The Charlotte News

Saturday, October 4, 1958

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Taipei, Formosa, that Nationalist Chinese Sabrejets could now fly as close escort for airdrop missions to Quemoy to guard them from Communist jet fighters, according to a spokesman for the Nationalist Defense Ministry this date, Rear Admiral Liu Hoh-Tu. Four Communist MIG-17's had attacked transports parachuting supplies to Quemoy the previous day, forcing one crippled C-46 to land. The Defense Ministry revealed this date that the MIG's had also strafed Quemoy. Admiral Liu said: "This can be stopped. We are not going to sit there and wait for the transport planes to be shot up again." U.S.-built F-86 Sabrejets had been flying high-altitude cover for the low-flying transports when the MIG's suddenly swooped down to attack the slow cargo planes from the nearby Communist Chinese mainland, it having taken the Sabrejets too long to get down, while the MIG's, in the meantime, had fled. Admiral Liu said: "You might say our airdrop planes were almost unescorted. Maybe we'll have to change our tactics to prevent low-altitude sneak attacks like yesterday's by having some of our planes fly at low altitude, too." He emphasized that the main job was to protect the transports so that they could deliver badly needed supplies to Quemoy, adding that he was not hinting at Nationalist bombing of the MIG bases on the mainland in hopes of stopping the Communist fighters at their source. U.S. officers had expected such attacks would provoke Communist raids on the Nationalist airbases on Formosa. Since the U.S. was pledged to defend Formosa, that would draw the heavy concentration of American military strength on Formosa into direct conflict with Communist China. The Admiral said that the MIG's had attacked a flight of C-46's with machine gun fire immediately after they had parachuted supplies to Quemoy and others strafed the island's main town of Kinmen City. He had no information whether the strafing had inflicted any casualties. The Defense Ministry reported that the Communist artillery bombardment had gone into its seventh week with 1,288 shells hitting the Quemoys up to noon. On Friday, the Communists had fired 6,032 shells for a six-week total of about 420,000 or 10,000 per day, according to the Nationalists.

Also in Taipei, it was reported that two busloads of the city's oldest residents, all claiming to be at least 100 years old, headed a formal procession which opened a 3,200-foot bridge over the Tansui River this date, the participants having been chosen as a good omen for the long life of the bridge.

At the U.N. in New York, Britain and the U.S. pressed this date to give the crucial disarmament question top priority in the body's main political committee. The two Western powers had been preparing a resolution which reportedly would provide support of the 81-nation General Assembly behind the Big Three meeting in Geneva set for October 31 for working out a nuclear test ban. The political committee, which handled the Assembly's major problems, was slated to begin work on Wednesday, with its tentative agenda having placed Korea, outer space and Algeria ahead of disarmament, while diplomats believed that there would be little opposition to moving up the disarmament debate. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold had been pressing to have the arms talks at the U.N. as soon as possible on the basis that the U.N. debate would give momentum to the Geneva conference, and had proposed that the latter be placed under U.N. sponsorship. He also suggested in a memorandum during the week that any control agency for disarmament which would be agreed on in Geneva be integrated with the U.N. and also recommended that negotiations on protecting nations from surprise attack be held within the U.N. framework.

In West Berlin, police this date disclosed that a Western intelligence agent had disappeared from the city, believed to have been abducted in Communist East Germany.

In Karlsruhe, West Germany, three East German Communists and a West German had been convicted by the Supreme Court this date of endangering the security of West Germany and of illegal political activities, with the heaviest sentence having been for three years.

In Vienna, Austria, Vienna police this date reported that militia and engineers in Communist Hungary were again busy strengthening barriers to keep Hungarians from escaping to Austria.

In Famagusta, Cyprus, authorities reported this date that two Greek Cypriots had died of injuries as British troops rounded up suspects in the fatal shooting of a British serviceman's wife.

In St. Louis, before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Federal Government said this date, in a motion filed as amicus curiae, that the Little Rock School Board's leasing plan for opening the city's four closed high schools on a segregated basis was invalid. The Government supported the NAACP, which had sought a permanent injunction forbidding the leasing of the school buildings to the Little Rock Private School Corporation. The brief of the Government said: "It is now as plain as day that there is no alternative to compliance with the law, and that no schemes or devices for operating public schools on a segregated basis can hope to succeed." It said that it was time for the courts "to call a halt to any further dilatory and obstructionist actions which have no legal sanction but which can nonetheless cause delay and produce needless further litigation." The U.S. District Court judge had ruled that only a three-judge court had jurisdiction to issue such an injunction and so had transferred the matter to the appellate court to make permanent the temporary restraining order issued the previous week in Omaha by a two-judge panel of the appellate court.

In New York, it was reported that a British Comet IV airliner had left Idlewild Airport for London this date on the first commercial jet flight from the U.S., beating an American firm in getting the service started.

In Detroit, it was reported that the auto industry's Big Three manufacturers, after wrapping up their contracts with the UAW, this date awaited settlement of local disputes for a full-scale resumption of the 1959 model production. Some 275,000 UAW members, most of whom were employed by General Motors, remained idled by the local disputes at the three automakers. G.M., the last of the Big Three to come to terms with the union, reported that there were 250,000 idle at 126 plants across the nation. G.M. had signed its national agreement on Thursday night, but UAW president Walter Reuther said that the local unions had authorization to remain on strike until local issues could be settled. Chrysler reported that 22,400 workers remained idle in 16 plants despite a settlement reached Friday covering 11,000 skilled tradesmen. Contracts covering skilled workers and salaried office employees were left in abeyance the previous Wednesday after Mr. Reuther had completed a production-worker agreement at Chrysler, under which skilled tradesmen and engineers would receive eight cents per hour more than increases provided for production workers. Still unresolved at Chrysler was an agreement covering some 8,000 salaried office workers. Ford reported that production almost was at normal but said that operations at a Chicago assembly plant remained at a standstill because of a local dispute. The Ford-UAW agreement had been announced on September 17.

In Salt Lake City, Ut., it was reported that rescuers planned to inch their way down 9,000-foot Mount Olympus this date with a stretcher bearing a 17-year old boy injured in a hiking accident. The rescue party fought crevasses, sheer rock cliffs, brush and boulders to reach the youth as dawn broke over the grey peak which overlooked Salt Lake Valley, the climb having been such an effort that the party was unable to bring along stretchers and first aid equipment, but hoped to obtain the needed items from a helicopter or another climbing party. For 17 hours after the youth had slipped and fallen about 20 feet down the mountainside, he had waited with a friend for help to arrive. As night came, the temperature had dropped to within a few degrees of freezing and numbed the lightly-clad youths. Rescuers reported by walkie-talkie that the injured youth had suffered cuts and his face was so swollen that he could not see and therefore could not walk, but apparently had no broken bones. In spots on the mountain, there were sheer drops of 400 to 500 feet, but the high school student had fallen into a saddle-shaped depression between two small peaks which formed the top of Olympus. Rescuers figured that their struggle to gain the crest would be a stroll compared to the tricky task of lugging a loaded stretcher down the mountainside. The youth's plight had become known during the early afternoon on Friday when a 17-year old hiking companion had stumbled off the mountain and told a service station operator what had occurred, indicating that he did not see his friend fall, but thought that it had occurred while the boys were playfully rolling rocks over cliffs. The boy reporting the accident was so distraught by the experience that he wandered past blocks of homes with telephones before stopping at the service station. It took him more than two hours to pick his way down the mountain, but obviously was none the worse for his hike, as he had gone back up the peak in darkness as a guide for one of several rescue parties. A third hiker, 16, huddled on windswept Olympus until rescuers, including the uncle of the injured youth, arrived after an all-night climb. The operation, directed by the Salt Lake County sheriff, had received a boost during the night when a local radio station loaned its big World War II-type searchlight and the Air Force contributed a jet plane and pilot. The searchlight shone over the peak from the valley and the plane crisscrossed the mountain with its landing lights on, flying dangerously low and slow until the youths had been spotted by the pilot. The mountain was considered too high for a helicopter's limited altitude and too steep for horses, but that had not deterred 30 rescuers from struggling upward in the dark for as long as ten hours, with a longer trip on return. The injured boy's father had joined one of the rescue groups. They think they have problems...

In Southington, Conn., it was reported that two foundry workers had sought to settle a World Series argument with four-foot steel bars the previous day, and neither had won. The two had discussed the relative merits of the Milwaukee Braves and the New York Yankees, with the Braves having won the first two games on Wednesday and Thursday in Milwaukee, before the third game was to be played this date in New York—which the Yankees would win, 4-zip. One man had been treated for lacerations and bruises, with police having charged him with breach of the peace, and the other man had been charged with breach of the peace and assault, the case to be decided the following Thursday, supposedly after the Series was over—though don't bet on it should it go to a seventh game, to be played that day, presumably after the court hearing. If you don't like it, grab one of those bars.

As we have fallen behind, there will be no further notes on the front page or editorial page for this date, as the notes will be sporadic until we catch up.

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