"These Island Harbors"

The world's diplomats argued behind closed doors last week over the question of international trusteeship of colonial areas and island bases. But Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, boss of the world's greatest navy, made his position clear: the bases which were won in World War II by U.S. arms must be kept by U.S. arms. Said he:

"These atolls, these island harbors, will have been paid for by the sacrifice of American blood. They will have been scooped out of sand and rock, coral and volcanic ash, by a generation of Americans giving their service, their ingenuity, and their money. . . . How long can the United States afford to continue a cycle of fighting and building and winning and giving away--only to fight and build and win and give again? Rich as we are, we do not have the human or physical resources to dissipate our patrimony, generation after generation, in this manner." Naval operations in World War II had indicated clearly which were the important bases. Among them: Kwajalein and Eniwetok in the Marshalls; Saipan and Tinian in the Marianas; the Palaus, and perhaps such farflung winnings as Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

For the first time in its history the U.S. Navy had real control of the Pacific, and the bases to keep it. No one doubted that it was determined to make its own fight on the issue of trusteeship.

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