I for one am confident that the protection of the Monroe Doctrine can and should be thrown around New Zealand and Australia. and I want briefly to state to the Senate why I make that assertion. I believe that the American people should release sovereignty over the Philippine Islands because all military authority is agreed that if Japan desired to move from the Japanese islands or from China down into the Philippines we could never stop her. Now. it is true that an Asiatic invasion from the Philippine Islands by way of the East Indies. Java. Celebes. and Sumatra might finally reach Australia and New Zealand. though such a military venture would take Japan a long way from her homeland and major base of supplies. I have already stated that we have in the Hawaiian Islands the strongest maritime fortress and military outpost in the world. said to be impregnable. lying almost due west of Mexico City and almost due east of Hong Kong. roughly. 2.000 miles from the California coast. If God in His wisdom had been endeavoring to prepare for the American people an island for a military base to protect us against aggression from the Asiatic continent. he could not have selected a better site than Hawaii. It sits astride almost every maritime route in the Pacific. It is directly in the center of the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. and with cruisers. submarines. and airplanes it could most effectively prevent any aggression from Asia.