The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1940-06-21
Wake Up 10
Save Nation,
5ayvisitors
Distinguished Passengers
Of Clipper Discuss
U.S.. Defenses

ton and Alaska to awaken to i'm
minent peril of destruction before
it is too late was sounded last
night by speakers at a Juneau
Chamber of Commerce dinner at
the Baranof Hotel, arranged to
honor the passengers on the first
flight of the Alaska Clipper.
Those who came to salute the
arrival of the Clipper stayed on to
talk national defense until 2 o.
clock this morning, so reve aling
and engrossing were the messages
of the Clippers distinguished pas
sengers.
England Next
Thomas H. Beck, President of
Golfers Weekly, made the out
standing address in an evening of
outstanding addresses. He spoke OF
a visit to England month before
the war began, of the amazing
state of unpreparedness of the
English, OF 100000 parachute troops
now in Norway awaiting the sig
nal to conquer England.
Beck said that two months ago
he predicted the fall of the Re-
public of France and the. disipte-
grafton of the British Empire.
Il repeat that prediction here
and now he declared emphatically,
adding that it was already too
late to talk of helping the Allies
and warning that we must move
quickly to save our own natioE.
I'VE have to organize and arm
with the effectiveness of ~ dictator
ship, and we have a long way to
CO., Beck said
Million Men
He pointed OUT that more than
million trained men, filters and
mechanics, will be needed to mar
the $4,000 planes we propose to
build. He said that we would need
ten times the number of airfields
we now have available for train
ing purposes.
We haven't the guns we need,
nor any of the rest of the equip
ment necessary to repel invasion,
said Beck. He remarked that Ger
many's large new tanks are pow
cred with diesel engines OF l,250
horsepower, while the largest land
diesel engines now made in this
country generate only 1875 horse
power. An entirely new design will
be necessary, he said, for our AM
erican manufacturers agree that
diesel engines powerful enough to
propel such tanks would take up
SO much room, there would be no
room for the breech of the tank
cannon, let alone for instruments
and crew.
We Can DO II
Germany's triumphs OF design
and manufacture must be, and
can be, surpassed in this country,
Beck said, but 1t will take lot
OF doing, and it must start now.
He said the German air force at
the start of the war was known
to have more than 400 squadrors
of planes. Only a little over 100
of those squadrons have been ioen-
titled in combat in all the CAM
paigns SO far, leaving hundreds in
reserve. He said that the airport
at Oslo was captured in five MIN
utes by a single German plane
which came down out Of bad
weather, unloaded two small tanks
and cleaned out the defenders.
Within few minutes thereafter.
German transports had unloadec
troops which had been packed to-
gether in the planes so tightly that
they couldn't even sway from side
to side. This large force of infan-
try moved Immediately upon Oslo's
rear, while the bombardment pro-
ceeded in front OF the City.
If we mean what we say when
we say we love democracy and will
defend democracy" Beck declared,
we've got TO get busy, and busy
at once. We've got to go into this
thing on a colossal scale"
America has the men. the money
and the materials which make her
the only people left who can shave
that Charlie Chaplin moustache,"
Beck said.
i He called for national unity. say
Continued on Page Eight