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Show TO FORTIFY GUAM. To be Made a Great Naval Base For Eastern . Waters. The navy department has taken the initial steps in the preparation for the complete and comprehensive system of fortifications and harbor improvements by which it is intended to make the island of Guam a thoroughly protected base for our naval vessels in the western west-ern Pacific. . The navy department has been at pains to ascertain just what harbor facilities other nations have in this part of the world, and the maps already al-ready prepared show that southward from Guam we are flanked for 2,500 miles by a chain of islands containing thirteen fine harbors, all of them potential po-tential bases of hostile powers. Some of them are already equipped and fortified. for-tified. These harbors are included in the Marshall and Caroline groups, which stretch from the southern border bor-der of the, Philippines eastward past the longitude of Guam, while on the north the Ladrones possess several harbors, some of them as close as forty miles to our possessions in Guam. Ia view of all these facts, it has been determined de-termined to make Guam a great naval base. |