Evening star., 1942-02-25

ciallv created ~
impressions are David Lawrence.
to be successfully maintained and
critics are to be deprived of the
basis for many of their comments,
it will become necessary for the
American Government politely to
ask Prime Minister Churchill to
refrain from making speeches to
the House of Commons discus
sing the conditions of the American
battle fleet in the Pacific.
1t will be recalled that when the
Prime Minister returned from his
American visit of December he
spoke of the American battle feet
In the Pacific as crippled tempo
rarily. Last week, in explaining
the fall of Singapore, he told the
British people in a broadcast heard
In the United States:
by an act of sudden and violent
surprise T.. the shield of sea power
which was protecting the fair lands
and islands of the Pacific Ocean
was for the time being-but only
for the time being-dashed to the
ground. Into the gap thus opened
rushed the invading armies of
Japan the overthrow for
while of British and United States
sea power was like the breaking of
some mighty dam -"
Roosevelt's Version.
After hearing the above on Feb
ruary Is, the American people were
given in flreside chat of February
% this version by President Roose-
welt:
"Of all the combatant ships based
on Pearl Notwithstanding, heavy
cruisers, light cruisers, destroyers
and submarines only three were
permanently put out of commission.
VERY many of the ships of the
Pacific Fleet were not even in Pearl
Harbor. Some of those that were,
were hit very slightly and others
that were damaged have either re-
joined the feet by now or are still
undergoing repairs. When those re-
pairs are completed the ships will
be more efficient fighting machines
than they were before"
This certainly doesn't sound like
crippled" feet or a fleet that has
been put out of commission for very
long, and it is reassuring news be-
cause it evidently means the Japa-
nese have a surprise in store for
them in the speed with which our
Pacific Fleet is to be restored to the
fighting strength it had prior to
Pearl Harbor, with exception, of
course, of the three ships "perma-
nently" put out of commission.
Withholds Dates.
Just how long the damaged ships
will be undergoing repairs is impor-
tant military information and that's
why the President did not disclose
any specific dates. But the tenor of
his address was to the effect that
the damaged ships would soon be
back on the fighting line. If they
are not, and his prophecy proves
wrong, the whole war will by that
time have taken a turn in so many
other directions that 1t will only be
of academic Importance to debate
whether the Presidents f1reside chat
of February 23, 1912 was or was not
overoptimistic.
The President. Incidentally, did a
superb job ir .4iammering away at
Axis rr- ~sanda and also in point
20 out the Importance of big dis
tances and shipping to the future
trend of this war. His discussion of
our naval strategy will, of course,
stir up plenty of debate among the
naval experts. He gave the impress
sion that for 40 years our basic
strategy had been not to defend the
Philippines and that Japanese en-
circlement had prevented us recent
ly from doing anything different
than we have done. Some naval ex-
perts have insisted that the battle
fleet should never have been based
at Pearl Harbor, that scouting fleet
should have been maintained in the
Far East to protect Hawaii against
the very thing that happened, and
that the American Government
should never have looked passively
on the fortification Of the Japanese
inundated islands or on the deal be-
tween the Vichy government and
Japan whereby Indo-C China was oc-
cupied by the Japanese.
Roberts Report Cited.
The Roberts report says about our
basic naval strategy:
"At our hearings reference was
made to what has long been a mat
ter of common knowledge-that
there are, and have been, diverse
views of national policy respecting
the basing of the entire United
States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
We feel that the national policy in
this matter is one that has been
settled by those responsible for such