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PROBLEMS OF EMPIRE.
against an attack to which they are at present so much exposed.
Principles of Imperial Defence summarised.The principles of imperial defence may be summarised by considering what our objective is to be in time of war. Our first and principal object is obviously to defeat the enemy's main fleet in battle or to completely checkmate its operations. An effective army, powerful fortifications, superiority in cruisers, will not compensate for a deficiency in the line of battle. Battleships alone can give us that command of the sea which is indispensable alike to the safety of our commerce, our colonies and dependencies, and the shores of the United Kingdom. Our secondary object must be to maintain a sufficient force of cruisers to deal either with hostile cruisers designed to prey upon our commerce, or with expeditions intended for the attack of colonies, which might escape our principal fleets. It is a sounder and cheaper policy to endeavour to deal with these at the point of departure than to pro vide elaborate defences to meet them on arrival at their destination. The cruisers defend not only the point to be attacked, but they also secure the integrity of the trade routes over the ocean. Our third object should be to capture the coaling stations and colonies of the enemy which are indispensable to his depredations on our commerce. This is an object, as has already been stated, to which the attention of those responsible for directing the forces of Great Britain, in the great war, were not early enough directed. How many millions of pounds would have been saved if we had earlier seized Mauritius, Martinique, and Guadalupe! In this connection Captain Mahan points out that, contrary to the general principles of strategy, whether military or naval, for a34
