Page:Problems of Empire.djvu/45

IMPERIAL DEFENCE. neighbourhood it is the base on which must rest that British fleet on which the main burden of the defence of the Empire will fall. It must also be the base for the cruisers protecting our trade with the East, whether by the Cape of Good Hope or the Suez Canal, and the trade with South America. While the strategic importance of Gibraltar is absolute, that of Malta is only relative. It is a convenient base for operations in the Eastern Mediterranean, and for protecting the Mediterranean trade. After Gibraltar the Cape of Good Hope is the most important strategic point in the British Empire. Some, indeed, would place it first. As a base for cruisers protecting trade this may be true; but, while Gibraltar has very great importance in this respect, as an indispensable base for our fleets it is without a rival. The strategic importance of our other coaling stations as protecting one or other of our trade routes is sufficiently obvious. Of those the defences of which have not yet been undertaken, it may be observed that Esquimault is of little value except for the deposits of coal at Nanaimo, and for the fact that it secures the Pacific end of the great Canadian line of communication against attack from any other power but the United States. Esquimault is ill situated for protecting British trade with the West Coast of America; and Canadian trade with China and Japan, though growing, is as yet of slight importance. It is clearly a position which, if worth defending at all, should be defended almost entirely at the cost of the Colonial Government. The Falkland Islands are the only base from which protection can be afforded by our cruisers to the homeward-bound trade from 27