the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, read a paper on Oakland 

 harbor and used the map presented at the morning session 

 by Mr. Gray, in connection with his paper. Mr. Hogan sup- 

 plemented Mr. Gray's statement of the necessary improve- 

 ments which the Federal Government should furnish, saying: 

 "The United States giving five hundred thousand dollars 

 does not mean all that is necessary, by any means. The 

 people will have to expend two million dollars more, in main- 

 tenance, etc." 



A. A. Fries, Captain Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., in com- 

 menting on "California's Harbor Defenses," said in part: 



The greatest need to-day for the defense of the Western 

 coast is a larger and stronger fleet on the Pacific and the com- 

 pletion of the Panama Canal. Once we have the canal in 

 operation we can quickly reinforce the Pacific Fleet from the 

 Atlantic and vice versa. 



The headquarters of the fleet should be in the Philippine 

 Islands, the nearest point to Asia along whose Eastern coast 

 are located the Pacific naval bases of the only four powers we 

 have to fear, viz: England, Germany, France and Japan. 

 Manila must be immediately fortified and likewise Hono- 

 lulu. 



As long as our Pacific fleet is undefeated, no enemy will 

 dare attempt an invasion of our coast, but with the fleet out 

 of the way Manila, Honolulu and Alaska would soon fall, 

 to be used as bases for future operations against us. 



Two only of California's harbors, San Francisco and San 

 Diego, are fortified. They are in fair shape for defense, ex- 

 cept for men to handle the guns. Our coast artillery to-day 

 has about 14,000 men, while 40,000 is the least number re- 

 quired to man existing fortifications. 



After more men, the greatest need is a complete fire con- 

 trol system for each harbor (a range finding and communi- 

 cation system between guns, lookouts, etc.), and as a final 

 line of defense two or three submarine boats should be pro- 

 vided for each. 



William H. Marston, president of the Chamber of Com- 

 merce of San Francisco and president of the Shipowners' 

 Association of the Pacific Coast, read a paper "San Francisco 

 Harbor." 



In speaking of the bay of San Francisco, Captain William 

 H. Marston said in part: 



The bay of San Francisco is the most important visible 

 asset that San Francisco has. It is of prime importance to 



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