TAKEN BY SURPRISE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26043, 5 January 1946, Page 6

TAKEN BY SURPRISE

PEARL HARBOUR DEFENCES ADMIRAL’S EVIDENCE WASHINGTON, (Rec. KUO p.m.) , Jan. 3. Admiral H. R. Stark told the Congressional, committee investigating the Pearl Harbour disaster that he did not know anyone who knew in advance the precise hour and place of the Japanese attack. He did not know anyone or any group who manoeuvred in 1941 the Japanese situation to invite attack. He did not know anyone who, as Senator S. W. Lucas (Democrat, Illinois) had put it, “trapped, or led the Japanese into the attack to make it easier for Congress to give a declaration of war.” It was his opinion that all rumours, speculation and newspaper articles about men in high places knowing in advance the time and place of the attack were entirely without foundation. Admiral Stark said up to the time of the attack the navy’s best estimate on the whereabouts of the Japanese Fleet indicated it was in home waters. This was based on information from Admiral Hart, who was then com-mander-in-chief of the Asiatic Fleet, and was in a better position than Admiral Kimmel to get such information. Admiral Kimmel’s analysis at November 26 placed two Japanese carriers in the eastern Marshalls. Senator Lucas interjected: “ Then the very carriers that Admiral Hart talked about as being in Japanese waters were the carriers that struck Pearl Harbour? ” Senator Lucas said he thought that Admiral Stark as Chief of Naval Operations, would know the whereabouts of the units of the Japan&se_Fleet. _ ___ "~Admiral”Stark replied that the information was difficult to obtain. He had only estimates derived from piecing together scraps of news. Representative B. W. Gerhart (Republican, California) asked Admiral Stark what he meant when he wrote to Admiral Kimmel on November 7, 1941, “We are at war in the Atlantic.” Admiral Stark said that American warships sometimes served in convoys under the command of British officers with orders to shoot any German or Italian forces encountered. It is expected that Admiral Stark will complete his evidence this week. The committee will go into recess to January 15, when the displaced com- . manders, Admiral Kimmel and .Admiral Short, will be called to tell publicly for the first time their story of the disaster. Admiral Stark gave evidence of an intimate conversation in the summer of 1944 with President Roosevelt, who confessed that the Pearl Harbour attack came to him as a shocking surprise. Admiral Stark added: “I am not trying to make out a case for the President. He was expecting a Japanese attack to the south; so was I. Admiral Stark added that in August, 1941, the navy established a “Southeast Pacific naval force,” consisting of two 7500-ton cruisers, with orders to open fire against German and Italian surface raiders within its sector.