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purpose of denying to an enemy the use of any particular port. For it has been contended that, if the principle of providing fixed defences for these purposes were adopted and applied consistently throughout the Empire, it might involve the provision of defences and garrisons at many British ports that are now undefended.
7. Again, as regards the actual maintenance at their stations in time of peace of the war garrisons of British defended ports abroad the general policy that has been followed was originally based on the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad, who, in their Report dated the 22nd July, 1882, stated "The stations far distant from the United Kingdom, and in close proximity to the stations of foreign Powers, are liable to sudden attack, and cannot be reinforced without long delay; their garrisons, therefore, must be kept up to war strength."
This principle was reaffirmed and extended by an Interdepartmental Conference assembled at the Colonial Office in 1889, at which the Colonial Office, Admiralty, and War Office were represented. The members of the Conference recorded their opinion "that the safety of all our garrisoned ports abroad should be independent of the Navy beyond its well understood duty of keeping touch with and engaging the enemy's fleet, which would keep Her Majesty's ships fully occupied in a maritime war.' "
8. An exception has, however, been made in the case of St. Helena to the general policy outlined above. For the defences of Jamestown have been maintained with a view to denying in time of war the use of the anchorage there to a hostile commerce destroyer intending to seize coal from the shore, to coal from a collier or prize, or to interfere with and cut the cables, and not with a view to defending the Island because its possession, as a coaling station or naval base, has been considered essential. Again, the decision arrived at in the year 1906, relative to the withdrawal of the garrison from the Island in time of peace, involved a departure from the generally accepted principle that the war garrisons of British defended ports abroad should be kept at their stations in time of peace.
Strategical conditions in the South Atlantic.
9. In the Admiralty letter, dated the 18th December, 1912, and printed as Appendix I to this Memorandum, it is stated that the clear indications that Germany has made extensive preparations for attacking British trade in time of war, together with the weakening, even if only temporary, of the British naval position in the Mediterranean, must be held to constitute an important change in the strategic conditions in the South Atlantic since the garrison of St. Helena was withdrawn in the year 1906. Moreover, it is stated that, if the Mediterranean route were unsafe, St. Helena would be an invaluable possession, situated as it is on the line of traffic almost exactly half way between Sierra Leone and the Cape, which are more than 3,000 miles apart.
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10. The Admiralty maintain, therefore, that the defence of St. Helena the double purpose of providing our own ships with a coaling station, and denying the only practicable coaling anchorage in the South Atlantic to the commerce raiders of an enemy as a rendezvous at which to meet their colliers," and the Lords Commis- sioners are strongly of opinion that the present strategic conditions are such as amply to justify the re-establishment in time of peace of a small artillery garrison in the Island.
Indeed, the Oversen Defence Committee are informed that the defence of the Colony in the early stages of a war is regarded by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty as of sufficient importance to justify the Naval authorities in providing a garrison for the Island if the Army Council are unable to do so.
11. In their Memorandum No. 391 M, dated the 6th June, 1907, on the Defence of St. Helena, the Oversea Defence Committee suggested that the maintenance of fixed defences at Jamestown would not prevent a hostile commerce raider from arranging a rendezvous with a collier under the shelter of the Island, since there were other secure anchorages off the coast that were not covered by the defences of Jamestown. Anchorages such as that off Goat Pound Point, or in Prosperous Bay, or off Egg Island would, it was suggested, he available for coaling purposes, according to the state of the weather.
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