DANISH DEFENCES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1027, 17 January 1911, Page 5

DANISH DEFENCES.

Recent, cablcs have referred to the question of the defence of Denmark. . A sum of £2,000,000 is to be expended on harbour fortifications. Certain newspaper .opinion in England suggests that this is the outcome of hints from Berlin, colour to which statement is given by tho fact that for at least eighteen months tho Danish Government has had before it the question of erecting effective fortifications along her landward barriers, and that this proposal has now been abandoned in favour of harbour defence. • Denmark is almost entirely 'without a navy. One or two gunboats may bo seen at Copenhagen, but evon these are lying idlo to save the cost of their manning and up-keep. Tho visitor to Copenhagen is sorrowfully shown these vessels by tho Danish citizen, who observes that ever sinco the English lleet stolo up tho harbour one dark night, and took away lier fleet, she has had no really effective first line of dofence. Since the German conquest over Denmark, when tho frontiers were pushed back, many miles into Denmark—Germany appropriating Schleswig-Holstein—no fortifications whatever have been erected by cither nation along the new boundary line. ■ Proposals for such defences liavo been discussed for some time in Denmark, but nothing co far has been done .principally bccaiiso of the enormous expenditure that would be necessary, Germany having intimated that if Denmark' once set to work she would erect opposing fortifications on even a greater scale. It is a little difficult to gauge tho full significance of this new movement for harbour defence, especially when it is considered in conjunction with tho recent statements regarding the proposal on the I|art of tho.tfethcrlands'to sot out in the same direction. ■