Evening star., 1942-10-31
Our Burma Rood

The War Departments announce
ment that the Canadian Alaskan
highway has been rushed to COM
pletion is cheering news. 1t comes
on the heels of a Navy Department
communique revealing that, despite
repeated bombings from the air, the
japanese have strengthened their
hold on Kiska Island in the outer
Aleutians by erecting a submarine
base. That added threat to Alaska
should be read against somber bull
letins from the South Pacific, where
our lifeline with Australia seems to
be endangered.
The geographical isolation Of our
great sub-Arctic dependency has
been a major headache of our high
command ever since Pearl Harbor.
Until the opening of this new high
way, Alaska was, strategically speak
ing, an island, overland communica-
ton being blocked by hundreds of
miles of trackless wilderness. It
could be reached only by sea or by
air. The sea route was long, slow,
and exposed to attack. The air route
could not bring in appreciable guam
titles of troops or supplies. An over
land highway through the Canadian
Northwest was the only solution of
this pressing problem.
The idea was definitely broached
shortly after the First World War,
but long remained in the blueprint
stage. The outbreak of the present
war gave it added impetus, though
before Pearl Harbor the concept was
influenced by economic as we'll as
military considerations, the favored
plan being a route running near the
coast which would link and develop
existing settlements. After Pearl
Harbor, the strategic factor was
paramount. Accordingly, the road
was projected to run far inland be-
hind lofty mountain barriers which
excluded all possibility of Japanese
attacks from the sea.
The difficulties were enormous,
and when work was started last
March it was not believed that the
road could be passable before the
Spring of 1943. But 10000 Army
engineers and 1000 civilian employees,
equipped with the latest road-build-
ing equipment, buckled down to the
Job which has been completed
months ahead of time. Although the
formal opening ceremonies on the
Alaskan-Canadian border are not
scheduled until November Is, the
War Department states that trucks
are already rolling over its entire
1,671-mile length to its terminus at
Fairbanks, in the heart of Alaska,
and that thousands of trucks will
run all winter, carrying soldiers and
supplies to Alaskan posts"
From Fairbanks, road and rail
communications exist with Seward
and Anchorage, the chief ports on
the south-central coast The only
remaining gap in Alaskan land routes
is that between Fairbanks and the
settlements on the Bering Sea,
especially Nome. Anthony Dimond,
Alaska's vigorous Delegate in the
House of Representatives, is pressing
that this 600-mile gap be promptly
filled with road, and since both the
engineering personnel and equip
ment are Immediately available, it
could probably be done in record
| time.
/ The vital Importance of the Alaska
Canada highway is self-evident. For
the first time, Alaska is solidly an
chored to the rest of the continent
and the nightmare of a japanese
invasion has been substantially dis
sipated Should such an attempt be
made, the invaders presumably will
learn to their cost that we have
| "enOugh and on time"