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lieving force, and its base one thousand miles in its rear acros the desert.

There are three passes through these mountains, viz: The Saugus Pass, at the junction of the San Raphael and San Gabriel mountains; the Cajon Pass, dividing the San Gabriel and San Bernardino range and the San Jacinto Pass at the north junction of the Santa Rosa spur and the San Jacinto range.

The first movement of the Japanese will be to control these passes and this would occur before relief could be attempted.

As the vast natural resources of Southern California, profligate in their luxuriance, will be in their rear, it will mean capitulation of that sphere without a fight.

The stragetic position is impossible to overcome. The same applies to Central California with the command of the apex and west side of the Tehachapi Pass, in the Tehachapi Mountains. With the exception of the latter, all the other passes are within four days march of Los Angeles.

Rapid contentration of force to any one point can be made in a few hours from the West or Japanese side. From the East of the mountains, or relief side, the same movement will take weeks.

In the meantime the Hawaiian Islands will be taken from within, occupied and formed into a base of Japanese naval operations. The Philippines will pass simultaneously with the first gun fire. The capitulation of San Francisco will depend on its water supply being defended and the possibility of its defense will be dependent on the first occupation of the Truckee Valley on the Central Pacific Railroad.

If the Pilarcitos, San Andreas and the Crystal Springs reservoirs are attacked by the army of invasion of Cen

tral California and the sources of supply in the San Mateo mountains are controlled by the Japanese, the occupation of the Pacific Coast in its entirety will be complete long before the arrival of the first United States army of defense.

These conditions are possible now and remain possible even if Japan declared war before its first army of invasion left Japanese waters.*

The probability of their success is intensified by a sharp descent without warning, in view of the chaotic state of military unpreparedness of the United States and with its next to useless militia forming a part of the first line of military efficiency, officered, as it necessarily must be, by civil and politician-generals, in a modern war, against modern armaments and training and against soldiers whose women look upon their return from battle in the light of a digrace, and whose religion alone is an incentive to court death on the field.

It is probable that none of this will occur, but the question arises: Why should the existing state of military unpreparedness continue, by leaving open a door on the dangerous side?

*These strategic positions were first brought to the notice of the writer by reading Homer Lea's "Valor of Ignorance," Harper and Brothers, publishers. Prior to reading Mr. Lea's book the writer spent some years on these deserts and in these mountains and subsequently personally visited every pass, mountain range, fortification and city mentioned herein in order to substantiate Mr. Lea's conclusions, which beyond doubt are correct.

CHAPTER XX.

The skeptic will ask: But what about the Navy? That question is easily answered in this connection. It is divided at this moment between two oceans. The majority of its units are on the Atlantic and are unavailable for the defense of the Pacific Coast. Only one port for crippled ships to repair and no available coal except that from the Atlantic coast or foreign sources. What the conflict between the navies will develop on their confronting each other off the Pacific Coast after the Japanese invasion of it, is dependent on the fortune of war, modern equipment and brilliant handling of the respective forces. Win or lose the result will spell disaster, as the Navy could not expel the invaders once they are in possession of the Pacific Coast. Even at this moment Japanese artillerists are with the Mexican forces on the United States frontier at Mexacali, California, awaiting the Mexican issue.

Something akin to polite ill feeling has developed in Europe and it is demonstrated by certain European powers pointedly ignoring the coming Panama Exposition at San Francisco.

The vital national questions of the moment involve the Japanese situation and its complexities due to the contravention of a treaty; the Mexican situation; the Panama Canal fortification and toll question involving the contravention of a treaty. The financing of Nicaragua by Brown Brothers and the Morgan Syndicate (another story). The internal strike question which again developed in Colorado in which hundreds were shot and many

killed in open conflict with State troops which is tantamount to an armed revolutionary condition.

The country appears impotent to prevent such occurences and the State to quell them, so the politicians wallow about in a confused sea of internal and international misunderstandings that can only mature in terrific strife for their final adjustments.

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Diplomatic "America" has arrived at the edge of the

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*The British-built battle-cruiser, Kongo, is the only armored vessel completed for this power during the past twelve months. Designed and built by Messrs. Vickers, the Kongo carries eight 14-inch and sixteen 6-inch guns on a displacement of 27,500 tons, and is therefore the largest and most powerful armed battlecruiser yet completed. Three sister ships, the Haruna, Hiyei, and Kirishima, are under construction in Japan, as well as the battleship Fuso, and three other vessels of the same type whose names have not yet transpired. These ships were originally credited with an armament of ten 15-inch guns, but it is now understood they will carry twelve 14-inch and sixteen 6-inch.

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