PACIFIC NAVAL BASES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 April 1941, Page 7

PACIFIC NAVAL BASES

DEFENCES AT GUAM 8: SAMOA. Explaining the significance of the vote in the American House of Representatives. with only one dissenting voice, to strengthen the defences of Guam and Samoa. the “Christian Science Monitor" says:—Besides signifying the awareness of Americans to the danger confronting their way of life, the House vote' shows a hardheaded appreciation of American defence needs in the Pacific. Americans can say. as the British used to, “We've got the ships, we’ve got the men, we've got the money, too." But they must stop to ask themselves: “Have we got the naval bases?” A.nd the answer, as

Iho House vote implies, is "No." There is Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. Some 5000 miles westward lie the Philippines, where American responsibilities will exist until 191'). But the United States' powerful Pacific squadron--most of its Navy—is hampered by lack of bases. An agreement to provide joint Anglo-American use of Pacific bases would seem a logical remedy for this deficiency. By sharing these bases with Britain. Americans could vastly increase the striking power cf their Navy in the Pacific without building a single new ship. And the key base of course, is Singapore. American warships are not strangers in that “hornets' nest." They were guests a' the ceremonies with which TL’itain formally opened the base in 1933,