JAPAN FORTIFYING AFRESH

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 301, 21 December 1907, Page 4

JAPAN FORTIFYING AFRESH

WHAT'S HER GAME. New York, .November 10. Japan is manufacturing more muni♦ions of war at the present moment than ' at any time during the war with Russia. ' Under peace Japan has one more arsenal ' and one more naval base than it had 1 under the sharp exigency of war. Both ' the arsenal and the new naval base have ' been established within the last six 1 months, and at each place day and night 1 shifts of laborers are being worked. Port Arthur, or Ryojun, as the .I.ijian- 1 ese have re-named the place, is the new ' naval lia-v. After the surrender the 1 engineer* of the War Oflice confined their attention exclusively to the raising I of the sunken Russian ships in the harbor, and the dismantled fortifications on 1 the land side were allowed to remain 1 just us they had been found at the time 1 of the surrender. Port Arthur was al- ' lowed to remain unprotected on the land I «ide, until two monhts ago, when the I War Oflice suddenly undertook measures to make the place stronger than it had been under Russian occupiation, and now work is being pushed there to the extreme extent of the army's capacity. 'ihese facts and others concerning the intimate inside workings of Japan's arsenals, shipyards and naval plants. The Sun has obtained from a man who has recently returned from Japan and who because of his former close relations with the Japanese War Office, now severed, has had free entry to Japan's war capacity of agent for foreign manufacturers of arsenal machinery. Through the quasi advisory status of his relations with the commanders of the Japanese arsenals and the engineers in the naval plants he has had explained to him details which no military representative of a foreign Power could obtain. He has been in the gun shops of 'i'okio demonstrating to the native artisans, the action of the machines he hf.d sold. In giving information about the potential strength and present capacity ot Japan's arsenals and shipyards the Sun's informant insisted that it be kept confidential until his departure from this country. He sailed for England yesterday. According to this gentleman's opinion, the most significant phase of the present pressure of work in the Japanese arsenals and naval stations is the tremendous effort that is being made to put Port Arthur on a defensive basis. Two montlu ago Major Arita, the chief eni gineer of the Tokio arsenal, the largest small arms manufactory in Japan, was I assigned to go to Port Arthur and estab- > lish there a naval base in fact, and to ■ superintend the reconstruction of the • land defences. Simultaneously with Arita's appointment orders were given a foreign firm of arsenal machinery manu- : factures for all the tools requisite to construct 1-indi, 8-inch, and l- incli 1 guns. Shipments were to be made to 1 Port Arthur direct. ' Last year the Japanese Red Book merely mentioned Port Arthur as a titulary naval station, Admiral Y. Shibayarna commanding. There were no works there to require the presence of sub-officers, no dry docks that were re- | paired, nor machine shops adequate to repair battleships. The only work that had been done on the captured strongl hold was to raise the Russian ships, ! clear out of the fairway the steamers 1 sunk there by Admiral Togo in his efforts to block the channel and put the sea defences in proper shape, t With the advent of Arita plans for a - completely-equipped naval plant, dry r docks, machine shops and gun factories " have been put under way. Pending the - erection of the gun making plant, dry docks, machine shops and gun factories • have been put under way. Pending the » erection of the gun-making plant, big guns from the Osaka factory have been j forwarded to Port Arthur and are bei ing mounted on the lines of forts back f of the city as these can be rehabilitated, r Before another year is past Port Arthur will be aa strong a naval station as t Sasbo or Maizuru in Japan proper is now.

The new arsenal that Japan has added to its war equipment within the last six months is about fire miles outside of Uyeno Park, in the north of Tokio, and is a branch of the main Tokio arsenal. Plans for the ereetion of these shop* were completed about a year ago, and machinery ordered from England and America was installed six months ago. At the present time this branch arsenal is working double shifts of men and turning out field guns as fast as machines will work. The main X'okio arsenal lias another branch at Xagoya, about midway between Tokio and Kobe. The Xagoya arsenal manufactures rifle parts, which are assembled at Tokio. The north Tokio arsenal, just completed, turn* out the parts for field pieces, which also arc assembled at the main Tokio arsenal Ten thousand men are employed at the main Tokio shops and half the number have been put to work at th# north branch. Field pieces, carnages, caissons and shell clips for rapid firers are manufactured at the new branch arsenal. The small arms capacity of the Tokio and Xagova arsenals has been increased within the last six months. From an output'of 500 rifles a day these factories have increased their capacity within the last six months to 800. Additions to the >hell works operated in conjunction with the Tokio arsenal have recently been made. The capacity of this branch is now 700 3-inch shells a day, cases and fuses complete. The fuse works at Tokio have a present capacity of 1100 fuses for shells ranging from 3to 12 inches. Major-General Nishimura is in command of the Tokio arsenal and its several branches. Another marked increase in capacity has been made in the -Maizaru Chiujufu, the naval station on the north-west coast of Japau, on the Japan Sua. At the time of the war ilaizuru was only one of the minor naval stations and possessed small capaijty for the repairing and equipping of battleships, but with the orders issued by the War Board at Tokio a year ago ilaizuru has been put into a position of second only to liure, the largest of Japan's naval shops, situated west of Kobe, on the Inland Sea. Maizuru has now three dry docks, capable of accommodating the largest ships in the Japanese navy. A torpedo plant has been installed there within a year, of about the capacity of the Vokostika torpedo station at Tokio liav. Its product is solely lloating and stationary mines, tlie dirigible torpedoes lieiug manufactured at Vokosuka. I'art of the machinery for mine making installed at ilaizuru is of American manufacture.

The rehabilitation of Port Arthur and the addition to the potential strength of Japan'* military arm by the owning of the new arsenal, and the improvement* at Mai/.uru all represent work done in the pa*t year, and an increase of about 30 per cent in the total potential war strength of -Japan is registered thereby. The present output of the greatest navy yard at Kure and tin; smaller oner, at Yokwuka and Sasebo and the eapacity of the U.-aka and Kure gun works* represent the bulk of the preparation Japan is making for eventualities At Kure and Yokosuka yards battleships haw Wen built and are now building. Twelve million yen ( Cl T 2»O.WH>) was the -*lllll set aside by the Diet at the beginning of this year for the repairing of the captured Italian rdiips and the construction in Japanese yards uf new one?. All of the Russian ships have now l>een repaired and are in commission, and new battleships have I>een laid down both at Kure and Yoko* Mika. The naval programme calls for the ronM ruction *)f three battleships, nine armored cruisers and ten fast emi.-er-. The Katori and Kaahima. first-cla-s battleships built in these yard*. are already in commission. The Aki and Satsuma, 1!UM) ton battleships eirher are already in commission or I rhortlv will be. I

The Sun's informant thin sums up the nature of the work being done in the Japanese shipyards and arsenals:— "The War Oftiee is having more work done than at any time during the war with Russia. The output of the arsenal- i- larger than it ever has been and Ihe work that has Wn done in putting Port Arthur and Maizuru naval bases in'o -hape has inereas»d the defensive arm of the Japanese navy by a great d»-al. 't i- Mirprising to one knowing :hn fin.incia! situation of the empire ?.» *«»e the tremendous expenditures beinjr mad.- »-n preparation for war. et it i- a'i l»ein«x done -o quietly that nobody not competed with the military knows anything about the situation. N'i.ne of the new-papers is allowed to print any details th.it the Government d«»o- not itself give out for publication, and that is of the nw«t ineagre -ort. A paragraph of ci\ line.- in a foreign paper pnbli-h.-d in Yokohama announced a month !>£<» Ihat the Government had placed an order with the Fairfield Shipbuilding Company of England for an 13,000-ton battleship"