PEARL HARBOUR ATTACKS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26027, 15 December 1945, Page 8

PEARL HARBOUR ATTACKS

INQUIRY CONTINUED WASHINGTON, (Rec. 8 p.m.) Dec. 13. “General Short was given a definite alert order before the Japanese attack and I feel that when you give a command to a high officer you expect it to be carried out,” said General G. C. Marshall at the Pearl Harbour inquiry. “ It was my own responsibility to the Secretary for War. I was responsible for the actions of the general staff. I was responsible for this very tragic thing which occurred; I am not attempting to evade that at all.” General Marshall added that he had no knowledge of any information before December 7 definitely pointing to attacks on Pearl Harbour. When General Marshall finished his evidence, the chairman, General A. W. Barkley, said the committee wished General Marshall on his new mission the same high success he had achieved in other fields. General S. Miles, former chief of Military Intelligence, said it was hours after the attack before they could ascertain what happened at Hawaii, Partly because of this no additional alerts were sent to General MacArthur in the Philippines. General Miles accepted full responsibility for not delivering to General Marshall on the night of December 6 the first 13 parts of the Japanese diplomatic message, which wound up next morning with the fourteenth part that spelt war. The first 13 parts did not indicate the Japanese intentions and he did not consider it necessary to arouse General Marshall that night. Representative B. W. Gearhart, a member of the Inquiry Committee, said he had been informed by someone who went through the attack that the Hickham field at Hawaii was on a full air alert from December 1 to December 6, but without explanation the alert was called off the day before the attack. He asked the committee to get the relevant documents.