NAVAL BASES

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 59, 7 September 1945, Page 7

NAVAL BASES

U.S.A. IN THE PACIFIC

PROPOSAL BY DEPARTMENT (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.)

WASHINGTON, September 5. The Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Hensel, told a Press conference that the Navy intends to recommend to Congress the establishment of the following major bases in the Pacific: Kodiak (Alaska), Adak (Aleutians), Hawaii, Balboa (Panama), the Western Pacific Islands of Guam, Saipan, Tinian. Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Manus, and the Philippines. "These bases include only those that we need for our own use," said Mr. Hensel, "and are limited to those that we should intend to maintain and that are susceptible to defence. In addition, other Pacific islands such as Wake, Midway, Eniwetok, Kwajalein, and Truk should be kept solely to prevent their use by any other Power."

The territories named, except Balboa, are either American or were captured from the Japanese. The bases would form roughly two arcs from America, one extending in the North Pacific to the central Aleutians, and the other right across the Pacific in a belt mainly north of the Equator.