The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-02-27
BENNINGTON BOY CIRCLES
GLOBE WITH FLEET
Continued from First Page

/ that / do not think il will be after
l your day that England will be without
/ this young colonial republic. The
only troops there that are available
/ for call are colOnials, and they would
be with the rebels if a struggle come.
All heavy war vessels have been with
drawn from that station. and only
| cruiser squadrons patrol there. Aus
tralia is building under Englands sur
veillance, an embryo navy of her own,
slowly it may be, but nevertheless il
is navy. And the Independent spir-
/ 1t was well expressed In the song
which she greeted us with while We
were there, We've Got a Big Brother
in America" but which read like a
Keep of the Grass sign In the con-
Guiding line, This bit of earth be-
longs to us" And she is for a White
Pacific to the backbone, too and looks
with discountenance upon the Yellow
and Black immigration question, when
ever it comes up to her for considera-
ton. She is watching our progress
with the yellow Peril question here
in America and expressed her approx
al of the governments action relative
to the restriction of japanese immi-
grafton
But that brings to mind our visit to
the land of the Rising Sun where
We were given a lavish reception The
| brilliancy and lavishness of the enter
tainment extended by the Japanese
people from the Mikado down to the
: Acknowledged school children, who
thronged the streets, sang American
patriotic airs and shouted Banzai
whenever our officers or men passed,
captivated the entire feet With the
eyes of the world upon her it became
a matter of the highest national in
terest for Japan to demonstrate the
peacefuness of relations with Amer
lea, and 70 make manifest the assured
continuance of peace. The emperor
went to an unusual extent in this dir
ection both by his cordially to the
officers of the fleet and by his mes.
sage TO the president. that the his
toric relations, the good understand
I lug and the genuine friendship OF the
United States ] count as a valued her
itage of my reign, and that it shall be
in the future as It has in the past my
constant aim and desire to weld the
ties of amity uniting the two countries
into indissOluble bonds of good neigh
lborhood and perfect accord.
The appeal made by the cordial in
terest and polite curiosity Of all the
people in the visitors and their ships,
and the qualification OF the personnel
of the fleet in seeing and becoming ac-
| ,f,,f Ia. fg
war against Russia a the whole gave
10 the visit an interest and success far
beyond the shrewdest expectations.
We then returned TO Manila Bay,
where we spent a month in shooting
az canvas, and in the battle practice
there the L. s. S. Vermont mark the
namel won the navy battle practice
trophy. heading the list of all the
ships In the navy for excellence in
battle firing That's the way II APP
peared in the newspapers, but the pub
lie cannot appreciate the full mean
ing of this; it is only those of us whJ
have been there. seen the firing and
observed the targets after We had fin
ished firing, and heard the remark
| Think If that had been a ship, who
can know what it means 70 shoot so
as to win that trophy If you could
| have seen the target that we made
the record on. with its middle entirely
shot away, and with but few square
inches Of surface in which hole
could not be seen. and then consider
ed that it was done by a ship some
five miles away from IT, YOU might
1 III g., fF .
mark, Just think if that had been a
ship will know about what they
mean now when they say Our gun
merry records are improving, after hay
ing witnessed this demonstration, and
that also during record target practice
in Magdalena Bay last March.
But We left Manila at last, steamed
westward past Singapore. tarried a
while at Columbo. drinking Lipton's
best Ceylon, and then disturbed the
calm of the water between there and
Alden. passing in through the Straits
of Babel Mandeb withless trouble
than we had in pronouncing the name.
into the Red Sea. which was more the
color of our blue uniforms than 1t was
of blood red, anchored for day or so
at Suez and then the ships of the feet
passed through the Suez canal, one or
two at a time, but sending a few of
us who desired to go by rail, via Cairo.
to Port Said where we joined the ship
in time to leave with them | went to
Cairo and spent three of the most in
teresting days of the whole cruise
in this the capital and largest city Of
this ancient empire, Egypt l took
in a side trip to the Pyramids and 20
the Sphinx. and crossed the Sacred
Nile, and incidentally had my eyes
filled with sand from the Desert Of
Sahara. saw mumies, and all sorts
of ancient relics, of which | will tell
you all about the next time come to
Bennington. but which will occupy
too much space for letter We left
Port Said post haste for Naples,
Italy, to offer our services to Italy
for aid work at Messina but before
larrival there were ordered by wire
less to proceed to Villefranche,
France. but we all saw the ruins Of
the quake, while passing through the
Straits of Messina. with Reggie on
lour starboard and Messina on our
port beams, but that was enough
scanned the destroyed cities by the
aid of binoculars, and observed ruin
and destruction and desolation ram
pant everywhere 1t must truly have
been terrible.
We finally anchored off Vilefran-
che, and while the boys enjoyed life
with the Francois, at Nice, Paris,
Marseilles and vicinity, the officers
lost their money at Monte Carlo
Our stay in French waters soon came
o.. ND ,,so t,roo,a1oI IN No