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The liability of any portion of our Empire to serious attack is wholly a question of sea power, but the maintenance of our supremacy at sea is still the cardinal principle of Imperial policy.
2. The following remarks are offered on the naval portion of the Report, subject, be it understood, to the reservation that the local characteristics of Port Philip may be such as to have satisfied the officer in command of the naval defence force of the expediency of the arrangements proposed. This officer will be responsible for the conduct of an engagement if one takes place, and must be presumed to have carefully studied the local conditions.
The Scheme provides for the distribution of the vessels of the Victoria navy as follows :—
(a.) Three vessels and a division of torpedo-boats in the South Channel east of the mine-field.
(b.) One vessel at the entrance of the Symonds' Channel.
(c.) Three vessels in the West Channel.
(d.) Two gun-barges at the Pope's Eye Shoal.
Under this arrangement the force is so distributed that the scattered divisions cannot be considered as within effective supporting distance of each other, proper allowance being made for the conditions of navigation.
Again, the West Channel Division, the ship in the Symonds' Channel and the gun-barges at the Pope's Eye Shoal are so stationed that the fire of two or more of the following forts, viz., Swan Island, Queen's Cliff, Eagle's Nest, Point Nepean, and Point Franklin, cross at their positions.
The South Channel Division is stationed within the area swept by the guns of Point Franklin and South Channel Forts. Thus the vessels as placed, and especially the two gun-barges, would mask the fire of the shore guns in several directions, and seriously embarrass and reduce the efficiency of the batteries.
Liability to be hit by guns of their own side is a trial to which even the most highly-trained and perfectly-disciplined crews should not be exposed except in the last necessity.
If the vessels are to be withdrawn outside the field of fire of the shore guns as soon as the enemy's attempt to force the entrance has become well developed no sufficient reason is given in the Report for assigning to them the positions mentioned.
The shore batteries must, at least, be credited with the power of damaging some of the hostile ships attempting to run past them. The damaged ships might be encountered on favourable terms by a naval force kept well in hand, and stationed where it had enough clear water to manœuvre freely in, and it is suggested that the most useful effect would be obtained from the naval force by employing it in that manner.
There is nothing in the Scheme of Defence, as referred to the Committee, to show whether it is to be put into operation only when an attack on Port Philip is imminent, or from the beginning of a war, when an attack is merely looked upon as possible.
If the latter is intended, it is to be pointed out that the proposed removal and shifting of buoys is an infringement of the principles which have been laid down by the Admiralty to govern Naval Defence, and which have been proved to be sound by many years of naval war.
It was a similar proposal on the part of the Victorian Minister of Defence, in 1890, that led to the discussion of the subject in the inclosures to the Confidential Circular of the 28th November, 1890, from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Colonial Governors.
The instructions given on that occasion to all Naval Commanders-in-chief and Senior Naval Officers at home and abroad preclude their concurring in any such arrangement as that proposed unless an attack is actually imminent, and no adequate defending force afloat or ashore is available. To remove or shift navigation-marks would have the effect of impeding the free entrance of merchant-ships trading with Melbourne, or, in other words, would tend to thwart the principal object of maintaining the Navy, viz., that of insuring the safe movement of our mercantile marine during war. Ships arriving from a distance could not in many cases be made aware of the proposed changes.
For similar reasons electric light beams must not be directed up and down
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