The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 10

YOUR- NATIONAL WHIRLIGIG 10 BROOKLYN EAGLE, MONDAY, JAN. 26, 1 942 VATFRLOO RAY Pearl Harbor Report Shocking Courts-Martial Are Required TUCKER'S 0f-Ol LETTER FROM WASHINGTON Federal authorities have warned local officials that Washington and New York will probably be the initial objectives of an enemy bombing attack. This tip-off explains why Mayor LaGuardia will resign as CiviUan Defense Director and the District of Columbia Commissioners havi dropped all other problems to concentrate on protective measures. The Germans, who are expected to launch the aerial strafing of our financial and political capitals, would destroy no great war factories in the anticipated raid. With th nnssihle exeeDtion of minor damage to Man The report on the Pearl Harbor disaster by the Presidential Inquiry Board headed by Supreme Court Justice Roberts is a shocking document.

It reveals an almost unbelievable state of unpre-paredness there in spite of specific instructions from Washington, and the evidence presented fully warrants the finding that Admiral Husband E. Kim-mel and Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short were guilty of dereliction of duty.

Prior to the publication of the report there had been question as to whether adequate warning was sent to Hawaii from the heads of the Army and Navy at Washington on the critical state of the "peace" negotiations with the Japanese. The board, which supported the report unanimously, stated that specific warnings were forwarded, particularly one on November 27. Neither Admiral Kimmel nor General Short adopted adequate plans to meet the emergency envisaged and in fact did not even confer with respect to the orders then issued. Aside from the disregard of orders, we get the picture of a complete lack of co-operation between the Army and Navy another striking demonstration of the need of a unified command in a situation like that in Hawaii when the two services have joint responsibilities of defense. Happily that has now been remedied.

When the Japs attacked, none of the essential steps had been taken such as full-time use of the air craft warning system and inshore and distant In effect this meant that in the one moment when the hundreds ot millions of dollars lavished on this great naval base could have been called on to good effect, the responsible commanders had not moved a finger to be ready to use the machinery provided and that in the face of pointed warnings from Washington and the known record of the Japs for treachery. The report, however, did question the character of some of the War Department warnings which stressed anti-sabotage rather than aggressive military measures. And it seemed to us that the Army and Navy heads at Washington should have followed up to be certain their orders had been executed. One amazing disclosure in the report was that a Japanese submarine was sunk off Pearl Harbor by an American naval patrol plane and a naval vessel over an hour before the mass airplane attack. Yet no general warning was Issued although the Implications of the sub's presence was obvious.

To us this failure was the most difficult feature of the report to understand. In spite of the high ranks of Kimmel and Short, the circumstances require that steps be taken at once to bring them before courts-martial. Maintenance of the morale of the armed services demands no less. Furthermore, we must be sure that none of the lessons of this disaster be lost. hattan's shipping facilities, there would be no military value in this suicide storming.

According to Army dopesters, the foe aims at maiming American morale, already they think, because of Hawaiian and Philippine reverses. 1 The same motive lay behind their blitzkrieg on London, which has fewer martial industries than either New York or Washington. But Hitler believes that an assault on Wall Street, metropolitan sxyscrapers, me wnite nouso and the Capitol would demoralize us. Those are the targets listed In the military memo to LaGuardia and President Roosevelt. America's most popular military hero Gen.

Douglas MacArthur must fight it out tragically alone on the Batan Peninsula. Army-Navy experts admit sorrowfully that they cannot assist his bcleagured forces except indirectly. To spnd him aircraft Is Impossible because thera are no landing fields in the wild and wooded terrain to which he has withdrawn. He cannot be succored by sea now that the Japs have captured Subic Bay, an ideal landing spot and have established a naval block-; ade in the area where his U. S.

Regulars and Filipinos are waging a last stand that makes Custer's holdoff look like a Metropolitan Opera performance, which it was. The only possible relief is the dispatch of troops. FOLLOWING HIS FOOTSTEPS Discussion Brooklyn Point-by-Point Of Program fo HEFFERNAN says planes and tanks to the Island of Mindanao, where a few "forgotten Filipinos" are still in action. By reinforcing them we may corn-Del the JaDS to weaken unit. hpRiptrino.

T.nnn i Number 9 Elimination of Old, Insanitary Raymond Street Jail We're Getting A Blueprint of Internationalism That Is to Come But so far, In view of Tokio's apparently Inexhaustible supply of soldiers, our Mindanao operations have not relieved the pressure on "Doug's" small body of 40.000 men. Washington realizes that it cannot afford to let him surrender or be killed. Such a fate for the most valiant field commander since Grant would be a symbolic and psychological shock to the people of the United States. Every third letter to Congressmen these days asks; "Why don't we send help to Mac-Arthur?" The answer, as explained above, is that we can't. But Chief of Staff Marshall has cabled private word to the doughty General that "under no circumstances must he be killed or captured." So there Is a special plane kept waiting to carry Doug to Cor-regidor, our stronghold in Manila Bay or to Hawaii if our Gibraltar of the East should fall.

Hitler's buck privates may be dying and freezing in Russia, but his officers on the snowbound steppes must be having a high old time. The Nazis recently bought or confiscated three million bottles of French champagne. Tfl arf)Hlnn (n A V. We doubt if it would be possible to find a single public official who would defend the continued use of the 63-year-old Raymond Street Jail. It is completely outmoded.

It is insanitary. It is a firetrap. Year in and year out the Eagle has called attention to these conditions in news stories, cartoons and editorials. Judges, District Attorneys and other officials have denounced the continued use of the structure. Grand juries have handed down presentment after presentment demanding that something be done.

But one City Administration after another has refused to act, although many promises have been made. It is just another case of rank discrimination against Brooklyn. That this is not an idle, unfounded statement can be easily proved. A new prison for New York County prisoners to take the place of the famous Tombs was completed and opened only a few months ago in a twelve-story structure which is a unit in the $19,300,000 new LETTERS TO THE EAGLE Col. Bigley Explains Problems Of the Red Cross in Wartime To the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle: I am a veteran Red Cross worker, having served during the World War, and am still very active in Red Cross work today as a director of "ft unit.

Now we are at war, why are we not allowed to make surgical dressings, bandages, at our local units, which we did entirely duting the World War? For nearly two years we have made infants' garments by hundreds, and feel now we should turn our efforts toward work beneficial for the comfort and care of our own boys. Why aren't we knitting sweaters and socks entirely for our boys, instead of children's and ladies' sweaters? Brooklyn, Jan. 25. C. C.

To the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle: As one of the volunteer workers at the production department of the Red Cross at Wil-loughby St. I would like to call attention to the appalling conditions there. Since the United States entry into the war the number of women who have joined has increased probably 75 percent. The room, although a large one, is entirely inadequate to accommodate this vast army of willing workers, and the supervisors are at their wits' ends to accommodate these women with tables at which to work. The dressing room is so crowded with coats and hats that the late comers have to put their coats on the floor! Brooklyn, Jan.

15. Mrs. G. To the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle: Clothkig and sweaters must be continued to be supplied by the Red Cross to our allies Letters must bear signatures and addresses of writers but pen names will be permitted at the discretion of the editor, who reserves the right to cut them down to meet requirements of spoca. in Great Britain and China and to the civilian populations of Hawaii and the Philippines.

In the Philippines alone we are caring for more than 500,000 civilians. Prom moneys bei-ng provided by the good people of the United States for the $50,000,000 War Fund wool for sweaters for our armed forces is being sent to chapters as rapidly as it is procurable. On account of the enormous expansion of Red Cross activities occasioned by our entry into the war, and the avalanche of patriotic American women eager to participate in the campaign, we are enlarging our facilities by opening new quarters for the making of surgical dressings on or before Feb. 1. We ask the public, who have rightly complained about our cramped quarters, for their Indulgence.

J. H. BIGLEY, Executive Director, Brooklyn Chapter, Red Crass. Brooklyn, Ja.n. 23.

Of Skirts and Men To the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle: I cannot understand why all this fuss is being made over a young man appearing in school dressed in skirts. Certainly the women have been wearing pants for several years and can now go unnoticed almost in any company in that attire. I am a family man and often find it very convenient when assisting my wife with her household duties to don a slip and a house-dress. In England, Scotland, Greece and other European countries the skirt or kilt is worn by the brave soldiers and nothing is said or thought of it. Certainly no one can accuse those men nf being effeminate or weak.

Brooklyn, Jan. 16. JOHN A. HARDMAN. Criminal Courts skyscraper building on Center Street.

We do not question the need of a new prison to take the place of the Tombs. Conditions there had become bad. But they are much worse in Raymond Street. All that is necessary is to recall that the Tombs was erected in 1902, while Raymond Street Jail was built In 1879. Age alone tells in a public building of this character, and the latter is over a third older.

How do these things happen? Now there is a chance to solve our local jail problem by taking advantage of the fact that there are many more cells than are needed in the new Tombs. It has been suggested that Raymond Street Jail be torn down at once and its prisoners be sent across the river. Why doesn't the City Administration take up this idea, at least as a temporary expedient? If it does not work out, the building of a new prison here could be expedited. It will have to wait till the end of the war anyway, and in the meantime decision can be made as to site. The most sensible proposal would place it next to the Criminal Courts building on Schermer-horn Street.

The continued use of Raymond Street Jail is one of the city's worst scandals. DcniL requirr.T that Petain turn over to the occupying forces at least fifty thousand bottles of that choice beverage each week. The Free French, who have numerous spies in their old country, have informed London and Washington that these liquid luxuries flow to the headquarters of Goering and Goebbels rather than to the German boys at the front. Note Col. William J.

Donovan's radio propaganda bureau is now shortwaving thi news to the civilian and military populace' of the Reich. One of our leading newspapers has either discovered a mare's nest at Rio or given premature and ambiguous publicity to something that has been incubating among the diplomats. In this unhappy world we have had a rampancy of nationalism and have suffered from it. We are now experimenting with internationalism at least our governments are. It is seriously proposed that we open the Pearly Gates of our Paradise Regained to all the good nations, with vague provision for a minority of the world's population which Is not now in the Anti-Axis orbit.

The salient points of the plan as outlined are as follows: 1 An economic pool of all nations now fighting the Axis. 2 An international currency. 3 Removal of all trade barriers. The free migration of labor. The plan seems to be in a nebulous stage, and most of us are not likely to think much about it until we achieve such a victory as would bring it to the peace table.

For the every-day American just now the main thing is to achieve that victory. For the same every-day American who furnishes the labor, the money and the blood the problem was simple during the last war. It was only after the defeat of Germany that we began to learn what had been going on in camera in the chancellories of Europe. So the schematization now going on behind the battle lines will probably take shape at the conferences following the war, If such a victory crown our arms as our leaders promise; and idealists intent on the liquidation of the world we have known shall take over in the hour of triumph. In what measure Is there practicability in in the plan now outlined? Will American industry welcome all out free trade? How will the farmers of the United States like it? Will American labor accept the migration of labor? Will Brazil, for instance, which was the natural reservoir of rubber, accept the competition of the coolie labor of the Indies which enabled European interests to rob her of her market? What will be the political effect? If we are to have a democracy of democracies, with another vast and intricate bureaucracy superimposed on our present, collection of bureau-rries, what will become of democracy for the ordinary man? If we are to have a representative world parliament, on what basis will representation be apportioned? These questions seem impertinent now that the tough Job of winning the war in the East and saving Australia and western Canada as well as our own Western and Far Eastern Interests is becoming more and more our Job, but one may wonder, first, If the victory when we win it will be what swivel chair strategists expect; second, if new men may not come to the front at the termination of hostilities; third, if war neurasthenia among the peoples may not have effects everywhere not similar to those it had in Italy, in Russia and in Germany.

25 YEARS AGO IN BROOKLYN January 26, 1917 Borough President Lewis H. Pounds urged the Board of Estimate to file the 100-foot assessment plan for Kings Highway and ignored the proposal to make it a 140-foot boulevard for its entire length. Ifel fs. Our Congratulations to The Williamsburg Community Committee for its foresight and zeal in uniting all the organizations of that area to make a success of Williamsburg Community Day, which was marked by a concert at the Metropolitan Opera House last night under the auspices of the Williamsburg Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association, of which Deputy Controller Abraham L. Doris is president.

Borough President Cashmore was honorary chairman of the community committee and Governor Lehman wrote an appreciation of the fine work, particularly in the defense program and for the boys in uniform. James E. Stiles, publisher of the Nassau Daily Review Star of Rockville Centre, as the new president of the New York State Publishers Association. Mr. Stiles' long experience in the important suburban newspaper field on Long Island should equip him to serve effectively in his new capacity.

Hi.s election is well merited recognition of hi.s active interest in the State organization, both as vice president last year and in other capacities prior to that. GRIN AND BEAR IT Louis C. Wills, prominent civic worker, was elected president of the new G. O. P.

organization formed by followers of Alderman John S. Gaynor in the 14th Assembly District. PEARL HARBOR By EDGAR A. GUEST Time was 'twas a spot On a map or a chart Where a ship could stop For supplies and depart; Just a resting place On an ocean vast, And a naval base. Now all that's past.

Pearl Harbor today Is the place that will be Ages, ages away Held in memory. Evermore it's the spot Where a sly foe swept With fire, and shot Brave boys as they slept. Yes. remember we will Through the war begun, And remember it still When the war is won. Pearl Harbor, the spot Where our heroes died 'Neath a rain of shot, And a race lost pride I Turn About Is Fair Play I Prom th Dn Moines Tribunal Now that the news has turned into thriller serials, how about the comics turning comic again? By Lichty BROOKLYN EAGLE (Trade Mark Eagle Registered) Pounded by Isaac Van Anden In 1841 THE BROOKLYN DAILY EAOLB PRANK D.

8CHROTH. President and Publisher W. P. CROWELL. Secretary and Treasurer Eagle Building, Johnson and Adams Street Brooklyn.

New York TELEPHONE MAln 4-6200 Subscription rate by mall for the Brooklyn Eagti in the United 8tates, one Tear, $11.00 Entered at the Brooklyn Postofftce as Second Class Mall Matter Where the Fuehrer Stands (FrMii Detroit Ne'Ahl Standing in Von Brauchitsch's shoes, on the frozen Mir dwindling Fuehrer have room tor or eight pairs of warm wool oclu. Buy Defense Bonds and Stamps Americans everywhere can help their country defeat the enemy aggressors by investing o'ten and regularly in Defense Bonds and Stamps. "My idea was to keep broadcasting our predictions and, til! the enemy found out better, they'd sure be in plenty of trouble.".