To Shoe an Achilles Heel

If the Japanese should attempt an invasion of the U.S., a convenient place to land would be Mexico. Mexico's 4,200-mile-long western coastline has hundreds of sheltered bays and inlets, in many places could offer no more formidable resistance than a few bewildered fishermen. From beachheads along the coast, an invader could move north into the mountains of California, could establish a submarine base to attack U.S. shipping, could bomb most of the U.S. Southwest.

To protect themselves and each other from this nightmare possibility, Mexico and the U.S. last week set up a joint Mexican-U.S. Defense Commission.

Personnel of the Commission: Lieut. General Stanley Dunbar Embick, 65, in World War I Chief of Staff of the U.S. section of the Supreme Allied War Council, onetime Deputy Chief of Staff, also a member of the Canadian-U.S. Joint Defense Board; Brigadier General Miguel S. Gonzalez Cadena, 50, onetime Chief of the Mexican Cavalry, Navy and Air Force; Vice Admiral Alfred Wilkinson Johnson, 65, onetime commander of the U.S. Atlantic Squadron; Brigadier General Tomas Sanchez Hernandez, 47, Chief of the Technical Division of the Mexican Army, military historian, now in Rio at the conference of American Republics (see p. 27).

The problem which these men face together (they will meet in Washington when General Sanchez gets back from Rio) involves : 1) improvement of Mexico's transportation facilities to the West Coast and the Canal Zone; 2) joint use of Mexican air and naval bases; 3) building up Mexico's modest peacetime army of 62,500 men into an effective fighting force.

As a starter Mexico last week gave the U.S. permission to keep seaplanes and ships in Mexican harbors indefinitely. U.S. warplanes are now allowed to fly over Mexican territory, land for 24 hours on Mexican airfields. At Acapulco, on the Pacific Coast almost due south of Mexico City, the Mexicans are building a big concrete wharf which will be used by U.S. warships. But the busiest defense spot in Mexico this week was Baja California, the long, skinny peninsula which juts southward from California.

Ex-President's Territory. When Mexico broke off relations with Japan, Italy and Germany last month, President Manuel Avila Camacho appointed ex-President Lazaro Cardenas commander in chief in the Pacific area. The General set up his headquarters at Ensenada, onetime resort of jaded Hollywood playboys in Baja California.

Many a U.S. citizen has gambled, guzzled, bought souvenirs and knickknacks at Tijuana, Agua Caliente, Ensenada. Few have braved the one lumpy, unpaved road that reaches down to Baja California's tip. It was to patrol this area that President Avila Camacho obligingly sent troops to Baja California. Because the peninsula is inaccessible even from Mexico, he got permission to transport his soldiers by rail through Arizona and California (TIME, Dec. 29).

Under his command last week General Cardenas had several squadrons of Mexico's small air force, some armed Coast Guard cutters, a few seasoned troops. They can patrol the peninsula, but are hardly numerous enough to defend it. And they have other jobs: widening and improving the road, laying out airports, installing radio stations, digging wells.

The 500 male Japs in Baja California (except 55 kept under close surveillance to help the fishermen and keep their canneries running) were evacuated from the peninsula, deposited inland in the State of Jalisco and set to work farming.

On the fronts of stores and houses in Ensenada, tourists last week could see Vs clumsily daubed on the bright adobe walls, and smeared in red paint: Muera Hitler --"Death to Hitler."

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