After he had read the fateful document the Mayor said: "General, we have asked you to come here to tell us what are the military and naval conditions, and what the city can do to escape this dilemma?"
"Mr. Mayor, the conditions are exactly as stated in this paper, and New York City can do—nothing! The country is confronted with a catastrophe for which the indifference and neglect of the people and its Congress are entirely to blame. That the naval and military defences of the United States were totally inadequate has been known to naval and military men for a generation past. Year after year the General Staff and the General Board of the Navy have warned the nation that its unpreparedness was such that this very disaster, which has now fallen upon us like a thunderbolt, might come at any hour.
"Briefly, let me tell you the conditions:
