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held to prevent the islands falling into the hands of the enemy, irrespective of their strategical import from the strictly military standpoint, the principles of defense of the group of islands in particular will remain much the same.

The inhabited islands of the Hawaiian Group stretch from northwest to southeast for a distance of 350 miles, or three and one-half hours flight by airplane. (We shall assume 100 miles per hour as the average speed of locomotion of an air force. Roughly then 1000 miles means ten hours flight, etc.) All of them are very suitable for the installation and operation of air forces. The climate is especially propitious. There are no fogs, comparatively little rain, steady winds, practically no storms, a wind of fifty or sixty miles per hour is considered a very severe storm, the nights particularly are clear and especially favorable to the operation of aircraft. The question of navigation over and between islands is very easy not only by the system of plotting the course and compass steering, but also by the use of directional radio. From the northern Island of Niihau a chain of small islands and reefs stretch out for 1100 miles

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