AMERICAN ARMY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 March 1943, Page 3

AMERICAN ARMY

"" MR. STIMSON DEFENDS. EXPANSION PLANS. FIRM REPLY TO CRITICS. <By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) WASHINGTON, March 9. Congressional interference with the army’s carefully drawn plans for an army of 8,200,000 in 1943 would deal a heavier blow to hopes of final victory than any losses likely to be suffered in battle, said the Secretary of War, Mr Stimson, in a broadcast replying to demands that the size of the army be reduced. He said the size was fixed after months of study by the Army and Navy staffs, who thus had the benefit of all brains and accumulated research. “The plans have been worked out with full recognition of the shipping programme and equipment production,” he said. “Our combat plans, integrated with careful estimates of supply posibilities, governed the decisions of the size of our armed forces. The United States plans provide for 100 divisions of ground forces, while Germany has 300 hundred divisions, Italy 80, and Japan 86. The men who are going into actual combat have, placed their house in order. Their spirit and the programme are all that patriotism, plus careful planning, can effect. I now ask whether agriculture and industry should not likewise be placed on a more efficient war time basis.”