Page 312 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

290 Strategic Features of the Gulf of
Jamaica, being but one-tenth the size of
Cuba, and one-fifth of its length, does not pre-
sent the intrinsic advantages of the latter
island, regarded either as a source of supplies
or as a centre from which to direct effort ; but
when in the hands of a power supreme at sea,
as at the present Great Britain is, the questions
of supplies, of blockade, and of facility in direc-
tion of effort diminish in importance. That
which in the one case is a matter of life and
death, becomes now only an embarrassing
problem, necessitating watchfulness and pre-
caution, but by no means insoluble. No ad-
vantages of position can counterbalance, in the
long-run, decisive inferiority in organized mo-
bile force, — inferiority in troops in the field,
and yet much more in ships on the sea. If
Spain should become involved in war with
Great Britain, as she so often before has been,
the advantage she would have in Cuba as
against Jamaica would be that her communi-
cations with the United States, especially with
the Gulf ports, would be well under cover. By
this is not meant that vessels bound to Cuba
by such routes would be in unassailable secur-
ity ; no communications, maritime or terres-