Page 330 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

308 Strategic Features of the Gulf of

a Personal Will, acting through all time, with
purpose deliberate and consecutive, to ends
not yet discerned.
Nevertheless, when compared to Cuba, Ja-
maica cannot be considered the preponderant
position of the Caribbean. The military ques-
tion of position is quantitative as well as quali-
tative ; and situation, however excellent, can
rarely, by itself alone, make full amends for
defect in the power and resources which are
the natural property of size — of mass. Gib-
raltar, the synonym of intrinsic strength, is an
illustration in point ; its smallness, its isolation,
and its barrenness of resource constitute limits
to its offensive power, and even to its impreg-
nability, which are well understood by military
men. Jamaica, by its situation, flanks the
route from Cuba to the Isthmus, as indeed it
does all routes from the Atlantic and the Gulf
to that point; but, as a military entity, it is
completely overshadowed by the larger island,
which it so conspicuously confronts. If, as has
just been said, it by situation intercepts the
access of Cuba to the Isthmus, it is itself
cut off by its huge neighbor from secure com-
munication with the North American Con-