The Wrangell sentinel., 1940-11-22

N6W 4OIA 06Idlu 4IlDulle EDIz
 Um recently, on the same pro-
 gram with President Roosevelt,
 Wendell Willkie, Mayor La
 Guardia and other dignitaries.
 He spoke on Alaska and Ma
 tional Defenseo, the text of his
 address following:
 Any householder would be con sidered as lacking in sound reason and ordered judgment if, in an al tempt to protect his family from as sault and his goods and ehattels from theft, he should put burglar alarms on all of the windows of his house, locks and bars on the back door and side .doors-and the eel lar door=and then leave the front door wide open, a standing invita- tion to the eYil-minded to come in and work their will with the dWel- lers in that house and with it's eOh- tents.
 And yet, until recent months. that is the precise picture of the United States with respect to national de- fense. Although We had taken atI least some measures to protect and fortify all of the other entrances Of our national habitation but one; that one, the most accessible, theI one that leads directly to the heart of the Nation through Alaska, wei left unbarred unfortified and unde- tended.
 The position of the Territory of Alaska with respect to the national defense in unique, and of the high est importance. It extends, in its| western mainland, to within 54I miles of the Asiatic Continent. But that is not the most salient featurel of the national defense aspect of Alaska. What is really of outstandI ing consequence is that for 2,500I miles and more, from east to west, Alaska fronts on the North Pacific Ocean, approaching at it's south easterIy extremity 10 a point lessI than 75O miles from the main body of the continental United States, atI it's far westerly end in the Aleutian Islands to within TOO miles of the Japaese Archipelago, and approxi-I mately 260 miles from the Soviet naval and military base on Boring Island, and in most of that yastI distance the coast line affords al multitude of bays and inlets and fiords and harbors, furnishing amplel anchorage and shelter to ocean, craft, and difficult to enter or takel if properly fortified. It is an ice-I free coast all the year round.
 ig bo4 on Ap n world globe will show you, thel great circle route, the direct routel and, therefore, the strategic Iinel between the main body of the United States and the northern nations of eastern Asia, namely, Japan and Soviet Russia, lies through or alongl the coast of Alaska, and that line isl at least 2,300 miles north of the Hawaiian Islands
 What It Means
 It is not any eXaggeration to say that the control of AIaska-and byl that is meant real control, control which has more than naked land to depend upon, control which is made effective by strong defensive works and installations-means control of the North Pacific and control as well of the route accross the North Pacific from the Orient to the coast of the United States.
 Many think that by reason of the fact that we hold the Hawaiian Is- lands in force, and that we have ex-I pended at Pearl Harbor in perman- ent military and naval developments more than 100000, we are therefore safe as far as the Pacific is concerned. Those who think that are merely indulging in wishful thinking, because nothing could be further from the truth than their conclusion that our armed authority over the Hawaiian Islands means our domination of those parts of the Pacific in which our interests lie. They are probably misled by the cliche that Hawaii is the key to the Pacific Without deprecating in any manner the high importance of having ample defense works in the Hawaiian Islands, let us, in or der to promote exact thinking on theI subject, change the figure of speech and say that the Hawaiian Islands offer door for entry into the United States, a door that has now been measurably locked and barred byl the enormous defensive forces and establishments contained at Pearl Harbor and in that vicinity. But, after all, the Hawaiian Islands are only a backdoor, or sidedoor; and the main entrance to the United States on the Pacific side, from military and naval viewpoints, itl not through the Hawaiian Islands, nor within 2,000 miles thereof, butt lies instead, directly through Alas ka and along the coast of Alaska. There is no gainsaying that; that is no denying it; because it is true