PROBLEMS OF EMPIRE.
Australia and to the important trade with the West Coast of America.
Security of Coaling stations dependent upon command of the sea.Most of our coaling stations proper are islands, and Aden and Sierra Leone are practically cut off from the rest of the world except by sea. Gibraltar is the single exception, and it is only in the improbable contingency of war with Spain that Gibraltar can be considered as anything but an island. The power to hold our coaling stations, therefore, depends absolutely on the possession of the command of the sea. In the wars of the French Revolution and Empire we were long, far too long, before we bent our energies to the task; but by 1812 the Colonies of France, of Holland, and Denmark had fallen before the British arms. Issuing from the Isle de France and the French West Indies, French privateers had done considerable harm to British commerce. They were opposed with energy by our cruisers, but it is difficult to understand why the attempt was not made earlier to capture these important hostile positions.
Necessity for coaling stations under modern conditionsBases for ships operating at a distance from the mother country are far more necessary than before the introduction of steam. Sailing-ships could, and did, remain at sea for many months at a time. Their power to remain at sea was only limited by the amount of water that they carried. The period during which a modern ship of war can remain at sea is determined mainly by her coal endurance; and, to a great extent, by the necessity of effecting repairs in port to delicate machinery. The coal endurance of modern ships of war is even more limited than official figures, so far as any are available, lead us to suppose; and when Lord Salisbury placed the limit of the striking distance of a ship of war at 2000 miles—viz., the distance at which28
