And Four-Fifths of New Jersey

Since Pearl Harbor, the Office of War Information gravely announced last week, the Army and Navy have bought or are engaged in buying private property equal to the combined areas of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, the District of Columbia and four-fifths of New Jersey. The Army's total property holdings alone are now 23,437 square miles, equivalent in area to almost half of England's or twice the whole of Belgium.

Not only is this a huge chunk of territory, but it also represents as tangled a post-war problem as any that Army and Navy are likely to inherit. For the interests of speed, most of these properties have been acquired either by outright condemnation or with very sketchy discussions of real values. Hence suits for fair return are apt to choke the courts for years. One frantic real-estater's estimate last week: a post-war lawyer's field day of 30 years or more.

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