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Tuesday, July 16, 1940

Long and tiresome lecture of Bachus on the Schlieffen Plan.

News in Daily Bulletin re abolition of Army —

Lim calls Gen Staff to discuss this rumor. He says he knows more than was published. Unofficially the President’s stand is —

a. In view of the defeat of France he does not consider the Nat Def. of P.I. possible.

b. He wants the status quo in the Phil Army (What this means I do not know)

c. He wants to use the money for economic development.

d. He wants to build an army to prevent internal revolution and keep peace & order.

Lim wants to know our reaction. As usual he does not state exactly what he wants for lack of command of the language. So I say that the abolition of the Army is in order if the premises given above are true. The Constabulary is enough for the purposes desired by Pres Q.

Lim then says that he has asked Gen V. to find out thru the Sec what the Pres. really wants. This evasion on the lack of future of the Army, the Army being a football of politics, the Gen Staff not having any value, no prestige. I mentioned that everything is being done ass end backwards. The Pres. commits himself ahead of time to a military policy and then the Gen. Staff is consulted later. The Gen. Staff is used in repairing fences damaged by advanced commitments.