Palmyra actually is a group of fifty islets enclosing a U-shaped lagoon and aggregating less than a square mile of land surface. Naval informants said a small portion ôf the land area for buildings and radio equipment would serve military purposes. A seaplane operating base might be developed in the lagoon, it was indicated. To the west the Navy already controls a string of islets c tending beyond Midway, available as emergency shelters for long-range patrol planes. Two hundred miles beyond Midway is Kure, which President Roosevelt transferred to the Navy in 1936.
A measure which will come before the new Congress which convenes next week would authorize a $5,000,-
000 naval air station at Kodiak Island, Alaska, and an $800,000 auxiliary seaplane base for patrol planes across the Island of Oahu, Hawaii, from the Pearl Harbour ñavai base.
Plans also are under way to develop Pearl Harbour, America's Singapore of the Pacific," to provide anchorage for any fleet that might be needed for any future emergency.
The few present deficiencies of the great naval base on the Island of Oahu will be eliminated. to make it adequate for any need in peace or war time—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.