UNITED STATES ARMY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 25, 31 January 1911, Page 11

UNITED STATES ARMY.

ALLEGED GRAVE DEFECTS. According to a report, foi* which Mr. Dickinson, the United States Se-cretary of State for War, and General Wood, the Chief of the General Array Staff, are responsible, the United States is in a serious condition of unpreparedness for war. Mr. Dickinson points out that the army is numerically very small, and the fortifications weak, and asks for a Council of National Defence to remedy the alleged weaknesses. This report was sent to the House of Representatives as a_ "secret document," and created somewhat of a scare at the Capitol, where the nature of its con- j tents soon leaked out. After a conference the document was returned to the War Department on the ground that the House could not receive a secret report. General Wood appeared before the ! House Committee on military affairs and- confirmed the sensational statements in the suppressed report. He discussed the whole subject of national defence, and laid particular emphasis on the possibility of an attack from the Orient. He did not express any alarmist views as to the danger of any immediate invasion, but talked confidentially of the need that Congress, as a prudent and effective act, should take immediate action to guard against any possible trouble from Japan or China. "The figures in the report show that we need 450,000 men to defend eithercoast," said Representative M'Lachlan ; "it will be further shown that we could only muster about 114,000 men, including the regular army and militk. The j Japanese to-day, know the contour of our Western coast better than the Americans. Japanese are now employed as ranchmen out West. They spend Sundays sketching the country, itiT railroads, and its approaches. Tho country is entitled to know the real stats of our national defence. "A foreign country could land aOO,OOO troops en the Pacific coast in I thirty days, and the only intimation of trouble would Tje the destruction of the j mountain passes, thus preventing communication with the East. In the fchreo States west of the Rocky Mountains — California, Oregon, and Washington — we have 3000 regular troops and 5000 State militiamen. The best military authorities say that it would take years to dislodge foreign troops if they ever secured a foothold under these conditions, and it would cost us a billion dollars. "• '