A GREAT BATTLE

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 June 1914, Page 8

A GREAT BATTLE

FOR PANAMA CANAL OPENING. MANY THRILLING SIGH TS BEING PROVIDED. (By W. A. Walsh, formerly of Sydney Press.) SAN FRANCISCO, May 27. Between 160 and 200 warships of all classes, representing all nations in the world, including Australia, will negotiate the Panama Canal within a few months. There will then be seen the greatest assemblage of fighting ships since history began. The world's fleets will meet at Hampton Roads, Virginia, where was fought the first battle of ironclads, between the Monitor and the Merriniae iii the American civil war. The officers will be received by President Woodrow Wilson, who will afterwards review the fleet from his yacht, the Mayflower. In mighty procession, the ships will move south to the canal zone. Then, headed by the old Oregon, officered and manned as far as possible by those who served on her in the Spanish-American war of 1898, will be taken through the canal, up the Pacific Coast to San Francisco, where they will anchor inside the Golden Gate. The Navy League of the United States will hold its convention here in March on account of the presence of the warships. The league believes that the assemblage of this fleet will be of unique importance to the cause of universal peace, in that it will symbolise the coming international navy for the enforcement of the decrees of the world supreme court of arbitral justice and the keeping of world peace