Page 334 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

312 Strategic Features of the Gulf of

more easily, and by a wider interval, than either
Jamaica or Cuba.
Regarded as positions, therefore, these two
islands are the real rivals for control of the
Caribbean and of the Gulf of Mexico ; and it
may be added that the strategic centre of in-
terest for both Gulf and Caribbean is to be
found in the Windward Passage, because it
furnishes the ultimate test of the relative power
of the two islands to control the Caribbean.
For, as has been said before, and cannot be
repeated too often, it is not position only, nor
chiefly, but mobile force, that is decisive in
war. In the combination of these two ele-
ments rests the full statement of any case.
The question of position has been adjudged
in favor of Cuba, for reasons which have been
given. In the case of a conflict between the
powers holding the two islands, the question of
controlling the Windward Passage would be
the test of relative mobile strength ; because
that channel is the shortest and best line of
communications for Jamaica with the American
coast, with Halifax, and with Bermuda, and as
such it must be kept open. If the power of
Jamaica is not great enough to hold the pas-