The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-24

tablish even fringe of protection by lsna
forces. But, on the other hand, verv feH-.
of these troops will ever catch sight Of
a fighting Spaniard. The enemy wonid
scarcely dare to land men at any point
and the only active service Sof our land
forces would be in connection With tl,s
capture of Cuba.
1T has been suggested that while q.
landing in force and formal occupation
OF American territory would be out of the.
question: considering Spain's meager re-
sources, yet a swift Spanish cruiser mtgbr
run into some feebly protected point. end
land troops for a few hours of destructiVs
villainy. Such troops, it is said, might -.
feet heavy losses by the prompt use of fire,
and explosives, or they might exact a
large ransom before retreating from the,
coast. These conjectupes are far from
comforting to the residents of the smaller
coast towns or to the isolated jewellers be-
side the sea. It's conceivable, of course.
that they could do but little damage, and
could simply indulge their natural love FOR
guerrilla warfare. 1 think, however, thar
such raids are mere Imagination. Al
though our preparations for coast defense
are of course hot ideally complete by anv
means, they are. nevertheless, far mora
complete than the public, for obvious rea-
SONS, mas yet UGtll stOids LIVELY Town OF
Importance is now Protected by batteries
on shore. by mines and torpedoes or
shore. And our navy, If small, is rapidly
growing. The number of effective fighting
ships cannot be increased as rapidly as one
could desire But the man that worries
because we haven't a battleship foa every
twenty miles of coast ought. to remember
that we shall have far more lighting ships
than the enemy can send to attack us.
and that if the enemy's ships are kept out
of mischief wherever they chance TO be,
all the rest Of the coast is as safe as if the
war were being fought on Mars.
what is necessary in order to prevent a
Spanish war vessel from finding herself
alone. like a deserted stage girl in black
gown. is an abundance of small boats of
high speed, boats that can maintain pei
feet line of reconnaissance, and still bs
able to get out of the war promptly should
the enemy attempt TO rid himself of i'm
pertinent observers. Because If there were
plenty of these fast small boats on our
side no Spanish vessels could get very
near our coasts without the news coming
quickly to one of our war vessels, which
would then be on hand to prevent the
Spaniards attempting to land troops or to
shell the shore.
That's no doubt the reason why the
government has bought so many fast tugs
and yachts within the last few weeks.
These so-called dispatch boats and trans
ports win serve as naval pickets and wiz
be Indispensable to the efficient mainta-
nance of naval trocha.
'"The first shock of war will take place.
without doubt, upon the sea. No troops
would probably be moved from this coun-
try until the supremacy of the sea was
definitely decided as between ourselves and
Spain. Because if Spain could defeat our
navy she might establish a blockade OF
Cuba and she might oblige any troops wa
had already sent there to share the nor.
rors Of a reconcentrado situation infinitely /
worse than that which shocked the world
But should the Spanish fleet be forced from
the Western hemisphere Spain might then
abandon Cuba and sue for peace withour
our landing one soldier upon the Queen OF /
the Antilles. Indeed, it would be foO-
hardy for Spain to attempt then to retain
her grasp of Cuba.
yet should the Spaniards refuse ~
leave the island after their fleet had BEEN
driven away we would either invade IN
force or establish an open port for the
insurgents. An invasion in force might
prove a serious undertaking for American
white troops, chiefly because of the I'M
wholesome climate.
SHOULD We decide to open port for the
insurgents, the undertaking would require
merely such a garrison as would keep tina
Spaniards from recapturing the town The
insurgents undoubtedly would soon open a
line of communications from their princi-
pal field of operations to that port. Then,
If the insurgents could secure, along this
line. unlimited supplies, ammunition and
arms, including the latest field artillery.
and, If along the same line could be SEM
in some hundreds of American officers.
why, l imagine that the insurgents would
shortly control tho island without the
American troops being obliged to attempt
q regular invasion.
THE occupancy of a port in that fashion
would not require a large body Of land
troops And as all ports in Cuba, EXCEPT
Havana, are said TO be fairly free from
yellow fever, suppose our troops in any
other port wouldn't suffer as much as one
might imagine from disease. For, Of
course, no sooner would we take the pory
than we would set to work all the meth
DDS of recent sanitary science. Why
think even Havana, old and rotten as 1T
is, both physically, morally and political
ly, could 10 turned into a reasonably
wholesome community by thoroughly
draining the city and driving out the
Weyler Spaniards.'