Evening star., 1944-04-24
Navy Must Not Slip
To Prewar Weakness
Admiral King Warns
BY the Associated Press.

AuilIiiui NIHY VuIHS
By the Associated Press.
Admiral Ernest J. King, tell
Ing how the Navy was caught
short by Pearl Harbor, urges thai
the fleet never again be permit.
ted to dwindle to its compare.
tive weakness of prewar days.
His plea appears in his first Off
cial report on the progress of th'
war, which recounts the heroi
measures by which the Navy wa
built up to its present stature a.
the greatest in the world while de-
Tending itself and the Natior
against odds.
Now, he says, the fleet is read,
to travel far and fast to victory.
"The encirclement of Germany il
In sight" he said, and the Pacific
theater presents "a situation which
must be as dark and threatening tt
Japan as it is full of promise to us.
Dark Months Passed.
His report showed, however, thai
that stage was reached only aftel
dark months of battling agains
overwhelming odds while the Ma.
tion's industry built the Navy up tt
striking strength.
He said the low ebb of nava
strength was reached in 1927 ane
followed by slow steps to increase
the power of the fleet.
"our failure to build progressively
was a mistake which 1t is hoped will
never be repeated" he declared in
formal report to Secretary of the
Navy Knox.
The war in Europe, coupled with
indications that Japan would enter
the war at propitious moment, he
said, placed the United States sin
an unfavorable strategic position, in
that our naval forces were not ade-
ouate to meet the demands OF both
oceans should we be forced into the
war.
"The sudden treacherous attack
by Japan which resulted in heavy
losses to us made our unfavorable
strategic position at the outbreak OF
the war even worse than we had
anticipated"
Now, however, he said, the pic
tlre is reversed-the United States
Navy Is great enough to roam the
seas unchallenged and pick the spots
Ii, al. - ef,.ilr
No Quick Victory.
But, he emphasized, there is no
quick victory in sight-"both in Eu-
rope and In the Pacific long roads
stiIl lie ahead. But we are now fully
entered on those roads, fortified with
unity, power and experience, imbued
with confidence and determined to
travel far and fast to victory"
Summarizing the entire war situa-
tion as desperate" both for the
Nazis in Europe and the japanese
in the Pacific, he gave this picture
of world conditions:
"The situation in the European
theater is increasinging desperate
for the Axis and correspondlngly
encouraging for us.
THE German structure of satel-
lite states Is crumbling. Italy has
fallen and is a battlefield in which
90 German divisions are taking
heavy punishment. Romania, Bull
garia, Hungary and Finland are
weakening. The Balkans are afiame
with guerrilla war and other occu-
pied countries await only the signal.
The Russian armies continue to
advance, a massive invasion threat
ems in the west, and with all this,
Germany is scientifically and re-
morselessly being bombed on scale
whose magnitude and increasing
tempo have flattened her cities,
wrecked her factories and cannot
but be major factor in her even
tual collapse"
Situation i'm Pacific.
In the Pacific 1--WE have mastered
and improved the technique of am
phibious operations, in which the
japanese were so proficient in the
early days of the war. Our Army
and Navy forces have learned how
to fight as one team. We have
learned how to make the most oi
what we have, but it is no longer
necessary to ask our commanders
to get along as best they can or
Inadequate means. The numerical
inferiorities which were so pro-
nollnced in the Java Sea campaign
and in subsequent actions in the
Solomons have been reversed. Oul
submarines are cutting deeper ane
deeper into the vital japanese ship
ping and our fleets move in th'
Central Pacific unchallenged.
'The war against Japan has gon'
increasingly we'll of late. From thei
posts of maximum advance in tn
Pacific thee japanese have beer
driven back progressively by a serie
of offensive operations. Japa
nese capacity to maintain the wa
at sea and in her advanced area
has suffered increasingly, due t,
the loss of vital shipping, while tn
growth of our power in the Paclfl
enables us to threaten attack on tn
Marianas and Carolines and Kuriles
which may be called the interme
diate zone of defense of the empire
Japan will not be directly unde
attack as Germany is now until tn
citadel area of that empire, islam
and continental, is under our threa
or control, but the current an
prospective circumstances in tn
Pacific theater present situation
which must be as dark and threat
ening to Japan as it is full of prom
ise to u.s."
Praises Work of Subs.
Much of the credit for the swift
improving situation in the Pacific
Admiral King gives to daring Amer
ican submarines, which have a
times penetrated harbors in tn
Japanese homeland.
Those submersibles played a ma
jor part in the early days, f1ghtin
a delaying action against the ad
vancing japanese forces in tn
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