Page 331 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. 309 ;

tinent, now as always the chief natural source
of supplies for the West Indies, which do not
produce the great staples of life. With the
United States friendly or neutral, in a case of
war, there can be no comparison between the
advantages of Cuba, conferred by its situation
and its size, and those of Jamaica, which, by
these qualities of its rival, is effectually cut
off from that source of supplies. Nor is the
disadvantage of Jamaica less marked with ref-
erence to communication with other quarters
than the United States — with Halifax, with
Bermuda, with Europe. Its distance from
these points, and from Santa Lucia, where the
resources of Europe may be said to focus for
it, makes its situation one of extreme isolation
a condition emphasized by the fact that both
Bermuda and Santa Lucia are themselves de-
pendent upon outside sources for anything
they may send to Jamaica. At all these points,
coal, the great factor of modern naval war, must
be stored and the supply maintained. They
do not produce it. The mere size of Cuba,
the amount of population which it has, or

ought to have, the number of its seaports, the
extent of the industries possible to it, tend