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Show NewsJ By PaULMaLIONJ Released by Western Newspaper Union, ARMY-NAVY UNIFICATION SHOULD START AT ONCE WASHINGTON. - Mr. Truman made the proper move to get his army-navy unification bill through congress. The navy had performed an all-out lobbying job against the program. It was in charge of Navy Assistant Secretary H. Struve Hen-sel, Hen-sel, who worked through the Navy League promoting speeches and articles by admirals, and arousing naval affairs committeemen in both houses. If Mr. Truman succeeds in stopping navy agitation, he will get his bill through because there is no other opposition, except that which may be continued by the naval committeemen who fear they may lose their seniority standing in their committee jobs. But the bill is not on the program for this session. ses-sion. The calendar of both houses is already crowded for the next several months, and the leaders are planning a summer recess to let the legislators go home and mend their broken fences in preparation for their re-election campaigns. The navy never had much of a case. No one can oppose unification as a theory. Appalling duplications of army and navy services filled the committee record of hearings. Army and navy competed with each other in bidding for such things as clothing, for example. In that line, one service might have a surplus of some items while the other had a deficiency. In negotiating their separate contracts, con-tracts, they were actively competing compet-ing against each other. Then again on small islands like Guam, there would be a naval hospital constructed construct-ed and maintained a mile away from an army hospital. It was shown also that in armament the navy and army encountered needless need-less conflict. Furthermore, the building of separate airports around the world caused duplication waste in many instances. NAVAL DELAYING ACTION In the face of such overwhelming evidence, the navy centered its campaign largely upon delaying action ac-tion by congress. Its basic fear and claim was that the navy was to be put under the army by unification which simply is not true. The Thomas subcommittee has reported report-ed now. a. bill which proposes to set up the unification this way: A single sin-gle secretary of common defense in the cabinet, with three secretaries under him, one each for army, air and navy; then an over-all chief of staff (with a recommendation that the President rotate this office between be-tween the three services, giving it to army for a year, then to air and then to navy), three assistant secretaries sec-retaries representing each branch of the service, and finally legalization legaliza-tion of the joint chiefs of staff set up during the war to provide cooperation co-operation in strategy between the services. This setup preserves the navy as just as much an independent unit as the army or the air forces. It does not put the navy under the army. But it is true the armv numerically, is stronger, and mav wield a greater influence in the combined department than the admirals ad-mirals or air arm, despite the legal equality of each branch. Delay in enacting the program until next year will greatly impede efficiency in national defense. Even if the legislation could be enacted today, at least a year or more would be required to work out and effect the vast details of reorganiza- While the Soviet seems to be leisurely withdrawing its military "my from Iran, it is leaving be- e"cel,enPt0mnCaI which has " exce lent chance of absorbing the country, as Britain and the U S have n , m tary or political. Next possible Russian move may already defined in the official Mos runn,rrn,aIS- T',iS is a s ice wonny 'r TCP0H 10 trust- a is nor'l1CS, hC1'e "u1ic", or any ot " C"ciltion try this, casual0 st f,rjT, VenUlre- "o k"ows how many sVu " ',e nUSrna;dSemaP-'- "?ortn h-taKcs h-taKcs of farm t " J slwt' "id trucks Z 1mwvo, cannot hope to ?' whore " l odTndeSk!r e"d in IMC., were ow T U r'Stu;,n!,i,iw! tlvcs, freight ' '"como ""0 -omeL, rr,',Pnper- hls figures sX ? laSM- 1,1 s""rt mo' crUi flS:n nfk"r ' ed. "kme can be trust |