UNITED STATES ARMY

Evening Star, Issue 14491, 16 February 1911, Page 8

UNITED STATES ARMY

ALLEGED GRAVE DEFECTS. According to a report, for which Mr Dickinson, the Secretary of State for War. and General Wood, the- chief of the general army staff, are responsible, the United States, is, in a serious condition of unpreparedness for war (says the New York correspondent of the 'Daily Telegraph'). MiDickinson poin(6 out that the army js numerically very sinall 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 "secretdocument," and created somewhat of a scare at the Capitol, where the nature of its contents 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 affaire, 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 either coast," said Representative M'Lnchlan; "it will be further shown that we could only muster about 114,000 men, including the regular army and militia. The 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, its railroads, and its approaches. The country is entitled to know the real state of our national defence. A foreign country could land 200.000 troops on the Pacific coast in thirty days, and the only intimation of trouble would be the destruction of the mountain passes, thus preventing communication with the East. In the three States west of the Rocky Mountains —California, Oregon, and Washington—we have 3,000 regular troops and 5,000 State militiamen. The best military authorities say that it would take yeans to dislodge foreign troops if they ever secured a foothold under these conditions, and it won 1 - 1 "«*♦■ us a billion dollars."