America's Unreadiness.

Manawatu Herald, 25 June 1898, Page 2

America's Unreadiness.

The St. James's Budget in an article " On the edge of war" says that the " feverish haste " mentioned daily by the Press is not to be found at Key West, the point nearest Cuba, as it seems singularly little disturbed by the great events hovering over it. The aspect of things is calculated to give the inquirer a shock of surprise. You find your way with difficulty to what are called by courtesy the docks. There are a few small sheds and storehouses; there is a red-brick Custom House building, neither large nor pretentious ; and there are a few wharves which would do no credit to a fourthrate port on the east coast of England. H.M.S. Cordelia with the white ensign fluttering in the breeze, lies along side one ; by another there is a large fourmasted coasting schooner, busy discharging cargo ; at a third is a revenue cutter, and one of the smaller cruisers at which some twenty men are working. A single steam-launch is swinging in the basin ; just one uniformed officer is to be observed walking up the street; and a -small group of shipwrights' labourers are hanging about the doors of the storehouse. And positively that is all there is to be seen. .(This was published on the Ist April.) It was not the fault/the article goes on to say, of the local authorities of Key West or those in command of the White Squadron, or the present administration of the navy ; all are doing what they can", and what their resources and opportunities allow. There is no lack of activity, whenever there is room for it. As soon as the coal or the ammunition can be accumulated for a cruiser, she slips in here, takes her supply on board, and is out again to make room for another ; and I have every reason to believe that the powder and the stores are coming as fast as they can be got. But, thanks to the policy of Secretary Long's and Mr Roosevelt's predecessors, and to the firm determination of many Congresses not to take the navy seriously, the facilities for equipping a fleet in haste are absurdly inadequate. Here, for instance, there are no docks, no workshops, no proper appliances for coaling. Yet this is the outpost towards the West Indies and South America ; and it is the place which commands the Gulf of Mexico and the adjacent waters. If there is a battle at Havana and an American ship is crippled, this is the place where she should be docked and repaired; but there is no dock deep enough to float a battleship, and not the means to replace a fractured plate. As for the stores and supplies which Key West should now be transferring into the holds and magazines of the ships, Key West cannot get them because the country has not got them. Go into the United States storehouses here — you can do so easily, for there is no sentry at the open gates, and anybody can prowl about this brick ■■ shed and see everything. That is not much.

The place is almost empty. I noticed a few boxes of medical comforts labelled for one battleship, a small stock of miscellaneous stores for another, a half-dozen sacks for a third. Nobody was in the shed, and nothing doing, because there is nothing to be done. There is willing hands on and off Key We*t, but they are idle till the stores can be accumulated, apparently is not yet. lam told'tflßt even now the best-equipped vessels of the fleet would shoot away all the powder and projectiles in their magazines in an hour's hard fighting. If all the factories of the country were set to ! work, they would take six months to provide the fleet with a three months' supply. Of course the Government can purchase abroad ; but it takes time and money. The present concLV tion of Key West is the most striking commentary on the claim of the United States to rank among the great Naval Powers.