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Show Washington, D. C. 'INSIDE' ON ALEUTIANS The inside story can now be told of why the Japs were able to lane in the Aleutian islands and bomb th U. S. naval base at Dutch Harboi with so little opposition. As wltt most things in this war, the problerr goes back to lack of foresight, and also, to some extent, lack of army-navy army-navy co-operation. Not generally known .Is the fad that the navy in September, 1941, some two months before Pearl Harbor, Har-bor, refused to let the army build an air base on Umnak island tc guard the navy's Dutch Harboi, base. What happened was that Senator Brewster of Maine, a member oi the Truman committee and of the naval affairs committee, flew tc Alaska last September with Brig. Gen. Arthur Wilson to ascertain whether Alaska needed further fortifications. for-tifications. At Kodiak they met Brig. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, I commander of the army's forces,! whose father, a famous Civil war commander, once helped to pay Ulysses S. Grant's way home from West Point and later surrendered to Grant in Tennessee. General Buckner wanted to go on from Kodiak to Dutch Harbor with Senator Brewster, and although the navy was willing to supply an amphibian am-phibian plane to the senator, they balked at having Genera; Buckner go along, referred to him as a "hitch-hiker." Finally, however, the party, including in-cluding General Buckner, went on to Dutch Harbor and located an excellent ex-cellent site for a flying field on Umnak Um-nak island. Immediately upon-their return, Senator Brewster arranged for a senate appropriation to build an air base at Umnak, while the war department prepared to proceed. pro-ceed. Navy Says No. The war department also notified the navy of its move, since the army is charged with protecting the shore establishments of the navy. A few weeks later, however, word came back from the navy that it did. not want the army to build an air base on Umnak island to protect Dutch Harbor. When senators asked Vice Admiral Frederick J. Home why, he replied: "The navy can protect Dutch Harbor." Har-bor." This was in late September. Two month'; later, after Pearl Harbor, the navy frantically demanded an air base to protect Dutch Harbor, but it had to be started during the snow and ice of an Alaskan winter. Therefore the date of completion was July, 1942. Probably the Japs knew this date. They have had fishing vessels cruising cruis-ing through the Aleutians off and on for some time. At any rate it was the first week in June, one month before the Umnak air base was finished, that the Japs struck. And when they bombed Dutch Harbor, the navy's flying patrol boats there were helpless. Heavy and slow, they lacked protection from the army's fast pursuit planes, so speedy Jap Zero fighters made mincemeat of them. Lack of a nearby army air base from which fighters and bombers could protect the rest of the Aleutians Aleu-tians undoubtedly contributed also to the ease with which the Japs took Kiska harbor and the western Aleutians. PERSISTENT LEON The army doesn't seem to think that hard-hitting Leon Henderson, piice-fixing boss of the OPA, is lethargic about wanting to put price ceilings on tanks, guns, trucks and other army material for which il is now paying top prices. In a knock-down, drag-out session in the oifice of mild-mannered Tin-dersecrfttary Tin-dersecrfttary of War Patterson, Hen-j'von Hen-j'von banged on the table, told Patterson the army was paying too niuc'i, that he demanded the powei 'o pul joriro ceilings on army sup- pi 'OS "I'm going to keep after you on ! -his till 1 got it," Henderson stormed. ' W.ien 1 was younger and I was lu'.irfng a girl, I kept after her until I I got !c-. And that.s what.s gQtag t r.;; -,-en now." C M'ITAL CHAFF ; C Frv.k Crillo, president of the I 1 j-'tul Rub'.-er Workers, is one mar j v." .,,eMs t bdieve that labor lead-! lead-! ers at. heme are more necessary i tllu:l f!t'h, at the front. He has i K:,,ori from the Rubber Worker I ' asved fr his old job back ir I he anny-not a cellophane commis- "you can see through it but il Piotect, from the draft) He wanti w be a s-. --scant. C The na vy has wisely drafted som m jI.B.dgar Hoover's FBI sleuths Z V i:'un naval 'ntdligence of j'Ci'S. Tncy are doing a bang-uj v.5TnUman commlee has per ! cv! f amy t0 lchd " Brig he '; F."n ; Lowc' a Mne Repub , l-. js its executive officer. WasAr W frm Hollywood t( Vh,Parlicipate ta An H ith iJRd Show' demur. ' dred d , L rd Sld several un-"tat un-"tat on WOrth of bonds "t eact maLn ,0 AIbuerque on, man handed her $1,000 in cash. |