"ALLO! ALLO! SOS!" When that call came naval vessels went hurrying to the scene, for it meant that a ship was attacked by submarines. Sometimes in the war zone the air seemed full of "Allos," for ships approaching the European coast could catch the wireless for hundreds of miles, hearing signals one moment from a vessel off Ireland and the next from some craft being attacked in the Bay of Biscay. From one room of the Navy Department--the "Trans-Ocean Room," we called it--we communicated with all western Europe. Messages went direct to the high-power sending stations at Annapolis, Sayville, Long Island; New Brunswick and Tuckerton, N. J., which flashed them overseas. At the same time dispatches were pouring in at receiving stations, coming into Washington from abroad without interfering with the volume going out. Stations at San Francisco, San Diego, Pearl Harbor, and Cavite spanned the Pacific, keeping us in touch with the Far East, with China, Japan, the Philippines, and Eastern Russia. North and south from Panama to Alaska were wireless stations, from Darien, on the Isthmus, to far up into the Arctic. These were the "high-powers." At various points along the coast were shore-to-ship stations that communicated with shipping several hundred miles from shore. And there were radio compass stations, which could determine a ship's position at sea. The United States Navy not only built up this vast system in our own territory, but it erected in France the most powerful radio station in existence. Located near Bordeaux, at Croix d' Hins, it is named the Lafayette, and a tablet on the main building bears the inscription: Conceived for the purpose of insuring adequate and uninterrupted trans-Atlantic communication facilities between the American Expeditionary Forces engaged in the World War and the Government of the United States of America. Erected by the United States Navy in conjunction with and for the Government of France. Planned in 1917, in response to the earnest desire of our military authorities that steps be taken to insure ample wireless communication, in case cables should be cut or otherwise interrupted, and to supplement the inadequate cable service, this immense plant was fast approaching completion when the armistice was signed. Then work was suspended for a time, but on agreement with the French government was resumed, and pushed to completion. When, after elaborate tests, the plant was put into operation, on August 21, 1920, I received this radiogram: This is the first wireless message to be heard around the world, and marks a milestone on the road of scientific achievement. LAFAYETTE RADIO STATION. The Navy takes a just pride in having brought into being that great plant with its eight towers, each 832 feet high, nearly 300 feet higher than the Washington Monument--the first station to girdle the globe by wireless.