Basis for Bases

Out of his brief case last week Frank Knox pulled assorted reasons for extending Lend-lease. The House Foreign Affairs Committee was only mildly interested. But off his cuff the Navy Secretary produced a clincher: a by-product of Lend-Lease, said he, will be our Allies' willing ness to be generous about transferring Pacific bases to the U.S.

Said Frank Knox: "We are not avid for more territory. We do not want to take sovereignty of anything. But it would be wise to insist upon complete control and possession of a sufficient number of bases in the Pacific to insure that both our naval and air strength will be effective against any future aggression in that part of the world."

Committee members ate it up: this was good, red meat to outpost-hungry Congressmen. Frank Knox had to backtrack a little under questioning; such a scheme was not now under consideration, said he, and it was "what might be called wishful thinking."

But Frank Knox had said enough to revive smoldering fires in both Houses. Speakers admitted this might be a bad time for territorial demands, that the Allies were paying for U.S. machines with blood, that there was a war to be won. But mostly the admissions were rhetorical devices to introduce more reasons why the U.S. had to demand complete and permanent title to bases or islands considered necessary for defense.

In the Senate, North Carolina's Robert R. Reynolds spoke bluntly: "Let us get those bases now, because if we do not get them now, we never will get them. Every other nation on earth is looking after its interests, so why should we not now, at this late date, look after the interest and the defense of our country?"

Said Maryland's Millard Tydings: now is the time for the U.S. to demand permanent title to Atlantic bases obtained on a 99-year lease from Britain in exchange for 50 old destroyers. It astounded him, he added, that the Government had not long since asked for possession in fee simple of these bases, as a token of appreciation for what the U.S. has given Britain under Lend-Lease.

Georgia's Carl Vinson, chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee, piped up that he would appoint a subcommittee to study the "development and acquisition" of bases in French, Netherlands and Japanese possessions. Again (see p. 23) it was not a good week for the Brotherhood of Man.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.