Colonel Hurley, former Secretary of War, is on his way to “KX”. He was inducted at noon today, and at 1:00 tonight starts by plane via Pacific. He was equal to the quick transition, and I’m hopeful he can do something in organizing blockade running for MacArthur. The whole Far East situation is critical.
My own plan is to drop everything else – MAGNET, GYMNAST, replacements in Iceland – and make the British retire in Libya. Then scrape up everything everywhere and get it into NEI and Burma. We mustn’t lose NEI-Singapore-Burma line; so we ought to go full out saving them. We’ve been struggling to get a bunch of heavy bombers into NEI, but the whole movement seems bogged down. The Air Corps doesn’t have enough men that will do things.