October 20, 1923] 



NA TURE 



59: 



The Geographical Position of the British Empire.^ 



By Vaughan Cornish^ D.Sc. 

 The Position which has been occupied. 



""pHE British Empire, although situated in every 

 J- continent, with shores on all the oceans, is 

 seen to have a definite geographical position when 

 we consider the ports of call which unite its lands 

 and the naval stations which guard the communica- 

 tions. During the growth of the Empire eastward 

 and westward from Great Britain, numerous harbours 

 were held at different times, those retained being a 

 selection unrivalled by the ports of any other State 

 in commercial and strategic position. 



The naval station of Bermuda, well withdrawn from 

 aerial attack, has a central position in the great western 

 embayment of North America intermediate between 

 the ocean routes which connect Great Britain with 

 Canada and the West Indies. No foreign ports flank 

 the route between Canada and the west coast of Great 

 Britain. At the western gateway of the South Atlantic 

 we have excellent harbourage in the Falkland Isles. 

 Malta, the capital of our fleet in the Mediterranean, 

 has a commanding position at the straits which con- 

 nect the eastern and western basins, and the naval 

 station at Gibraltar helps to ensure the junction of 

 the Home and Mediterranean Fleet and to protect 

 the Cape route. The British army which is kept in 

 Egypt as garrison of the Suez Canal ensures our use 

 of this gateway so long as we can navigate the Medi- 

 terranean. If that navigation be interrupted we can 

 still oppose the seizure of the Isthmus, for we are able 

 to send reinforcements by way of the Red Sea. East 

 of Egypt the British island of Perim stands in the 

 Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, and the garrisoned fuelling 

 station of Aden provides the necessary port of call 

 on the routes to Bombay and Colombo. Colombo, 

 in the Crown Colony of Ceylon, is at the parting of 

 the ways for Australia and the farthest parts of our 

 Asiatic possessions, and Singapore stands at the narrow 

 gateway of the shortest route between India and the 

 Far East. 



The Cape route to India and Australasia is improved 

 by British ports of call in Sierra Leone, St. Helena, 

 and Mauritius, and is more effectively dominated from 

 IJritish South Africa than at first appears, for although 

 there is open sea to the south there are no useful 

 harbours in the Antarctic continent, and on the 

 African coasts the harbours are under British control 

 for a thousand miles from Cape Town. 



Of the six great foreign Powers, the French alone 

 are posted on the flank of bnih routes between Great 

 Britain and the Indian Oc(;m. iiml no Great Power 

 has its home territory on that ocean. Thus tlu> priu- 

 t ipal latuls of the British Empire— Canada, the I'.iilish 

 Isles, South Atrica. India, and .\ustralasia — have good 

 communicatidii^ with one another across the Atlantic 

 and Indian Orcan^ both in peat c and war. 



The roncHtion-. of >1ralcL'ic ( onninniicalion across 

 the North I'a' ill' . mi ih^ 'niitrarw an' aiKcr.M' to us. 

 (.win:' ni,iinl\ to tiic i nviwn.-.tan( c ihat w r opened 

 lip I'.riti.li ( ohinih^m aer,,-,, tiie praiiie^ .nid h\ the 



I .coKniphy) ot •;,. 



coasting voyage. Had our colonising route been 

 across the Pacific, the Hawaiian Islands, which were 

 first brought into touch with the Western world by 

 the ships of the Royal Navy, would have been a British 

 settlement and one of our first-class naval stations. 

 As things happened, however, these islands w^ere first 

 needed by the Americans, and now form the essential 

 western outpost of the United States navy. Between 

 them and British Columbia the ocean is empty of 

 islands, and Fanning Island, south by west of Hawaii, 

 with the adjacent small coral islands in our possession, 

 are no adequate substitute, even apart from over- 

 shadowing by a first-class naval station in the neigh- 

 bourhood. Thus there is no good strategic communica- 

 tion between Australasia and Canada across the North 

 Pacific. In this connexion it must be remembered 

 that cousinship does not relieve the American Govern- 

 ment from the obligations which international law 

 imposes upon neutrals. It was not until three years 

 after the outbreak of the War that America could 

 offer us any facilities in the harbour of Honolulu which 

 were not equally open to Germans. It must also be 

 noticed that we have no control of the Panama route 

 between New Zealand and Great Britain. 



Turning to the question of communication between 

 British Columbia and India, it is important to realise 

 that the Pacific coasts of North America and Asia 

 are in a direct line with one another, forming part 

 of a Great Circle, so that there is no short cut across 

 the ocean, as the map misleadingly suggests. Thus 

 the course between Vancouver and Hong Kong is 

 not only very long, but also closely flanked by the 

 home ports of Japan, so that its security in time of 

 war depends upon the attitude of the Japanese. 



When, therefore, we differentiate the routes on 

 which we have well-placed naval stations and recruiting 

 bases from those dominated by the ports of some 

 other Great Power, we see that the lands of the Empire 

 are united by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and 

 strategically separated by the North Pacific. Thus 

 the form in which the Mercator map is usually drawn 

 by British cartographers with Canada in the upper 

 left and Australasia in the lower right corner is a good 

 representation of our maritime Empire, for it shows 

 the countries as connected across the Atlantic and 

 the Indian but not across the Pacific Ocean. 



Upon this map a symmetrical distribution of our 

 lands is revealed when a Great Circle is drawn connect- 

 ing Halifax in Nova Scotia, the eastern terminal port 

 of the Can.Hlian Pacific Railwa\-. with Fnniantlc, 

 the westtrn terminal port ol the Australian railway 

 s\^teiii. ^hli^ triiK ihieii line is t wisted on Mercator's 

 niap into the lonn ot the IcUer S. The line passes 

 thron::h Lower 1 '.j\pi elose to the Suez Canal tollowing 

 the ^eiu'ral diiei tioii ot the Main Track ot tlie I'.iiipire, 

 wiiich is the steaniin- route hoin ( aiiada to (Ireat 

 Ih-Jtain. and tlicnce b\ the Sue/ (anal to India and 

 .\ustralia. \X one end ot the hue he> the Canadian 

 i )oniinion. and at the othei' .\u -.1 lahi: ia, to the north 

 (lie I'.iiti-^h hie , ami to th.c s^uth the I'nion of South 

 Mil. :>. tie cliirl hoir.t > el the r.iilr>h nation. Our 



NO. 2cS I 6 Vol, 1 I 



