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PROBLEMS OF EMPIRE.
principle unanimously condemned by students of naval strategy and we have seriously hampered the utility of such a squadron. The naval defence of Australasia and Australasian commerce is amply provided for. A few guns to deny the ports to the cruisers of the enemy are all that is required on shore. Unfortunately at Melbourne large sums of money have been spent on providing a defence sufficient to keep a fleet of armour-clads at bay. In other words, Melbourne is defended against an attack which it is inconceivable could be made upon it under present conditions.
Attacks on our Coaling stations. our minor possessions divide themselves into colonies and coaling stations. The former have no local defences; they depend for their immunity from attack on the power of the British Navy. The latter have been lately provided with modern defences in accordance with the recommendations of Lord Carnarvon's commission. Our most important coaling stations are on the routes to the East, on that viâ the Suez Canal, Gibraltar, Malta, Aden, Ceylon, Singapore, Hongkong; on that viâ the Cape of Good Hope, Sierra Leone, Ascension, St. Helena, Cape Town, Simon's Bay, and Mauritius. In the West Indies we have Port Castries (St. Lucia) and Port Royal (Jamaica); in the North Atlantic we have Bermuda; in the South Atlantic we have the Falkland Islands—an important station as yet undefended. Of all our coaling stations, Gibraltar and Malta alone can be considered open to attack by a powerful fleet, and against such an attack they must be defended. The Straits of Gibraltar is by far the most important strategic point in the British Empire. Gibraltar is insecure and inconvenient in many respects as a port, but for want of a better in the immediate26
