The Assistant Secretary said that a preliminary survey had revealed that at present the defences of the United States are woefully lacking in equipment. He pointed out that the army alone depends on industry r 7,300 items or requisites of defence, of which 55 are "critical" items not manufactured in peacetime.
"If called into battle today, the army would be short of artillery auks, combat cars, aeroplanes, machine-guns, semi-automatic rifles, antitank guns, ammunition, gas-mask: searchlights, telescopes and quadrants, These shortages must be made good now," he declared.
Senator Burton K. Wheeler, Democrat of Montana, announced that he was swinging over to the side of the rearmament adherents.
For a long time I felt it was nonical to build a big navy because efficient for a defensive warfare However in view of activities in Europe and Asia, I think the United States should build an air force to equal or surpass any in the world for purely defensive purposes," he aid
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.