liner, with its 13 passengers, -crashed like a stone into the* f ‘ • “•'

Referring to the German account of how Nazi airmen shot down the British air liner, a British Overseas Airways official said: “Apart altogether from the aspersions on the Dutch crew, it was quite impossible to bail out of the air liner. There was no way of doing so because air liners have no escape hatches and parachutes are not carried.” Colleagues of the four maligned Dutchmen were bitterly indignant. i The official scorned the suggestion that the air liner could have been mis. taken for a war aeroplane. “The air liner was clearly marked with four black registration letters, each two feet high," he said. “It also had red, white, and blue stripes on the wings, not Air.Force roundels.”

The suggestion is made in London that the Germans believed Mr Churchill might be in the air. liner. The "Daily Telegraph” says: “Secrecy is being maintained about Mr Churchill’s flight from the Mediterranean. It is known that his aeroplane flew all night in pitch darkness with a strong force of Royal Air Force night fighters as escort on the final stage. Fighters from North Africa accompanied Mr Churchill as far as their range permitted, but his aeroplane was not escorted for the whole journey. It passed over the Bay of Biscay danger area, where Nazi drowlers were patrolling day and night, hoping to intercept Mr Churchill’s aeroplane. It may be presumed that they shot down the civil airliner in mistake for Mr Churchill’s aeroplane.”

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL STILWELL IN CAIRO

CONFIDENCE IN ALLIED PLANS (Rec. 7 p.m.) CAIRO, June 8. “You may be sure that the plans laid down in Washington are entirely adequate, and that the Senate will satisfy all who are crying out for strong, aggressive, and immediate action,” said Lieutenant-General J. C. Stilwell, commander of the United States forces in the China and Burma theatre, when he arrived in Cairo yesterday on the way back to his command after a visit to Washington. Lieutenant-General Stilwell’s visit to Cairo is intended to increase co-ordi-nation of the Allied war effort. Before his arrival in Cairo he visited Lieuten-ant-General Devers in England, and General Eisenhower in North Africa. Lieutenant-General Stilwell expressed optimism and complete satisfaction with activities within his own theatre of war. He said: “I am certain of one thing—as time goes on we shall have more reason to be proud of our great ally, China.”

GIANT FLYINGBOAT

CONSTRUCTION DETAILS RELEASED

(Rec. 12.13 a.m.) WASHINGTON, June 7. The giant experimental flying-boat which Mr Henry Kaiser and Mr Howard Hughes are building for the Government will be an all plywood eight-engined craft carrying 60 tons 6f cargo, according to details released by the Office of War Information. The flying-boat, officially designated the HKI, will be the largest in the world, with a gross weight of 400,0001b, a fuel capacity of 8000 gallons, and a cruising speed of 174 miles an hour. The horsepower is not specified. The static testing of some sections has begun, but no indication is given of when the monster will be ready for flight tests.

U.S. Airmen Reach Britain.—A large contingent of United States airmen, including Army units, arrived at a British port yesterday.—Rugby, June 6.