Salt Lake Telegram | 1925-10-04 | Page 29 | Panama Canal Defense Passe

PANAMA CANAl CANAl- 1 DHEN E PASSE Declared Vital Point in Air Attack i Ii Los LOS ANGELES GELES Oct 3 cAP cAP- AP AP- AP senator Senator William H. H King of the nate naval na committee in a conI con- con I ence here today with W W. r. r B B. experimental expert for the I nry during the world word war who InKs hs h As s been compiling an exhaustive r rt at the senators senator's request on onil val il conditions ort oil the Pacific was wasby i td by Shearer that the totally inq in- in q equate euate defenses on the Panama nal constitute a vital point in inthe the the present airplane controversy at nt I. I I. I t hearers hearer's report to Senator King C Th day a called to the latter's atteno atten- atten o n the fact that n naval i al war cole col- col oie oi- oi l 1 g e e findings show that In a a. a war on the Pacific a fleet can be maln- maln Ined ned only at Panama and that f. f from to ships are required tb ro to supply the fleet from the At- At i l l owing to lack of naval nava bases on the Pacific Continuing the Shearer report aId taid Geographically the Panama can- can 11 lies open to attack from the air all from four points namely foreign I territory both north and south of it and an all air carriers on the Atlantic and Pacific sides I The only possible defense Is an I I equal or superior air all force A prop proper er submarine defense of the canal canil woul would l protect it only from bombardment bombardment bombardment bombard bombard- ment by capital ships and possible aero attacks ba based ed on hostile airplane airplane air air- plane jlane carriers leaving still as a a. tremendous menace an air all attack started from foreign territory north and south of ot that waterway The objective of ot the enemy would not be to capture the Panama Panama Pan Pan- ama canal but to destroy it and thus break the supply lines from the Atlantic to our fleet on the Pacific Pa Pa- The he report of ot Admiral Admiral R R. E E. I Coontz on the last Panama fleet maneuvers shows that the canal can be captured The only recommendation recommendation so far fai has been to In Increase Increase increase In- In crease the gun Jun calibre there from 14 to 1 16 G inches This is no defense defens against air nil attack If Lf governmental backing to a great commercial aviation program to be used In a war var emergency is accepted as compromise In the present present present pres pres- ent airplane controversy the Panama Panama Panama Pan Pan- ama canal still would be left de defenseless defenseless defenseless de- de against aerial attack Consequently the Ule crux of the question centers about three points namely First if our first line of de defense defense de- de the navy Is to to fight at all the Panama canal must be kept Open Second the keystone of the canals canal's defense must be th th air all I Third the canal as It it stands today toda is one of the most vulnerable points if not the most vulnerable in our national armor armor