QUESTION. OBSERVATIONS. (Hansard, 4 May 1883)

THE EARL OF CARNARVON

asked, Whether Her Majesty's Government could give any assurance that they were taking any measures with a view to carrying into effect at an early date the recommendations of the Royal Commission "for the defence of British possessions and Commerce abroad?" The Commission, he explained, of which he had the honour to be Chairman, was appointed nearly four years ago, and consisted of Lord Camperdown, Sir Henry Holland, Sir Alexander Milne, Sir Lintorn Simmons, Sir Henry Barkly, Mr. Whitbread, Mr. Hamilton (now in Dublin), Mr. Childers, and Sir Thomas Brassoy—gentlemen eminently qualified to conduct an inquiry of this kind. They eat for throe years and reported at very considerable length, as was known to the Government. They reported by instalments in order to enable the Government to take action upon those questions which they considered to be of the greatest and most urgent importance. The Report of the Commission had not been laid on the Table of the House. It was of a strictly confidential character, and he should not be justified in bringing the recommendations before the House, nor in saying anything to induce the Government to take that course. But those recommendations, based as they were to an extraordinary extent on professional evidence, were very important, and it was with regret that he had not seen any action taken by Her Majesty's Government on the subject. He trusted that he was mistaken in this, and that the Report had not been consigned to the pigeon-hole. At any rate, the time might come when it might be said to the Members of the Commission—"Why did you, knowing the vast interests involved and what the recommendations were, sit absolutely silent and passive while you thought or saw no action was being 1832 taken?" He would not have that on his conscience, and after this he should place the whole responsibility on the shoulders of the Government. There were some things which he might say without indiscretion, because the facts to which he should refer were already in a great measure public property. He would not read many figures to the House, but he would lay a few before their Lordships in order to show the enormous stake which the country had in this matter, although those figures would hardly convey a full impression of it. In 1878, since which year there had, no doubt, been a considerable increase, the value of British shippings—ships alone—was estimated at £88,000,000, and of Colonial shipping £20,000,000, a total of £108,000,000. To that must be added the annual value of the foreign trade of the United Kingdom, which amounted to the sum of £620,000,000; and of the Colonial trade, exclusive of trade with the United Kingdom, £190,000,000, or a total of £810,000,000 sterling. It might be added that a great deal of trade nominally foreign was English, and that some of the shipping that was nominally foreign was also English. In round numbers, £900,000,000 might in 1878 be taken to represent the value of our stake in commerce abroad. No other country had such a large stake in commerce. But, enormous as the figures wore, they barely represented the entire value of the interests at stake. The value of the trade of the United Kingdom, and of the ships engaged in it afloat at one time, was close upon £150,000,000 sterling, and not only was there no other country or people in the world which had as large a stake as this, but it was a stake so large that, as he had said, the figures gave really little idea of it. Further, he would compare the merchant navy of England with that of the rest of the world in 1880, the latest figures he had. The total tonnage of the British merchant navy was 6,500,000 tons, of which the steam tonnage amounted to no less than 2,700,000 tons. On the other hand, the total foreign tonnage of ships of every nation included amounted to only 8,000,000 tons, and their steam tonnage was considerably less than ours. He would go one step further and remind the House of that which was no secret, that during 1833 the last few years sailing ships had been to an enormous extent superseded by steamers. The increase that had taken place in steam vessels during the last 20 years would be seen from the followingfiguros:—In 1860 the total of British tonnage engaged in the home and foreign trade was 4,250,000 tons; and of that only 400,000 tons represented steam. In 1879 the total tonnage of British ships in the home and foreign trade had increased to 6,250,000 tons, of which steamers represented no less than 2,300,000 tons. It was no exaggeration say that a complete revolution had been effected by this supersession of sailing ships by steam. Many questions arose on this matter, into which he need not enter; but there was one point the vital importance of which no one would dispute who had looked into the subject—the defence, at all events, of our coaling stations abroad. It was vitally necessary for this reason, that unless our coaling stations were in an effective state our fleets could not operate against an enemy, we should not be able to shelter our merchantmen, to repair and refit our ships, and, in short, we should not be able to make use of the superior powers of steam which we possessed as a nation. The House would remember the amount of mischief that was done by a few ships, such as the Alabama and Florida, in the time of the American War; but great as that mischief was, it would be nothing compared to that which might be done to our shipping in a time of war if those coaling stations were not properly cared for. We stood in a totally different position in this respect from any other nation in the word. Trade was the sinew of this country, and our trade, unlike that of every other nation, was scattered over the surface of the globe. Germany had few or no Colonies. Spain had Colonies and little commerce. Italy had a small foreign trade, and Russia had not much. France was the only country besides ourselves that had Colonies and a considerable amount of commerce, and he would point out to the House that the French had thought it expedient to take steps for the defence of their coaling stations at Senegal, La Réunion, and other places. At Martinique also they had spent considerable sums, and were building a dry dock there capable of holding the largest ships that passed through the Suez 1834 Canal. He would read to the House an extract from a speech made by the French Minister of Marine two or three years ago, when he brought his Estimates before the French Chamber, and their Lordships would see that it was very applicable to the matter in hand. He said— Our Colonies ought to be rendered safe from insult, by which I mean that a single ship should not he able to place itself in front of one of the towns on the coast and summon it to furnish either coal or provisions on pain of bombardment. If there were no works capable of resisting and replying with guns to this sort of requisition we should be obliged to submit, even though we were masters at sea. It is said that ships of war should supply the want; but they could not be everywhere, and it is possible that a hostile cruiser taking advantage of their temporary absence might descend upon an important port and levy contributions which would far exceed in value the cost of the defences we propose. In conclusion, it is necessary for you to decide whether the Colonies are or are not to be defended; and let me say that if you decide that they are not to be defended, you will probably lose far more by the disasters which may ensue than the cost of the fortifications. I have done my duty by laying the matter before you as I thought was right, and thus relieved myself from the responsibility which must have rested upon me if by my silence I had been the cause of an insult to the French flag, You wish to keep the Colonies. You are right—but I consider it is absolutely necessary to defend them, Those words might be applied to our own case. If the French Minister thought it right to speak in those terms, he thought this was a question which, at all events, might engage the attention of Parliament. There was one other point to which he would like to call the attention of the House. There was a constant tendency out-of-doors to confuse the Colonies with merely stations; but he thought the Colonies were doing their duty very fairly in this matter. In Australia, at Sydney, at Adelaide, and at Melbourne, very large works were being constructed, and so keen were they upon the subject that they had anticipated some changes in the construction of guns, and in addition to that many of them had already created considerable land forces. The responsible Colonies were doing all that was necessary in the matter, and were doing it without putting us to one shilling of expense. The principle on which they were acting was, that if we with our squadron protected them, they, on the other hand, would give shelter to our ships by placing their ports in a state of 1835 defence. He now went to the military stations, and of them, of course, a principal part of the expense fell, and must fall, on this country; but, at the same time, they were absolutely essential, and if they were placed and kept in a sufficient state of defence, there was every reason to hope we might clear the sea of our enemies. He considered that he should say nothing with regard to the recommendations of the Royal Commission; only he would say that some of those recommendations made involved comparatively very little cost. And this further he would say, that in any recommendations they made they were most careful to avoid recommending any multiplication of garrisons or forces. He would only add one word more, to get rid of the idea that because we held Egypt we were therefore to dispense with taking any other securities. He believed there could be no greater mistake or a more dangerous one than that. There were many contingencies even in lime of war, which would make it absolutely essential for us to maintain the Cape route to India, and, therefore, he trusted that whatever her Majesty's Government did, there would be no saving or false economy in placing the Cape station in a thoroughly effective state of defence. He would now ask the noble Lord the Question he had put upon the Paper.