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VOL. LIV No. 128 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1944_
PRICE FIVE CENTS
Allied Air Mi;
British Give Gandhi
Immediate Release
Freedom Granted Indian Nationalist
Leader on Grounds of Failing Health
By The Associated Press
LONDON, May 6, Saturday.-The British Government of India an-
nounced today it had decided on the immediate release of Mohandas K.
Gandhi, frail and ascetic Indian Nationalist leader imprisoned 21 months
ago, on the grounds of failing health.
The death in detention of Gandhi, leader of millions in a long struggle
for freedom from British domination, would have inspired agitators in all
parts of India. The British action today was believed taken to avert conflict
at a time when the Allies are fighting the Japanese bitterly on the India-
Burma front.
The anouncement said: "In view of medical reports df Mr. Gandhi's
health, the government of India have decided to release him unconditionally.
-- -- This decision has been taken solely
rht
Rips
Invasion Coast, Rail Yards
Fliers Blow Up
Big Pescara Dam
Wal[ of Water Floods German Liiws;
(.rcat Acrial Offensive Runs 21 Days
By The Associated Press
LONDON, May 5.-Hundreds of US. Liberators and Allied planes
smashed the French Calais anti-invasion defenses ,and strings of freight
cars on rail feeder lines behind it today and Mediterranean bombers in a
spectacular stroke cracked the great Pescara Dazn amid German lines in
Italy and attacked two Romanian rail centers.
Mustang and Kittyhawk fighter-bombers piloted by Americans and
Britons hurled the explosives which breached th6 Pescara Dam, about 20
miles inland from the Adriatic coast where the British Eighth Army long has
been stalled. A great wall of water released by the blow began flooding
over the German defense belt between
detailed Ward
Inquiry Ordered
ByIrate IHo use
Vote of 5-1 Cuts
Across Party Lines;
Proposal Hits FDR
By the Associated Press
WASHINGTON, May 5.- By a
thumping 300 to 60 vote, the House
today authorized an investiation of
the government's seizure of the la-
bor-embattled Montgomery Ward
plant in Chicago.
A resolution creating a seven-man
committee to determine whether
President Roosevelt exceeded his au-
thority was jammed through with
only the staunchest administration
supporters in opposition.
Party Lines Broken
The Republicans voted solidly for
the inquiry, which will run concur-
rently with another by the Senate
already underway. Democratic lines
broke and 118 joined the GOP in
favor of the probe.
Backers of the proposal, drafted by
Rep. Dewey (Rep., Ill.), sharply crit-
icized the President, the War Labor
Board and Attorney-General Biddle.
They contended that the war plant
is not a war factory and that Biddle's
ruling In support of the seizure makes
all private property subject to gov-
ernment acquisition.
Defense Offered for Seizure
Administrationists countered that
the seizure was sanctioned by the
Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Law.
As the House voted a group of
employes of Montgomery Ward's
Springfield, Ill., subsidiary, the Hum-
mer Manufacturing Co., were off
their jobs and said they would re-
main idle "until the company signs a
contract or the government takes
over the plant." The plant was not
involved in the Chicago dispute.
Varieties Show
Will Be May 20
Second Program Will
Feature Professionals
After the recent go-ahead by the
Board of Regents, a second Victory
Varieties program featuring profes-
sional talent is being planned for
Saturday, May 20, in Hill Auditorium.
Dean Joseph A. Bursley announced
yesterday.
The show will be of the type to
which Regent Edmund C. Shields,
counsel for the Butterfield Theatres.
Inc., objected last month because of
competition with local theatres. The
Regents, at their meeting April 21,
issued a ruling "That the Dean of
Students or other proper University
authorities be authorized to put on
such entertainment as they think
best for the advantage of the student
body without profit and without fin-
ancial responsibility to the Univer-
sity."
The statement was made after a
student committee composed of lead-
ers in campus activities, protested
cancellation of the Victory Varieties
program they had planned on April
22.
Youths Gets Ticket
For 1938 License
onmedical grounds. The release takes
place at 8 a.m. (Indian War Stand-
ard Time) today." (This is 9:30 p.m.
Friday, Eastern War Time.)
Sixth Prison Release
The 74-year-old Hindu, whose flair
for the theatrical carried him through
nine fasts since 1918, was imprisoned
for the sixth time in August, 1942,
after political activity which the
British regarded as hampering In-
dia's resistance to Japan. He was
confined in the Aga Khan's ornate
palace at Poona near Bombay.
Early this April it was announced
Gandhi was suffering from malaria
and was weak, and in the following
weeks he grew worse. Five days ago
he was said to be improving, and it
was announced no further bulletins
would be issued unless necessary, but
two days later the Bombay govern-
ment said 1his improvement was not
fully maintained and that a further
examination was being made by spe-
cialists.
Allies Launch
Attack on Japs
Ino East India
By the Associated Press
Launching of a general Allied of-
fensive against the Japanese in the
Kohima sector of eastern India and
the trapping of a Nippon garrison in
northern Burma were officially an-
nounced late Friday.
On the other wing of the Pacific-
Asiatic war theatre, American planes
hammered Japanese island pbsitions,
including a major naval base in the
Kuriles.
In India strong British and In-
dian forces in the Kohima area start-
ed a general drive against the in-
vaders and were making satisfactory
progress.
American-trained Chinese troops
of the Stilwell command drove
through and beyond the town of In-
kangahtawng, northern Burma. They
outflankedthe enemy and trapped a
Japanese garrison of undetermined
size.
Two Detroit Area
Strikes Continue
DETROIT, May 5.-(A)--Some 14,-
000 workers in the Ford Motor Co. of
Canada, Ltd., plant at Windsor re-
mained on strike today, pending re-
ceipt of a settlement proposal from
the national Wartime Labor Rela-
tions Board, and striking foremen in
several Detroit plants voted to con-
tinue their walkout which company
officials have estimated cut war pro-
duction in half.
FAR PACIFIC SUNSET-Aboard a fighting ship somewhere in distant Pacific waters, a U.S. Coast
Guardsman stands watch as the sun sinks to the horizon.
ALL-STAR PERFORMANCE: Admra Ko1a
Three Met StarsI Youth Chors Japanese Fleet
To Highlight Today's Concerts Chief, Is Killed
Genia Nemenoff and Pierre Lubo-
shutz, the Festival Youth Chorus and
Bidu Sayao will be featured in the
two May Festival concerts to be held
at 2:15 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. today in
Hill Auditorium.
Saul Caston, Hari McDonald and
Marguerite Hood will be guest con-
ductors in the afternoon concert.
Concerto To Be Played
McDonald's "Concerto for Two Pi-
anos" will be played for the first time
in Ann Arbor by duo-pianists Genia
Nemenoff and Pierre Luboshutz.
The Philadelphia Orchestra will
open the program with Hander's
"Water Music Suite." Also included
in the program will be "Songs of the
Two Americas" arranged by Eric De-
Lamarter and sung by the Festival
Youth Chorus under the direction of
Marguerite Hood.
Bidu Sayao, Brazilian soprano, will
be the soloist in the second concert.
'I r
Simpifited T ax
Bdill Approved
WASHINGTON, May 5.- (/P)-
Spurred by the national outcry
against the intricacy and confusion
of wartime taxation, the House
passed unanimously today a bill de-
signed to relieve some 30,000,000 of
the 50,000,000 taxpayers of the neces-
sity of computing income tax returns.
The vote was 358 to 0, the first
time in the memory of House veter-
ans that a tax bill passed without a
dissenting voice.
This action shuttled the tax sim-
plification legislation to the Senate,
where chairman George (Dem., Ga.)
of the Finance Committee predicted
early approval.
Generally the bill would levy a
somewhat larger tax against single
persons and couples without children,
while the load would be lightened for
taxpayers with large families.
Sayao, who is the only South Ameri-
can on the roster of the Metropolitan
Opera, has sung at the White 'House!
and at the Presidential Palace in Rio.
Her numbers will include: "Reve-
nez, Revenez, Amour" by Lully, "Ser-
pina's Aria" from "Serva Padrona"
SeCcon
Commander
Lost in Action in Year;'
Toyoda Will Succeed
By the Associated Press
NEW YORK, May 5. - Admiral'
by Pergolesi, "Deh Vieni" from "Mar- Mineichi Koga, commander of the
riage of Figaro" by Mozart, and "Una combined Japanese fleet, was killed
Voce Poco Fa" from "Barber of in action on an undisclosed front in
S r B r March-the second Japanese fleet'
? eville' by Rossini.
Caston To Conduct
The Philadelphia Orchestra, which
will be conducted by Saul Caston,
will conclude the program with
Tschaikovsky's "Symphony No. 6 in
B Minor."
Sayao made her New York debut in
the title role of Debussy's "Blessed
Damozel" which she sang with the
New York Philharmonic Symphony,
Toscanini conducting.3
Speaks Five Languages
She has sung'such famous soprano
roles as Manon, as Violetta in "La
Traviata," Zerlina in "Don Giovan-
ni," and Mimi in "La Boheme."
In addition to her native Portu-
chief to die in action within a year
-and has been succeeded by the col-
orless Admiral Soemu Toyoda, the
Tokyo High Command announced
today.
Koga Dies on Post
An Imperial headquarters com-
munique recorded by U.S. govern-
ment monitors said that Koga had
"died at his post in March of this
year while directing operations from
an airplane at the front."
It bore a striking similarity to the
Tokyo communique of May 21, 1943,
announcing the death of the former
fleet chief, boastful Isoroku Yama-
moto. in a warplane the previous
April.
Pescara and Ortona.
Yanks Hit Rail Yards
At the same time American heavy
bombers, striking into Romania hit
rail yards at the oil center of Ploesti
and at Turnu-Severin near the Dan-
ube "iron gate" on the 21st straight
day of the two-way pre-invasion sky
offensive which is softening up the
Atlantic wall and giving direct sup-
port to the Red Army in the east.
Italy-based American bomber fleets
also struck Podgorica, Yugoslavia,
where a big German garrison is lo-
cated.
No British Planes Lost
Not a single British-based plane
was lost in four sharp cross-channel
punches packed into the four hours
before 9:30 a.m., after which a gale
halted the systematic destruction of
LONDON, May 5.- (') - The
Germans were reported tonight to
have sent 20,000 reinforcements in-
to restive Denmark and 30,000 into
Norway in a new series of anti-
invasion moves ranging along al-
most the entire western front.
Germany's bristling coastal defenses
and supporting traffic arteries. Four
German fighters were destroyed by
Canadian Spitfire pilots.
The Allies have attacked over 100
Axis rail junctions in a little more
than two months, ripping out great
sections of "second front" trackage,
wrecking rolling stock and destroy-
ing repair shops so vital to Ger-
many's over-worked transport sys-
tem which is about to face its great-
est test. '
- - -
Production of
Rocket Weapon
being Rushed
WASHINGTON, May 5.-(AP)-Mil-
itary plans for rush production of
newly-developed, highly-secret roc-
ket weapons were revealed today,
and Congressional leaders promised
speedy action to provide the neces-
sary funds.
A House naval committee report
said the armed forces plan to spend
$35,000,0000 for expdnded manufac-
ture of the weapons because of "great
demand" for them.
No Details Available
No details about the guns or their
method of operation were contained
in the report.
The committee recommended ap-
propriation of $65,000,000 for naval
ordnance and included a statement
from the Navy that $15,000,00 would
be used along with $20,000,000 al-
ready set aside by the Army for the
rocket weapons.
Guns Being Used
Navy Department officials said
there was nothing they could say
about rocket guns beyond the state-
ment at a press conference recently
by Rear Admiral George F. Hussey,
Jr., Naval Bureau of Ordnance chief,
that "we are using rocket guns."
Likewise, an Army spokesman said
no further information was available
there except the previously-announc-
ed use of the famed "bazooka" gun,
which is rocket-propelled.
Russian Naval,
Air Units Sink
Five Axis Ships
Red Army Amasses
Troops Near Kowel;
310 Germans Killed
By the Associated Press
LONDON, May 6, Saturday-The
Soviet high command announced last
night that Russian naval and air
units had sunk five more Axis ships
near besieged Sevastopol in the
Crimea, and the Germans declared
the Red Army had deployed men and
equipment "on an enormous scale"
in old Poland for a new smash on the
main invasion path to Berlin.
Reds Amass Troops
Berlin reports relayed through
Stockholm said the ReddArmy had
amassed huge numbers of troops in
the vicinity of Kowel, 170 miles
southeast of Warsaw in Poland, and
also near Kolomyja, 30 miles south-
east of Stanislawow near the old
Czech border.
A midnight Soviet bulletin said 310
Germans had been killed in a two-
hour battle yesterday southeast of
Stanislawow and that 600 Hungar-
ians had surrendered in the last ten
days.
Struggles Significant
While this fighting was only of a
local nature, a Russian Tass Agency
j military commentator said these sec-
tional struggles which have been
proceeding ever since mid-April were
significant because of strategic rail-
ways in that part of former Poland.
The broadcast Soviet communique
said, "Aircraft of the fleet dealt per-
sistent blows at transports and other
enemy vessels by day and by night"
and stated that besides the five
transports which were sunk five
barges and a patrol launch were de-
stroyed in the combined air and sea
action and many other enemy ves-
sels were damaged.
Famous Negro
Poet To pea
MYDA, IRA Sponsors
Langston Hughes' Talk
Langston Hughes, noted Negro poet
and author, will speak at 8 p.m. Tues-
day in Lane Hall on "Problems of
Discrimination in the Post-War
World."
Jointly sponsored by Inter-Racial
Association and Michigan Youth for
Democratic Action, Hughes' lecture
will be open to the public. A twenty-
five cent admission charge will be
payable at the door.
Mr. Hughes has won a national and
international reputation as an au-
thor, poet, playwright and publisher
of songs. "13 Against the Odds" a
book of Negro biographies, contains
a discussion of his work.
Besides writing poetry, Mr. Hughes
has published many songs, such as
"Freedom Road," "Songs to the Dark
Virgin," and various concert num-
bers
I
guese and Spanish, she speaks Italian Yamamoto, who once boasted that
and French fluently and her "Ameri- he would dictate the peace terms in
can" is progressing rapidly. the White House, was known as the
man who torpedoed the London Naval
"T Conference in 1934 and planned the
S on U jHoft sneak attack on Pear'l Harbor.- Tok-
Second Uninn2 'o'a"mb'Tk
yo indicated last year that he died
F rmT-aspectacular death "on the very
Ffront lines in the south," in the midst
of a naval engagement.
All Ti(' cis Sohl Ot[ Site of Death Not Told
.l k, uExactly where Admiral Koga met
O() Couples To A leui his death was not disclosed in today's
communique. However', on March 29
Under a spring canopy of yellow, powerful American Naval forces made
white and green streamers. 350 a surprise attack on Palau Island,
couples will dance to the music of within 460 nautical miles of the Phil-
ippines. and a large force of Japan-
Bill Sawyer and his orchestra at the ese warships was reported to have
second annual Union Spring Formal fled the area at the time.
to be held from 9 p.m. to midnight - ~
today in the Union "Rainbow" Ball- .k
room.
Stating that the committee had For German Trade
AID FOR WAR INJURED:
Speech Rehab~liiat~i* S *
To Be Offered This Summer
A graduate seminar in speech re-
habilitation for the war injured will
be offered by the speech department
from July 10 to Aug. 10 during the
Summer Session, Prof. G. D. Dens-
more, department cnairman, an-
nounced yesterday.
The course is designed to give
qualified graduate students and tea-
chers of speech who expect to par-
ticipate in the Army rehabilitation
n-iram a hackarmAI nf npeialized
of neurology; Dr. John W. Kemper,
professor of dentistry and consulting
dental surgeon to the University Hos-
pital; Dr. James H. Maxwell, asso-
ciate professor of otolaryngology; Dr.
Max Peet, professor of surgery; Dr.
Leon H. Strong, assistant professor
of anatomy, and Dr. Raymond W.
Waggoner, professor of psychiatry
and director of tle Department- of
Psychiatry.
Speech department staff members
received requests for more tickets,
Don Larson, publicity chairman, an- WASHINGTON, May 5.--UP)-The
nounced yesterday that all the tickets United States has extended to Switz-
have been sold and no more will be erland its drive to halt supplies
issued. r'eaching the Nazi war machine from
Sawyer has promised many new neutral countries.
arrangements of popular pieces with Negotiations now are in progress in
Judy Ward and Billy Layton carrying London between Swiss and American
the vocals. Dwight Daily has also representatives looking toward sharp
arranged. a special song which will cuts in Swiss exports to Germany of
be presented at the dance., h ball bearings, chronometers, fuses
and precision instruments.
Heading the committee in charge
of the affair is Dick Chenoweth. Jim C
Plate took charge of the ticket salesI CITY'S A NSWER T(
while Tom Bliska planned the decora-
tions. Bill Wood is chairman of the {
floor committee and Bob Gaukler and -ud en s
Bob Lindsay are in charge of the 800 St -d 'n'-
band committee and program com-
mittee respectively. Bob Precious in- Ann Arbor's answer to the pressing
vited the chaperons and Don Larson Anl Arbo nwer tobhem tsi
I ,- , --4 ijvenile delinquency problem took
t
t
O DELINQUINCY:
Open Wolverine Youth Center
G
,
.,
representing Ann Arbor's three high
srh nnl Tnivri- T-Tigh. Ann Ar hnri
mented A. L. Stickney, secretary of
the local YMCA.