The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The sun. FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1939. UNCLE SAM'S NAVAL PLANS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 16, 20 January 1939, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The sun.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1939. UNCLE SAM'S NAVAL PLANS.

For the cause that tacks assistance, For the irrovg that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the pood that we can do.

To appreciate the strategical .significance ot.' the r nile.l States plan.- to fortify (iuatn, one musl note the location of this i.-land on the map. Over f)4()0 miles acro.-s the Pacific from the Californian coa.-t and o'MH) juiles beyond the great naval base at Hawaii, (•unm in only 1500 miles from the Philippines and 2000 miles from Japan. It is territorially not in the American but in the Asiatic zone, and as a naval base would establish the spearhead of America's naval defence within a short distance of the Japanc.-c liianduti 1 islands where firmament aclmty has created a now danger to Briti-li and American interests. Such an extension of American fortifications can be regarded only in one light, as a reply to Japanese action in making a complete breakaway from the letter anil spirit of the Washington Treaty. Feeling against Japan in the I uiteil States has hardened visibly under provocalif>n from Tokyo and in consequence of the aggressive challenge to Western interests, in China and particularly along the Asiatic littoral. (iuam, until recently a little known spot far oft the beaten track of shipping, sprang into prominence when it became a link in the chain of trans-Pacific airlines. Its selection for defence, therefore, has aerial as well as naval importance. Besides Guam the L nited States possesses numerous other islands stretching from the Aleutians in the north to Samoa in the South, and spread out fanwise, with Hawaii as the natural centre. The fortification scheme includes selected points over this vast expanse of ocean. President Roosevelt's proposal for an expenditure of 60,000,000 dollars may be only the first stage in creating a new naval frontier in the Pacific, and what follows will probably depend ' largely on Japan's reactions, which are incalculable at the present moment. To Britain, Holland "and France, and to Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the move by the United States is u welcome sign of American determination to play an effective and, indeed, a major part in shaping the course of Pacific events.