San Diego, Sept. 18.
The Secretary of Navy, Col. Frank Knox, announced here last night thet American naval base expansion' work fences which have been strengthened recently.
"God help any foreign battleship that gets inside range of our 14 and 18 inch guns in the Panama Canal area," Colonel Knox said. "The best defence for the canal against air attack is aircraft itself, but that is all being cared for rapidly."
Colonel Knox announced that thirty ships of the battle fleet left Honolulu yesterday for the mainland where the ships will be overhauled and the crews given long over-due leaves. He indicated the battlefieet would return to Hawaii intact as soon as possible—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.