Evening star., 1945-09-21
Army and Navy Chiefs
Buster Than in War
National Capital Seen Gripped in
Maelstrom of Crosscurrents
BY David Laurence

Dp D0UfQ Laurence
High officers Of the Army and Navy
are beginning to wish in a way that
the war had never ended-everything
seems by contrast to have been so or
derly, systematic and effective during
the war as compared with what it is
today in Washington.
Officers who were accustomed to plan
ming each move carefully and getting
everybodys cooperation now find the
National Capital maelstrom of cross
currents ranging from irritability and
sensitiveness to fantastic inslstence on
the impossible
Members OF Congress are, OF course.
the principal thorn in the side of the
Army and Navy. Scarcely an hour
passes that the telephone isn't ringing
asking for this or that piece of informa-
ton or else trying to find out where
some constituent is located or when he
or she will be released from service.
The public, to be sure, is responsible
for the heavy mail that is flowing into
Capitol Hill these days. 1t isn't all
about servicemen and the point system
either. 1t concerns reconversion and the
disposal of Government property. 1t
concerns also the future of Army camps.
airf1elds, airports and countless ether
things which can become part of the
economic life of the country or part
OF somebody's business if the Govern
ment will sell it for next to nothing.
Pressure for Decisions.
partments have been responsible for the
letting Of contracts for billions of dol
lars worth of war goods, they are
naturally feeling today the pressure for
prompt decisions on the manifold legal
and financial questions that are arising.
The National Capital outwardly Is
calm and peaceful. but actually it is in
some respects buster than it was in
wartime. The problems are bewildering
and confusing.
A visit to the Offices of the military
services finds the top commanders
worrying about how to satisfy the nu-
merous requests from Capitol Hill and
the administrative departments. Con-
gress was SO insistent on information
| about demoblllzation that Gen. Mar
| shall had to address a special meeting
| Of Senators and Representatives. The
| Navy is being pressed for demobiliza-
ton, and If some of the bills pending
which would discharge all persons with
a certain length of service were passed
the ships would have to be manned by
enlisted men because most of the off.
GERS would be released overnight.
The Navy still has a job to do. It
must transport the men from overseas.
IL must maintain patrols in japanese
and Chinese waters. Supplies Of food
and clothing must be carried to the
bases overseas. Air forces must be
maintained and supplied. 1t is impos-
sible to dismantle the armed services,
and that is about what would happen
all the various demands for changes
in the point system were to be given
serious consideration.
| The high officers of the armed sery.
ices recognize that the pressure is on,
and they are trying desperately to meet
| 1t, but their military sense tells them
there Is limit to what they can do and
still maintain particular objectives.
! State Department Policy.
| Probably the most disappointed, II
not disillusioned, department of the
Government is the State Department.
! Although its high policies have not been
| revealed to the public, it is no secret
that the presence or absence of large
occupying army in enemy territory Is
one of the "determinants" of foreign
! policy these days.
| For a long time before the war ended
/ the size of the Army had been discussed
in diplomatic quarters, and more than
once 1t has been suggested that the
United States should keep hundreds of
thousands of men in Europe. Now when
1t is apparent that the country wants
demobilization, it is difficult for the
Army to satisfy what the State Depart
ment and the Congress, respectively,
want at the same time
Somewhat the same point of view has
prevailed about the Far East. The
State Department would have liked to
see huge army maintained there as
demonstration of potential force. The
military men wouldn't object to it,
either, as it fits in with their philosophy.
But they are being pressed by Congress
to demobilize.
1t wasn't, therefore, what Gen. Mac
Arthur said about being able to keep
an occupying army of 100000 that
caused furry here so much as it was
the fact that he said anything at time
when the War Department and the
State Department in Washington were
trying to keep Congress from demobi-
llzlng the entire Army in few weeks.
But maybe the supreme commander in
the Far East was just answering ques-
tions on the military force needed.
Whether he thought about the situation
IN Washington or was merely satisfying
the press correspondents in Tokyo
hasn't been explained. Anyway, Gen.
Macarthur knows by this time that
Washington has the postwar jitters and
that it is dangerous to say anything in
Tokyo lest it be out of tune with what
| postwar Washington is trying to do.
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