The 'Second Gibraltar': Britain’s Plan to Fortify Puget Sound

OTTAWA, May 20.—The Canadian government has received a formal notice from the British authorities stating that work on the Pacific coast defenses will be begun this summer. The home government has been keenly alive to the importance of the southern coast of the Pacific, especially at or about the terminus of the Canadian Pacific railway, as well as the needs of the British fleet on the Pacific coast. Last year, the British admiralty awaited an order to make careful examination of the coast of British Columbia between Vancouver and Esquimalt with the object of deciding on the plans for the erection of fortresses commanding the entrance to Puget Sound and protecting Esquimalt. Recommendations were made, but nothing was done until lately, when the British government, spurred into activity by the renewal of discussions by the government at Washington regarding the Behring Sea question, decided that work on the coast defenses should be begun at once. Mr. Foster, Minister of Finance, speaking to a reporter regarding a statement published in a San Francisco paper to the effect that the British government was contemplating the transformation of the entrance of Puget Sound into a 'second Gibraltar,' said the expression was 'a second Gibraltar,' but it was the intention of the Canadian and imperial to adopt large improvements in the defenses of the coast. 'If the Americans object,' he said, 'to our establishing batteries commanding the entrance to Puget Sound, why let them build forts on the opposite side of the straits.'