Three Gestures

ARMY & NAVY

While the White House continued to regard the state of war-talking Europe as "not delicate" (see p. 21), the Government last week made three defensive gestures against possible attacks from the east by belligerent Europeans:

P:Since 1932, when the Naval Scouting Force was sent to join the rest of the navy in the Pacific. U. S. seapower on the Atlantic Coast has consisted of a training squadron of four old battleships-- and 16 antique destroyers. At President Roosevelt's command, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral William D. Leahy announced the organization of an Atlantic Squadron--seven brand-new cruisers, seven brand-new destroyers--commanded by Rear Admiral Forde Anderson Todd. The cruisers are fast (32 knots) 10,000-tonners, each with main batteries of 15 six-inch guns: Philadelphia (flagship), Brooklyn, Savannah, Nashville, Boise, Honolulu, Phoenix.

P:The President directed Assistant Secretary of War Louis Johnson to produce, within 60 days, a plan to render the electric power systems of 15 major cities less vulnerable than they now are to air or sea bombardment. The means: new super-power links giving such cities alternate sources of supply.

P:Secretary of War Woodring announced that General Headquarters of the Army's Air Force (Major General Frank M. Andrews, commanding) will soon be moved from Langley Field near Hampton, Va. to Scott Field, 275 miles southwest of Chicago. Object: to be within a few hours' flight of all continental air combat units, yet immune to foreign attack. Cost: $4,857,000 to make the high command comfortable at Scott Field, formerly a lighter-than-air base. Incidental (unpublicized) advantage: if the U. S. ever goes to the barricades and the army has to pull out its "White Paper'' for combating civil insurrection (TIME, Aug. 22), the air command will be centrally placed for operations in any direction.

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