NEW NAVAL BASES FOR FRANCE

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10365, 14 June 1901, Page 2

NEW NAVAL BASES FOR FRANCE

"Apart from Bizerta and ather Mediterranean stations which are intended to get the mastery over the the Gibraltar and Malta says the ngineer, "the French are cresting three formidable bases on the Capo route to India and the. extreme East, .-The first of theao ia KaKar, lif Senegal, for.whicß a fresh 'grant of ■lO.E&O.QOOA.' has been made. Dakar- is to.ba the head-quart-ers of a fleet of ornisers which will sweep the Atlantic- along the west coast of Africa, and it is also proposed to constitute a> station "at Port de France, in Martinique, so that the commerce destroyers will be able to patrol the ocean -east and west, and extend their operations northward acroßS the path of merchant vessels running between England and the West Indies. The second basis is at DiegoSaurez, in Madagascar, which commands the routes between' the Cape and India. The .work of equipping thia port is regarded as one of the most; urgent and necessary, and the Chamber voted an additional grant of 10,000,000f to allow- of the construction, of a dry dock. Diego-Sanrez is becoming the most formidable naral station in * n6 Indian Ocean, and' is likely to be a perpetual menace to South Arric*. -Tho^ works at Saigon,, for which » further grant of 3,qq0,000f. has been, voj^dj are being carried 4J}»t for The jjrotectiori of the Indo-Chinese possessions, and affording a basis for the- ships iof war" which. will operate in- the Chinese seas. It will thus be seen that France is creating a chain of .stations with the object of closing in the western half of the Mediterranean,, and neutralising the British possessions at Gibraltar and Malta, and also commanding thd routes round the Cape of Good. Hop« by the establishment of strongly ton tfeed places at Dakar arid Bieg<*Saures where commerce destroyers will be Ale to operate over a very wide ranged and retreat into safe' quarters wheri. necessary. "If the French will continue -to. spend money ungrudgingly upon th« execution of a policy which, so f.dr as concerns the colonial stations, is intended primarily as means of attack, it behoves Great, Britain to look more closely to the defence of her colonies, and make further heavy sacrifices in order to avoid possible unpleasant 'surprises' ". •