Regarding plans for the fortification of Guam, President Roosevelt pointed out that Naval Board's report included Guam with fourteen other "urgent" projects costing a total of almost $600,000,000.
Asked specifically whether he favoured fortifying Guam, he said he favoured beginning the dredging operations immediately. He said he was concerned at present not so much with the long range programme, but with the nation's actual immediate needs, He said changes in world events in the next year might make it possible to abandon the naval programme as it stands today.
The President said the United States had not yet held any formal talks with Japan regarding the fortification of Guam, and failed to indicate whether such discussions were contemplated.
Meanwhile, Congressional leaders arranged to expedite the naval air base bill through Congress, Mr. Carl Vinson, Democratic Representative of Georgia, author of the bill and chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee, said public hearings on the bill probably would begin next week.
"Inescapable Necessity"
The Washington "Star" today strongly urged the United States to fortify Guam Island, to guarantee the continuation of the United States as a major Power in the Far East.
The paper said fortification of Guam was "an obvious, inescapable necessity" if the United States was to retain Hawaii and continue to occupy the Philippines or protect the Philippines in the event the islands receive their final independence.
The chief merit in the proposal to fortify Guam, the paper said, is that the Hepburn naval board recommended the move as an indispensable link in the American defence system, 5 "Certainly if we are to remain a Pacific Power—and we are—through the retention of Hawaii or as either continued occupants of the Philippines or their protector if they receive final independence, in any of these events, according to the reasoned and exhaustive findings of the experts who submitted the Hepburn report, the fortification of Guam is an obvious and inescapable necessity.
The paper urged Congress to "ignore the wild language regarding American fortification of Guam now appearing in the Tokyo militarist press.—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.