The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1908-01-15
JAPAN MAKING
4 STRONGHOLD
or ISLAND or FoRMosA-yERi.
T13LE clsRALTAR Is
PLANNED.
WARLIKE PREPARATIONS
Being Pushed At Point Nearest philip
pine IsIands---No Foreign En-
gIneefs Are Allowed
On the island.

u Washington, Jan. l4--Japan III cra-
rating great naval base at the Island
tcf Formosa. Great guns ara being
jniornted, ammunition magazines nf
sfenormotis capacity filled to toxerfoms
ling: thousands of tonss OF coal, are
fbeing stored. with the requisite light
ers for handling 1t alongside warshfnB
I'm attendance, great cofnMissariAt
stores are being rushed there and 4
garrison OF unusual size Is being as
sembled. h.
4 This startling news has been known
to the war and navy departments for
teft days. In addition To this, II III
known that In many harhors la For-
mosa artificial islands are being Gre
ated and huge guns mounted upon
them. Formosa Is withing forty-eight
hours steam from the Philippines. ii
may ba possibly termed the key ta
the far East
The great activity. faverish haste
and magnitude OF operations upon
Which the Island OF Fofmosa IL being
equipped has caused grave anprehen-
sion in administration circles. Ac~
cepting the profuse assertions az
lffiendliness made, by Japan. the
| United States authorities are greatly
Ipuzzled BY the Intense and warlIke
activity of the Island Kingdom
Fofmosa. In case of war would be
am ideal base for Japan, II would ar
ford hnrbor for Transports. a base
for coal and supplies mad point from
which To throw troops into the Philip
pines. While actual figures are lack
ling. II issknown that Formosa ia being
ItuAxSftT-u fHf7T Il
that thousands of troops are being
Iconveyed to the island BY transports:
that the commissarial supplies there
or en- route would care for Il great
army. and that the ammunition sup
plies being provided would repIenish
battleships, and an army as we'll. for
a state OF warfare.
The news leaked out here only to-
day, although 1t has been known In
diplomatic circles for more than ten
days. The fact has caused a great
deal of international comment. The
comment Is especially significant, ow-
ing to the fact that for the last four
years, acting upon orders from the
Toxic government. no foreign engi-
neers have been admitted to Formosa.
In addition to this. II Is admitted by
The war department that no represen-
tative OF this government is admitted
to nay military point from which he
could make a single observation OF
Japanese Notifications, and especially
are they prohibited from visiting the
torpedo arsenal or the shipyards.
whore the Japanese are now briIding
two ''Dreadnaughts" and six subma-
rine vessels of new type
Affords Safe Retreat.
F0rmoea is. in expert opinion. an
ideal base of operations for the Jap
anese against any enemy. either at
tacking their own country proper or
IN the event that Japan herself should
at any time find 1t necessary to make
descent upon the Philippines.
Fornlosa is the one possession OF
Japan that can be self-supporting Ia
the way of coal; It has large coal
mines. and these. II Is stated. have
heen put in operation. and at the
pcrt OF keelung. nearest 20 the mines
there ae now as many tons Of coal as
the United States has afioat for her
battleship aeet--that Is to say. l33..
900 tons In fact. svTne OF the experts
report the Japanese supply at Kee-
lung as 100000 tons.
The port afforls a safe retreat un-
der formidable guns for the Japanese
feet. and at the same time enables
the heet to be that much nearer the
Philippines than at Nagasaki or Kobe
Japan could assemble under the guns
ir the inlets located upon the recently
created artificial islands whole feet
OF transports.
II is this last consideration which
has made. the deepest impression on
the board of strategy here II Is
manifest that II the English feet or
French or German fleet or even the
American Feet. should attfnept to
watch any of the four places in For
mesa. Toxic. Tamsul. Keeling OF the
Ton kwai. il would oe necessary TO
divide the feet Of observation
+ Japan, say the experts. could very
well send her whole feet to FormOsa
al concentrate H. II would be with
extreme difficulty taat the Japanese
seet could be prevented FROM convey
ing fleet Of transports to some point
on Subig bay or In the Philippines
away from Manila or sny fortified
place where there was even a bat
talon Of American soldiers.
very high military szfhoriff 10
v HON this tact OF the fortiheation Of
Formosa vas contemplated said 10
day that strafegically Il was the best