Evening star., 1935-02-10
Proposed Sum Will Be
Shared Equally by Army
and Navy.
$11,OO0,0O0 TO BE USED
FOR HAWAIIAN AIR BASE
Money Is to Come From $780,
100000 Labeled for Normal
Federal Works.
A 100000 900 national defense pro-

A $40,000,000 national defense pro-
gram, centered in improved Army and
Navy strongholds in the Pacific, was
revealed yesterday by Congressional
leaders to have received administra-
ton approval
The money will be shared equally
by the Army and Navy. Chairman
of the House Military and Naval Com
mittees said it was part of a $780,
100000 public works fund inserted in
the 1886 Government budget with the
consent of President Roosevelt and
the Budget Bureau.
While the Navy was reported as
prepared to spend some of its O.00O-
900 along the Atlantic, most OF 1t
would be used for shipyards, drydocks
and bases on the Pacific Coast and at
Pearl Harbor Hawaii. and Coco Sola,
Canal Zone. Details of the apportion-
ment of the money are being with
held. but it was learned most Of it
would be spent In Hawaii and on the
West Coast.
The Army plans to use nearly sll.-
100000 to begin constructing an
Sl8,000,000 air base in Hawaii: The
remainder would be allotted for coast
and harbor defenses. including anti
aircraft guns. and for erection Of
officers quarters and barracks at Army
posts.
The money is to come from the
$500, 900 900 labeled for normal Fed
eral public works in the 1886 budget.
Naval Maneuvers Planned.
The decision to use most Of the
money in the Pacific was said TO
have been influenced by the fact the
feet has been concentrated in Pacific
waters during much of the past two
years.
Important Naval maneuvers are
planned during the Summer in the
Hawaii. Alaska and Puget Sound de-
fense areas.
Navy officials stressed before the
Naval Committee that facilities for
handling the fighting vessels on the
coast are inadequate. They directed
attention particularly toward the lack
of facilities large enough to care for
battleships.
Since questions of authorizations
for projects are involved. Chairman
Buchanan of the Appropriations
Committee said the Naval and Mill
tary Committees were being consulted
on items to be included in the $780,.
600 900 fund.
Chairman McSwain informed Buch-
anan yesterday that the Military
Affairs Committee already had ap-
proved at secret session the
s11 100000 outlay for Hawaii, as
contemplated by the Army.
Coast Second Line Of Defense.
This worlds largest air base" as
it has been termed in Japan. would
be one of a chain beginning in
Alaska and ending in the Panama
Canal Zone. 1t would make the
Pacific Coast the second line of de-
fense.
The Army's proposals before the
House Military Committee show that.
in all, President Roosevelt's projected
expenditures for national defense
have passed the billion-do mark
thus providing for an unprecedented
peace-time expansion in the land
sea and air services.
The strengthened military outpoSts
would fit into a $405, 900 900 Army
moderniZation program involving Army
personnel expansion by at least one
third and mass increase in aircraft
by 1920 planes. It would require a
S90.000,000 increase over the War
Department budgetary allowance
which previously had been boosted
s4S,5l6,675, to total of $3l2,235,8ll
Program Is Defensive.
With the Navy's allowance in.
creased by $186,853, 499 to a total oi
S489, ,871 BAT, and the P. w. A. allot-
ment for naval building, most OF il
unexpended, the projected expendi-
ture goes into 10 figures. Con2res.
sional leaders said that, while thi,
program, if approved by Congress
would constitute the Nations largest
peace-time national defense program
and might take first rank for size in
current world expenditures, it was
definitely defensive" and a construc-
tive source of wide employment.
At the same time, it developed tha
President Roosevelt has commissioned
A. Mitchell Palmer, former Attorney
General and later alien property Gus.
todian, to draw up a program to give
the United States a merchant marine
equal to any in the world. Ocear
| mail subsidies to American ship com.
panies would be supplanted by direct
subsidies on the order of American
| import tariffs.
The proposed Army modernizatioI
expenditures is about double the aver.
age annual appropriation to the Wal
Department for military purposes
The military outlay, as advocated II
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