NAVAL BASES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 9, 5 October 1907, Page 7

NAVAL BASES.

SCHEMES OF THREE POWERS. RUSSIA AND GERMANY. AMERICAN STATIONS IN THE PACIFIC. By Telegraph—Association—Copyright. (Reo. Oct. 4, 9.20 p.m.) St. Petersburg, October 4. Russia has decided to dismantle thf naval 'fortresses of Libnu, Sveaborg Ustdvinsk, Kertch, and Batoum, retaining' only Constradt, Sevastopol, and Vladivostok. Nov/ York, October 3. Washington telegrams anticipate that Pearl Harbour, Honolulu, will become a naval baso for the Central • Pacific, and Guam and Subig Bay become fortified stations. Berlin, October 3. New docks aro being constructed at Wilhelmshavon, with a view to its becoming the naval neadquarters instead of Kiel. The St. Petersburg cablegram means the retention of only the principal harbours in the Baltic, the Black Sea, and the Far East. Cronstadt, connected by ship canal with St Petersburg, is at once the greatest naval station. and the most flourishing commercial port of Russia. Vladivostok, on the Pacifio coast of Siberia, has the disadvantage of being ice-bound for a great part of (he year, hence Russia's years of striving for Port Arthur or a Persian Gulf port. Of the fortresses to be dismantled, Liban, on the Baltic, 110 miles west of Rigu, has a fine harbour which admits vessels that draw 17 or 18 feet, which is ice-free, except during a fortnight in the year/ Sveaborg is the fortified harbour ofllelsiiifors, the capital of Finland,- and during the Crimean War was fruitlessly bombarded by the Allied fleet. Kertch, in the Crimean peninsula, was de- ' strayed by the. Allies in the same war. Batoum on the east coast of the Black Sea, was ceded by Turkey to Russia in ,1878, after tho Eusso-Tiirkish War, on the stipulation (subsequently disregarded) that it should not be made into a naval station.- - Guahan, or Guam, the southernmost and largest of the Ladroncs, Pacific Ocean, was ceded by Spain to the United States bv the Treaty of Paris, December 10, 1898. Subig Bay is on the south-east coast of Luzon/in tho Philippine Islands, from which it looks out upon Japan. A New York despatch, dealing with the United States programme of Pacific defences, states that ■6-1,000,000 will bo expended. "All the i Japaneso workmen employed at Olongapo', Cavitc, and other naval and military stations in the! Philippines have boon discharged. The forts in tho islands are to bo increased in number and many new guns provided. Additional workmen are to bo employed on tho new dry dock now being built at tho Puget Sound naval station, Where ships of the largest size can bo repaired.-The dockyard at Mare Island, near San Francisco, is to be improved immediately and tho channel dredged, in order to. admit tho largest battleships." . . ■ Wilhelmshavon, on tho'west sido of tho entrance of the Bay of Jahde, fortyfive miles north-west of Bremen, was, inaugurated by King William in 180!), and is now a fortress of the first rank, defended by outlying forts and tornedoes, and, with its moles, basins, drydocks, vast navy stores, and workshops, has been a very costly creation, the massive "buildings boin'g erected on swampy ground. A. commercial har-bour-has been made'to the south of and connected with the nav.ll one. The increased size and draught of battleships means a big expenditure on new docks for all the leading naval Powers. For instance, it has been stated that' the Dreadnought cannot be taken into any dock on the east, coast of Britain; she would havo to go to Portsmouth or Devbnport. Germany has been projecting 20,000 ton and 25,000 ton battleships, which would be much bigger than tho tonnage of the Dreadnought, 17,600.