Evening star., 1941-08-16
Text of Stimson's Radio Address to Army

VII , NOUIO @u
holds under his domination in Eu-
rope nearly 160,O00,0OG people in
addition to the original 10000, 900
of Germany itself Adding Italy
with over 100000 makes a total
of over 270,000,0O0. If he succeeds
in conquering Western Russia, he
will have under his control 100000
900 more, or total of over
37O 100000.
The American Government which
failed to take measures of protec-
ton against such dire prospect
for the future would be *aithless
indeed to the interests of its people.
Principles of Our Defense.
In the second place, what are the
general principles which govern our
American national defense? The
United States and the other 20 re-
publics of this hemisphere have al
ways believed in preserving their
isolation as the foundation OF their
safety. We have had hemisphere
in which for over a century all OF
the governments have been repub-
iican in structure and also lnde-
pendent in fact. We believe in
keeping up this system of inde-
pentrence and freedom.
For that purpose the Monroe Doc
! trine has been the cornerstone OF
our foreign policy. We have rec
ognized that the only safe way to
keep America out of war was to
keep war away from America. And
sometimes we have found it neces-
sary to fight in order to keep war
away from our own homes and
country.
With the passage Of time and the
! invention of new methods and
weapons of warfare this has be-
come more and more difficult. The
/ bombing airplane already has a
range of several thousand miles.
The development Of the fifth column
has an indefinitely longer range
Each of these hostile weapons may
easily become an instrument for the
invasion of this hemisphere.
Idea Behind Lease-Lend Act.
When the full measure of this
terrific crisis abroad burst upon Us
a year ago. our peace-loving country
was defended by a one-ocean Navy
a skeleton Army and a rudimentary
air force. The navies and armies
of all of the other 20 American re-
! publics were negligible in size in
comparison to the forces abroad
Our own Army was smaller even
than the armies of Holland or Bel
gium and we saw Holland and Bel
gium overthrown in comparatively
few days Therefore, so far as oul
Army and air force are concerned
we have been obliged to start prac-
tically at scratch.
The past year has been spent by
our Government in steady effort
to surround the United States with
outposts and bastions from which II
could be defended against attack:
which appear so inevitable. We have
commenced building a two-ocear
Navy, but the completion OF thai
Navy cannot be accomplished fol
several years.
In the meanwhile We have beer
endeavoring with all the means II
our power to stiffen the resistenct
of those nations which by fighting
the Axis powers we're temporarily
serving as protection to us. Tht
principal one of these nations ha!
been Great Britain.
The British Fleet for many year!
has been protecting the security O.
the Atlantic while our own feet ha!
been in the Pacific. The continu
ance of this work by the British
feet depends upon the continuance
OF the safety and independence O
the British Isles. Congress las
winter enacted the Lease-Lend Ac
chiefly for the purpose of bolster
ing up the sturdy resistance which
Great Britain was making to th'
Axis powers. Under this statute W,
have been able to furnish munition!
and supplies to the British Isle:
and to harbor and repair the British
feet as we'll as the merchant ma
rine which was carrying our NUM-
tions to Great Britain.
Outlying Protective Bases.
In addition to that. We have leased
from Great Britain seven important
Atlantic outpostS to serve as bases
to our defense against attack from
the direction of Europe. These bases
have been in Newfoundland. in Ber-
muda, in the Bahamas, In Jamaica
in ST. Lucia, in Trinidad, and in
British Guiana. In all of these
places we are establishing naval
and air posts of defense. They are
intended to help us keep the navies
and air forces of aggressor nations
far away from our shores.
We are also establishing further
outposts in the Atlantic at Green
land and Iceland. and part of
our Navy Is patrolling the Atlantic
from Greenland southwark as an
additional protection against hostile
forces coming into our Atlantic
waters.
II you take your maps, you can
see how we have thus been estab-
fishing a protective line of defense
running from the extreme north in
Greenland to the shores of South
America by which we are seeking
to keep any aggressive nation from
establishing, air bases from which
they could drop bombs upon the
populous cities of our Eastern sea-
board.
Pacific Bases and Dakar
In the Pacific we have reinforced
our great naval base at Hawaii until
we believe that it is now impreg-
nable. We are also building air and
naval bases in Alaska and in the
Aleutian Islands to keep off attacks
from the northwest where our own
coast approaches to within 80 miles
of the Russian Siberian coast of
Asia. The present attack of Ger
many on Russia, who has always
been a peaceful neighbor of ours
in the Pacific. now brings out into
sharp prominence the Importance
of these last outposts. Japanese
newspapers are already beginning to