Western Star (Corner Brook, N.L.), 1942-05-22

              The Western Star Vol. 43 Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Friday, May 22, 1942 No 8 STOP - THINK -BE CAREFUL FIRE Is The Greatest Enemy Of Your Forest SAVE THE FOREST and USE THE FOREST It is one of Newfoundland's Great Contributions to the United Nations Forest Fire Patrol Of Newfoundland The Forest Fire Patrol of Newfoundland was formed in tht year 1905 and since that date have fought «n average of 552 fires per year. These fires burnt 36,666 acre; of which 9,000 acres or 25'< was young growth timber. The Department of Natural Resources, the A.N.D. Company and Bowater's Newfoundland Pulp and Paper Mills Ltd. spent a total of approximately $90,000 each year on Forest Fire Prevention and fire fighting. During the summer months some one hundred and sixt> men (160) are engaged whol< time in this work School Forest Protection Essays The problem of Forest Fire prevention will not be solved by any one program bul by cumulative effect of many direct and indirect programs. One such program which is "paying off" to-day and will continue to do so for many years to come has to do with Forest Fires prevention competitions in out Newfoundland schools. Each year our schools are asked to write essays on "Fire Protection" etc., and as a generaly questions are asked at home from their parent.-., which all helps to make our people Fojrys4 Fire conscious. The Junior Forest Wardens, is another valuable cog in the wheel, and with a Junior Warden on nearly every fishing or picnic party to see that the picnic fire is built in a safe place and properly put out before leaving —good results are bound to be achieved. Corner Brook East The name of Corner Brook East is not very familiar just yet but before many more years it will have become an important centre of this community, both as a place of good farms and progressive home makers. The town area, or at least the centre of the town, including West Street, Park Street, East Valley Road, Reid Street and Central Street, is nestled in a valley, with a high ridge of land separating it from the waters of Humber Arm. This ridge is known as Humber Heights, and it extends from near the Railway Station at Corner Brook for two miles to the mouth, of Humber River. The ridge widens from a half mile at the Eastern end to more than a mile In the vicinity of the river. This height of land is becoming well-settled with small farms and the homes of workers in the Mill, on the Railway, and in the lum berwoods Slogan Contest The Management tif tin- Majrs- Ik and Regent theatres will sponser th« annual "Save the Forest" Slogan Contest during the wtH'k of Key 24th to May :inth. Slogans of not mote than ten words are invited from the pupils of the various schools and tree passes to the theatres will b. awarded to the beM slogans hand ed in at the tieket office First Prize One Month's pass. Seeond Prize, Two weeks' pass. Third Prize, One week's pass. ' Entrants for the Contest mu.st write their names, ages, and names of their school when sub ♦nitting their slogans on '"FIRE PROTECTION" or SAVE THE FOREST'. Thanks are due Mr. Jack Coleman for his generosity in making the 'Slogan Contest possible. Post War Planning By M. J. DOWNEY (General Committee) Post War Planning is even now becoming an immediate problem throughout the nations. The Democracies realize that winning the peace must be a part of winning the war. The war effort, when hostilities cease, must be converted to a peace efFo-t from which will evolve an economic order that will have social security and individual rights as the chief aim of industrial adjustment and development. When we lay aside the weapons of war we should lie ready to harness our resources, industries and energj to progressive peace. That is why a Post War Planning Committee has been .set up by the Commission (■I Government in Newfoundland; and that is why the people <>t Newfoundland should take a deep interest ;md acquire a full knowledge of 11»* - workings o4 this Committer The second series Of meet of the Po ' \\'.,i Planning Com mittee was lield at St. John's May Bth and 9th. Having taken part in the deliberations of those meetings I have no hesitation in saying that it was heartening to observe the earnestness with which the respective representaare taking up the problems of future. 1 fed th.it there is justification for d confidence and reassurance When we see self-interest and suspicion receding to the background and replaced by superior attributes upon which a real foundation can be built we know that something us happening— something on which to build a future But Wt niu>t have no illusion-.. Everyone aspiring to the ptivi- Bay Of Islands Home Guard Very good progress continues to be made with the training of the Home Guard. Uniforms will bo issued shortly to "A" Company.A start was made on Wednesday evening with the work of building a rifle range which, it is hoped, will be ready for rifle practice early in June. The following excerpt from the Newfoundland Gazette of the 12th instant tells of the appointment of eight officers to the Unit, namely:-To be Captain and Second in Command—B. Butler, D.5.0., M. C. and Bar. T i j Captain and to Command "A' company—W. D. Warren. To be Lieutenant and Adjutant —Albert Nosworthy. To be Lieutenant and Quartermaste—William "Herdman M.M. To be Lieutenants—G. C Duncan, C. H. Ballam, W. L. Smith, M.M , and Gerald Petiney. All with effect from the Klh May 1942. "A" Company is now fully or-( gantzed and men on the waiting list for "B" Company are being called up for training. Promoted Many friends of former Sergeant Case will be pleased to hear of his promotion to the position of District Inspector of Police at St. John's. The new Distcict Inspector spent four years at Corner Brook leaving here about/Tive years ago for the capital where he has ed with distinction in the force md the C.I.D. braneh of the übulary. M. J. Greene Died Aged 63 News has been received from j St. John's of the passing of Maurice J.. Greene, a director of the firm of Harvey-Brehm Limited and former managing director [ of the firm ofx Colin Campbell Limited, whose death occurred suddenly at his home in thfat city on Tuesday morning, May 19. The late Mr. Greene, who was sixty-three years old, was a native of St. John's. Graduating from St. Bonaventure's College toward the close of the last century, he entered commercial life into which he carried the same conscientious enthusiasm that characterized his schoolboy days, which won for him the esteem of his business associates, and his unassuming manner resulted in the formation of lasting friendships in social life. Of the late Muit' Greene it may b<* said that he was a thoroughly upright citizen and above all, a truly Christian gentletpan who ao ordered hi life aa t<> hi evet read} to meet the end. News of his death come.-* with particular poignancy to his wife who only last wwek came line for a holiday, expecting to In- joinW by the deceased a little later on his annual vacation: lb- loaves to mourn, beside! bis wile, three sons, Thomas in St. John's, Michael, who recently loinedthe ed't>i i.il .staff of The Western Star, and Aidan a mem ber of the Order of Christian in All Hallows, New York; two daughters, Winifred, wife of Albert Bejrgeron, manager of The Western Publishing Company Limited, Corner Brook. Anne, wife of Ronald Haley. St. John's, one sister, Sr M. Winefi ule Mother Superior of St Soldier-Farmer Last Sunday we enjoyed a visit to the Railway Flag Station of Harrison, just East of Little ; Rapids on the Lower Humber . River, where a veteran of the 1914-1918 war, Harrison Brake, wounded in the field, is becoming an equally good farmer on his choice piece of land between the railway and the river at the above mentioned place. If you wish to see an acre of well-prepared land for cabbage, look in there and ask Mr. Brake to show you the field West of hi* house. There is not a stone in the acre and the soil is deep, dark and loamy. "Tie had good crops even last year, when good crops of anything and everything were almost unknown. This man put every dollar he had in many acres of farm land and machinery to work it, and laboured long days for the past five years. He is now beginning to win out, though it called for a real fighter to carry on through the first set■ baeks on the farm—just at m the war Inhelped to victoi > A Peeled Birch Tree % Defaced it stands: I do not know >our name. Who peeled this birch-bark tree, but oh, the .shame You wanted on a bit of bark to and A maudlin little message to a friend? To make a napkin t'mg "i Dine such trash'' And so with pocket-knife you needs must uash A ghastly wound, and peel a birch-bark tree Out of my thought < i e'.-i \..u be! Highlights of the Week The destiny of men was shaped in far away places thus week. The Coral Sea, Madagascar, Corregidor. Those were the words that thrilled men's souls. Exotic words. Wui..L> that speak of Sapphire seas, glistening in a tropical sun, words that tell of Coral Isles, tufted with the emerald green of jungle foliage. In such a seating—thousands of miles from the major centers of civilization—was man's future shaped this week. For, in the gleaming tropical waters, two threat battle fleets thrashed about in mortal combat, and on the jungle-tufted islands—Madagascar and Corregidor—armies fought decisive battles. . The Coral Sea had known centuries of peace. Far from the main Arteries of Commerce, it had not been a battle ground of the mighty powers. But, as the week began ominous news disturbed its tropical hush. Sturdy, long-range Allied bombers had spotted a vast Japanese Armada gathering in the islands to tin- North—near Rabaul (Rahb-ow). The bombers quickened their attack. But still the ships massed. The Allied capitals buzzed with talk of an enemy lunge for Australia, and an Allied battle fleet steamed North to head-off the blow. Monday, soon, after the foe had poked through the Solomon Island barrier, the battle was joined.Allied warships, "in consider able strength," smashed at the Japanese advance force with a devastating blow. Seven Japanese ships sunk, lour crippled. Allied losses, three planes. But the battle hacT just begun. Stung, the Japanese i 1.-il rushed up like an enraged bull. United Nations warplanesdive-bombers and torpedo planes roared out to hurl their deadly loads at the foe. An enemy aircraft carrier heelid over, and slid from sight. A second spouted flame—from stem to stern. Ships churned the tropical seas to a froth, and the splitting thunder of salvo after salvo rent the balmy air. Another Jap cruiser—this one a big fellow—plunged beneath the sea. A second lay battered, and General Mac Arthur told the world: • 'The battle is continuing. Our own losses have not been reported." Then hours of anxious uncertainty.Prime Minister Curtin of Australia, in sober mood, appealed to lus people to be prepared for anything.No one can tell how the battle will go, he said. Every man and every woman must form a second hunt behind our fighting men. Invasion, Curtin warned, is a menace capable of becoming an actuality at any hour. The hours dragged on, and Tokyo began beaming its propaganda abroad. Two Allied Battleships, two aircraft carriers end a cruiser—sunk or badly damaged. So Tokyo said. At la.st rami- the reassuring words "our losses are relatively light." Then a flat statement that DO battleships and no aircraft carriefis had been lost. The foe had pouted, driven back to his base. Id five days td blazing action, Allied warships and planes bad dealt Nippon her first major defeat of World War 11. To be Mil'*-', the J;'P h",'*'t ',a<Jlii>i been knocked out, but the force tig to attack Australia or her lifeline had been badly cuffed about * The Allies—at last— had seized the initiative, and made Japan p.i\ dearly. The Allien had seised the initiative elsewhere, too. and Japan was paying—-not n man and ships perhaps, but in strategy. Out of the night, a British fleet appeared off the big French isle of Madagascar. The radio crackled a message ashore. It appealed to the commander of the Diego Suarez (Dyay'-goh Swah' naval base to .surrender uontrol to the Allies. The vital base—in fact„the whole island—would be returned to a free France after the war had been won. Defiance met the Ultimatum. And the British set grimly about the job of doing an unpleas ant task as swiftly as possible a task carefully plotted in three months of preparation. Warships moyed into position. Transports broke out their landing barges. Wave after wave of airplanes roared over head, dumping their bombs on gun emplacements. • Out of the dawn sky, tumbled parachute troops. Commandos streamed ashore, Matting a path for the main Sanding party—a powerful force of !'(( thousand men. The French fought gallantly and with discipline. That's how Winston Churchill described it. Their heavy-duty French 7.Vs held up the advance for a time. Then bloody fighting raged in the streets of Diego Suarez. But, in 48 hours it was over. Diego Suarez, and with it control of vital Indian Ocean sea lanes, had beeti wre.'ted Imm Vichy's uncertain bands. The British we,,, nu •.hungers to Madagascar. They had oceupi ed parUs of it in the early l'JOO's, and the Treaty of Paris in 1814 ceded them all French outposts there. But Madagascar was not a i ich outpost, nor strategically important then, for the line of Umpire threaded through the Mediterranean.Madagascar, in those days, was far off the beaten path. And, Britain, with richer holdings, bad acquiesced to French control a half century ago. Madagascar remained unimportant, save for its hides, until Singapore fell. Then the danger that Vichy might sell out to the Japs had compelled drastic action. For, with the Mediterranean under fire from Axis bombers, Madagascar dominated the only safe route to the Middle East and India. As Washington put it, the United Nations could not take a chance that Japan might seize it. And so America backed Britain's move to seize it for the United Nations. America's decision did not help relations with Vichy. Pierre Laval fumed that "Mr. Roosevelt must bear the coo.sequences." But strategists knew that Japan—not America—would pay the real penalty, For the Allies had beaten Nip pon to the punch to win control of the lifeline to India, and Britain began pouring men and equipment into Madagascar—and into Ceylon, too, at the Southern tip of India to keep the Japs out. Across the Bay of Bengal, Japan already had begun inching toward India—jewel of Britain's Empire, Along the jagged coast of -Burma, Nipponese warriors advanced to Akyab (Ahk-Yahh), sweltering little rice port 1(H) miles from tin- Indian frontiei Nipponese bombers crossed the border to attack Chittagong, a strategic railhead ju.st inside the Indian border. Military men b-lt certain a full-scale invasion s«H>n might overwhelm this outpost. But first, Nippon had a mop up job to do in Bui in.i a job that was marked by spectacular gains at the front, and the inevitable Haiv-up of violent Chinese resistance. Ear behind the .) p (total • Trie spearhead of the Jap .-idvance pushed up the winding Burma Road, once .China's lifeline now a gate lor invasion. (Continued on Pa- nut*d on Page i) (Continued on page 5) THE WESTERN STAR *_omotes the Best Insts of all the people of Western Newfoundland THIS WEEK S THOUGHT "A highway is made to valour through disasters". —Ovid.