HAVEN IN ALASKA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 162, 8 June 1940, Page 6

HAVEN IN ALASKA.

By no means as fantastic as it might appear to be on superficial examination is the suggestion that the population of Alaska be increased by admitting without quota restrictions people to whom a haven in this northern country would be a boon. Bleak its climate undoubtedly is—though on the seacoast the temperature rarely drops below Fahrenheit in the -winter, the interior witnesses extremes as great as seventy degrees below freezing point—the natural health conditions are usually considered about the best in the world. Disease germs are fewer and fever conditions less likely to prevail than in most other countries, and the outdoor life, though rigorous, is generally conducive to a good physique. But to-day there are other good reasons why this country of over 586,000 square miles which was purchased by the United States from Russia in 1867 should carry a larger population. Strategists cannot ignore the fact that, if the war embraces the Near East, Russia may be fighting on the Pacific front. The United States has _ shown its awareness of the position by providing huge appropriations to establish a large base at Anchorage, and there have been suggestions, chiefly from British Columbia, that an Alaskan Arctic coast highway be constructed to America. There is a gap of 1200 miles which would require to be spanned, and, on the whole, Canadians do not view the proposal in a favourable light, but there are grounds for believing that the strategical - value of such a highway may overcome objections. The Behring Strait gap between Siberia and Alaska is comparatively narrow —much too narrow TindGr. circumstancGS of distrust and a general resort to military expediency —and there seem excellent reasons a sparsely populated part of the North American continent should be more strongly held.