Evening star., 1945-06-01

Oh 1,OoO SoouoleASo oI oSd. 1AlGy
Kinsey, 1911 Baker street
ton, Va.
ask for full public cooperation in
preventing any aggravation of this
burden on domestic transportation,
for it would slow down the rate at
which soldiers can be reunited with
their loved ones.
At the same time, as we step up
the movement of men and NUM-
tions to the Far East, we have been
exerting every effort to increase the
number of ships available to return
men to this country for discharge.
Three hundred and sixteen cargo
ships are being converted to help
soldiers get out of Europe faster.
They are not the most luxurious
ships ever seen. but they will get
the men home. In addition, the
British are letting us use their three
Iproudest passenger liners--the Queen
Elizabeth, the Queen Mary and the
Aquitania.
Use German Merchant Fleet
To Bring Men Back from Europe.
/ These, added to SO of our own
transport vessels, 800 bombers and
transport planes and such as we
are able to use out of the Ger
man merchant fleet, will make it
possible to bring men home for dis
charge without interfering with the
main job Of transferring our troops
and equipment to the war against
Japan.
The Army's system for selecting
the soldiers for release to civilian
life represents democratic and fair
approach to this most difficult prob
lem. A poll was taken among en-
listed men in all parts OF the world.
They were asked what factors they
believed should be taken into con-
sideration in deciding who should be
released from the Army drst. More
than 80 per cent said that prefer
ence should 60 to those who had
been overseas and in combat longest
and to those with children. .
The Army spent two years .devel-
oping a program Of point credits
designed to carry out these views
expressed by the soldiers. 1t checked
and rechecked its program, and
made comprehensive surveys in
order to make sure that the plan
would achieve the obiectives.
The system applies equally to the
members of our Army in all parts
OF the world. 1t embodies the prin-
ciple of impartial selection that We
applied in drafting our citizen Army
and that we shall continue to apply
in meeting the manpower require
ments of our armed forces until
Japan is defeated.
By reducing the strength of the
Army from $500, 900 to 6,96G 900 and
by maintaining the Army calls on
Selectlve service at a level substan-
TALLY higher than requirements for
actual replacements, it will be pos
sible to restore to their homes dur
ing the next year total of 1000 900
officers and men, including those
who will leave because of wounds,
sickness, age and other specific
causes, as well as those who will
leave under the point system.
To accomplish this while continu-
ing to be liberal in the deferment of
men 80 years of age and over, it is
the administrations policy to in
duct all non-veterans under thirty
years Of age who can be replaced
and who can qualify for the armed
forces. Many of such men who have
thus far been irreplaceable will be-
come available for induction when
the plants in which they are work
ing are cut back or when they can
be replaced from time to time by
cutback-production workers and re-
turning veterans.
In the three weeks since the point
system became effective 2,5OO off,
GERS and $4,000 enlisted men and
women from every theater of war
have received final discharge papers
at Army separation centers. During
June, $4,000 high-score men are
scheduled to leave Europe for this
country, and $4,000 are scheduled
to come from the Pacific and Asia
The great majority of these, a few
days after they arrive, will be civil
ians again.
Let no one be under the delusion
that these discharges are being au-
thorized because the war is nearing
an end or because we feel the jap
anese are easy to beat. They are be-
ing made because our military lead
ers believe that we can reduce the
overall strength of our Army at this
time without jeopardy to our cause
in the Pacific or to the lives Of the
men fighting there.
Thas joint Chiefs of Staff, after
consultation with Gen. Macarthur
and Admiral Nimitz, have decided
that our Army can deliver its heavi-
est blows in the Pacific and win final
victory most quickly with a strength
which year from now will be about
Z 7,000, 900.
BY maintaining our Army at this
size we shall be able to more than
double the force we now have in
the Pacific and hurl against the
Japanese an overseas force larger
than the 3,500,000 men who united
with our Allies to crush the Wehr-
macht and the Luftwaffe.
These are the men who will be
carrying the fight to the enemy, but
obviously they cannot operate effec-
lively unless there are adequate re-
serve troops in training in the
United States, and also an adequate
base from which our advance troops
can be supplied and serviced.
It is our plan that every physically
fit soldier in the United States who
| has not yet served overseas be as