| Summary: | Navy Seeking Air And Ship Alaska Bases: North Pacific Expected To Figure Prominently In Defense Plans Of U. S., It Is Revealed. NAVY SEEKING AIR AND SHIP ALASKA BASES. North Pacific Expected to Figure Prominently in Defense Plans of U. S., It Is Revealed By J. Newton Colver Not only will late August see the attention of the nation's foremost naval experts focussed upon Puget Sound air and water defenses, as foretold exclusively in yesterday's Post-Intelligencer, but admirals and congressional experts al Bremerton also. it was unofficially declared yesterday, will hear the results of an extensive airplane survey of possible harborage and refuge in Alaskan waters. Added to probability that this conference of naval strategists will recommend a million dollar appropriation for new piers at the Bremerton yards, a hydroplane base at Sandpoint on Lake Washington and a lighter-than-air base at Camp Lewis, is the further possibility that the naval straegiests, as a result of the hearing may also recommend the extension of Pacific Coast naval defenses to Alaskan waters. SHIP NOW RETURNING This would, it is pointed out, completely revolutionize naval strategy of the past, elevate the North Pacific many points in its importance in the history of Pacific naval defense. The U. S. S. Cuyama, with Rear Admiral J. V. Chase aboard, it was reported at Bremerton yesterday, is due at Ketchikan Aug. 23., following a tour of the Alaskan Coast, making an exhaustive study of conditions there with particular reference to shelter for naval vessels. Two Davis-Douglas hydroplanes were carried by the Cuyama when it left Port Angeles June 1, for the purpose of making a real mosaic map of Alaskan harbors, bays and islands. Lieut. Commander N. B. Chase is in charge of the aviation unit, Lieut. J. H. Stevens, Gunner W. M. Coes and Chief Machinist's Mate Linn were taken north as pilots and A. F. Gallagher and O. A. St. Jacques as photographers. Seven other men complete the aviation unit. The purpose, it is understood, has been not only to explore the coast line for possible points of refuge in time of war, but also to chart the topography of the contiguous land. Such an investigation, it may be recalled, was recommended by Admiral Hugh Rodman, more than a year ago, before his retirement. With the coming westward of Admiral Robret E. Coontz, who, on Augs. 4, becomes commander of the fleet, and Rear Admiral Walliam A. Moffett, chief of the bureau of naval aeronautics, and with the converging also at Bremerton of the congressional naval affairs committee and the returning Cuyama, the picture is fiarly complete in its forecast of naval defense significance. Moreover, it is understood that the U. S. shipping board has also a vital interest in the matter, as it has for some long time stressed the importance of a coaling station somewhere along the farthermost Alaskan coast, Dutch Harbor, for example. A year ago, the naval board, under the leadership of Admiral Rodman, chairman, recommended that a first-class base eventually be established in Alaska as a part of the navy's basic policy. The board stressed the importance of the territory as an outlying point vitally influencing any strategic defense of the Pacific Coast, and favored the establishement there of an operating and supply base for submarines and destroyers and of a regular naval district with all the subsidiary arrangements appertaining to that organization.
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