IMPERIAL DEFENCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1328, 30 August 1886, Page 3

IMPERIAL DEFENCE.

Captain Colomb has recently been attracting attention at home by a series of very practical lectures on Imperial defence. According to the Some News, the following are the leading features of the scheme which he suggest for adoption ly the British Government. He would abolish the monopoly 'of Woolwich and Els wick, and establish other areenals tt decisive points all over the world. Storehoneea, he nrgea, should be sat np !n Australia, in British Columbia and at Port Hamilton. The great ocean high** ways, our Imperial lines of communic;« tion, should possess fortified harbors f< * coaling and revictualling at convenient points on the road. Attention should be especially devoted to the development of the new route to India afforded by the Canadian-Pacific Railway ; every colony ah' old possess a nucleus of self-defence, and sufficient squadrons of the Royal Navy should be permanently stationed in colonial waters. The News adds —As Captain Colomb pointed cat, we have not the strength cf a second-rate power ft this moment in the Pacific, the West Atlantic, and the Indian Seas. It is pretty certain that any comprehensive system of Imperial defence baoed on these lines would receive the ready and certain financial support of the colonies.