Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1904-06-08
HAWAII WITHOUT DEFENSE.
Would BE No Trouble for q Hostile
Warship to Capture Amer
lean Territory.

The Indifference shown xt Washing
on in the matter of military and naval
plans for Hawaii has caused much sur
,rise among prominent army men, says
| recent report. A well-known officer
here recently called attention to
present conditions. The federal govern
| nent spent several hundred thousand
tollars securing valuable lands at Pearl
darbor for a naval station, pressing
| engthy litigation to close and in
lredging the channel entrance to Pearl
| Harbor, and it secured reports and sur
feys from several army boards as to
bites for military camps and land for
ifications. Then the whole matter
vas dropped and the utmost indiffer-
| lnce appears to be the rule now.
Meanwhile Hawaii is defenseless.
Since the United States acquired Pearl
aarbor, during Cleveland's first admins
ration, Honolulu has heard nothing but
| The strongest expert opinions as to the
great Importance of the islands from a
strategic point of view Up to within a
few months there has been a long sue
session of army and navy experts voic-
ing the same idea-that Hawaii was the
key to the situation. Yet the islands
ire utterly unprotected to-day. II
Honolulu is of any value and war should
break out in which the United States
| were involved fleet, unassisted from on
ihore, would have to defend Hawaii
There is not gun on the island Of
| Oahu of any strength worth consider
ng in such matter. The federal gov
| srnment keeps handful of soldiers
stationed in Honolulu and the Hawaiian
national guard has such strength as
may be expected from militia organ
fzation, and that is ALL A hostile fleet
could take the island without firing a
gun unless there was fleet of defense
and this would mean Withdrawing war
| chips from other points.
There are no considerable coal or 9TH
er supplies kept in Hawaii If the is
| lands are of the strategic importance
| which they are said to be by Secretary
Taft, Gen. Macarthur, Admiral Evans
and a dozen other army and naval Of
icers who have passed through there.
Uncle Sam shows strange unreadiness to
protect them. A single cruiser, a de-
cent gunboat would have Honolulu at
| it's mercy.
Manila is defended, Porto Rico has
| forts and American coasts are getting
| more year by year, while the whole terri
| tory of Hawaii is weaker as American
territory than was the happy Hawaiian
monarch who started forth with his lone
warship weighted to the Plimsole line
| with gin to annex Samoa and organize a
federation of islands of the Pacific
If the war for which there is so much
preparation and outlay were to sudden
ly start a single foreign cruiser could
take Honolulu, and if she had time to
land her guns and place them we'll be-
fore called upon to defend her capture
perhaps it might not be easy to retake
the place. 1t is claimed that batteries
at Diamond Head and along the shore
and at BARRIERS point would make Hon
olulu secure from capture from the
ocean side and keep war vessels out of
bombarding distance, while the approach
from the land side is over winding as
cent of precipice easily defended.