NEW NAVAL BASE

Otago Witness, Issue 2915, 26 January 1910, Page 13

NEW NAVAL BASE

PACIFIC HARBOUR TO BE MADE IMPREGNABLE. ROOM FOR ENTIRE FLEET. The American Navy Department has announced that immediate steps are to j be taken to fortify Pearl Haibour, in the Hawaiian Islands, and to make it the chief Pacific naval base of the United States. No limit has been placed on the amount of money to be expended, the sole idea being to make Pearl Harbour impregnable, regardless oi financial considerations. The strategic importance of the Hawaiian base causes the decision of the Navy Department to be_ regarded as the most far-reaching move the United j States has taken to guard its Pacific interests. All the American naval experts, including Rear-admiral Mahan, approve the step, and it is believed that when the work on the naval base is completed the Pacific coast of the United States will be entirely safe from a warship attack. Pearl Harbour is called "the crossroads of the Pacific." It is a land-locked bay on the south coast of the Island of Oahu, 10 miLes west of Honolulu. Tt is 2100 miles from San Francisco, 3400 miles from Yokohama, 4600 miles from Panama, and 4700 miles from Manila. Rear-ad-miral Mahan, writing so long ago as 1893, indicated the importance of the Hawaiian base in words that are endorsed by all American naval authorities to-day: " To have a central position such as this, and to be alone, having no rival and admitting no rival, are conditions that at once fix the attention of the strategist. But to this striking combination is to be added the remarkable relations borne to the great commercial routes traversing this vast expanse. Too much stress cannot be laid upon the immense disadvantage to us of.any maritime enemy having a coaling station well within 2400 miles, as this is, of every point of our coast line from Puget Sound to Mexico. Wei'e there many others available we might find it difficult to exclude from all. There is, however, but the one. Shut out from the Sandwich Islands as a coal base, an enemy is thrown back for supplies of fuel to distances of 3500 or 4000 miles, or between 7000 and 8000 going and coming—an impediment to sustained maritime operations well nigh prohibitive. It is rarely that so important a factor in the attack or defence of a coast line —of a s«a frontier—is concentrated in a single position." OBJECTS OF THE BASE. Last year the Committee on Naval Affairs of the House of Representatives, in its report to Congress urging the construction of the Pearl Harbour naval base, said : " The new developments on the Pacific and among the nations that border on its shores make it imperative that a strong operating base be established for our navy at Pearl Harbour without further delay. A naval base at Pearl Harbour is not designed primarily for the protection of Hawaii. Its main purpose is to form a buffer of defence for our entire Pacific coast, and to make possible our naval supremacy upon the Pacific. An enemy in the possession of Hawaii could harass and threaten our entire western coast. On the other hand, with our own fleet operating from a wellequipped base at Pearl Harbour, no fleet from the Orient would find it practicable to threaten our coast because of the stronghold left in their rear and of the prohibitive distance from their coaling base. The equipment of Pearl Harbour is, therefore, a matter of prudence and not of extragavance. It will constitute one of the strongest factors in the prevention of war with any power in the Far East." The outlines of Pearl Harbour resemble a three-leaf clover. The entrance is about three miles long and from half a mile t.i three-quarters of a mile wide. A sand bar blocks the entrance, but a. channel 1500 ft lon a, 250 ft wide, and 35ft deep is being dredged through it. The water within the harbour is from eight to 24 fathoms deep. The whole American fleet can be accommodated within the harbour. Elaborate supply depots and repair yards will be constructed on the land bordering the harbour, and an enormous quantity of coal will be taken to Pearl Harbour from the United States. The Philippine Islands will be made a. naval base of distinctly secondary importance to Pearl Harbour. There will be a small repair station at Subig Bay, near Manila, and the construction °oi defensive works will be continued, but the adoption of Pearl Harboiir as the principal Pacific base carries with it a decision to ignore the possibilities of the Phlippinee as a great naval centre.