The Hawaiian gazette., 1915-08-10
Nationwide Campaign For Bet
ter Security Includes ProVi-
Sions For These Islands
MANY CONGRESSMEN ..-H ,
REALIZE WEAKNESS
Pearl Harbor and Coast Forts
Need Strengthening-Larger
Navy important

The National Defense League Is Civ.
ing publicity all over the country to a
letter written by Representative VIII
liam d. Stephens of Los Angeles while
he was a visitor here with the con
gressional party this summer. Hun
dreds of mainland newspapers are
printing his letter under a Washing.
ton date line, together with the com.
ment of the league.
Representative Stephens is a member
of the house committee on naval af.
fairs and was largely instrumental at
the last session of congress Gin forcing
an appropriation for sixteen instead
of eight submarines, the number recon-
mended by Secretary Daniels. After an
inspection of the coast and naval de-
fenses of Oahu he wrote as follows:
''1 am more than ever convinced
that the United States should have
another hundred submarines, at least
fifty of them stationed on the Paci.
fie Coast, more battleships, and several
battlecruisers, besides a sufficient mum
Der of auxiliary vessels"
Explanation BY League
To this the league adds, by way Of
explanation: .r go
WThe United States now has a total
of seventy submarines, built or building,
but many of those now in commission
are obsolete and practically worthless.
If congress will provide at the next
session one hundred new submarines,
with the submarines now authorized,
or building, with those that are in com.
mission which are really efficient and
seaworthy, the navy will then have a
feet of approximately $50 undersea
boats that will be ample to protect
the Atlantic and Pacific coast lines,
Alaska, Hawaii, the Philippines and
the Panama canal.
"While most of the new submarines
, should be coast and harbor defense
vessels, a suitable proportion should
be sea-going craft with cruising ra'
dius of at least 5000 miles, a radius
large enough to enable the boats to
be shifted from coast line to coast line
through the Panama Canal, and from
the Pacific Coast to Alaska or Hawaii
under their own power"
OduHdl6h HbSAoh "toO
Tho campaign of the league is ma
ton wide,4 but it is centering its ef'
forts on the Middle West, which, hay
ing no soaboard, is additionally in
different to naval and maritime affairs
Representative W. II. Stafford OF
Wisconsin, on returning home from the
Islands, preached to the same tune.
"The weaknesses of the Pearl Har
Dor defenses are so apparent" he said
in an interview published in the Su
perior wisconsin, Telegram, "that
they surely will be taken up by Con
gress at the next session. They arr
supposed to be impregnable fortified
! tions, but we found that they would b'
helpless against a rear attack"
Says Representative Leonidas G. Dye
of Missouri in a widely quoted inter
view, which Leslie's Weekly repro
! duces as an EDITORIAL '.e,'
Must Have Modern DefenBes
"The United States should hold thu
Hawaiian Islands by all means anC
provide there a great naval base. W,
must have there also up-to-date fort
ificatiOns with the best and most mod
ern guns installed. We have not suffi
cient soldiers upon the islands. w,
should keep a division there at al
| times.
"If we give heed to these matters
the Pacific Coast and the Panama cana
are safe from attack. OF course, tn,
, United States must keep in the Unite,
States a proper sized, equipped an,
modern fleet of battleships, submarines
ETC..
Representative Dyer recommend
that $l5,OO0,O0O be spent on the de
velopment of Pearl Harbor and tn
coast defenses of Oahu in the next thre
years. a... @~-