The Foreign Office adopts a firm attitude regarding the peace rumors, again categorically insisting today that Russia has not the slightest idea of peace. There is nothing confirmatory of the reports that Japan intends to make a formal proposition for peace negotiations within a week and they are received with great scepticism. An official of the Foreign Office expressed great doubt whether Japan could offer a basis for negotiation acceptable to Russia.

50 Years Ago, 1955

The case of the “Hollywood muffler” is still under investigation. Judge Alonzo Conant, who indicated he would check the legality of the so-called “Hollywood muffler” after an Auburn teenager was hauled into court for driving around with an auto which made unnecessary loud noise, said last night he intends to confer with Roswell C. Hamilton, manager of the Maine Automobile Registration Bureau on Turner Street. Conant wants to straighten out the matter in order to set a standard disposition in such cases. A number of Lewiston-Auburn motorists use the “Hollywood muffler,” according to the teenager, whose case was continued. The muffler improves a car’s performance and is not used to create a disturbance, he contended.

25 Years Ago, 1980

With the Auburn Central School due to house fourth-through-sixth-grade students under the upcoming School Department reorganization, the building’s auditorium could become a community center and theater. Schools Superintendent Roy F. Loux told the Auburn School Committee Wednesday night that Community Little Theater is ready to prepare a proposal to renovate the auditorium into a theater. According to Loux, the Little Theater organization would attempt to undertake the project “in return for a guarantee that it can use the theater when it wants to.” With that assurance, the Little Theater group now is expected to seek funding sources, cost estimates and probably prepare plans for the renovative process.