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SECRET.

30-M.

Printed for the Home Ports Defence Committee. May 1913.

•

IV.

MEASURES TO PREVENT THE BLOCKING OF COMMERCIAL HARBOURS.

Memorandum by the Home Ports Defence Committee.

THE Home Ports Defence Committee have had under consideration the steps which should be taken to prevent the blocking of the entrances to certain commercial ports approached by narrow channels, egress from and access to which could be impeded for a considerable period by sinking vessels laden with stone or other heavy cargo in the fairway.

2. The necessity for this procedure was emphasized by the suspicious movements of a foreign vessel in one of the ports on the South Coast during the period of inter- national tension in the summer of 1911.

3. The danger is one which may arise from the action either of outgoing or incoming vessels.

4. In considering the question the Home Ports Defence Committee have borne in mind that, although the blocking of the fairway of an important commercial port would cause considerable inconvenience and loss, these disadvantages need not be of long duration, as any obstruction could in course of time be removed.

5. The Committee have come to the conclusion that, except. in cases where the blocking of a fairway would prove directly detrimental to the action of our naval and military forces, or to some vital national interest, it is only worth while to take such measures as can be arranged without considerable expense, and without employment of naval and military forces which are more urgently required elsewhere.

Outgoing Vessels.

6. The question of the adoption of measures to prevent the blocking of ports by outgoing vessels laden with stone, cement, and similar cargo was first raised in Memorandum by the Board of Customs and Excise, dated the 5th March, 1912 (printed as an Appendix to Home Ports Defence Committee Memorandum No. 25 M), in which it was proposed either to requisition such cargo or to prohibit the export thereof. If this were not done, it was suggested that it would be necessary to arrange for an engineer and a supporting force to be placed on board whilst the vessel was in the fairway, and to be taken off afterwards.

7. In their Memorandum No. 25 M, dated the 30th May, 1912, and which has since received the approval of the Admiralty, War Office, Home Office, Board of Customs and Excise, Secretary for Scotland, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Home Ports Defence Committee reported as follows:-

13. The export or carriage coastwise of such cargoes cannot be prohibited during strained relations without attracting public attention to an undesirable extent, and possibly giving rise to complications which might be inconvenient and even prejudicial to diplomatic negotiations at such s

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