The omissions in the estimates of the Endicott Board and the changes in the details of its plans have caused doubts in the minds of many as to the money that will be needed to defend completely our coasts by guns, mines, and their adjuncts. New localities are pressing their claims for defence. The insular possessions can not be held unless the principal ports, naval bases, and coaling stations are fortified before the outbreak of war. These considerations have led me to appoint a joint board of officers of the Army and Navy “to recommend the armament, fixed and floating, mobile torpedoes, submarine mines, and all other defensive appliances that may be necessary to complete the harbor defence with the most economical and advantageous expenditures of money.” The board was further instructed “to extend its examinations so as to include estimates and recommendations relative to defences of the insular possessions,” and to “recommend the order in which the proposed defence shall be completed, so that all the elements of harbor defence may be properly and effectively co-ordinated.” The board has completed its labors, and its report, together with a letter of transmittal by the Secretary of War, is herewith transmitted for the information of the Congress. It is to be noted that the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, not heretofore recommended or authorized by Congress, is added to the list of ports in the United States to be defended, with the important reasons therefor clearly stated; that the gun defence proper is well advanced toward completion, and that the greater part of the estimate is for new work of gun defence, for the accessories now so necessary for efficiency, and for an allowance of ammunition which, added to that already on hand, will give the minimum supply that should be kept in reserve to successfully meet any sudden attack. The letter of the Secretary of War contains a comparison of the estimates of the Endicott Board, with the amounts already appropriated for the present defence and the estimates of the new board, from which it appears that a completed defence of our coast, omitting cost of ammunition and sites, can be accomplished for less than the amount estimated by the Endicott Board, even including the additional localities not recommended by it. In the insular possessions, the great naval bases at Guantanamo, Subig Bay, and Pearl Harbor, the coaling stations at Guam and San Juan, require protection, and, in addition, defences are recommended for Manila Bay and Honolulu, because of the strategic importance of these localities. In the letter of the Secretary of War will be found the sums already appropriated for defences at some of these ports or harbors, and the estimates are for the completion of an adequate defence at each locality.