§ GENERAL SIR WILLIAM CROSSMAN (Portsmouth)asked the Secretary of State for War, Whether, as Her Majesty's ships will now call at the port of Castries, in the island of St. Lucia, for their supplies of coal, it is intended to place that port in a proper state of defence?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN)&c.) (Stirling,It was decided, on the recommendation of the Royal Commission, over which the Earl of Carnarvon presided, to defend 1132 the port of Castries, in St. Lucia. The preliminary surveys and designs are now in hand, though further inquiries have been instituted on the point whether there exists any other anchorage in the Windward Islands equally suitable for a coaling station, representations having been lately received from the Military Authorities suggesting doubts as to the effects of the climate of St. Lucia on European soldiers quartered there.