Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1916 — PORTSMOUTH, the War Port [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PORTSMOUTH, the War Port

MEN-OF-WAR, large and small; indefinitely colored transports, laden with troops, and a never-ending line of warrequisitioned freighters, day by day, slip out of Portsmouth, the first naval harbor of the world’s greatest naval power, bearing their re-enforcement to all of the troubled zones of Europe, Asia and Africa, says a bulletin of the National Geographic society. The burdens and responsibilities of this English port have grown enormous since the outbreak of the war; for it, like German Kiel, symbolizes the mighty, vital effort of a great group of powers in the greatest war of history. Very little has been written about Portsmouth, the war port; for the labors and planning th.at have taken place there have been much too Important, much too Intimately bound up with the hopes and aims of the entente allies, to be trumpeted abroad. A veil of military exclusiveness has been drawn over the fearful stress and turmoil of Portsmouth, hiding the nature of its giant tasks, the details of its multitudinous enterprises and the significance of its achievements. One remembers, however, that Portsmouth is the chief naval arsenal and port of Britain/ the heart oT the ers’ rule upon the seas. Greatest of Naval Bases. Situated in Hampshire, at a central point in England’s southern coast, about 74 miles southwest of London, Portsmouth is both sheltered and well placed to serve the empire’s naval needs on whatever ocean. Probably first on the roll of the world’s great naval bases, the English port, an aggregate of four towns, possesses a splendid harbor, and one that has been developed as a base for English naval power through more than five centuries. Portsmouth has the most complete and Impregnable fortifications in England; for it is a master nerve-center in the empire’s life and dominion, Portsmouth, Portsea, Landport and Southsea are the towns which Join to form the port, and they are all located on Portsea island. Portsmouth proper Is the garrison town; Portsea Is the naval station, with dry docks, great dock yards, torpedo and gunmounting stores, electrical shops and innumerable subsidiary shops, while Landport is occupied by the homes of the artisans. Southsea has enjoyed a steady growth in fame as a fashionable watering place. The port is defended by a powerful ring of landward forts, the Portsdown forts and the Hilsea lines; and by the Spithead forts to the seaward.. The anchorage of Spithead is roomy enough to ride the great fle'ets of England, scores of boats safe In the shelter of the Isle of Wight. Richard I built the first town there, Influenced to its foundation solely by reasons of strategy. The fostering care of King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth first brought the port into importance; and its importance as a naval harbor has grown steadily ever since, keeping pace with the growth of the empire. Cardiff, the Coal Port. Cardiff is the greatest coal-exporting port in the. world, where more business is carried on in a quiet way than in hundreds of cities better advertised and far more in the public eye. For years a great part of the coal that has driven the industrial machinery of Germany, Austria, Holland, France and Russia has been shipped from this Welsh port, and so vast was the quantity of this export that, including the docks at Barry and Penarth as part of the port, it saw the greatest quantities of foreign-shipping clear from Its docks of any port in the United Kingdom. With the outbreak of the European war, with the loss of practically all of her coal fields by France, and with a growth of a heedbTcdalbyßußStarandbyFranee greater than ever before for the manufacture of the almost unlimited munitions that the war is consuming, Cardiff became a place of first strategic importance, a heart-source of energy to the entente powers. Th© Welsh por| conforms to the

best American tradition, In that ft has grown from an insignificant village to a center of world Importance during two brief generations. In 1831 it had a population of 6,187. It now has a population of more than 166,000, a tremendous business, a highly developed harbor, equipped with the most modern machinery and port appliances, and .some of the fineßt public buildings in Great Britain. Its annual shipments of fuel totaled before the war about 8,500,000 tons. In a Rich Mining Region. The growth of Cardiff began when Great Britain started upon its career of being the factory nation of the world. The port, situated upon the River Tass, a mile above Its outflow into the Bristol channel, lies in the midst of a rich coal and Iron country, whose vast deposits have formed an undiminishing stream of lifeblood, not only to British industry but to the industries of many other countries. The whole region surrounding the town is honeycombed with coal and iron mines. These minerals have been mined here for centuries, and were formerly brought down from the hills on the backs of mules and In rudely constructed wagons. With the rise of tion of an up-to-date harbor and of efficient means for transportation, Cardiff came into its own, became big, prosperous, rich, renowned. While the export of this port is enormous, it has but an inconsiderable import. Its docks receive iron ore, pit-wood, grain, flour and cattle. An industrial region of increasing importance has been growing up around the city. Tin, copper and iron works are established here. There are also large wire factories, general foundries and engineering works. Mspy of the city’s general manufactures are sent to London, which is 146 miles to the west by the Great Western railway. Cardiff owes much of its progress to the second marquis of Bute, who realized the importance of this place as an outlet for the great stores of mineral wealth of the surrounding country, and who opened the first great dock here in 1839. The present Lord Bute owns the docks and basins of the harbor proper, five»in number and covering 110 acres, while numerous other docks extend down into the Bristol channel. Despite the city’s great development In all directions, the exhaustion of shutting down of its coal mines would rob It of its Importance. During the present time the value of Its exports to Russia, France and Italian factories can hardly be overestimated.

NELSON'S FLAOSHIP, THE VICTORY, IN PORTSMOUTH HARBOR.