Show spec al oh gibraltar s a bad n liber now adais declared a brit bh ena nee acer when discussing the corn dative merits of the gi eater orti esses of abe world with some i f is colleagues collea gies the other da bibi altar could be raked by gurs croni ceata ceuta or from the spanish main land the assian fortress of kron is stronger but the strongest br tish position and perhaps the strongest naval stat on in the world s halifax england s gb r itar we have spent million sterling on that place d iring th pat fhe ears and to day it is g larded by the best system of fortin cat ons the world has ever seen it is doubtful wather an fortified pos tion can be cons d ered impregnable under con dit ons of warfare but if so trat po is hal fax As a man enters calix 1 ai and scans through a pair of filid glasses the ring of which fron upon his steamer he is to agree with the engineer officer the united states at tl e gate vav of her ors great br tain has establish ed the greatest of hr modem fortresses 1 ow strong it is even the people of halifax themselves do not kno v for tle secrets of the de fences are carefully g larded A big hill in the center of the town has been turned into a citadel and armed with the latest long range guns As soon as an enemy s warships passed cape sambro the shelter po nt which must be rounded in older to enter the harbor these guns would greet them with a hailstorm of shot and shell from a d stance of to arteen miles if the were not annihilated by the first volleys they would be un der fire from the hill batteries all the way up the harbor while hundreds of heavy guns from forts along the shores and on tl e islands in the bar bor would join in the carnival of de st ruction chere are two island fortresses s asand and st geo ge s island immense sums of money have bern spent on them and every jutting rod s imports a gun the consume ate skill with which the nat ral mil tary advantages of the place have been ut udd and improved is roth ing short of marvelous when the french owned halifax they saw the strategic value of forti tying its beautiful land locked harbor ohp 1 atle cit of 40 COO people teams with m gitary life soldie rs and man of s raer sen on every streit and nowhere can one aa without seeing grim guns embra walls 01 br tl ne war bolts the ei ginders artil leomer sappers s dl vers and the officers in ohp ano is departments of the garri on a e all picked men none better can be found in the british service arven n these pip ng times of peace 1 beep watch and ward with in ig lanes nobody can approach any of the fortified ports without re plan of a sarp challenge and if a man persisted Ders isted in trying to enter a place closed to the public he would be prompt arrested one da towards the end of 1898 the commandant coT mandant of the garrison ie calved i cablegram from london prepare for siege it was at the time of european complications over the spanish american fight and the commandant could not tell whether england had gone to war or whether the message was merely a test of the effic ency of hib garrison in less than a minute bugles rang out all over the citadel calling the troops to quarters and telephone mes sages w ere hurriedly sent to the other forts I 1 ong before any enemy could have astaci ed every man was at his post stores for a years siege had been safely stowed in the heart of the citadel and nothing remained but to raise the drawbridge and fire the guns since then several similar tests of the vigilance of the garrison have been made and it has never been caught napping ten thousand men could be mo in halifax within twenty four hours and supported by two or three looking to the sea ana the works the erected were mar vels for their day but in later years since great britain has come to realize that in case of a great war she must be fed from without and that much of her food must come from canada efforts have been redoubled to make the port of halifax impregnable and to bring abo it such offensive plans that even a blockade would be a biffl cult and dangerous matter the coast ie dangerous shifting cui rents strong tides heavy fogs and jagged reefs and should a blockade be at tempted the elements would conspire to cause it to be discontinued the long range guns of the citadel would sweep the seas for many miles and betide the luckless blockader who incautiously strayed within their reach the completeness and secrecy with which the de fences have been ar ranged are well illustrated in the case of st georges island this island lies directly in front of the town and Is connected with the citadel on the hill by a secret tunnel running eighty feet below the bed of the harbor only two men presumably the general in command of the garrison and the boffl in command of the island know the secret of this tunnel though its entrance from the citadel or its point of egress on the island could not be kept secret there are blind passages and false walls in the depths so ar ranged that a knowledge of the plan historic guns in citadel would be necessary to enable a man to find his way from citadel to island in time of war ammunition stores and reinforcements could be conveyed through the tunnel and in the last resort the island s garrison could escape through it to the citadel though they would not be likely to do that while it was still possible to serve the guns st george a island mcnab s island and the citadel are each able unas aisted to blow an entire navy out of string of lesser forts the harhai the city and the country are corn banded by a thousand guns for a greater distance than a man can see when standing on the highest point of the citadel but these elaborate devices would be useless without good men behind the guns halifax is guarded by the cream of the british army and fine modern cruisers such as the ariadne aad the indefatigable some of the vessels of the british north american squadron are always there and the rest would not be long in arriving britain s western gibraltar in the opinion of the experts who have in specter it could stand sieges tar more strenuous than those which made the key of the mediterranean famous |