opinion that the following should be estimated for during the next year. It is believed that the cost will be in the vicinity of $1,400,000. This estimate is based roughly on such figures as have been obtainable by the Chief of Coast Artillery as to the cost of construction and includes the cost of plumbing, heating, and lighting. The detailed estimate, of course, will have to be prepared by the QuartermasterGeneral.

ters, insular posses

sions.

INSULAR POSSESSIONS.

The need for barracks and quarters for coast artillery troops at Corregidor and Grande Islands, Philippine Islands, Barracks and quar- and at Honolulu, is urgent; in fact, far more urgent than the need of additional barracks and quarters for coast artillery troops in the United States. More rapid progress has been made in the completion of the fortifications authorized heretofore for those places than had been anticipated, and the situation now confronting the War Department of providing for the care and preservation of the armament is serious. With the completion of the other batteries now under construction, this condition will become worse and relief can not be obtained until barracks and quarters are provided. The armament completed or to be completed before the close of the present fiscal year on Corregidor Island will require 10 companies for its service; that on Grande Island, 4 companies; and that at Honolulu and Pearl Harbor, 4 companies. Due to the lack of available funds for the construction of quarters, it has been possible to station but one company of coast artillery on Corregidor Island and but one company on Grande Island.

Failure to obtain funds at this session of Congress will mean that for the next three years these defenses will be in a state of almost complete unpreparedness for war, due to the lack of personnel to man the armament and receive proper training in handling the same. The distance of the Philippine Islands from the United States renders it 57048-WAR 1908—-vol 2- -16

From funds which were appropriated previous to the report of the Taft Board, the Engineer Department purchased 30 portable 36-inch searchlight outfits, which were intended to be used in testing various positions of lights in the different harbors before assignment to permanent stations. Four (4) of these lights were sent to the Philippine Islands, nineteen (19) to artillery districts, and seven (7) were assigned to a searchlight party which has visited the artillery districts of Portland, Portsmouth, Chesapeake Bay, Charleston, Pensacola, San Francisco, Columbia, and Puget Sound and is now under orders to visit the artillery districts of Boston, Narragansett Bay, New London, and the southern artillery district of New York for the purpose of testing the suitability of various sites for searchlights and preparing plans for the searchlight installation in these districts. There have been considerable developments recently in searchlights, involving changes in the projector, the lamp mechanism, the controller, and suitable power units, and as a result the Engineer Department is preparing specifications for searchlights which will embody the best features that are now shown in the different types of lights. Under these specifications lights will be purchased to the limit of the available appropriations, which are just sufficient to complete the searchlight installations for the existing gun and mine defenses of the artillery districts of San Diego, San Francisco, the Columbia, and Puget Sound.

The amounts required to install the searchlights for existing gun and mine defenses at the following places are shown in each case:

The Chief of Coast Artillery recommended that this amount be included in the estimates to be presented to Congress at the coming session. The estimated cost of searchlights for the gun defense of harbors to be fortified in the insular possessions, as given by Insular and isth the National Coast Defense Board, is $589,000; and for the mine defense $174,000, giving a total of $763,000; and for the gun searchlights at the Isthmian Canal ports $228,000, making a total for insular and isthmian ports of $991,000. The following appropriations for searchlights for insular ports have been made since the report of the National Coast Defense Board:

mian ports.

By act of March 2, 1907.
By act of May 27, 1908_.

Total

$30,000 227, 500

257,500

which, being subtracted from $763,000, leaves $505,500 still required to provide the necessary searchlights for the gun and mine defenses in the insular ports and in addition the $228,000 required for the gun defense of the isthmian ports.

The amounts required to complete the installation of the searchlights at the following places are shown in each case, namely:

It has been recommended that this amount be included in the estimates to be presented to Congress at the coming session.

III. POWER PLANTS.

Under the heading of "Power plants and electrical installations” the National Coast Defense Board states:

The use of electricity in connection with seacoast defense has become necessary for

1. Current for motors to operate ammunition hoists in order that the service of ammunition may be equal to the increased rapidity of the fire of guns.

2. Current for the system of range finding, fire control, and fire direction. 3. Current for searchlights.

4. Current for lighting various parts of the emplacements and range-finding stations.

5. Current for motors for retracting guns on disappearing carriages. In a tabulated estimate of the coast artillery material needed for the completion of the harbor defense of "home Home ports. ports," the National Coast Defense Board's estimate for the cost of "central power plants" for these home ports is $3,062,664, and for the cost of reserve plants is $2,153,367. Before the act of May 27, 1908, no direct appropriations had ever been made for power plants for fortifications and all such plants as had been constructed for this purpose were built from the general appropriation for gun and mortar batteries. As no appropriations for new batteries in the United States had been made for several years past and as the need for fortification electric power was increasing, due not only to deterioration of existing plants, but on account of the additional requirements for electric power in the batteries, upon the recommendation of the Chief of Artillery an item of $1,000,000 was included in the estimates submitted by the Secretary of War to Congress at the last session.

The act of May 27, 1908, contained an appropriation of $348,888 for power plants, which is the amount, according to the estimate of the National Coast Defense Board, required to install the central

fortification plants required for the following places: Forts Casey, Stevens, Barry, Baker, and Winfield Scott.

While this is a start in the right direction, more liberal appropriations will be necessary in order to supply the batteries with the proper power and it has been recommended that an item of $984,352 be included in the estimates of the Secretary of War for power plants for the fortifications in the United States.

Considering the necessary power plants for the insular possessions, the National Coast Defense Board recommended an

Insular ports. expenditure of $34,469 for the emplacement plants for Honolulu and Pearl Harbor. By the act of May 27, 1908, $20,000 was appropriated for this purpose, which leaves $14,469 still required for the emplacement plants in the Hawaiian Islands. The National Coast Defense Board also included in their recommendations an item of $72,089 for a central power plant at Grande Island, and $259,080 for the central power plants for the fortifications in Manila Bay. The act of May 27, 1908, carried an item of $115,000 for power plants in the Philippine Islands, which leaves $216,169 yet to be appropriated for the central power plants required by the defenses of Subic and Manila bays. It has been recommended that this amount, together with the $14,469 necessary to complete the fortification plants in the Hawaiian Islands, making a total of $230,638 in all, be included in the estimates to be submitted by the Secretary of War to Congress at the coming session.

IV. SUBMARINE MINES.

Recent war has shown clearly the value of submarine mines as an element of harbor defense. If a harbor is defended by an efficient system of mines and the requisite guns for their protection against countermining, sweeping, or other methods of removing them, it is not believed that any enemy, however enterprising, will ever attempt to force an entrance into a harbor with large ships. This conclusion has been supported strongly by the terrible destruction wrought by the submarine mines at Port Arthur and Dalny during the RussoJapanese war. Our system of submarine mines is practically perfect as a war weapon. Being under complete electrical control from the shore, a line of mines may be rendered instantly destructive to an enemy or harmless to passing friendly vessels.

Home ports.

While all progress toward the completion of both submarine mine structures and equipment has been made to the limit of the available appropriations, it can not be too strongly pointed out that the completion of this defense of our harbors should be pushed to a condition of absolute preparedness. The estimates show that at less than one-fourth the cost of a fully equipped battle ship the mine defense of the United States can be completed from Portland, Me., to Puget Sound. When the value of this completed mine defense is considered, not only for its actual worth as a destructive weapon, but also for its moral effect and its comparatively small cost, it will be apparent that this completion should be accomplished at the earliest possible moment.

Moreover, it should be clearly understood and fully appreciated by those in authority that we can not afford to wait for war before completing our mine defense; we must be prepared beforehand, for

otherwise no amount of money made available at the outbreak of war could procure mine material in time to be of service in mine defense against an active maritime enemy. Essential parts of this material, such as cables, mine cases, and electrical apparatus, can not be bought at a moment's notice in open market, but must be manufactured to order, and after having been ordered, months are required to fill the orders.

If confronted suddenly by war, only such mine material as is on hand can be utilized for immediate mine defense, and if any essential part of the mine system is lacking the whole mine defense must fail. If the enemy is aggressive, an attack on a harbor may even precede a formal declaration of war, as was the case in the attack on Port Arthur in February, 1904. To meet such an emergency the complete mine equipment of every harbor to be mined should be kept on hand ready to be planted, and it should be made possible to mine effectively every harbor within forty-eight hours. The estimated cost of completing the submarine mine defense of the United States is, structures, $404,764; material, $1,322,405, making a total of $1,727,169; and of the insular possessions, structures, $227,000; material, $280,463, making a total of $507,463.

It has been recommended that the estimates for this year contain the following items:

(a) For mine structures in the United States__

$289, 964

This would complete the engineer part of the mine defense for the United States, according to the estimates of the National Coast Defense Board, excepting Cape Henry, Fishermans Island, and San Jacinto, for which latter places the amount required is $114,800. (b) For mine material for the United States.

$763, 700

This would complete the material of the mine defense of the United States, with the exception of certain material for Forts H. G. Wright and Terry, together with that for the following_ungarrisoned posts requiring mine defense: Fort Popham, Cape Henry, Fishermans Island, and San Jacinto, for which latter places the amount required is $558,705.

(c) For mine material for insular possessions_. $38, 031 The past appropriations cover the mine structures for Manila Bay, Subic Bay, Honolulu, and Pearl Harbor, and the mine material for all of these places except Pearl

Insular ports.

Harbor, which requires the above amount.

BARRACKS AND QUARTERS FOR THE COAST ARTILLERY.

In addition to the necessity for the elements of defense which have been referred to in the preceding part of this report, the matter of furnishing proper barracks and quarters for the garrisons is of the greatest importance and is treated in detail for both the United States and the insular possessions.

UNITED STATES.

The last session of the Fifty-ninth Congress excluded from the army bill any appropriation for barracks and quarters for the coast