Evening star., 1946-05-19

By JOSep
The vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean
is to become an American lake through
development of chain of land, sea and
air bases
None of the highly placed Washington
officials with whom this reporter has
discussed our Pacific plans will put the
matter that BADLY. But the things they
say add up to that for any one who can
add two and two. The Army and
Navy have, for once, agreed on what
we need, and the State Department is
now engaged in the delicate task of
negotiating with the other nations con-
cerned to work it out.
How it will be accomplished is mat
ter for horse trading but the overall
pattern is fixed-one way or another we
are going to have the use of the bases
needed to protect the approaches to
this hemisphere. Never again will we
be forced to acquire them, as in the
last war, through the bitter expenditure
of tens of thousands of lives and hun
dreds of millions of dollars.
Core Of the system will be triangle,
with its points resting on Hawaii, the
Marianas Guam Tinian and Saipan)
and Manus, of the coast of New Guinea.
Might Extend to Formosa
The westward line, passing through
the Marianas, will have extensions
northwest through the Volcano, Bonin
and Ryukuys Islands, which are of par
ticular interest to the Army Air Force,
and perhaps west to Formosa in which
the Nays interest is primary.
On the way from the western tip to
Manus there will be United States bases
in the Philippines, which we expect to
gain by treaty after the Filipinos at
tain independence next July.
The final leg of the triangle is from
Manus back to Hawaii, still the keystone
Of our Pacific defenses Here we have
run into some trouble Critical points
on this line are Funafuti, Canton and
Christmas Islands.
Until the recent war demonstrated
their strategic importance, no one cared
particularly about them. Both the
United States and Great Britain have
some sort of claim to sovereignty but
there has been no quarrel about it, be-
cause it didn't seem worth while and
Britain, more or less by default, has
taken over during peacetime years what
little there was to manage on these
islands
Rights" Are Sought.
Lately there have been stories. orig
mating both in Washington and Lon
don, that We have firmly asserted our
claim to sovereignty The fact is that
we have not gone quite that far, al
though we have sought rights" which
for all practical purposes come pretty
close to sovereignty 1t may be simply
that diplomacy prohibits the use of the
word. In any event, it has been avoided.
We would like, too, to have base in
the Galapagos Islands, vital to protec-
tion OF the Panama Canal, but these are
owned by Ecuador, and Ecuador has
set fantastic price on them. The
probability is that no deal can be
worked out which will give us access to
them. In that event Clipperton, north
and west of the Galapagos, will become
an important element in the Pacific
base chain. Clipperton is owned by
France, and if we are to acquire rights
to base there it would be through
treaty with that country.
Flanking the triangle on the north is
the Aleutlan Island chain, in itself of
tremendous IMPORTANCE as a strategic
defense line
There has been a lot of talk about the
tutlllty Of relying on advanced bases as
means Of protection in view of the
development of modern weapons which
make it possible to press button here
and destroy city half the world away.
Adherents of this theory hold that the
atom bomb, jet and rocket propulsion,
very long range airplanes, radio-guided
missiles, and others which automati-
cally find their way to the target, have
made obsolete the use of forward bases,
In the opinion of war planners, this
theory doesn't hold water.
Can Track W. Bombs.
We want, and are going to have.
base in Okinawa, others in the Aleu-
tlans. Assume that an enemy began an
attack with rocket such as the W.
with which defeated Germany almost
won the last war, and put an atomic
bomb in its warhead. The V-2s, faster
than sound, few at about 5000 miles an
hour They could be sighted, but not
tracked, on radar screens, as they then
existed. Now they can be tracked, at
5000 miles an hour, and there is reason
to believe that if rocket bombs are i'm
proved to a speed of as much as 10000
miles an hour, improved radar can
track them and improved target finding
missiles can knock them down.
One of the foremost and farseeing ex-
perts in air warfare put it this way to
the writer: If rocket-propelled atomic
bomb should be launched at the United
States from the west, radar would pick
it up at Okinawa, for instance, and we
could knock it down at Saipan. Or, if
it travelled the northern route, radar
could pick it up at Attu and we could
knock it down at Kodiak. You can turn
the map around, pick out any other
hypothetical enemy and arrive at the
same result. Because we are going to
have advanced bases east, west, north
and SOUTH
There will be difficulties in getting
other nations to accept our plans for
some of the bases we want. Mention
scale retooling of British industries
If that cannot be thought of in terms