Detroit evening times., 1945-11-07
BEHIND
The NEWS
BY Paul
MaIIon
distributed by King Features Syndicate.
Reproduction In whole or In part
strictly prohibited.l

distributed by King Features syndicate.
Reproduction In whole or In part
strictly prohibitedl
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6-The
w Gen. George report for uni
iication of the army and navy
has now been pried loose from
the joint chiefs of STATS who
had hidden it from President
Truman and the public eye since
Last April, ,---
The prying job was done by
Senator johnson of Colorado,
acting chairman of IN military
affairs committee. He went TO
the White House and demanded
the right to see the report in
connection with the hearings on
his bill and the similar Hill bill
proposing TO authorize the uni
fication.
He not only got the report,
but the White House furnished
photostat copies of testimony
taken by the George committee
from 65 officers at the fighting
fronts in the field. and all this
has been released 10 the press
the past few days.
THE George report, you VIII
i recall, was first published in
this column Oct. 9. The release
of the full document now con-
firms what was then presented
to you. Thus the stalemate
worked by Adm. King of the
navy to throttle the move for a
single department. has been
broken.
But the inner situation is not
entirely clear yet. The only
known opposition now TO this
agreed method of undermining
the national defense is restricted
to the chairmen of the Naval
Affairs committees in the Sem
ate and House. The others have
come around in the past few
weeks. But the old navy crowd
is doing its m o to delay
action-and rather successfully.
TNHE prospect now is that the
l. Hill and johnson bills will
not be acted upon before the
recess of Congress which means
they cannot be passed before
next spring. Overwhelming sup
port will rally to whatever final
detailed arrangement is agreed
upon between Johnson-Hill and
the war department authorities,
but the delay of action will be
costly.
The plan will no doubt require
a year to be brough to full
working efficiency. The changing
of the status of bureaus all down
the line will require at least
that much time.
simultaneously also, a reor-
ganization of the top men in
both services is in prospect. Adm.
King will go as will Gen. Mar
shall. and there is a definite de-
termination to move younger
men to the top of the new single
department in which the younger
generals of the air force, for
instance, will have equal stand
ing as a third department along
side the army and the navy
under a single cabinet chief.
THE departures of Marshall
and King were slated for the
first of the year, but an effort
has been made to induce Mr..
Truman to keep Marshall on for
while TO promote the youth
draft plan which is his main
current interest now, and to
keep General Eisenhower in Eu-
rope because of the difficulties
which have arisen through Rus
sian tactics there, delaying gen.
Uine agreement on the peace
setup.
There is no valid reason for
these delays. The new plan
should be launched Immediately
and the changes in personnel
could best be made with the
launching of the program. The
delay in presentation of the re-
port since last April already has
postponed for a year the inaugu-
ration OF the new Setup.
A DMIRAL KING and the old
line navy people have pre-
sented their testimony and have
clearly lost the argument. Their
complaints have been rejected by
the vast majority of Congress.
To put the matter off now