The New York herald., 1922-12-19
AMERICA HAMSTRUNC
SAYS ADMIRAL sims
Any One Can Spit on the Phil
ippincs Who Wants Them,'
He Declares.
PACIFIC BASE USELESS
Congress Won't Give Money
to Fortify Guam, Thus Leav-
ing Navy Helpless.
PACIFIC BASE USELESS

Rear Admiral William s. Sims, re-
tired. did some plain speaking yester-
day at the Union League Club. He
summarized Americas position on the
high seas in single terse sentence,
which he repeated several times:
I'VE are hamstrung in the Pacific
and nailed down in the Atlantic"
ANY one can spit on the Philip
pines who wants them" he said, and
we can't stop them. The same thing
is true OF Guam. The first thing any
power would do in the event of a war
in the Pacific would be to seize Guam
so that our feet could not go beyond
that point"
The reason Guam was not fortified.
explained Admiral Sims. was because
! Congress refused TO appropriate the
money In the absence or any public
pressure Some of the Congressman
didn't even know where Guam was. so
you couldn't expect them to take any
interest In II II their constituents didn't.
Thus. In the opinion OF Admiral Sims.
the whole blame rested upon the com
public
He would like to see courses at col
Iege such as they have in every univer-
sity in Europe teaching at least the bare
outlines of military maneuvers so the
people would realize that without a
naval station such as Guam our fleet Is
valueless in the western area OF the
Pacific He would like to see II be made
a little Gibraltar" and computed that II
could be adequately fortified at about
half the cost OF an ordinary battleship.
I'VE surrendered our right to fortify
Guam and the Philippines or any possess
sions west of Hawaii at the armament
conference" he said. THE reason this
was done was because we had not been
able TO get an appropriation for GUAM
and since the Japanese had been gong
ahead and fortifying their Pacific sta
tions the only way to stop them was 10
sign an order putting stop to opera
tions OF this kind
Honolulu, he said. was beginning TO be
pretty we'll fortified. and could stand
siege while the fleet was occupied else
where. footloose and free. But Guam IS
1000 miles from Honolulu and a n 81
with a cruising radius OF 5000 miles
would use all their fuel 20 reach the op-
Grating point and then ''could only wig
gle their thumbs at the enemy ana steam
back"
The Admiral said a number Of years
ago when he had charge OF target prac-
tice for the feet he decided 10 take the
ships down to Pensacola. But his su-
perior refused 10 permit this and orderel
the fleet to Guantanamo, Cuba.
"The reason he did that was this:
They wanted naval base at Guam
tanamo and they knew Congress didn't
know where it was. so they figured IL
they went down there for two or three
years and got the name well fixed in
the public mind 1t might have some ef-
feet. And II did. When the bill for the
appropriation came up the name was so
well known that no Congressman dared
10 get up and ask where Il was. and
they got the money and fixed UP a good
base"
The United States navy is relatively
inferior TO the forces of Great Britain
and japan, the Admiral said, because
of the cut In personnel made by Con-
gress which reduced the man power to
ss, 600. or about 20 per cent. Of the nee
essary complement we would be infe-
rior TO Great Briatln IN a naval war be-
cause of the inferlority Of our merchant
marine" he said.
"YouTl get no fairness from any ma
ton that can flout you," was the Ad-
rniral's parting shot.