Canada Finds a Gun Base.
The Canadian military authorities are investigating a report that there is a secret store of arms and ammunition on the Isle of Orleans, in the St. Lawrence River, opposite Quebec. A concrete base, upon which a siege gun could be mounted, was found there and destroyed.
A German two years ago bought a tract of land on the Isle of Orleans and established a plant for the manufacture of concrete blocks. It is upon this property that the concrete foundation was found. It commanded the defenses of Quebec and of the St. Lawrence Channel.
A moving-picture company, the leading officials of which were Germans, spent last summer on the Isle of Orleans reproducing the battle of the Plains of Abraham and making films of it. They employed several young men of Quebec, uniformed them, and provided them with arms which they borrowed from local military authorities. They had both cannon and rifles, and fired a large amount of blank ammunition in their operations. The firearms which they borrowed were returned to the authorities, but it is now reported that they took advantage of the opportunity to land guns and secrete them in pits, which they covered carefully.
The Canadian military authorities have regarded the[Pg 62] information they have received as serious enough to warrant an investigation. Excavations have been made in search for buried guns. So far none has been found, and as the island is twenty miles long and seven miles wide, the search is likely to prove tedious. At its nearest point the island is four miles from Quebec. As far as the Canadian military authorities have been able to learn, the films made last summer were never exhibited.