Show c U R washington D 0 AIR BASES cabled reaction from tokyo bindl caged that the japanese were clous that something more than appeared on the surface was behind cordell hulls warning against the invasion n of french indochina indo china in thle this they were right there was nobody in the navy deportment department Is shouting it from the housetops but the V U S fleet or at least most of irwill now remain in the pacific r previously ly it was considered nee ess iry to bring the fleet from hawaii and california in n order to station most of it around panama and the caribbean this would have made it impossible to keep a watchful eye on japanese operations in the direction of the malays balays and the dutch east indies all important sources of american tin and rubber probably it will still be necessary to bring a few ships to the atlantic side of the canal but the island base deal with great britain has now made it possible t to 0 police most of the caribbean and the atlantic seaboard by air instead of by sea NAVAL NOTES at first the chief improvement to tho the new U S bases on british is lands will be airports not only are they needed immediately but also are cheapest and qui quickest chest to construct naval bases which mean oil tanks and repair facilities take time to build and may never be constructed to any great extent the U S navy will take advantage of british naval facilities for the time being significant was the fact that many of the overage over age destroyers being sold to england were fitted out with cables to neutralize magnetic mines even before the deal was published by the president in other words there had been brenno no real doubt for i a week or so before the announcement that th the edeal deal would be closed close negotiations for naval bases by no means are terminated what the navy wants more than anything else is a good base basa in brazilian waters and if possible one in uruguay informal conversations regarding a brazilian base have been going on tor for some time U V S RE rearmament ARMAMENT DRIVE the bottleneck of american re armament to la fact factory ory expansion in order to produce more planes gunsard guns gun sand and tanks new factories are ore necessary and part of the delay has hag resulted from a wrong wrangle leover over how taxes shall bo paid on these new plant expansions in fairness to industry it should be noted that many of Us its leaders leader have gone ahead and financed their own plant expansion without waiting to see what the tax picture would be in fact some industrialists were to farsighted far sighted enough to begin more than a year ago companies which did this include new york shipbuilding newport news shipbuilding Beth bethlehem lehen shipbuilding bull ding bath iron works federal shipbuilding midvale steel carne gle gie illinois steel bethlehem steel bousch bausch and lomb beneral L electric lee ford instrument company edo aircraft grumman aircraft brewster aeronautical eclipse aviation and walter cadde probably the list takes in many others and because of th their eirl farsightedness sight edness these firms not only era are reaping good profits for themselves but also doing a service for the government ern ment for instance the elco company of bayonne N J cutup put up an plant extension about a year ago in order to manufacture motor torpedo Imos mosquito qu ito bonts boats As a result it is now turning over to the navy one new and badly needed mosquito boat each week however emong among many other manufacturers there has been backing and filling over factory expansion and how the new plants will be j taxed and financed there Is no question but tills this dickering has dell bitely slowed up the defense program r powder shortage serious powder to Is the bot bottleneck bottolene tlene ck of notional defense without it not a shot can bo be fired not even a revolver and powder shortage ts Is most serious it is to avoid these shortages in the future not only in fil regard to powder but also other othen essentials of i odem modem warfare that the govern ment Is 13 anxious to build some of its own punts plants or cr at least obtain a lien on them this also would solve the tax problem because industry would ha davs ve no ho need to ask for early amortize uon on its emergency expenditures government arms giants there are three general gene rat plans one is the arsenal completely owned and operated by the government such as the frankio frankford Frank tord rd arsenal in philadelphia two Is the factory compi completely ebely owned and operated by private in austry this was the practice employed during the world wa war three Is a compromise system whereby the government buys the ground and erects the factory then lets let the private manufacturer step to in and operate the plant tor for a management fee |