DEFENCE IN ALASKA

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21208, 3 September 1940, Page 7

DEFENCE IN ALASKA

UNITED STATES BASES PEOPLE FORM BATTALION (By Telegraph.—Special to Times) AUCKLAND, Monday Defence preparations in Alaska by the United States were mentioned by the Governor of the Territory, Dr. Ernest Gruening, who arrived to-day by the American clipper. Dr. Gruening said there was under construction three navy and two army bases, all to be fully equipped as air stations. The navy bases were at Sitka, on the “pan-handle” strip of coastal territory in the south-east, on Kodiak Island, off the southern coast, and at Butch Harbour, in the eastern Aleutian Islands. The army bases were at Fairbanks, about 300 miles from the sea, in the centre of the territory, and at Anchorage, at the head of Cook Inlet, on the south coast. At Fairbanks three shifts were being worked, the continuous daylight of the Arctic summer having made this easily possible in recent months. When the bases were ready, United States military and naval forces would be moved to Alaska. So far as the Navy was concerned, this could not be done earlier, since the nearest establishments of the kind were as far away as Hawaii and Guam. The people of the territory- had contributed their share to defence by forming a battalion of four companies of the National Guard.