The log cabin Democrat., 1916-05-05

n H EN-OFWAR, large and small; Au indefinitely colored trans
 ports, laden with troops, and
 never-endfng 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 fish port have grown enormous since the outbreak of the war; for it, 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 la 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 exclusiveness has been drawn over the fearful stress and tur- moil of Portsmouth, hiding the nature of it's giant tasks, the details of it's multitudinous enterprises and the sig nificance of its achievements. One re- members, however, that Portsmouth is the chief naval arsenal and port of Britain, the heart of the allied pow CTS rule upon the seas.
 Greatest of Naval Bases.
 Situated in Hampshire, at a central about "A miles southwest of London, Portsmouth is both sheltered and well 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 az splendid harbor, and one that has been developed as a base for English naval power through more than five centuries. Portsmouth has the most complete and impregnable fortifica- tions in England; for it is a master dominion.
 Portsmouth, Portsea, Landport and Southsea are the towns which join to form the port, and they are all To. cated 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 a steady growth in fame as a fashiona. ble 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 shel- 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 coal-exporting port in the. world where more busi ness is carried on in a quiet way than in hundreds of cities better advertised and far more in the public eye.
 For years 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 cluding the docks at Barry and Pen arth as part of the port, 1t saw the greatest quantities of foreign shipping clear from it's docks of any port Tn 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, a heart-source of en cergy to the entente powers.
 The Welsh port conforms to the