Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1916-06-03
EN-OFWAR, large and small;
indefinitely colored trans
ports, laden with troops, and
4 a never-ending line of war

hH lnueHultely COlOfeu trduo-
ports, laden with troops, and
a never-ending line of war
requisitioned freighters, day by day,
slip out of Portsmouth, the first naval
harbor of the worlds greatest naval
power, bearing their reinforcement to
all of the troubled zones of Europe,
Asia and Africa, says bulletin of the
National Geographic society. The bur-
dens and responsibilities of this Eng
lish port have grown enormous since
the outbreak of the war; for 1t, like
German Kiel, symbolizes the mighty,
vital effort Of great group Of powers
in the greatest war of history.
Very little has been written about
Portsmouth, the war port; for the Ia
bors and planning that have taken
place there have been much too i'm
portant, much too intimately bound up
with the hopes and aims of the en-
tente allies, to be trumpeted abroad. A
veil of military exclusiyeness has been
drawn over the fearful stress and tur-
moil of Portsmouth, hiding the nature
multitudinous enterprises and the sig
nificance of its achievements. One re-
members, however, that Portsmouth
10 the chief naval arsenal and port of
Britain, the heart of the allied pow
ers' rule upon the seas.
Greatest of Naval Bases.
Situated in Hampshire, at a central
point in Englands southern coast,
about IA miles southwest of London,
Portsmouth is both sheltered and
we'll placed to serve the empires naval
needs on whatever ocean. Probably
first on the roll of the worlds great
naval bases, the English port, an ag-
gregate of four towns. possesses a
splendid harbor, and one that has
been developed as base for English
naval power through more than five
centuries. Portsmouth has the most
complete and impregnable fortifica-
tions in England; for 1t is a master
nerve-center in the empires life and
dominion.
Portsmouth, Portsea, Landport and
Southsea are the towns which Join
to form the port, and they are all To-
Gated On Portsea island. Portsmouth
proper is the garrison town; Portsea
is the naval station, with dry docks,
great dock yards, torpedo and gun
mounting stores, electrical shops and
innumerable subsidiary shops, while
Landport is occupied by the homes Of
the artisans. Southsea has enjoyed
steady growth in fame as fashiona-
BILE watering place.
The port is defended by a powerful
ring of landward forts, the Portsdown
forts and the Hilsea lines; and by
the Spithead forts to the seaward.
The anchorage of Spithead is roomy
enough to ride the great fleets of Eng
land, scores of boats safe in the shell
ter Of the Isle Of Wight.
Richard built the first town there,
influenced to its foundation solely by
reasons Of strategy. The fostering
care of King Henry VIII and Queen
Elizabeth first brought the port into
Importance; and its importance as a
naval harbor has grown steadily ever
since, keeping pace with the growth
Of the empire.
Cardiff, the Coal Port.
Cardiff is the greatest coalexporting
port in the. world, where more bust
ness is carried on in a quiet way than
In hundreds Of cities better advertised
and far more in the public eye.
For years a great part of the coal
that has driven the industrial ma
chinery of Germany, Austria, Holland,
France and Russia has been shipped
from this Welsh port, and so vast was
the quantity of this export that, in
GLIDING the docks at Barry and Pen
arth as part CT the port, 1t saw the
greatest quantities of foreign shipping
clear from its docks of any port in
the United Kingdom. With the out
break of the European war, with the
loss of practically all of her coal fields
by France, and with a growth of a
need of coal by Russia and by France
greater than ever before for the man.
ufacture OF the almost unlimited mu-
nitions that the war is consuming
Cardiff became a place Of first strate-
gic Importance, heart-source Of en-
ergy to the entente powers.
The Welsh port conforms to the