I understand the State Department has designated as its representative Mr. Edward T. Wailes.

The Secretary of the Navy has advised that he is greatly interested and is subject to our call at any time.

I am also advised this bill has been discussed at a meeting of the Cabinet, with the President, and there is a subcommittee of the Cabinet and that subcommittee of the Cabinet will be available for conference with this committee, or with any subcommittee of this committee that may be appointed.

Mr. Ickes, of the Cabinet, has been in contact with the chairman of this committee and, as I have stated, the subcommittee of the Cabinet will be available to confer with this committee or any subcommittee which may be appointed.

Mr. Guy Swope of the Department of the Interior will be down before the hearings have been concluded this morning.

There are in attendance this morning from Alaska, Governor Ernest Gruening and former Governor Thomas Riggs, now Acting Chairman of the Alaskan International Highway Commission; Mr. Donald MacDonald, of Fairbanks, Alaska, a member of the Alaskan International Highway Commission; also Mr. John T. Logan, now of New York City but formerly of Minnesota and Portland, Oreg., who I understand made a motorcycle trip across this route.

Now, Mr. Dimond, we will be glad to have a preliminary statement from you. I understand, also, that Representative Shanley, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House, and Representative Welch, of California, desire to be heard. I take it for granted it will be agreeable to you gentlemen to be called later, after those who are here from a distance and are just temporarily in the city are heard. Is that agreeable to you, Mr. Welch?

Mr. WELCH. Yes; I would rather wait.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Is that satisfactory to you, Mr. Shanley?
Mr. SHANLEY. That is satisfactory; yes.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Now, Mr. Dimond, we will be glad to have a preliminary statement from you and, if you care to, of course as à member of this committee you can make a statement at any time you desire and probably make a more extended statement later on.

STATEMENT OF HON. ANTHONY J. DIMOND, A DELEGATE IN CONGRESS FROM THE TERRITORY OF ALASKA

Mr. DIMOND. Mr. Chairman, I have prepared a brief statement in writing, in order to put the material which I wish to present to the committee in logical order, but this statement is only in the nature of a preliminary statement and later I would like to file a more complete statement to be incorporated somewhere in the record.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Without objection, that permission is granted. (There was no objection.)

MR. DIMOND. I shall welcome interruptions while I am reading this statement, in order to point out on the maps available anything in which any member of the committee may be interested.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. You may proceed without interruption.

Mr. DIMOND. Mr. Chairman, the bill H. R. 3095 is almost completely self-explanatory. It is entitled "A bill authorizing the construction of

a highway to Alaska." The purpose of the bill is to authorize the construction of a highway which will connect the principal highway in the Territory of Alaska, called the Richardson Highway, with the road system of the Dominion of Canada, and thus with the United States, and carries authorization of $25,000,000 for that purpose.

Under the provisions of the bill complete power as to selection of the route, as to mode and manner of construction, and as to cooperation with the Government of the Dominion of Canada and the governments of the several Provinces of the Dominion is left within the discretion of the President. In fact, if this measure is passed, the President will have well-nigh complete authority with regard to the construction of the highway. No attempt is made in the bill to tie the hands of the President in any respect, but the President is enjoined to build the highway on that route which, in his judgment, will best serve the needs of national defense.

Section 4 of the bill contains provision suspending all the laws relating to procurement and contracts in the construction of public projects that might otherwise apply to the building of this particular highway, for the period of 2 years after the passage of the bill, and this is done with the view of having the road constructed and completed at the earliest practicable date.

At the outset, it may be well to observe that although the amount of $25,000,000 sought to be authorized by the bill for the construction of the proposed highway seemed to be adequate at the time the bill was introduced, and although as recently as 1933 a commission appointed by the President to study the highway project made another estimate that a suitable road could be built for $14,000,000, in view of changed conditions, particularly since December 7, 1941, and in view of the pressing need for the construction and completion of the highway at the earliest possible moment, it now appears that $25,000,000 will not be sufficient and, therefore, before consideration of the bill is concluded, I shall ask that the authorization be increased from $25,000,000 to $50,000,000.

The idea of the advisability of constructing such a road is not a new one. Many, many years ago, Donald MacDonald of Fairbanks, Alaska, who is known in the Territory as the Father of the International Highway and who is now present here today as a member of the Alaskan International Highway Commission, was urging such construction upon everybody who would listen to him. Enough interest was developed that in 1930, by act approved May 15 of that year, the President was authorized to name three commissioners, to cooperate with representatives of the Dominion of Canada, in a study of the subject. Those commissioners, consisting of Mr. Herbert H. Rice of Detroit, Mich., chairman; Mr. Ernest Walker Sawyer, then Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior; and Maj. (now colonel) Malcolm Elliott, Corps of Engineers, United States Army, then president of the Alaska Road Commission but now stationed at St. Louis, made an extensive inquiry into the matter and filed a report under date of March 1, 1933. The Dominion Government of Canada declined to cooperate, but representatives of the Province of British Columbia did cooperate in the investigation. Our commission reported that the project was feasible and that it probably could be completed for about $14,000,000. The commission further recom

mended that negotiations be carried on with the Government of Canada and plans for financing the project should be made.

Pursuant to that report, by act approved August 16, 1935, Congress requested the President to negotiate and enter into an agreement with the Government of Canada for the survey, location and construction of the highway.

Between 1935 and 1938, our Government, through the State Department, carried on extensive negotiations with the Dominion of Canada relative to the construction of the proposed highway, but accomplished precisely nothing in that connection. The Government of Canada was simply not interested in the project and, in fact, it was commonly reported that the military advisers of the Canadian Government recommended against the building of a highway into Alaska because Alaska, at that time, was almost totally undefended, and it was suggested that the construction of a highway into Alaska might only, in case of war facilitate the entry into Canada of any hostile power which might overrun Alaska. At that time, and for years afterward, the total military defenses of Alaska consisted of about 300 infantry, stationed in Chilkoot Barracks, in the southeastern part of the Territory.

At this juncture, Hon. Warren G. Magnuson, of Seattle, introduced in the House, and Congress finally passed and the President approved, a third act concerning the highway authorizing the creation of a commission to be known as the Alaskan International Highway Commission to make a study of the subject, to cooperate and confer with any similar agency of the Dominion of Canada, and generally to make and report to the President and thus to Congress any suitable plan that might be agreed upon for the construction of the highway. The Commission so appointed by the President pursuant to this act consists of five members. They are Representative Magnuson, Chairman; Hon. Thomas Riggs, Commissioner of the International Boundary Commission, United States-Alaska-Canada, former engineer to the Alaska Boundary Survey Commission, former member of the Alaska Engineering Commission for the construction of the Government railroad in Alaska, and former Governor of Alaska; Hon. Ernest Gruening, now Governor of Alaska, former Director of the Division of Territories and Island Possessions of the Department of the Interior; Mr. Donald MacDonald, of Fairbanks, Alaska, father of the International Highway, employed for many years as an engineer in the building of highways and in the building of the Alaska Railroad in Alaska; and Mr. James W. Carey, consulting civil engineer, Seattle, Wash.

This Commission has, on several occasions, conferred with a similar commission representing the Government of Canada consisting of the following: Hon. Charles Stewart, Chairman, Canadian section, International Joint Commission; Brig. Gen. T. L. Trembley, Quebec; Mr. J. M. Wardle, Department of Mines and Resources, Ottawa; Mr. Arthur Dixon, Public Works Department, Victoria, British Columbia; and Mr. J. W. Spencer, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Three members of the Alaskan Commission, namely, Governor Riggs, Governor Gruening, and Mr. MacDonald are now in the city and will testify at this hearing. As already stated, both Governor Riggs and Mr. MacDonald are engineers of large experience, par

ticularly in engineering work in Alaska. Governor Gruening, who is the present Governor of Alaska, has given to the subject careful thought and study. The entire United States Commission, including Chairman Magnuson, who is now absent on duty as a naval officer, have agreed upon a route for the construction of the highway which will be described and the advantages explained to the committee. No good purpose would be served by any attempt on my part to cover the ground which will be more adequately covered by Mr. MacDonald and Governor Riggs and Governor Gruening and possibly others, although I fully agree with their views.

The immediate and pressing justification and demand for the road lie in the circumstance that Alaska is a Territory of the United States and an integral part of the North American Continent. Although Alaska is indeed a part of the North American Continent, welded thereto by a land connection more than 700 miles broad, it is economically and strategically and with respect to transportation an island—almost as much an island as is Puerto Rico or the group of islands which embrace the Territory of Hawaii.

Practically all communications between the 48 States and Alaska goes, and must go, by sea. While there is an air line now operating between Seattle, Wash., and Alaska, that service obviously can supply only an almost infinitesimal fraction of the transportation services needed for the Territory. As long as the sea lanes were not interrupted, Alaska could be adequately supplied, but since December 7, 1941, there have been serious interruptions of sea transport between Alaska and the States, and the position of Alaska is so perilous that the Army and Navy have given orders for the evacuation from Alaska of the women and children of the families of military and naval personnel; Congress has appropriated funds to supply Alaska, as well as the offshore territories and possessions, with stores of food in order to prevent grave suffering and starvation in case of complete interruption of sea transport; and last, but not least, the steamship companies serving Alaska have been granted the prodigious increase of 45 percent in both freight and passenger rates to cover what is claimed to be increased expenses imposed upon the companies for bonuses to seamen and for various types of war-risk insurance, including internment insurance. With respect to Alaska, all these envisioned hazards would almost completely disappear by the construction of a highway to the Territory. With such a road in being, the people of Alaska would know that, even though a single ship was not able to get to Alaska from the United States, they could still be adequately and amply supplied over the highway. It has been calculated by men experienced in truck transportation that 1,000 tons of freight could be brought into the interior of Alaska every day of the year over such a road.

Recently our Government has undertaken the construction of a number of Navy and Army posts in Alaska. The total amount of appropriations which can be identified for that purpose is in the neighborhood of $140,000,000. Troops and armament of various kinds and quantity have been sent to the Territory. All this expenditure will have been worse than a waste unless we make certain of keeping our posts and men in Alaska supplied with the necessary food, arms, and ammunition. A highway to Alaska would give that assurance, and it cannot possibly be given in any other way.

One has only to look at the map of Alaska and eastern Asia to see how important it is that our Nation retain a firm and sure grasp upon every inch of the Territory. At Bering Strait, Alaska approaches to within 54 miles of the main body of Asia, and at the extreme end of the Aleutian Islands, which are a part of Alaska, our Territory approaches to within 720 miles of the northern end of the archipelago which embraces the Japanese Empire. To permit any hostile power to occupy any part of Alaska would be folly of the worst sort. No argument is necessary on that point.

Nor could it be justly said that the highway would be useless upon termination of the war. In fact, its best and most lasting use would only then come into being. This is true because Alaska is vast not only in geographical extent but in its potential wealth of farm lands, forests, fish, and minerals, and by the example of what has been accomplished under similar conditions in similar latitudes in Norway, Sweden, and Finland, we know assuredly that with proper development Alaska can easily support several millions of people. At the present time we find in the Territory probably not over 80,000 people, of whom 32,000 are of the native stocks-Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts. Under present conditions Alaska is measurably cut off from the United States for settlement by the lack of any overland connection. The pioneer spirit which plowed the plains and settled the West has no opportunity for expansion or development in Alaska because the present difficulties and delays involved in getting to Alaska are, to most of such prospective settlers, well-nigh insurmountable. With the building of a highway to Alaska I look forward confidently to the experience which this Nation witnessed in the last century when our flag was carried from the Alleghenies to the Pacific Ocean. Even if the road should cost $50,000,000 or more, we can be comforted by the reflection that it will be in existence and serving the people of this Nation for a thousand years to come, whereas a similar sum spent on a battleship or on some other implement of war, no matter how necessary they may be in the present emergency, in the course of a quarter of a century will be either out of existence or completely obsolete and useless.

Two questions will immediately occur to the members of the committee: First, what length of time will be required to construct the road; and, second, on how many days of the year can it be kept open for traffic. In my opinion, there is no sound reason why the road cannot be completed within the next 10 months, provided we start on the work of construction immediately. The answer to the second question is that the road can be kept open for service without undue expense for every day in the year, because the line of the road lies in a region of comparatively light snowfall.

This is a case where time is emphatically of the essence. If a start is made upon the construction of the road within the next week, in my judgment it can be so far completed as to be usable before the 1st of December of the current year, whereas if a delay of as much as a month occurs in making preparations for construction, practically an entire year will have been lost. The safety and security of the Military Establishment and of the civilian population in Alaska may well depend upon prompt action.