The Charlotte News

Thursday, June 20, 1957

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Justice Department had this date appealed to the Supreme Court from a decision by a U.S. District Court judge preventing the Government from surrendering William Girard to Japanese civilian authorities for trial for manslaughter in the homicide of a Japanese woman who was shot by Specialist 3rd Class Girard in the course of his duty, protecting an Army firing range from scavengers, as the Japanese woman had scavenged for metal. He was contending that the death had been an accident, that he had intended only to scare the scavengers by shooting over their heads. The petition for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court, signed by Attorney General Herbert Brownell and Solicitor General J. Lee Rankin, said that the "public interest in an early disposition of the case" was so great that the high court ought take the matter at the earliest convenient date, skipping the Court of Appeals. The decision to proceed directly to the Supreme Court had occurred after lengthy conferences between the Justice and Defense Departments regarding the Government's next step in the case. The high court was planning to adjourn for the summer the following Monday and Justice William O. Douglas had already left for the West Coast, preliminary to his planned summer tour of the Middle East—the reason why he would not participate in the case, which would be heard and decided in July by reversing the District Court and upholding the decision of the Defense and State Departments to accord the discretion allowed by the treaty between the U.S. and Japan and turn Mr. Girard over to the Japanese civilian authorities, the Supreme Court not finding any offense thereby to the Constitution, as had been found by the District Court. The trial of Mr. Girard was set to go forward in Japan in August, regardless of the outcome.

William Oatis, former captive of the the Communist Government of Czechoslovakia between 1951 and 1953 for alleged espionage, reports for the Associated Press from the U.N. in New York that a committee had stated this date that the people's will for independence in Hungary had "only been strengthened" by the Soviet Army's undenied suppression of the uprising the prior October and November. But the General Assembly's special committee on Hungary also had declared that Soviet arms had dashed the hopes of "the immense majority" for political rights and fundamental freedoms at present. It said that the Communist regime of Premier Janos Kadar, installed by the Soviets, had no popular support and that rigid Communist controls, momentarily removed by the uprising, were being "reimposed step-by-step". In a 391-page report to the Assembly, the five-nation investigating committee accused Soviet troops of the indiscriminate slaughter of women and children, mass arrests, summary executions and thousands of deportations, estimating that Soviet forces in Hungary had varied between 75,000 and 200,000 men, with 1,600 to 4,000 tanks. The report indicated that many of the soldiers apparently were Mongols and Tartars from Central Asia who had been told that they were being sent to Egypt to repulse "Anglo-French imperialists" and therefore "mistook the Danube for the Suez Canal". The report estimated that 2,500 to 3,000 people had died in the fighting. It said that the committee was "deeply shocked" at the "appalling" tortures used by the Hungarian secret police, which it described as "all-powerful, penniless and unabashed by any shameful act." The 81-nation Assembly had created the small-power committee the prior January 10 to investigate Russian suppression of the Hungarian revolt after admission of U.N. observers to the satellite country had been refused. The five members had then taken some 2,000 pages of testimony from 111 Hungarian witnesses, all of whom were recent refugees, at hearings held in New York, Geneva, Rome, Vienna and London. The Assembly had to decide whether to meet and discuss the report at present or wait until its twelfth regular session would begin on September 17. The U.S. was understood to feel that the report was so important that it should be taken up early in that session, when many foreign ministers would be present.

In Budapest, Hungary's Communist regime this date accused the U.S. Air attache stationed in Budapest of photographing military objectives and ordered him to leave the country within a week.

U.S. officials said this date that the U.S. was prepared to accept suspension of atomic weapons tests only under a first-step disarmament agreement providing also for halting production of nuclear weapons.

In West Branch, Ia., Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss said this date that "the chief humanists of our day from all countries" ought to seek a plan for world peace.

In Jerusalem, Israel had warned Egypt this date against seeking to blockade the Gulf of Aqaba with three submarines newly acquired from the Soviet Union.

South Korean Ambassador to the U.S., You Chan Yang, said this date that he understood the 16 allied powers had agreed on a program for modernizing weapons in South Korea.

In Brest, France, the death toll in the flaming collision of an American-owned tanker and a Greek freighter off Brittany had mounted to 13 this date, with another sailor still listed as missing.

In Washington, Southern Senators, protesting what they called "a legislative lynching bee", fought this date against a parliamentary shortcut in handling the House-passed civil rights measure.

The D.C. Court of Appeals this date denied any new delay in the conspiracy-bribery trial of Teamsters Midwest boss Jimmy Hoffa, whose trial had resumed during the afternoon and proceeded with selection of a jury.

In Los Angeles, it was reported that a brush fire, out of control in southern Riverside County, this date neared cabins and homes in Dawson Canyon near Corona, and residents were ordered evacuated.

In Savannah, Ga., 13 cars of a 95-car freight train had been derailed and destroyed or badly damaged early this date on the Atlantic Coast Line railroad tracks at Central Junction, just outside Savannah, with no injuries reported.

The House Appropriations Committee this date told the Post Office Department to curtail some of its mail services and live within its reduced funding to avoid repetition of the "fiscal debacle" of the prior spring. It cut 16.5 million dollars from the Department's request for an additional 149.5 million to supplement a previous appropriation of nearly 3.2 billion dollars for the coming fiscal year. The indications were that the full House would go along with the Committee's recommendations when it considered the new money bill the following week. Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield had told the Committee that some service reductions would be put into effect if the entire request were not granted.

At Fort Bragg, N.C., two lightning bolts had struck ten minutes apart, killing two National Guardsmen and injuring 48, with one soldier describing the encampment of the National Guard division as "sizzling, just burning up". Four of the injured had been admitted to the hospital, though none was seriously hurt. Units of the 30th (Old Hickory) Division of the North Carolina National Guard had borne the brunt of the storm, with 8,000 Guardsmen encamped for summer training in a wooded area ten miles west of the main portion of the Army base. The lightning had skipped around the bivouac area as many of the soldiers stood in the chow line at around supper time. A private remarked that the men in front of him in line had been knocked down "like bowling pins" and that his metal mess gear had been wrenched from his hand and bent out of shape. A captain recounted that the ground had shaken "something terrible" and his feet felt like the ground was "sizzling". He said he took off his shoes to see if his feet were injured and placed his bare foot on the wet ground at just the moment when another bolt had struck like the first one, stunning both of his legs and his hip, knocking him to the ground along with other people in the tent, not remembering much after that until he had been taken to the hospital, but was now fine.

In Cape Girardeau, Mo., a 45-year old farmer had been stung beneath the left eye by a wasp and had died 15 minutes later, with a doctor indicating that he probably died from a violent allergy from the poison administered by the sting.

In Williamsport, Pa., the 16-year old daughter of a Swedish air attaché and an 18-year old Senate page boy, whose parents feared that they were rushing into romance too fast, had emerged from 18 days of hiding this date only to run afoul of a highway patrol officer who accused them of speeding on their way back to Washington from Canada along U.S. Route 15. A State Police sergeant quoted the girl as saying that she and the boy had been married in Charleston, W.Va., after leaving their homes on June 2, and had spent most of the previous two weeks in Ontario near Toronto. The girl's mother, however, who had put through a hasty telephone call to the State Police barracks in Pennsylvania upon being informed that the couple had been discovered, said that her daughter had denied that she was married. The two had met at a school dance and had become the object of an intensive police search since they had disappeared shortly before the girl's father was due to return to his homeland for reassignment. He had since returned to Sweden, but her mother had remained in Washington while the search continued. After she had talked to her daughter during the morning by telephone, she left by car to drive to the location where they had been found to pick her up, indicating also that she would pay the $15 speeding ticket, as the car, according to the officer, had been driven by the girl when they were stopped, though the 1951 convertible was owned by the boy. The girl told reporters that she was glad they had been caught and was not sorry about any of it. They appeared happy and unperturbed by the furor which they had caused, ate breakfast and sat holding hands in a barracks room at the police headquarters.

In Phoenix, Ariz., a man announced the previous day to his friends that he would go out and stage a holdup for more drinks, after the drinks had run out on a hot day. The 45-year old unemployed truck driver then selected a thirsty guest to drive the getaway car. They were caught within an hour by police, telling the police that the man with the plan had slipped into a service station down the block from his house, swiped a revolver and drove to a drug store, left the car idling in front of the store while the getaway driver sat in the front seat, the would-be robber forgetting that there were only two empty shells in the revolver, as he had fired them at marauding cats. He walked into the drug store, pointed the pistol at the clerk and collected $51, whereupon the owner of the drug store grabbed him, but the man was able to free himself, pulled the trigger twice, at which point nothing happened. Frustrated, he dropped the gun and offered to return the money, which the owner declined and ordered him to leave the store. The man raced to the getaway car and found the getaway driver asleep in the backseat. The man drove away, as the drug store owner copied down his license number. As he drove by the service station from which he had stolen the gun, the owner yelled to him, and the man doubled back, whereupon the station owner began beating him up, at which point the police arrived. They said that armed robbery charges would be filed against both men. The getaway driver said he had told his accomplice that he would not be able to drive the getaway car as his license was suspended.

Dick Young of The News, indicates that the Charlotte Planning Board did not expect all of its decision to be rubber-stamped by the City Council, as indicated by its chairman, George Wilkinson, to the newspaper this date, indicating that they were not disturbed by the rejection by the Council the previous day of their recommendations on three out of five zoning petitions. He said that in a democracy, they expected differences of opinion and that the Planning Board did not expect the rubber-stamp on their decisions, but that if the Council turned down too many of their recommendations, then they had better re-examine themselves and see if they were doing the right sort of job.

In London, would-be matchmakers had entered a new starter in the romantic stakes for Princess Margaret's hand in marriage, with gossipers indicating that a serious affair of the heart was brewing between the Princess, 26, and Lord Patrick Beresford, 23, a lieutenant in the elite Brigades of Guards. He was her first regular escort since she had broken off her romance with Peter Townsend some 18 months earlier. The two had met at a polo match a month earlier, when the Princess had come over to congratulate him for scoring four goals in the match, and he had seized the opportunity to ask her out for dinner and she smilingly accepted. Since then, they had been seen together in smart restaurants, (as opposed to dumb ones), at the theater, at country house parties and race meetings. (Note to Royalty in Britain: Stay away from "race meetings" unless you want to be perceived across the Pond rather negatively, as such meetings in places such as Mississippi and Alabama bear different connotations.) Currently, they were members of the royal party at the Ascot races. It was reported that Lord Patrick was known "as the horsiest of the horsey", and that his interest in horseys would not hurt his standing with the sister of the Princess, Queen Elizabeth, who was a race-horse owner and often visited the races—bumping and grinding to the finish. He was also a close friend of Prince Philip and they shared a common interest in polo. He was heir to his wealthy brother, the Marquis of Waterford, which title spanned back about 200 years.

In New York, a 19-year old girl air-mailed letters by simply tossing them out of her fifth-floor Park Avenue apartment, having started the practice on April 24 while home because of a cold and feeling lonely, writing a couple of letters, addressing them, "Dear Somebody", and then tossing them out of the window. Within a reasonable time, she had received answers, one of which had come from Rangoon, Burma, and the other from Fort Sill, Okla. The writer of the latter, a lieutenant, had offered that the girl might be surprised by getting a letter from "someone far away", but said that "mysterious things happen in this world." He said he knew what it was like not to receive letters, that it could be very lonely and urged her not to get down over it, that there were many people who were lonely. The letter from Rangoon had begun: "As I was sitting down under a palm tree in front of my house … your letter came blowing into my lap, driven by the first monsoon wind." He said that his letter had been written by an uncle because he could not write English well. When the girl had tossed her letters from the window two months earlier, a neighbor had happened by and figured it might be good fun to send the letters to his two younger brothers, one stationed at Fort Sill and the other with the U.S. Information Agency in Burma. They had then written to the girl, in the case of the Burma letter, using a fictitious uncle to maintain the illusion that the letter had been air-mailed into thin air to achieve the results, and thus far, the girl was none the wiser. When she finds out via the newspaper, she will likely be the lonelier and might decide to air herself out the fifth-floor window for perceiving herself as having been the recipient of an elaborate ruse.

On the editorial page, "Buck-Passing Is Not the Answer" indicates that the Douglas Municipal Airport in Charlotte could build public confidence by shouldering its full responsibility for solving its own safety problems, which had been brought to the fore by the Air Force jet which had crashed the prior Friday, with inadequate fire equipment present to extinguish the fire promptly, though no one had been injured.