Evening star., 1936-05-31
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in the Army's budget-relief prof.
ects; the expenses of the Panama
Canal which the Army unobtrusively
manages; river and harbor improve
ments, including flood control.
Canal Not Strongly Defended.
The Panama Canal Is not as
strongly defended as it might be. Be-
yond range of the fortifications at its
Pacific and Caribbean ends, an enemy
might land and attack the canal from
the land sides, where it is defended
mainly by the difficulty of the ground.
We have not fortified the entire canal,
. and Panama has no army.
AS in Panama, so in Hawaii and on
the Pacific Coast. The defense of our
outposts and our coasts concerns the
Nations leaders more keenly today
than in many years. The termination
by Japan of the Washington treaty
that had ended fortification in the
Pacific, and the menace of the recent
remarkable development of ocean fly
ing in that very ocean-these mean
that this country has got to mend the
fences around its backyard Those
fences are our defenses and they need
plenty Of carpentering.
Against attack upon the canal or
the Pacific Coast our land frontier Is
Hawaii This should be our Gibraltar
of the Pacific" and recently the able
Mai. Gen. Hugh A. Drum was sent
there to prepare it for defense. He has
brought his 10000 troops-our largest
grouped force, anywhere, which should
be 25,0O0-to high efficiency, built new
strategic roads and made other i'm
provements.
But he told the House Military At
airs Committee that Hawaii is no
Gibraltar. Although the islands can be
bombed from the air, they are with
out modern defenses. Our Rock Of
Gibraltar is on quicksand.
If it toppled before an enemy and let
him through to the Pacific Coast
then what? Reinforcement would come
quickly, but California Congressman
have told this writer that their arous-
ed constituents believe their situation
is all too like that of Hawaii. They are
pressing for new Notifications to re-
place the present ones, which are
mostly interesting relics.
Defenses Inspected Personally.
These significant facts the House
Military Subcommittee got by tax
ing two unusual steps. Some Of its
members personally inspected the de-
fenSes of Panama, Hawaii and the
Pacific Coast, and what they saw so
aroused them that they brought back
Gems. Brown, Drum and Malone to tell
Congress their own story.
New Notifications, cannon, anti-air-
craft guns, various installations for
Panama, Hawaii and the Pacific Coast
what would they cost? Between
S73,000,000 and $86, ,000, 900. As q
modest starter, for 1861, the House
voted $8,518.994 But that brought on
q battle with "the budget" and the
Senate, who had neither seen the de-
fenses nor heard the generals. and
wanted to swing the ak. The House
vowed 1t would fight till the Fourth
Ol Julyt dilu tIito OCSldl q dtAOiA Va LII
dependence seemed to have won out
when the Army bill went to the
President.
Probably we shall spend money soon
on two more outposts-Alaska and
Guam. Alaska has 800 soldiers and
no forts; and any Pacific power could
readily grab it as a base for long
range air raids against our Northwest.
Congressman recently charged that
foreign spies are busy along the Alas
kan coast.
Perhaps the most important survey
of all-certainly the most interesting
to many Americans-is the one under
way to supply framework for our
Air Forces, which are to be spec
tacularly increased. This survey viii
unscramble our air defenses by decid-
ing whatever new fields, depots and
equipment are necessary to give us an
adequate network Of air stations COW
ering the whole country.
Over this network will speed the