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Show HAVE NO FEAR OF JAPS BUT PREPARE FOR WAR War Department Denies That Recommendations Recom-mendations for Fortifications Were Made Because of Possibilities of Trouble With Japan. Washington. The fact that there was recently sent to congress by President Pres-ident Roosevelt a report by the general gen-eral staff of the army, which became public Thursday, recommending fortifications forti-fications for San Pedro harbor, California, Cali-fornia, was made the basis for suggestion sug-gestion that the decisions had just been reported because of a possibility cf trouble with Japan. At the war department this inference infer-ence is given a most explicit denial. There it is said the general subject of improving San Pedro harbor has been under consideration more than two years, beginning before there was cny thought of any dispute between the United States and Japan. It was taken up as a natural military mili-tary problem involving the necessary protection of the southern California coast, and without reference to any particular enemy. As a purely naval base, the general staff thinks, San Pedro harbor offers to an enemy considerable advantages, its use for this purpose being with a view to operations against other points on the Panama canal. |