General MacArthur's programme was based on the thesis that the islands could be defended through a mass training programme in which every man would be a_ potential fighter. But the anomaly of the situation became apparent after the Nazi invasion of the Low Countries last May. Even though the islands possessed a huge trained army, this would be helpless unless equipped with modern arms. The Philippine Army possesses a "navy" composed of two 55-foot torpedo boats, a flying force of about 35 small planes, and no large coastal guns. Sr. Quezon frankly doubted his government could afford the cost of the armaments necessary to defend 7,000 islands.
First step in the new programme of ce-operation between the US. Army and the Commonwealth's armed forces was the announcement that the Philippine Army was strengthening its forces in Mindanao, large island at the southern extremity of the archipelago and less than 100 miles from Dutch Borneo. The U.S. Army maintains only a small force at Mindanao at Pettit Barracks, Zamboanga, Coincidental with the revision of the Cgmmonwealth's military pro-the U.S, -Army. has substantially strengthened its manpower and fighting equipment in the Philippines. Prior to this year little new new equipment had been sent to U.S. Army posts here on the theory that American armed forces would be withdrawn from the islands in 1940.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.