New-York tribune., 1891-12-25
WEST INDIAN DEFENCES.
ryGLAND'S JEALOUS GUARDIANSHIP OF THE
UNITED STATES.

THE NEW NAVAL AND MILITARY STATION AT
ST. LvdA-ENGLANDs FORMIDABLE PREP.
A.AnoSs FOR DEFENDING ISLANDS
WHICH NEED NO DETENCE-A MEy.
ACE TO THE UNITED STATES
vsox srArF CORRESPONDENT or rlIE TRIsuSrJ
Castries. st. Lucia, British West Indies,
December II.
In l772. Admiral Rodney the hero who, after
Yorktown. saved to England the maritime suprem-
scy which her West Indian buccaneers had won
for her, addressed to the Kings Ministers from
this anchorage a letter declaring that Of all the
West Indies, st. Lucia was decidedly the most
valuable from a naval and military point of view
aGreat Britain will be sovereign in these waters.
he said, so long as she holds and sustains st.
Lucia" This was not careless opinion. For
twenty years, In the constant warfare of that
period. Rodney had been fighting up and down the
entire length Of this island chain to reclaim by
British arms what was being repeatedly lost by
British diplomacy. He knew every inch of every
coast-line in the Caribbean Sea. Nor did he stand
alone in the view be expressed of ST. Lucia
During one of the overcoming intervals while
the island was in French possession, governor.
general reminded Napoleon that it was always
the purpose Of France to make ST. Lucia the capt.
tai Of the Antilles. the chief Of her West Indian
strongholds the Gibraltar of the Gulf of Mexico"
This expression was prophetic.
When the Panama Canal was first proposed
British military and naval officers called
their Governments attention to the con-
dition Of its West Indian defences, and they
renewed the suggestions Of Admiral Rodney. Each
Of the colonies then contained two or three
companies Of troops, whose chief business was
10 hold the black population in subsection This.
ss time drew along, was felt to be needless
task. 1t was obvious enough that a handful Of
soldiers in each island offered no obstacle 10 the
descent Of foreign foe. The empires defence
came up in 1879 as a subject for general and
elaborate investigation. Why then. is a ques
ton, and question the more interesting to
Americans since the great practical result Of the
work performed by the Royal Commission, to which
the subject was referred was the conversion
OF Halifax into one of the strongest Notifications
in the world, vast additions to the naval con-
struction plant at Bermuda, the erection Of
elaborate Notifications at st. Lucia and Jamaica.
directly confronting the mouths Of the two
surveyed isthmian canals and the connection of
all these menacing stronghods, completely en-
circling the American coast by q cable.
To cast anchor in this harbor, and to look
out on either side at enormous earthworks, and
up at dozen mountain points where redoubts
are constructing cannot fail to cause the re-
fective American TO inquire What for?" He
sees besutiful loclSed-in harbor, second In its
natural defences among West Indian harbors only
TO Mole St. Nicholas. The mouth is formed by
TWO high hills about third of mile apart.
One contains three concealed Notifications, armed
with two six-inch quick-fring rifles and two heavy
nine-inch guns, all of the most improved metal.
On the other hill are two concealed firts
armed with four nine-inch heavy guns, and
OF three mountain spurs behind the town
Of Castries are as many redoubts now in course
Of construction, each having full command OF the
harbor and it's approaches, and each 70 be mounted
with heavy ordnance. Far 10 the rear OF these
defences is another lofty battery consisting OF
three heavy guns commanding both sides Of the
island The reflective American learns these facts
and again Is moved 10 wonder What forP
Under the protection of the forts at the mouth
Of the harbor England has constructed magnlh-
cent drydock capable Of lifting all but her heavi-
est batte-ships She has established coalng
station, and has built barracks for 500 men. in
tending 70 bring hither all her West Indian forces
excepting those posted at Kingston. Jamaica
There she holds 800 men and seven large and
poverful forts An even larger force is main
tanned at Bermuda, where she has constructed the
largest drydock beyond the borders Of the United
Kingdom, 3SI feet long by 124 wide, and 53
deep easily capable of lifting the heaviest iron
clad In her service. There, too, she has per-
fectly appointed shipyard, another coaling station
and harbor Notifications which, according TO the
Official Colonial Year Book, "are mounted with
the heaviest guns and render Bermuda quite
beyond the reach of hostile attack" Stronger
than any of these the forts at Hahfax, winch
have been enormously strengthened within the
last FIVE years. and are proclaimed by the highest
ii. SIo EpnHf fNo IN no m
pregnable as Gibraltar"
What does all this business mean? Who Is
menacing England in the Gulf Of Mexico, or along
the American seaboard? 1t is not here that the
next European war Is to be fought. Not one OF
tbese colonies asks OF needs protection, and not
one Of them is now Of such commercial Importance
10 England as 10 justify any expenditure OF
money She certainly has not been spending all
these millions within the last decade TO show her
love Of them If that had been her motive She
could have done thousand times as much good
on half the money by bounty on west indian
surar and Canadian wheat. This is what her
colonies have been asking. This Is what they
need What do they want with guns and snip
yards and drydocks They are to-day In senh-
nent American not English. Substantially every
thing they produce is sold TO America; every
tbng tbev eat comes from America. No nation
on the earth's surface would have the remotest
ground TO attack them, nor any, excepo Ahlerlca'
tie opportunity; while every Power In EUROPE
hos been warned again and again by the Gov
eminent AT Washington that it will not remain an
Indifferent spectator Of European conflict fought
on American soil This is the security OF
these British colonies and they know it. For
200 years after the settlement OF America oegan'
there was never a war in Europe which did not
produce it's greatest convulsions on Canadian sou
or in West Indian seas but during the entire period
Of American nationality, though Europe had been
three times at war; the possessions held by foreign
po,yers in and about the American continents have