Evening star., 1939-01-04
House Forecasts
Speedy Approval for
Navy Air Program
Service Asks Expansion
Or Establishment of
1woscore Bases
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
Speedy approval of vast Navy
program for construction of air bases
and other shore facilities was fore
cast today by House members await
ing complete details of President
Roosevelt's ornaments plans.
The President intends to send
Congress separate message early
next week outlining his ideas for
bolstering national defenses. It is
expected to contain disclosures about
the arms and potential munitions
capacity of European countries.
In the meantime, the Navy recon-
mended yesterday establishment or
expansion of two-score bases for
naval aircraft. destroyers, SUBJ
marines and ammunition storage as
"the indispensable necessities of
peacetime operation" of the expand
Ing fleet.
Influential members of the House
Naval Committee predicted the pro-
} gram would encounter little opposi-
ton. Hearings may be started next
week.
Army Air Force Bill.
Another part of the defense pro-
gram received attention yesterday
when Representative Mccormack,
Democrat, of Massachusetts, intro
: duced a bill providing for an Army
air force totaling 10000 airplanes
and 100000 reserve pilots. He pre-
sented it at the request of the Army
and Navy Union, an organization of
former service men.
The Navy report gave no estimate
of the probable cost of the projects,
but a much smaller program which
failed of enactment last year called
for an outlay of about $28,000,O00.
The recommendation that Guam
and other Pacific islands be made
air and submarine bases appeared
likely to contribute little to Japan
ese-American cordiality.
1000 Miles From Toxic.
Guam, virtually demilitarized
since the signing of the lapsed 1922
Washington Naval treaty, is only
about 1000 miles from Toxic. Un-
alaska, in the Aleutian Islands, fav-
o1ed as another advanced base in
the report, is little farther.
The report, so frank that its ap-
pearance without editing annoyed
some Naval officials, shed new light
on the Navy's strategy.
The Pacific island bases were
recommended as defenses against
.""any first-class power based in the
Western Pacific" New bases were
proposed for the Atlantic seaboard
and in Puerto Rico to reinforce the
defenses of Eastern cities, the Pana-
ma Canal and South America
against any attack from Europe.
Would Protect Philippines.
Guam, way point on Pan-Ameri-
can Always trans-Pacific air line,
has been under the American flag
since 1898. 1t is virtually surrounded
by islands which Japan seized from
Germany in the World War and has
retained theoretically under
League of Nations mandate. Toxic
has denied charges repeatedly made
at Geneva that they had been for
titled.
Making Guam a major advanced
Beet base, the board advised, would
give the Philippines protection
against attack, safeguard the Ameri-
can Asiatic fleet "in time of sudden
emergency" give the main American
fleet greater freedom to speed to the
Atlantic, and reduce to the simp-
Hawaii and the continental coast of
the United States"
The special Navy board which
compiled the report was headed by
Rear Admiral Arthur j. Hepburn.
Its report listed Is completely new
projects and expansion of facilities
It about IS existing naval stations.
bome of the expansions, officials
said, would give the Navy virtually
new establishments.
=. Publication of the document pro-
duced such furore at the Navy
Department, where some officers
felt the report contained such vital
defense plans it should have been
kept secret, that the report tempor-
arily was withdrawn from reporters.
1t subsequently was released, how
ever.
Among the air bases urged for
earliest completion" the board
listed one at Jacksonville, Fla,
fleet air base at Hampton Roads,
Va, supplementing existing facil-
tiles, and new one, to serve the
Atlantic Northeast, at Quonsett