: 
NAVAL STATIONS AND NAVAL BASES. 
By Captarn A. P. Nrptack, U. S. Navy, Vice-PRresiDENT. 
[Read at the twenty-fourth general meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, held in 
New York, November 16 and 17, 1916.] 
It is important that this country awaken to its strategical requirements in the 
Atlantic, Pacific, and Caribbean, and, as the principles governing the selection and 
outfitting of naval stations and naval bases are not generally recognized, it is the 
intention here, as briefly as possible, to touch on the elements of the problems await- 
ing us. That type of statesmanship which attains its highest ambition in securing 
a naval station as a local improvement at national expense, and that type of citizen- 
ship which secretly hopes that there is some cheap, honorable, and unannoying 
way of saving the nation at reduced rates will derive cold comfort from the actual 
facts. 
There are special considerations, in the case of this country, which require 
clear recognition :— 
1. We are the only country facing equally on two great oceans with full respon- 
sibilities on each. 
2. We are, in our relations with other powers, practically an island with widely 
outlying colonial possessions in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Caribbean. 
3. We are committed to the policy of forming no alliances, and must go it 
alone. 
4. We are the sole remaining country not to adopt the principle of universal 
military service as being synonymous with the great democratic principles of equality 
before the law, equality of opportunity, and equality of responsibility. 
5. Weare the sole remaining country in the world in which the coast defense is 
not entirely, or almost entirely, in the hands of the navy. 
6. We are the sole remaining victim in the whole world of the voluntary mili- 
tary system which is enormously expensive per unit, prohibitive in the cost of provid- 
ing “adequate” personnel for the land and sea forces, and foolishly extravagant in 
pensions, in the cost of recruiting, and in the inducements, pay, and “bounties” 
which it is necessary to offer. 
7. A large percentage of our population consists of undigested and unassimi- 
lated foreigners of whose individual loyalty we must entertain serious doubts. 
When naval and military authorities are confronted with the task of drawing 
up war plans, in time of peace, they must ask themselves a lot of questions such as 
the following :— 
What is the best thing to do, not with what we ought to have, but with what 
we actually have and can expect to have? 
