544 
COAST DEFENCE IN RELATION TO WAR. 
fort lie was to fight, he should be told that such information was strictly con¬ 
fidential. (Loud laughter). In his opinion the representatives of each branch of 
Coast Defence would work much better if each knew what the other was doing, 
and why he was doing it. In support of his contention he would quote Lord 
Brassey who, in 1889, had said ™ 
“ It must be accepted as a leading principle that the defence of harbours should 
be secured by forts and not by ships. The Eoyal Navy is not maintained for the 
purpose of affording direct local protection to sea-going ports and harbours, but 
for the purpose of blockading the ports of an enemy, of destroying his trade, at¬ 
tacking his possessions, dealing with his ships at sea, and preventing an attack 
upon any special place.” 
This seemed at variance with the principles laid down by the lecturer. The 
second element of coast defence required concentration and organisation, which 
was not difficult where good railways were available. After dilating at some length 
on the usefulness of horse artillery, Captain Wynn said:—A landing in force 
would certainly not be attempted unless the attacker was absolute master of the 
sea, and even then the undertaking was serious. He instanced the case of Lissa, 
when it took five hours to make preparations to land 2200 men, and even then 
the attempt was frustrated by the arrival of the Austrian Meet! If a landing in 
force required too much preliminary arrangement to find the defender unprepared, 
there was another class of landing which was both probable and dangerous, he 
alluded to the landing of small parties to destroy the shore ends of cables or to 
wreck position-finding stations. A handful of men could, in most cases, soon 
capture or kill the operators—the C.R.A. and his staff, in addition, probably— 
(loud laughter)—and a few hand charges would wreck several thousand pounds 
worth of instruments in five minutes. As to submarine cables, he believed that a 
row boat would be able, under cover of night, to slip along the shore and cut 
them before being detected. The protection against this class of attack would be 
infantry picquets with double sentries, and the knowledge of their being there 
would surely prevent such attempts being made. (Loud applause.) 
Captain Acland, It.N., who was indistinctly heard at the reporter’s table, 
was understood to say that he wished to ask the lecturer whether, in his opinion, 
it was w T orth while, in the event of a war, for instance, with France and Russia, to 
defend such a place as Malta, or to leave the place alone. He believed that if the 
British Fleet were driven out of the Mediterranean, even for a time, the moral 
effect would be felt all over the world. (Hear, hear). He was of opinion that our 
naval stations should be made absolutely secure against foreign attack during an 
occasional absence of the fleet. (Hear, hear). He also wished to know whether 
the lecturer was not of opinion that our large mercantile towns should be ade¬ 
quately protected against an enemy exacting a heavy ransom by threatening a 
bombardment. (Hear, hear). 
Colonel Clayton, R.A., desired to make a remark in reply to Captain Wynn, 
who seemed to think that Sir George Clarke was opposed to fortified ports. Sir 
George had carefully guarded himself against committing himself to any such 
opinion, and had, in fact, expressely mentioned certain ports and places, the 
fortification of which was extremely desirable. (Hear, hear). He (Col. Clayton) 
also believed that the same opinion answered Captain Acland’s question with 
regard to the protection and fortification of mercantile ports. Personally, lie 
agreed thoroughly with the principles laid down by Sir George Clarke; but it 
appeared to him that the real difficulty would arise when the time came to adopt 
the general principles to particular concrete instances. (Hear, hear). 
Sir George Clarke, in reply to the criticisms made on his lecture, said that 
Captain Wynn had, in an amusing way, taken objection to what had been said 
