THE MESS OF DEMOBILIZATION
Hull, Rep. Merlin
The Mess Of Demobilization By REP. MERLIN HULL THE war is over—all but the fighting still going on in China, in Java, in India, and in Iran. Otherwise, the world is in a sort of peaceful era,...
...DURING November, the Army states that 470,000 men were returned from Europe, and 37,000 from India...
...Then the soldier editor of a mimeographed newspaper published by the soldiers on Leyte let loose...
...The 15,000 soldiers still are on Leyte, and the idle ships still are in the harbor...
...Enlisted men are forbidden by the Army to write to their Congressmen, even in extreme hardship cases, and those with special problems must get friends or relatives to place their problems before their own representative in Washington...
...The colonel is charged with saying that the soldier-editor was guilty of "sedition"—as absurd as the sentence itself...
...Railway facilities on this side of the waters are available...
...Figures are not quoted for returning men from the Pacific, from which comes the strongest protest over idle troops in unhealthful surroundings...
...Congress has done everything in its power to provide all necessary facilities...
...Furthermore Congress should order a rigid investigation of the entire situation in order that the facts may be known...
...During December, 410,000 are1 scheduled to come from Europe, and 42,000 from India...
...In the harbors of Leyte lie scores of ships, said to be of sufficient capacity to evacuate all the forces on a single trip, but they have been and still are idle...
...We can and do protest, but our protests are unheeded...
...From the English press the information is received that there were 127,-000 of our soldiers in India, of which 7,000 were participants in the Burma campaign...
...Otherwise, the world is in a sort of peaceful era, except for the lip warfare of statesmen...
...The War Department turns deaf ears to all pleas to bring those idle soldiers back to their families...
...They have been there for months, in a tropical heat which has kept the Army hospitals filled to over-flowing...
...For weeks and months they have been waiting for transportation back to their homes...
...There were over 300 Merchant Marine vessels idle in Atlantic ports during November, in addition to the scores of faster ships which have been leased to shipping companies for carrying commercial cargo abroad...
...There are war supplies which cost billions of our taxpayers' money scattered all the way from Egypt to Sumatra, and judging from press reports they are being liberally used in fighting a war supposedly ended on V-J day...
...Every dollar needed has been appropriated...
...They have nothing to do except to comply with the orders of their officers in doing non-consequential work...
...FROM some letters received there seems to be a belief spread abroad that Congress is responsible for the lack of transportation and other causes of delay in the release of the armed forces overseas...
...American planes are being flown over the hump for delivery to the Nationalist forces in China, and the War Department is investigating the crashes of many planes with pilots and crews...
...In Indo-China, native forces, assisted by Chinese volunteers, are fighting for independence from French control, and Lend-Lease munitions are being used on both sides...
...The fault lies elsewhere, and the boys at home and abroad know why even better than most of us here at home...
...Congress should act on the three demobilization bills now before us...
...It was only a plain statement of fact, but for having made that statement the soldier editor was demoted from non-commissioned officer to private and sentenced by his colonel to do five days work on the trash heap of the camp...
...Nothing has been left undone to facilitate demobilization...
...The War Department is investigating at long distance...
...The ships are built and on the waters...
...Sharing the despair of his comrades, he published a statement that nine of the many vessels in Leyte harbor were fitted out to return Jap prisoners to Japan, but only one ship was being prepared for returning our boys home from that tropical camp of misery...
...Such is the spirit of militarism after the end of the war...
...That information is false...
...Lend-lease guns and materials seem to be in the fighting ranks...
...It will be refreshing if the investigation results in the colonel losing his shoulder-straps and doing his five days on the trash heap, but up to date there has been no such finding for an officer as against the severe punishment of the private soldier...
...It is a sorry situation in which those who fought and won the war are denied the right to address letters to their own Congressmen, whom they may know well and personally, but Congressmen have no opportunity even to amend or repeal regulations of either Army or Navy issued under war powers...
...IN the Island of Leyte, where our armies first landed in the Philippines, there are about 15,000 soldiers, all of whom are said to have ample points for discharge...
Vol. 9 • December 1945 • No. 49
