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Show PEOPLE AT 8UEZCANAL EXCITED History of Passage of Various Va-rious Great Fleets Re viewed With Interest Sue. Monday, Dec. 28. When the great American fleet gets one step further fur-ther on Its epoch-making voyage around the world by passing through the Suez canal the residents of Suez will for the third time have witnessed the passage of the ships of war. Not many years ago there came a squadron squad-ron from Spain, thrust out as a measure meas-ure to stem the rising tide of a nation's indignation when no effort was being made to retain its possession In the Philippine Islands. The Spanish vessels ves-sels passed through the canal and anchored an-chored In Suez road?; they waited a day or two and then turned back, tho hopeless emblem . of a broken sea power. - A little later came another fleet this time from Russia carefully feeling feel-ing its way. That fleet waa never seen here again; Just one or two returned; re-turned; hospitals for maimed, crippled crip-pled crews who had looked on dea'.h and yet lived and a nation's naval honor waa in the dust Today tho people peo-ple are on the eve of welcoming a fleet that has made and is making history; a fleet that -has shown the flag of a nation to lands and seas where formerly form-erly it was but a name a fleet that does not wish to flaunt Us strength, but to train its men In the arts of war the better that peace may be maintained. maintain-ed. It is needless to say tho canal is excited. ex-cited. The English folk, conscious of the many ties that bind the two nations na-tions together, looked forward to the visit of tho ships as if they belonged peculiarly to them. With all the Europeans Eu-ropeans here, it is the one topic of conversation. con-versation. To the Europeans It will be nothing less than a revelation. After the American ships are anchored in the bay they will be subject to the formalities that have to be gone through before the canal be entered. Suez is the gateway to Europe from the east, and Europe and the western world are protected by an organized authority, not Egyptian but International, Interna-tional, which shuts the door against those diseases most virulent in tho cast. Not a soul can board a vessel until the quarantine doctors havo thoroughly inspected both ships and crew. Everyone aboard is examined and if the examination be favorable the yellow flag Is hauled down. Then only can tho 6hlps be boarded. Then each point to be decided Is how the ships will proceed through the canal. The great thing is to insure in-sure the safe passage of the big warships war-ships with the minimum of dislocation to the ordinary traffic. They will probably be passed through in three divisions. Then when the order of entering has been decided on the ships selected will have to be entered at the canal offices. |