Coaling Stations for Warships Protecting Trade Routes.

The only requirement in a coaling station for a warship was smooth water to coal in, because the effective protection of commerce necessitated the assumption that our naval force on every trade route would be so far superior to that of a possible enemy as to restrict his operations to attacks on merchant vessels on the principles of evasion and surprise, and to forbid the idea of open warfare. The defensive power of coaling stations themselves need not, on this theory, be greater than would be sufficient to protect them against a coup de main by a small force.—Admiral Sir John Colomb, in a lecture before the Aldershot Military Society.