Page:The Next Naval War - Eardley-Wilmot - 1894.djvu/52

 this side. Since then the eastern hemisphere has proved more attractive. Our position in India, and its dependence on the sea for support from the mother country, must chiefly affect naval strategy of to-day.

A French writer has said, "C'est aux Indes qu'il faut frapper l'Angleterre." The shortening of the route by a ditch 90 miles long across the Isthmus of Suez has also added a new phase to the question. Some think this neighbourhood will see the next great struggle for naval supremacy.

When the veteran constructor of the canal was received in the French Academy, M. Renan, addressing him, said, "One Bosphorus has sufficed till now to give trouble enough to the world. You have created another more important than the first. In case of maritime war it would be the point of supreme interest; the point for the occupation of which the whole globe would make a rush. You have thus fixed the spot for the great battles of the future."

Whether it was to be in this immediate locality or at the opposite extremity of the Mediterranean would depend upon tactical rather than strategical considerations. It might have been desired as of old to effect a junction between the Brest and Toulon fleets; but this was no longer requisite owing to the policy followed of concentrating previous to war the force required for immediate action. Had it been scattered in several ports, each