FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Four years later 16 US Navy battleships set sail around the world in what became known as the Great White Fleet, signalling that the US had emerged as a force to project military muscle in the Atlantic and Pacific. The armada stopped in the Philippine islands, then an American colony, and spent a week in Manila Bay before sailing to Japan, Singapore, Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka) and then on to the Suez Canal.

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