setting forth the new strategic dispositions of the Fleet. We
have dealt with the scheme in detail elsewhere, and will only say here that the new plan will enable us, should occasion arise, to strike instantly and with all our force at any hostile navy. The pivot of the whole scheme may be said to be the Atlantic Fleet based on Gibraltar. That fleet will stretch one hand to the Mediterranean Fleet and one hand to the Channel Fleet. It may also be the Fleet on which both the Mediterranean and the Channel Fleets will rally and concentrate for some supreme effort. It thus makes Gibraltar one of the most important places in the whole Empire. Fortunately, Gibraltar will now be equal to so great a destiny, since the breakwater and dockyard works there are all but completed. Cromwell when he sent Blake into the Mediterranean is said to have pointed out to him the supreme strategic importance of the Rock Our new naval scheme fully recognises and endorses the Protector's prescience. Gibraltar becomes, from the stand- point of naval strategy, the hub of the Empire.
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