U.S. NAVAL BASE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 74, 9 March 1933, Page 9

U.S. NAVAL BASE

IN THE PHILIPPINES. “A SECOND HELIGOLAND.* Sydney, Feb. 26. The naval base which has been eotablished by the United States at Cor* regidor Island, in the Philippine group, shows evidence of heavy fortifications, according to Air Norman Bax who returned to Sydney recently after a visit to the East.

Mr Bax said yesterday he had had a good view of Corregidor Island from the deck of a vessel leaving Manila Harbour, and there could be little doubt that it had been converted into “a second Heligoland.” In the event of the United States being involved in any trouble in the East, this base would be of immense strategic importance. Hong Kong was only about 600 miles away, and Thursday Island 2200 miles away. A fleet could leave the base at nightfall and reach Hong Kong in the afternoon of the following day.

Although it was impossible to see all that had been done, continued Mr Bax, there were indications of considerable naval and military activity about the base. On Corregidor Island, which was about four miles long by one wide, there were many fine roads, quays with warships alongside them, a number of buildings, including several with tall chimneys which looked as though they were factories, and numerous other evidences of occupation by people “who were not there for fun.’* A suspension bridge led from Corregidor Island to another and much smaller island, for no apparent reason. The island, to outward appearances, was bare rock, and uninhabited. The headlands cn either side of Manila Bay were military reserves. Railway lines and a concrete road connected Afanila with the military settlement at Fort McKin. lay. some distance away.