charted Alaskan waters, explored the coastline and penetrated thei Aleutian Islands. It was no surprise to them, therefore, when bombs fell on Dutch Harbor. They had expected them earlier.

In the evacuation of native populations from the various islands. the Office of Indian Affairs played a large role. Several hundred natives and whites were forced to leave their homes and ancestra. hunting areas and were moved to the mainland. Evacuation camps were established and the first American refugees were made completely! comfortable in new locations. There is reason for great pride in the way in which this job was handled.

Severe problems were created for Alaska by the influx of larg numbers of troops and the establishment of long-overdue military bases. In great numbers construction workers were suddenly dumped i upon undeveloped areas, causing many difficulties in social adaptation ¦ and adjustment. Boom times transcending the days of the gold i rush were created. Serious difficulties of supply had to be coped with. Alaskans were prompt to volunteer for military service. Indians and Eskimos appeared with rifle in hand. The knowledge of the Alaskans of their own territory was put to excellent use. In countless other ways Alaskans lived up to their reputation as alert, enterprising Americans, able to cope with situations which might be dismaying to those of less tough moral fibre.

In Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, in the vital Panama Canal defense zone, the people and their governing officials realized the immensity of the war and the problems of our involvement more quickly than those facts were grasped on the continent.

In the Virgin Islands, our Easternmost outpost, the program for both civilian and military preparedness was especially intense. When war came, this was well advanced. James M. Landis, Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, later recognized this when he said, "We must put into practice in the Nation much of what these islands . . have already done."

Such strength as we have shown in the off-shore areas has gained valuable time for us, especially in the instance of possible eventual enemy occupation. Much of our strength lay in the loyalty of the inhabitants, but much also was the result of your administration's farsightedness. Pre-war controls over shipping, trade in war-essential commodities and other activities strengthened our position.

The problem of supply for Puerto Rico continues to be acute. It is, without question, the most severe single problem that we face in any of the territories. Every effort is being made to obtain greater tonnage for the island, and in this all agencies of the Federal and Territorial Governments are cooperating to the fullest. The complete solution will come only when success in arms will release greater

The Office of the Petroleum Coordinator for War

While the Office of the Petroleum Coordinator for War (now the Petroleum Administration for War) is not a part of the formal organization of the Department of the Interior, I wish nevertheless to mention this activity briefly in this letter. What the Nation would have done to handle its oil problem under actual war conditions had it not been for the earlier work of the Office of Petroleum Coordinator, I cannot guess. The story of the successive problems created by the disruption of normal petroleum transportation and supply pattern is too fresh in memory to bear repetition here. Although the warnings we issued in the summer of 1941 were largely ignored, and the restrictions which were imposed met with derision and a flood of misrepresentation, the correctness of our actions came to be generally recognized. Now, with war demands for specialized petroleum products increasing daily, it is clear that efforts to provide the aid necessary for war were started none too early.

In this connection, I want again to emphasize that the remarkable results that have been brought about would have been impossible without the wholehearted willingness of the oil industry to work in full partnership and understanding with the Federal Government. Too much credit cannot be given to the members of that industry. Traditional competitive practices have been laid aside, and many individual companies have willingly accepted severe financial loss to make an integrated handling of the oil problem possible. There is no such thing as "business as usual" today in the oil industry. Normal patterns have been junked for the duration, and the handling of petroleum from the well to the delivery of the finished product is replete with innovation. As one member of the industry puts it: "The difficult we do at once; the impossible takes a little longer."

Three principal tasks were faced by the OPC. They were to provide an adequate supply of petroleum and specialized products for our armed forces; for the United Nations, and for our own civilian front. It has been only by the use of considerable ingenuity that we have succeeded as well as we have. With the assistance of the industry, we will continue to dispose of the difficult and to perform the impossible.

Conclusion

Although this letter is optimistic in tone, the facts speak for themselves. The series of disasters inflicted upon the United Nations by their enemies depressed men's spirits everywhere, and a recounting of accomplishments such as this may seem somewhat trivial and academic when judged against the somber backdrop of the world today. And

has accomplished in the face of handicaps, there is ample cause for grim cheerfulness.

We can appraise our progress honestly and find that we have moved forward. Under the general tendency to magnify our defeats and belittle our accomplishments because they seem small against big events, we might not regard what we have done as significant. We have had failures, many of them. We have had lapses of imagination, and of concept, and failures of execution. But on the asset side, we have accomplished some truly worth-while things. So far as this Department is concerned, we intend to proceed with our work; to persist in what we think is the right course, and, with the greatest energy possible, proceed with the sensible development of conservation and supply programs that, in the end, will win the war.

Sincerely yours,

Hourld L. Iches

Secretary of the Interior.

power production normally contained in this report have been deleted at the request of the Office of War Information and the War Department)

Bureau of Reclamation

JOHN C. PAGE, Commissioner

B

ASED on the sound theory that soldiers and civilians fight best when properly fed, and victory is surer, swifter, Reclamation operations during the 1942 fiscal year were aimed at providing foodstuffs for men behind the guns and machines as well as hydroelectric power for the guns and machines themselves.

For a short conflict or a long pull-a war of attrition-this dual objective symbolizes the straight thinking of a democracy at bay. . The year's results from Reclamation activities in 16 Western States are impressive. Four decades of sound engineering work enabled the Bureau to assume a vital role in the Nation's war machine. Outstanding was its contribution of hydro power-potent energy that turns the machines that turn out the guns.

In the Pacific Northwest and Southwest giant Reclamation plants were the bulwark behind industries working at war tempo or mushrooming into production of war material. Power poured out of these plants and others for mining and manufacturing; for copper, steel, aluminum, magnesium; for bombs, planes, and ships.

Simultaneously, reservoirs on Reclamation projects furnished water to cities and their industry, to military establishments, their training centers, their airfields.

Stored water also irrigated 3,500,000 acres of productive land. Food, forage, and fiber were produced on the strategically located 45 irrigation projects in operation in the West. Farmers were urged to plant and to harvest, to raise cows, beef, and poultry. Irrigation district officials collaborated with the Bureau in an effort to get the most from high-production Reclamation farms.

Expanded production of food, forage, and fiber was recognized as necessary to supply the demands of the United Nations, to meet

domestic, civilian, and military requirements. Increasing civilian and military population and the urgency of conserving transportation emphasized the necessity of making the western half of the United States self-sufficient in food. This can be achieved only through an accelerated Reclamation program.

Geared to the over-all demands of the war, the construction of purely irrigation facilities made progress despite retardation by shortages of steel and other critical materials controlled by the War Production Board. Substitutions of noncritical material and concentration on excavation and other work enabled the Bureau to advance this work further than otherwise would have been possible.

Because of curtailed Work Projects Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps contributed labor, the water conservation and utilization program to stabilize the Great Plains and other semiarid areas was being redirected into a reserve against future contingency. Projects under construction are being advanced with all the speed possible; many others are being investigated and are being tagged for construction the moment war or postwar needs give the signal to go ahead.

Set in motion also was a still larger program for lessening the shock of postwar dislocation. Under investigation were 209 river basins and potential irrigation or multiple-purpose projects in 17 Western States. The investigations will produce an inventory of water resources and point the way to their economical and effective use in a region where water is the most precious natural resource and the basis for its economic expansion.

From studies that have been completed or are well advanced, the Bureau was selecting for a reservoir of public works, in accordance with the President's direction, a minimum of 50 feasible projects. This irrigation and multiple-purpose construction can be launched promptly at the conclusion of the war. Demobilized soldiers, sailors, and marines will require employment in useful occupations. Industrial workers released from war factories will want work close to their original homes. This shelf of projects, and the remaining construction on great undertakings like the Columbia Basin Reclamation project in the State of Washington, will provide that work.

In the Economic Front Line

As the fiscal year closed multiple-purpose irrigation projects engineered by the Bureau provided the hydroelectric power for war industry, assured a stable supply of water for essential agriculture and for cities and industry, and also represented a main source of manpower in the West-now in the economic front line. Once unpopulated and