-2-
 
 
done with sufficient expediency the situation may arise
 
that the fighting forces in Malacca, the Philippines
 
and Netherlands Indies have exhausted the available
 
supplies and that fully trained personnel is doomed to
 
inactivity because they have no weapons to fight with.
 
Japan, on the contrary, is at least for the present in
 
a position to ship the necessary war materials and other
 
supplies to its fighting forces in these regions.
 
      It is therefore of the greatest importance that,
 
apart from the dispatch of Areericson naval and air forces,
 
the supply of war materials to the areas in question
 
should be intensified and accelerated to the utmost.
 
    The Netherlands Indies Government ie doing its
 
utmost in order to maintain ship connections with the
 
United States of America and to continue the delivery
 
of strategic materials to this country. With a view
 
thereto it is essential to be informed of the system
 
of American protection of merchant vessels on the
 
Pacific-