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Show Canal Threat Is Deadly. Knickerbocker States Observer Advocates More Armaments to Guard 'Life Belt' of United States By H. B. KNICKERBOCKER Copyright 13. by INS PANAMA CANAL ZONE. March 21 (INS) Americans are accustomed accus-tomed to regard our continent as naturally impregnable by reason of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the United States fleet, able undivided to deal with any single foe. Nobody in the Canal Zone agrees with this easy optimism snd today our defense authorities are reckoning with a possibility which never came into serious consideration considera-tion before the Bcrlto-Rome-Tokyo axis and the SOOO-sniie air bomber were created. Fulfillment ef this possibility would make the Panama caaal, in- 1 4 , stead of an asset the greatest threat' to our national existence. It is the possibility of the capture, not the destruction, but the capture of the canal by enemies in war la which both Atlantis and Pacific powers would be engaged against the United Unit-ed States. Ones la their hands, the enemy powers could use the canal to shift their combined fleets back and forth te the ocean where they could do the most damage to America. If the United States fleet were In the Atlantic, the enemy fleets could harass the Pacific coast, and If ear fleet then attempted to speed around Cape Horn, ths enemy fleets OeatMe Peee Peer) IClleeM IMI t Knickerbocker Says Panama Canal l Could Not Withstand Land Attack tCeathraa float Pate Oee could slip through the canal and t bombard the cities of the Atlantic coast, b That rantaetier A succession of such maneuver could so exhaust and divide the , U. 8. fleet that it finally would fall , victim piecemeal to an enemy al-. al-. ways able to preeent a superior . force. It this fantastic? I Nothing la fantastic In this narrow nar-row strip of land and Infinitely ! precious water. The possible cap-, cap-, tura of tha canal la today engaging , tha urgent attention of the men . who have tha responsibility of de-' de-' fending America's 10 by 60-mlle life t belt. Canal Zone defense la weak large- ' ly because the American public thinks of the canal In terms of the i great war, when Japan wat an ally and the airplane was in its infancy. Htrs today it it atatsd as a simple fact that tha Japaneee could load ' 90,000 man oa freighter "for China," Chi-na," and get there to the Canal Zone before they could be identified. Approach Is Easy Japaneee merchant vessels con- stantly approach tha canal and arouse no suspicion. While the Atlantic coast of Panama ia lined with denee, aim oat impenetrable jungle, the Pacific coast from the ita Inevitable capture. Should they blow It up themselves to prevent Ita falling Into the hands of the enemy, or ahould they leave It intact with the hope of retaking it? But tha possibility of success of any such enemy operation lies eolely in tha continuance of the preeent inadequate defeases. Our autbori-tiea autbori-tiea declare they could make the zone Impregnable to capture by land, aa it ia by tea, if we take a few measures which would coat a fraction of what other nationa are spending for the protection of positions posi-tions Incomparably 'leas ' vital to them than tha canal is te us. More Mea Needed They Insist ws must increase our Canal Zone garrison from tha current cur-rent U.000 to 20,000 men. Chief extra expense would be for more barracks, already needed for the present garrison. To gst the troops to any possibly threatened point on the coast, the authoritiee demand roads, not now existing, capable of the speedy transport of artillery and machine gune. Our air fleet In the Canal Zone it probably better In quality than any in the world, but according to our experts, it ia woefully Insufficient Insuffi-cient in quantity. W need here BOO to W0 warp lanes. Likewise a great Increase of antiaircraft guns ia urgently required. At a rough estimate 1129.000X100 would improve by 10 timee the security se-curity of the canal against attack from land, sea, or air, according to the most responsible authorities. Tha turns Involved make a drop In the bucket of totalitarian arma-menta arma-menta spending. If America persists In drowsing along In tha comfortable belief that other nationa are as easy-going and inoffensive as w are, the awakening awaken-ing may be twift, terrible, and at the worst fatal for tha only great, rich, powerful nation that ever existed ex-isted for to long a time without being be-ing heavily armed. Tha nation could "leap to arms In the age before machine, but our national security today ia dependent in the first line upon the machine known at tha navy. That machine ia dependent for Its effectiveness upon another machine, the canal. It is no exaggeration to say that our national destiny could be determined by what happened to one of the canal locket Totalitarian set the fashion In armaments. Faced with America's problem they would make this strip of America impregnable impreg-nable if It coat them 30 timet the modest turn wa need to make K secure. ' canal to the Gulf of Montejo it one long, smooth beach. Perfect for landing. It is so broad and level that for 100 mile It could be an ideal air field. The attack would take place when the U. S. fleet waa in tha Atlantic. So understaffed and under-equipped under-equipped ia our service of Information Informa-tion and our coastwise lookout service ser-vice that it It Mated at a thorough possibility that such an enemy landing land-ing force could begin to disembark before ita presence waa known. Once having gained a foothold, the enemy would lose their potential disadvantage of trying to land ia the face of artillery. Attacks Are Possible Until now tha canal has not been properly fortified against such an assault by land. It is stated aa quite conceivable that such a landing land-ing force could rush the existing defense and capture by lateral attack at-tack tha present forts, constructed primarily for defense against attack at-tack from the tea. A measure of the earnestness of this apparently alarmist view it tha fact that thought haa been directed di-rected to the queetion of what the American defenders should do with the canal If they were faced with |
