Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-03-30
EDITOR.
sort of audit the accounts have lately been get
ting plus publicity.
ARE FORTS DooMEDe

Will the abandonment of forts be one of th,
lessons Of the present war; Already there ha
warfare that win result from the present worl.
conflict The submarine has raised the ques
ton of the utility of the dreadnought. TIL
value of cavalry has been open to doubt. Nov
there are those who say the crumbling Of TIN
defenses of Liege, the comparatively easy cap
ture of Antwerp, the impending conquest O
the Dardanelles, write the doom of the perma
nent fortifcation.
In that question Hawaii is vitality interested
Here is the view of correspondent, Paul Scot
Mowrer of the Chicago Daily News, who .hal
been in the French lines since the outbreak O
the war and who has seen many Of the opera
tons in which French and Belgian fortified
tons have been smashed by the big German
guns. He says:
"This question Of Notifications touches the United
States closely. 1t has "a long coast line to defend
1t would do we'll It seems to me- to study the ex-
iperience OF Longwy, Maubeuge Hege Namur and
8 Antwerp. The last named was considered by some
strategists to be the strongest fort in Europe In
German genera sala e S jacques oD @
take Antwerp any time we like. He made good this
statement Within month the defenses Of Antwerp
were ruin knocked TO pieces In two or three days
by comparatively small force of Germans They
simply had guns which could shoot farther than
s.Are we to conclude that ALI permanent forrhca-
tons are useless? Yes, practically just that
know there are many army men who win not agree
vantages Of fort are. first the great nitiaal ex-
Spense. and. second, its mmObty When II is att
tackled BY heavier pieces than defend e # becomes
q Instantly dead loss. There is not even time to
Adismount and save the guns so 4
This war has shown pretty clearly that properly
constructed trenches and earthworks, in properly
dhSEen position are harder to storm than the best
fkInfDrced concrete fortihcatiops It is better to
cdnespi battery than to protect with steel plates
il digging trenches along the Belgian border that they
s,sspsht. On the forts 81 Longws and Maubeuge the
ssGerRans would probably never have gone into
s All Il, all. have been wondering il America
u0Fould no be well advised to adopt an entirely new
eau1re lzihs than that in use Let 1t do away with
sfo1ls iIetsit have plenty of cannon-yes and the
na s,onssr = as Ds.'sF nes aps
Of 4 modern feet. Let it not, however, immobilize
8 these guns on permanent mountings
The United States could have similar series of
concrete bases at strategic points all along the sea
board Then wherever the attack was, big guns
could be rushed by RAN from all the artillery bases
In the region. Instead Of having definitely Sit
! uated fort to lombard. the enemy would ind him.
self Threatened BY fire the sources Of which he
Il could only guess And If he should succeed in
ai6catng the defending batteries they would have
only to change position before continuing their IRE.
"a wen intrenched body OF troops, well supported BY
artillery could 1t seems to me, successfully repel
almost any effort to land men on American soil.
Il The first essential In my opinion, Is guns-the
biggest and finest that can be mounted; and after
that mobility. * IS
OF course, this is an island and isolsted ard
he issue here is different. Mobile artillery
mere is not SO easy as it sounds. Nor has il
been proved that the huge German guns would
Be- effective mounted on warships. Much de.
bends on the inside revelations Of the strength
# the Bardanelles. If its line of Notifications
vas as strong as the world had been given I'd
believe 1T was, then the view Of men like
Mowrer Isl upheld and there is q profound
essen and warning for the United States.