EARL BALDWIN'S HOUSE BURGLED

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 18, 22 January 1938, Page 9

EARL BALDWIN'S HOUSE BURGLED

(Received January 22, noon.) LONDON, January 21. Earl Baldwin's Worcestershire home has been burgled.

the United States the tight to establish a naval coaling station in Pearl Harbour; and. when the Spanish-American War brokte out, and the Hawaiian Government asked for annexation by the United States, Hawaii became an Am* erican territory and Pearl Harbour was officially . designated as "Naval Station", Honolulu." WORK ON THE BASE. In 1904 the Navy Department brought condemnation proceedings to acquire the land surrounding Pearl Harbour, with its 10 square miles of deep Water and its 30 miles of shore line. By 1906 it was ready to begin dredging and straightening the channel to the open sea, and to make excava tions for a dry dock.

While this Work went forward, roads, sewers, industrial buildings, coal docks, barracks, and the like were begun. Seven immense buildings were erected, including a power house, foundry, machine and repair shops, and coaling plant. A floating crane was installed, hospital and officers' quarters were erected, and oowder magazines were laid out.

The dredging had gone forward fast enough by 1911 for a first-class cruiser to come up the channel and anchor inside the harbour—the first large shif» ever-to tenter the land-locked basin. Work on the dry dock did not go so well, however* The giant structure —it was 820 feet long and 110 feet Wide —collapsed; shortly after it had been finished, and millions or dollars had to be spent on a new one, '■:••'■■ Since then, huge sums have been1 spent by the Government in making the harbour At to accommodate the largest ships in the fleet* < Today it is classed with the greatest naval bases in the world. ■ It seems almost as if nature had laid cut Pearl Harbour with an eye to its naval uses. Its haven is completely hidden from view from the sea. "A landing .force coming ashore 6n the opposite side of tht island could not get at it because of the tbwering mountains of the Koolau range. On the western coast of the island the Waianae Mountains form tt similar natural'barrier.- Only a short stretch of coast needs to be protected. ■ 'The importance of the defence sydtem can- ring in Oahu has been emphasised recently by the flight of a dozen huge navy bombers to Pearl Harbour, The army's Hickam Field, previously mentioned, adds to the emphasis, It occupies a .space of 26,000 acres, and (a slzab'e city of reinforced concrete is going up around it to house its officers and men—quarters for 175 officers, 180 non-coms., and 1200 privates, mess halls, hospital, theatre, garages, flre station, administration building, photographic laboratory, warehouses, land so on. ■