DEFENCE EYES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 190, 10 May 1938, Page 11

DEFENCE EYES

Americans Western Protection SEAPLANE BASES Patrol Along 5000-Mile Line By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. (Received May 9, 8.35 p.m.) New York, May 9. America's western defences are being developed along a 5000-mile liu> cutting from north to south across the mid-I’acific aud anchored by five islands, says the Washington correspondent of the New York .“Herald Tribune.’’ These outposts represent defence eyes rather than strongholds. The general programme proposes seaplane liases starting at Dutch Harbour, Unalaska and Kodiak. The line for which patrol planes will be responsible runs south for 1000 miles to Midway Island, thence south-west for 1000 miles to Wake Island, thence 1800 miles south-east to Canton aud thence south 700 miles to Pago Pago. Active naval work at Midway Island is also ordered, and the same at Wake Island.

Later, with good landing harbours equipped with powerful radio stations, the. patrol planes will be able to cover a long line cutting across the Pacific and be able to spot foreign naval movements in advance.

UNITED STATES NAVY

Expansion Bill Attacked

Wasliington, April 29.

An attack by Senator la Follette on the Naval Bill is considered to be the most serious effort yet made to delay the final passage of the measure, which provides for more and bigger warships. He declared that the measure probably originated with the President and not with the navy, and was an instrument of President Roosevelt’s foreign policy, not a matter, of vital national defence. He denounced the expenditure of billions of dollars on armaments lu the midst of a period of economic crisis, and suggested that it was only being done in effort to divert national attention'from domestic privation.

He scoffed at the possibility of an attack by any foreign Power on the United States, now or in the visible future. “The real danger of war to the United States,” he said,- “lies in our foreign policy.” Senator Vandenberg also attacked the Bill, declaring, that an unconfirmed article which appeared in an Italian newspaper was the only basis on which the United States invoked the escalator clause, in order to bujld battleships exceeding 35,000 tons. He displayed a cutting from the “Giornale d'ltalia” stating that Japan was building 45,000-ton battleships. Senator Capper joined in the attack, stating: “The way to a dictatorship in the United States is'down the highway 3f a foreign war. I see in the passage »f this measure the means for a detnite pronouncement of foreign policy that will lead us into the affairs of Europe and Asia.”