Evening star., 1944-09-25
BY MURLIN SPENCER,

THE SOUTHWEST PACIFIC. -
Within "a hours after japanese
war planes swooped down on Pearl
Harbor, two men $500 miles away
knew there was only slight chance
the Philippines could be saved. One
was Gen. Douglas Macarthur. The
other was his chief of staff. 1t. Gen
Richard Kerens Sutherland.
Every one else, almost to the last,
always had the hope that help would
come from the United States" Gen.
Sutherland recalls. But Gen. Mac
Arthur and I knew it was only
question of time. We estimated we
could hold out until the end of
May.
The thought never occurred to
us we wouldn't stay. But when
you get fiat order from the Presi-
dent of the United States saying,
You gon that settles it.
Wants to Go Back.
Il want to go back Having been
beaten there once, I'm anxious to
go back and turn the tables. 1
don't like to be thrown out of a
place. 1 want to throw the jap
out"
There are few men in the world
who are more qualified for the task
OF going back to the Philippines.
Gen. Sutherland, with Macarthur,
spent years in planning the de-
tense of the Philippines. And he
knows the way to go back.
! He is one of a handful of key
men-the men with Macarthur
who fought with the general in the
Philippines, who came out with him
IN that daring escape by patrol tor
pedo boat and airplane, who formed
/ the nucleus of the army destined
to disprove the old theory that they
never come back"
| Gen. Sutherland has been Gen.
MacArthur's chief of staff since
rising young officer by the name of
Dwight D. Eisenhower left that
post in the Philippines in the latter
part of 1899
Young Man at 50.
! He IS a comparatively Young
man-50-tall, with straight, brown
hair, craving at the temples and
thinning in the back He is an i'm
maculate dresser, like his chief, and
wears three rows of ribbons for the
Distinguished Service Cross md
Cluster, the Distinguished Service
Medal, the Silver Star and Cluster
and the Philippines Distinguished
Service Star.
An undergraduate at Yale Uni
verslty at the outbreak of the Mex
lean War in 1916, he joined an ar
tlllery unit listed as the Connecticut
National Guard. He was commits
stoned in the Regular Army in the
fall of that year.
He was overseas with the End Di-
vision in the World War and served
later with the 18th Infantry in
China. He served on the War De-
partment General Staff. was grad
uated from the Infantry School at
Fort Benning, Ga; the Command
| t'Aiu oNlNi az AotfLl ACNllOOl III + l.
LeavenWorth; the French General
Staff School in Paris, and the Army
War College.
He served one tour Of duty with
the ROTC at Shattuck School, Fair
| bault. Mimi. and was in China dur
ing the incident in July, 1897.
| When his regiment was ordered
home the following year, Gen. Mac
Arthur asked him to come to the
Philippines to join in the work
there.
Within matter of hours after
the japanese struck at Pearl Har-
Dor We received a complete report
on what had happened there" Suth-
erland said. That report went into
my safe and wasn't even placed into
the files until We came out here.
Initial Problem.
I'VE were too busy, too, in those
first days. The initial problem was
to organize a staff, getting them
into q working team We had the
same problem when we came to Aus
tralia. We brought out only six staff
officers and they formed the nucleus
for another staff"
When the order came to 60 out It
brought It's problems and heart-
aches but of course, I was glad to
get a chance to CO." Gen. Suther-
land said.
There was no question AS to the
finish of the Philippines. Here was
the very beginning of major war
and the prospect Of spending most
of 1t as a prisoner of war wasn't
very bright for professional SOL
dier
1T was hard to tell some of the
staff they were coming out and 9TH
ers that they had to stay. There
was Gen. Beebe 1t was decided he
would remain behind as Gen. Vain
wright's chief of staff. We recon-
mended his promotion to ma ior