Show I TO FORTIFY LONDON England is no more exempt from alarms worked up through jingoism than our OWl and other countries When it does become so alarmed there is any amount of talk about the great necessity for increasing the fleet so that it will be equal to the fleets of any two nations There is also much talk about the defenses at Portsmouth and the strength of the channel squadron squad-ron Now an English officer comes forward who thinks that London is in danger This is Captain W H Harrison Harri-son In an address made before the Royal United Service institution at Whitehall he said that there were indications in-dications which pointed to the possibility possi-bility of the invasion of England in the near future and in such a case the main object of the enemy would undoubtedly un-doubtedly be the capture of London The present means of warding off an invading force he added could not be considered sufficient for the purpose To insure the security of the metropolis metropo-lis it would be necessary to construct a series of large permanent works connected by smaller field works around London having a circumference circumfer-ence of eighty miles The cost of the purchase of ground under act of parliament par-liament and the construction of sixteen works might be estimated at 545f 000 I in addition to which the armaments would have to be considered as items I of first expense Whenever the time comes that London I Lon-don will need to be fortified her fortifications forti-fications will be useless for it win mean that England is under the heel of the conqueror But England is subject sub-ject to these spells of alarm and they never become more acute than when it I is proposed to construct a tunnel under un-der the channel to France Whenever I that project is brought up in the papers pa-pers the alarm and distress evinced by the English people is something to make one smile and then sympathize with them It will be quite an impossibility to create any particular public opinion among the Britishers that London I should be fortified |