| Summary: | Coast Target For Air Raids: Lloyd And Dimond Paint Picture In Plea For Defense Bases./Helpless At Present./Enemy Planes Could Wreak Terrific Damage, No Guns Now To Repel Them. COAST TARGET FOR AIR RAIDS Lloyd and Dimond Paint Picture in Plea for Defense Bases. HELPLESS AT PRESENT WASHINGTON. Fen. 11. (/P)—Deduction of Pacific northwest cities in case of war from across the Pacific ocean was pictured by members of congress from that area today at a hearing of the house military affairs committee on the Wilcox bill for a coordinated system of air defense bases. Representatives Wallgren and Lloyd, Washington democrats, and Delegate Dimond (Dem., Alaska) described a death-dealing attack which might be launched against the area and declared it could not be stopped with present defense facilities. "An air squadron could do more damage in an hour than this entire program would cost," Lloyd told the committee. "It could do more harm in an hour than a million men could do in several hours." Two Areas Championed. While Dimond pleaded for an adequate base for Alaska "where our army flyers could be trained in the rigors of subarctic flying," Wallgren and Lloyd confined their appeals to the needs of the entire Pacific northwest, asserting defenses of the Columbia river, Grays Harbor and Puget sound areas "alike are woefully inadequate." Lloyd told the committee that an enemy air force could wipe out the present defenses of the Pacific northwest and establish a base there from which it would be possible to bomb cities of the Rocky mountain and middle western sections of the United States. "On the slopes of the Pacific coast an enemy could not only establish a military base, but because of the abundance of food and supplies could maintain an army indefinitely, " Lloyd said. "It would be impossible to displace an enemy, because to attempt it would be to endanger the lives of thousands of our own people living there." Navy Helpless. Lloyd said it would be impossible for the army or navy to cope with an attack against the Pacific northwest, adding there "isn't an anti-aircraft gun in the entire region." Asked by Chairman McSwain of the committee concerning the priority which should be granted bases for Alaska and the Pacific northwest states, Lloyd replied that he hoped the time never would come when priority should be considered, for both needed air defenses. "If there should be a question of priority," he said, "I believe a base should first be established in the states, as Alaska could not support an army to the extend possible in the Puget sound and Columbia river area."
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