The Wrangell sentinel., 1925-10-01
Mitchell Resumes His Tirade Before
 Court of Inquiry
Special to the Sentinel

NSpecldi to tHt SeHtlHelD
 WASHINGTON. Sept. 30. - The bungling of three major pronaut- ical efforts, the disastrous flight of the Shenandoah, the interrupted flight of PN-9 No.1 to Hawaii. and the unsuccessful arctic trip by Ma wy MacMillan airplanes, was charg- ed against the Navy today by Col. William Mitchell, center of the air craft row.
 In sending the Shenandoah to the Middle West Colonel Mitchell as- serted that hte Navy not only vio- lated law in leaving land operations to the Army. but it dispatched the big derigible on political and propaganda mission.
 Notwithstanding the statements of Commander Rogers that nothing had been left undone to insure tn success of PN-9 No.1 Colonel Mitch ell said the preparations were made by bungling amateurs.
 WASHINGTON Sept. 29.-Brig- adler General Vim. Mitchell, deposed assistant chief of the army air ser vice. resumed his onslaught on the administration of that service today before the air board appointed by President Coolidge to investigate its activities.
 Mitchell began his testimony to- the click of cameras. He asked to be sworn but board declined to assure him that his testimony would be given credence.
 Mitchell spread out 6 large mar of the world on two sides and car ried voluminous documentary eX- hibits. He offered to read nine pa pers, all instructive except one, which he said was destructive. He said he would not read it if the board objected.
 Mitchell started his testimony by stating that American aircraft de- velopment has been slow and inef- ficient.
 Continuing he said ]: No surface vessel can exist SO long as aircraft is in existence. They can put out Of commission any naval surface yes sel more effectively and more eco- nomically than any other unit
 Chairman told Mitchell he could proceed with his testimony as he desired, and Mitchell selected his destructive paper, which dealt with the administration of the Army and Navy air forces for the Atlantic coast and said in part
 "We need an army to protect and a navy equipped with submarines. Above all we need an air service to protect the nation from an air at tack on the Pacific. Japan's desire is to control all entrances into Asia and the point of attack from the Pacific is by way of Alaska, not Honolulu, where an invasion would expose a hostile fleet to open at tack from submarine and airplane.
 "The navy's mission is at sea and should be pushed to sea to keep open the lanes of communication. Our army has a system complicated in the extreme It sticks and clings to bygone systems as all armies do, it will do the work if properly ap- piled"
 Mitchell said Russia once own ed Alaska and Russians who once settled along the Pacific coast to San Francisco were pushed back to Alaska by the treaty of 1880 with Great Britain through its purchase by the United States. If we are re- quired to defend ourselves against an Asiatic power. or combination of Asiatic powers led by Japan, their line of operations certainly would extend north of the kurile islands to Kamchatka and across the Bering Sea to Alaska by way of the Aleutian Islands and Boring strait"
 fSnac;al to the Sent;nel)