Evening star., 1945-02-09
Congress Must Shore
BIume on Philippines
Writer Urges legislators to Set
Up Inquiry on Unpreparedness


Writer Urges Legislators to Set
Up Inquiry on Unpreparedness
By David Lawrerce
The House of Representatives has
sent Its congratulations to Gen. Mac
Arthur on recapturing the Philippines,
but that same institution might well
bow its head in shame for It's share OF
responsibility In the loss of these islands
to the japanese.
Only when the war is over and the
historian can count the casualties suf-
fered by the Navy, the Army, the Air
Forces and the Marine Corps in creep
ing back during period of three long
years to the Philippines will the Amer
lean people know in detail of the
blunder committed by those members
of the House who refused to build up
the fleet to protect the Philippines.
Just three old cruisers and a few
destroyers constituted our Asiatic
squadron and not single aircraft car
rier of the Navy was in the Far East
when Japan attacked Manila December
Z, 1941.
Pearl Harbor was tragedy of major
significance, but so was the unprotected
plight OF the American armed forces in
the Far East. Only few land based
aircraft were available and these were
destroyed on the ground for the simple
reason that they could not stay in the
mir indoSnito1v,
planes to relieve them on the defense.
U. s. Interests Unprotected.
There has been vote after vote in
the House to give the Filipinos their
independence, but very little considera-
ton was ever given by Congress to the
protection of American interests in the
Far East in military sense. When the
Fiipinos get their independence, will
the United States again withdraw from
Far Eastern waters and leave only a
handful of ships to protect American
interests there?
The question of American policy in
the Far East has been neglected for
decades through Republican and Demo-
cratic administrations, and not only
did We fail to build up bases and
send adequate forces there, but we did
not fortify the approaches to the Philip
pines-as, for instance, Guam
Most tragic was our failure to supply
Gen. Macarthur in 1941 with adequate
air forces and with enough naval units
to defend the Philippines
Where was the American Navy in
l94l? It was divided and much of it
was In the Atlantic, though Americans
had been given to understand over a
long period of time that the British
Navy was quite capable of handling the
defense of the Atlantic.
Undoubtedly the responsibility for the
division of the American Fleet in two
oceans rests on President Roosevelt, but
the responsibility for falling to build
enough surface ships, submarines and
aircraft carriers to protect the Pacific
Coast and our interests In Hawaii and
the Philippines, Wake and Guam was a
blunder directly attributable to Con-
gress.
Inquiry Is Urged.
Many of the members of the House
who served in the last decade have since
been defeated at the polls. But it is
unfortunate that no method exists to
fix responsibility for the losses the
United States has had to suffer in work.
ing back over three wearisome years
from Australia to the Philippines to re-
capture what the Japanese overran in
about six months with a navy inferior
in strength and quality to our own.
Congratulations are due Gen. Mac
Arthur, the Army, the Navy and the Air
Forces, but STERN minded commission
OF inquiry ought to be designated by
both houses of Congress to fix the
responsibility for the failure to build up
the defenses of the United States prior
to 1941
Too much of the emphasis on our mis-
takes in the Pacific has been placed on
the Pearl Harbor incident Even if the
battleships had been at sea, it is ques-
tionable whether the Hawaiian Islands
would not have suffered a damaging air
raid from the several japanese aircraft
carriers in that vicinity. While many of
the planes destroyed on the ground
might have been saved. there was, as a
| matter of fact. no adequate force OF
American naval aircraft carriers and
supporting ships and no adequate force
Of land-based planes to protect Pearl
Harbor and Manila December z, 1941
What will become more and more evil
dent as the war against Japan evolves
is that the defense of both the Philip
pines and Hawaii and, in a sense, our
own Pacific Coast was hooelessly made
quate as against the well-integrated
task-force idea which Japan at the
outbreak of war had developed and
which we since have mastered and ex-
panded at a cost of many billions of dol
lars and with the loss of many American
lives.
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