PACIFIC DEFENCES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 October 1940, Page 6

PACIFIC DEFENCES

UNITED STATES NAVY & BASES READY TO MEET CHALLENGE. MR COMPTON’S DECLARATION. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) WASHINGTON, October 17. Mr Colgate W. Darden, chairman of a Congressional Committee, returned from inspecting the Pacific defences. He said that the United States need anticipate no serious threat on the Pacific coast. With the present Navy, he saw no reason for public concern over strained relations with Japan, asserting that he found more tension in Washington than in the coast States or in Hawaii. The Assistant Navy Secretary, Mr Compton, stated that the United States was now ready to meet the challenge of any aggressor. The construction of the Aleutian, Mid-Pacific and Puerto Rico bases was from six to eight months ahead of schedule. Others were rapidly being completed. When the programme is completed, the United States and the whole Western Hemisphere should be able to stand impregnable against attack from any possible combination of enemies. The new turbines installed in United States warships would give them an advantage over foreign ships in cruising radius and economy. “We no longer have to concede speed superiority to foreign navies,” Mr Compton declared.