The Wilmington morning star., 1940-05-17

sible attack to two hundred, to
three hundred miles an hour.
Bases Nearer
Furthermore, it brings the new
possibilities of the use of nearer
bases from which an attack or at
tacks on the American continents
could be made. From the fiords
of Greenland it is. 4 hours by air
to Newfoundland; 5 hours to No
va Scotia, New Brunswick and
Quebec; and only 6 hours to New
England.
The Azores are only 1000 miles
from parts of u eastern sea-
board and if Bermuda fell into
hostile hands it is a matter of
less than 3 hours for modern
bombers to reach our shores.
From a base in the outer West
Indies, the coast Of Florida could
be reached in 200 minutes.
The islands off the west coast
of Africa are only 1900 miles from
Brazil. Modern planes starting
from the Cape Verde Islands can
be over Brazil in z hours.
And Para, Brazil, is but 4 fly
ing hours to Caracas, Venezuela:
and Venezuela but 2 IL hours to
Cuba and the Canal Zone; and
Cuba and the Canal Zone are
2 IA hours to Tampico, Mexico;
and Tampico is 2 IA hours to St.
Louis, Kansas City and Omaha.
Alaskan Situation
On the other side of the CONT
nent, Alaska, with a white popu-
lation of only 10000 people, is
within 4 or 5 hours of flying dis
lance to Vancouver, Seattle, Ia
coma and Portland. The islands of
the southern Pacific are not too
far removed from the west coast
OF South America to prevent them
from becoming bases of enormous
strategic advantage to attacking
forces.
Surely, the developments Of the
past few weeks have made it clear
to all our citizens that the possible
ty of attack on vital American zones
ought to make it essential that we
have the physical, the ready ability
to meet and to prevent them from
reaching their objective.
This means military implements
not on paper-whicn are ready and
available to meet any lightning Of
fensive against our American inter-
est. 1t means also that facilities
for production must be ready to turn
out munitions and equipment at top
speed.
We have had the lessons before us
over and over again-nations that
were not ready and were unable to
get ready found themselves overrun
by the enemy. So-called impregnable
Notifications no effective effort to
destroy the lines of supplies and
communications of the enemy will
lose.
An effective defense by its very
nature requires the equipment to at.
tack an aggressor on his route before
he can establish strong bases within
the territory of American vital in
terests.
False Impression
Loose talking and thinking on the
part of some way may give the false
impression that own army and
navy are not first-rate, or that
money has been wasted on them.
h. Nothing could be further from the
truth.
In recent years the defensive pow.
er of our army, navy and marine
corps have been very greatly i'm
proved.
The navy is stronger today than at
any time in the nations history. To-
day also a large program of new
construction is we'll under way. Ship
for ship, ours are equal to, or better
than the vessels of any foreign
power.
The army likewise is at its great.
est peace-time strength. It's equip
ment in quality and quantity has
been greatly increased and i'm
proved. d
Well Prepared
The national guard and the reserve
strength of the two services are bet
ter equipped and better prepared
than during any other peace-time pc
Rod.
On the other side of the picture
we must visualize the outstanding
fact that since the first day Of Sep
TENDER, 1889, every week that passed
has brought new lessons learned
from actual combat on land and sea.
I cite examples. Where naval
ships have operated without ade-
quate protection by defending air.
craft, their vulnerability to air at
tack has increased. All nations r
hard at working studying the need
of additional anti-aircraft protec-
ton.
Several months ago the use of a
new type of magnetic mine made
y any minimizing people believe
that all surface ships were doomed.
Within a few weeks a successful de-