Garrisoning the Empire.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14919, 18 March 1914, Page 8

Garrisoning the Empire.

In an article in the "Daily Mail," Mr Lovat Fraser, a writer of authority on such subjects, appeals to Englishmen to look "certain facts regarding our " Empire squarely in the face." These facts, whether or not they lead to tho rather gloomy conclusion reached by Mr Fraser, are well worth the study of all Imperial citizens. They concern the garrisoning of the Empire. in the Mediterranean the garrisons of Malta and Gibraltar have been reduced, and Cyprus is held by 123 men. If it is argued that the Fleet defends these places, Mr Eraser replies that the Government's naval policy as regards the Mediterranean is unsettled. There are 6000 British troops in Egypt, among a native population of 11,000,000, which would be more unfriendly than it is at present if England were involved in a great war. The huge British possessions in East Africa are "held" by a few battalions of native troops, and among the 30,000,000 of natives in West Africa, peace is kept by another handful of black soldiers officered by white men. The Malay States are undefended on land savo by the small' garrison at Singapore, and Mr Fraser never looks at Hong Kong's vulnerable back-door without wondering how long Britain will keep it when China finds herself. In India, where sedition does not grow less formidable, there are only 75,000 British troops among 300,000,000 people. In short, Great Britain controls one-fourth of the human race with 112,000 British troops on oversea service. She is "holding an Empire with " a corporal's guard." Mr Lovat Fraser is not at all easy about the future. Portugal, he says, tried to hold,the East in fee with a handful of white men, and her Empire "vanished almost in a night." Spain and Holland suffered the same fate. " We are trying a far vaster experi- " ment with proportionately fewer men, " in an era when the risks are immeas- " urably grenter." His point is that naval strength would not avert trouble at various points of the Empire in a big war. It would not prevent a rising in India, a Holy War in Nigeria, or an upheaval in the Sudan that might quickly submerge the one British battalion and company ot artillery stationed there. It i* a matter to which the British public, and, for that matter, the public of the whole Empire, has not given enough thought. Where, for instance, would the reliefs for oversea garrisons come from in the event of a prolonged European war in which England was engaged? The historian of the future will surely count it astonishing that a nation which acquired and held a vast Empire by force oi arms did not take the trouble to be a nation in arms.