The farmer and mechanic., 1915-06-01
LIBAU AMONG LARGEST
RUSSIAN NAVAL BASES
Port Is Prepared To Build. Iouip and
Commission Large War Fiest.

Commission Large War Fleets
Lihau. recently reported captured
10 the German invaders Of the Rus
sian Baltic provinces. where the Rus
sian kiel or Brooklyn navy yards are
located. il one Of the important naval
ana commercisl ports of the tsar's
Kingdom, and city whose rapid
growth during the last few wears has
given an earnest Of the remarka-
bic future III store for the mighty
NuSCoylte empire IL forms the sub
JeCt OF the study in war geography 49,
sued today By the National Geor-
graphic Society The sketch OF this
prosperous port as Yet little known -
Americans. reads.
libau Is one of the first Of Rus
sla s naval bases. Il stronger fortified
port and we'll supplied arsenal The
Russian government completed The
extensive and powerful defensive
works that incloSe the port during
| lS93-l9o6. The naval harbor i north
OF the commercial harbor. though the
| foruhcatlons were planned To include
| both harborS.
| The port is prepared 10 build equip
| and commission naval fleets
| russians know and have a pride
| IN Lloau Tor its military strength and
for its commercial enterprise and
progress IL is the metropis Of Court
land. and. with its fleets enjoying fire.
promise to become a Russian Bremen
or. even. a Russian Hamburg II ~
the home port of many Atlantic and
coast liners. and its fine break water
capacious harbor and up-to- date
docing facilities give it splendid ad-
vantageS in its competition with tho
other ports of Russia.
Millions Spent On Harbor
Millions of dollars have been ex-
| n ha yh dow Ion =
the city, and, just before the outbreak
of the war, the government had un-
; der consideration plans for eXpendin :.
many Millions more for extensive i'm
provements. The railway connections
| of Libau are good Moscow. Petro-
grad. Orel and Kharkov being bound
to the port by adequate railways
: In appearance Libau is new and
4 it is also solidly successful II is
C built of stone. with fine gardens. and
: laid out in wide streets. The town y
S angular or Anglo-Saxon and German
= in cut rather than Slav. Toow. there
:. are few evidences to the characters
t tic SlavOnic in its architecture. The
: steep gables. the square and diligenU.
e prOpOrtiOned lines of the German
J, building are everywhere visible. these
It being little of the fanciful of the Sla
, vonic builder of the upturned onion
: shaped towers and other maze o
d florid complexities of Slavonic archi
e teCtural composition.
t. LAS in the case OF other BaltI
e cities, Libau is merely stepdaueh hte
ol of Russia, not a blood descendant. 1t
population Of some 10000 is German
20 Jewish, Lithuanian. with just a smal
Sprinkling of Russian administrators
N Before the war, the street signs o
,r the city were in German. Russian an
II Lettish.
le Canals jammed with shipping
IF | added life to the city of before tn
,e war Libau has been popular as
% fashionable seaside resort among tn
,r Russians, and many Germans fror
II the neighboring German province
as have followed in increasing number
% here each summer in the wake O
n their Russian neighbors. The cit
70 was held by the Order OF the Breth
r, rem of the Sword for a long time. /
in 1901, t was captured by Charles Xl
IA of Sweden. and passed to Russia wit
10 Courland in 1895"