BASED ON SHANGRI LA

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 9, 10 July 1943, Page 4

BASED ON SHANGRI LA

When American planes, under the command of General Doolittle, raided Tokio over a year ago the question which commentators posed for themselves was: "Where did the planes come from?" That question probably puzzled Tojo as well, and he received no more enlightenment than anybody else when, at one of President Roosevelt's intriguing Press conferences, a common agreement was reached that the planes | were, based on Shangri La. Whatever may be the secret, it seems clear from a Washington cable message which we publish today that before very long Tokio will be raided again—and from Shahgfi La. An aircraft-carrier is being built in the United States now, financed by sales of war savings stamps during July, "for the express purpose of bombing Tokio," and the President has given his approval to a suggestion that the carrier should be named Shangri La. Tojo will get little comfort from the announcement. It is true that aircraft-carriers, which can launch planes against Japanese cities, can also be sunk by land-based planes, but, according to Rear-Admiral Blandy, chief of the United States Navy's ordnance bureau, the day may not be far distant when carriers may become less vulnerable. Admiral Blandy refuses to accept the proposition that Pearl Harbour and the loss of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse proved that the day of the battleship

is over. He has recalled the battle* ship "from the limbo to which many observers consigned it," and has proposed for it a new task. The battleship, says the Admiral, can be used to defend the aircraft-carrier against planes. It can keep up with carriers, cruisers, and destroyers, can hit harder and longer than a carrier, and is much harder to sink. Admiral Blandy's proposition certainly opens up great possibilities. Whether it is practicable will be a matter for the experts to decide.