Part 1

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Transcriber’s note:

Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).

These lectures each had a set of associated slides, a complete list of which can be found on pages 117-124 at the end of the book. These slide sets were sold separately and are not part of the book. Some of the slides (those highlighted in =bold= in the slide list) were inserted as illustrations in the original book, and the captions of these illustrations are reproduced in this etext.

The numbers in the right margin of the etext are the numbers of the associated slides. Several of these margin slide numbers are in parentheses ( ) to indicate that this particular slide is being shown for a second time at this point in the lecture.

There are no Footnotes in this book.

Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.

THE SEA ROAD TO THE EAST

Gibraltar to Wei-hai-wei

Six Lectures Prepared for The Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial Office

by

A. J. SARGENT, M.A.

London George Philip & Son, Ltd., 32, Fleet Street Liverpool: Philip, Son & Nephew, Ltd., South Castle Street 1912

(All rights reserved)

THE VISUAL INSTRUCTION COMMITTEE

APPOINTED BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES.

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF MEATH, K.P., Chairman.

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR CECIL CLEMENTI SMITH, G.C.M.G.

SIR JOHN STRUTHERS, K.C.B., LL.D., Secretary to the Scotch Education Department.

SIR CHARLES HOLROYD, Director of the National Gallery.

SIR PHILIP HUTCHINS, K.C.S.I., late Member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India.

SIR EVERARD IM THURN, K.C.M.G., C.B., late Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner for the Western Pacific.

SIR CHARLES LUCAS, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.

DR. H. FRANK HEATH, C.B., of the Board of Education.

A. BERRIEDALE KEITH, D.C.L., of the Colonial Office.

H. J. MACKINDER, M.P., lately Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

W. H. MERCER, C.M.G., Crown Agent for the Colonies.

PROFESSOR MICHAEL E. SADLER, C.B., LL.D., Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds.

A set of Lantern Slides has been prepared in connection with this book, and is sold on behalf of the Committee by Messrs. Newton & Co., 37, King Street, Covent Garden, W.C. (late of 3, Fleet Street, E.C.), from whom copies of this book can be obtained. The complete set of 369 Slides may be had for £29 10_s._ The Slides to accompany the several Lectures will be sold at the following prices: First Lecture, £4 17_s._ 6_d._; Second Lecture, £5 5_s._; Third Lecture, £4 10_s._; Fourth Lecture, £5 7_s._ 6_d._; Fifth Lecture, £5 15_s._; Sixth Lecture, £4 15_s._ The Slides will also be sold in sets in which the maps alone will be coloured. The prices in this case will be--for the complete set of 370 Slides, £20; First Lecture, £3 10_s._; Second Lecture, £3 8_s._; Third Lecture, £3 6_s._; Fourth Lecture, £3 10_s._; Fifth Lecture, £3 12_s._ 6_d._; Sixth Lecture, £3 13_s._ 6_d._ The Slides sold on behalf of the Committee may now be purchased separately in batches of not less than two dozen.

The Slides of this Series are Copyright.

PREFACE.

The plan of these lectures is due to Mr. H. J. Mackinder, who wrote the series of lectures on India. The author of the present series is Mr. A. J. Sargent, and the lectures have been revised on behalf of the Visual Instruction Committee by Sir Everard im Thurn and Sir Charles Lucas. The slides are mainly derived from pictures painted and photographs taken by Mr. A. Hugh Fisher on behalf of the Committee, supplemented by photographs supplied from various sources. The Committee have gratefully to acknowledge the abundant help which they have received in this respect.

The next series to be issued will be on Australasia, and the lectures are already well advanced.

MEATH.

_March, 1912._

PUBLICATIONS OF THE VISUAL INSTRUCTION COMMITTEE.

A. Seven Lectures on the United Kingdom.

By Mr. H. J. MACKINDER.

In the following Editions issued on behalf of the Committee by Messrs. Waterlow & Sons, Ltd.:--

=1. Eastern Colonies Edition, Sept., 1905.=

In use in Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, and Hong Kong.

=2. Mauritius Edition, June, 1906.=

In use in Mauritius.

=3. West African Edition, Sept., 1906.=

In use in Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, and Southern Nigeria.

=4. West India Edition, Sept., 1906.=

In use in Trinidad, British Guiana, and Jamaica.

=5. Indian Edition, March, 1907.=

In use in the following Provinces:--Madras, Bombay, Bengal, the United Provinces, the Punjab, Burma, Eastern Bengal and Assam, the Central Provinces, the North West Frontier Province, and British Baluchistan.

=6. Indian Edition, for use in the United Kingdom, Jan., 1909. Price One Shilling net.=

B. Eight Lectures on India, October, 1910.

By Mr. H. J. MACKINDER.

Published by Messrs. GEORGE PHILIP & SON, LTD., 32, Fleet Street, London, E.C., price 8_d._ net in paper covers, or 1_s._ net in cloth.

[=A Lecturer’s Edition= has also been issued, price in cloth, 1_s._ net, and may be had of MESSRS. NEWTON & CO., 3, Fleet Street, E.C.]

Six Lectures on the Sea Road to the East.

By Mr. A. J. SARGENT.

Published by Messrs. GEORGE PHILIP & SON, LTD., price 8_d._ net in paper covers, 1_s._ net in cloth.

[In this book the ordinary edition and the lecturer’s edition are combined.]

CONTENTS

PAGE LECTURE I

GIBRALTAR AND MALTA 1

LECTURE II

MALTA TO ADEN 20

LECTURE III

THE INDIAN OCEAN 39

LECTURE IV

CEYLON 57

LECTURE V

THE MALAY REGION 75

LECTURE VI

THE CHINESE STATIONS 99

_NOTE.--The reader is asked to bear in mind the fact that these lectures are illustrated with lantern slides. The numbers in the margin of the text are the numbers of the slides, of which a complete list will be found on pp. =117-124=._

LECTURE I

GIBRALTAR AND MALTA

In the great land mass which is formed by Europe and Asia is included upwards of a third of the land surface of the Globe and about two-thirds of the total population. Grouped at the western end are the three hundred and fifty millions of Europe, while the majority of the seven hundred millions of Asia are crowded into the southeastern corner. Between the two, from the Red Sea coast of Arabia to the western boundary of China, lies a broad band of desert and steppe, mountain and plateau, thinly peopled and difficult to cross. On the north, the sea passage is barred by the ice of the Arctic; while the only land link between west and east is the thin line of the Siberian railway. But on the south, from the Baltic to the Sea of Japan, is a broad highway, free 1 to all and within easy reach of the great trading nations of Europe and Asia. From end to end we see it running along the coasts and through inland seas; so that ships are rarely out of sight of land for many days together. At frequent intervals are straits to be passed and corners to be turned by every ship; and here, where the sea road must touch the land, are the key points for trade in time of peace or strategy in time of war.

Britain is responsible for the government of over three hundred million Asiatics and carries on a great trade with the remainder; in fact, about two-thirds of the merchant shipping passing through the Suez Canal is under the British flag. We have important interests, too, on the eastern side of Africa, while a new Britain, British in race and political organization, is growing up in Australasia. We are the chief users of the main road to this region of the world, and are thus most interested in its condition and control.

For ships sailing from the western coasts of Europe, otherwise than round the Cape of Good Hope, the only gateway to the long passage to the East is the Strait of Gibraltar, at its narrowest a little less than half as broad as the Strait of Dover. Let us look for a moment at the map. We have passed Capes St. Vincent 2 and Trafalgar, and as we turn in from the Atlantic, far away on our right is Cape Spartel, the corner of Africa, and beside it the Moroccan port of Tangier. We had interests on this coast in times past, since Tangier was a British Possession more than two centuries ago. It came to the English Crown not by conquest but as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II; but after twenty years it was abandoned to the Moors as useless. Bombay also was included in the dowry: but how different is its later history!

We are now inside the Strait; on our left, just at the point where the shores of Europe approach most nearly to Africa, stands the Spanish fortress of Tarifa. Here, where it is narrowest, we might expect to find the controlling point of the gateway; but we must look beyond. Further east the Strait begins to broaden out until it loses itself suddenly in the open waters of the Mediterranean, where the coasts of Spain and Africa trend away sharply to north and south. Here, on a narrow spur running southwards, with the open sea to the east and the bay and town of Algeciras to the west, lies the Rock of Gibraltar. Fourteen miles away to the south, on another jutting point, is the town of Ceuta, which belongs to Spain. Five towns keep guard over the gateway to the Mediterranean, but only one holds the key; we may understand this better when we have learnt something of Gibraltar and its history.

We think and speak of the Rock rather than the town or bay; with good reason, since Gibraltar without the Rock would be of small value to us. As we steam in from the west we see it 3 rising from the water like an island block broken off from the mountains of Spain. Now we are drawing nearer and the block 4 begins to take shape. A long ridge, carved out into detached peaks, drops sharply to the north where the low flat isthmus, scarcely visible, links it with the mainland. On our right hand, towards the south, it descends in steps to the narrow point on which we can just see the lighthouse. With a little use of the imagination we may liken the ridge to a crouching beast keeping guard over the waters of the Strait below. Now the houses of the town begin to show against the dark background of hill, and 5 soon we pass a cruiser at anchor and enter the new harbour, with its docks and coaling wharves enclosed in protecting moles.

We have seen Gibraltar on the west from the level of the sea; let us turn to the map for a moment and take a bird’s-eye glance at 6 the whole peninsula with its surroundings.

The Rock is small: its length three miles from north to south, its greatest breadth not more than three-quarters of a mile. Its area is a little less than two square miles, so that it is quite the smallest in the list of our foreign possessions. A high and narrow ridge, rising over a thousand feet, falls steeply to the land on the north and to the sea on the east; towards the south, where the ridge is lower, it ends in cliffs against which the sea beats always and prevents all access. On part of the west side the lower slopes are more gentle, and on these lies the town with the harbour at the foot.

Let us look now at the approach to Gibraltar from the mainland 7 of Spain. Here we see a corner of the northwest face of the rock, where it overlooks the isthmus. Notice how sheer it rises from the plain, with the flooded moat at its foot. The narrow road, on which we are standing, between the Rock and the sea margin, is the sole entry to the fortress, and we may understand how, in a spot such as this, a small force could easily defy an army. Here is another view of the Causeway, 8 from the hill above, which shows us how narrow is the link connecting the Rock with the mainland. Gibraltar is, in effect, an island; the only real approach is on the west, from the sea.

We will now explore further. All round us are guns and fortifications old and new; soldiers are everywhere; we can see little without special permission, and the authorities are very inquisitive as to our business. The main gates are locked and guarded at night, and we take the time and set our watches by gunfire. We soon learn that we are in no ordinary town, but in a fortress prepared for war. Here we see one of the hot and 9 narrow streets. In the foreground is one of the olive-skinned natives of the Mediterranean. We shall find them everywhere about the harbour; in fact they seem far too many for a small confined town. But in the evening we may meet them streaming away by the north gate, bound for the Spanish town of Linea, which is visible in the distance beyond the neutral ground of the isthmus. There is much work to be done in the harbour, but there is no room for the town to expand, so it is not possible to house the workmen on the spot. It is necessary to limit the number of civilians living in the town, for past experience has proved that they are a danger to health in time of peace, through overcrowding, and a source of weakness to the fighting garrison in time of war. Gibraltar must be governed purely as a fortress; its history is a history of war; in time of peace it has little interest.

Thirteen sieges in five centuries are recorded by historians since its capture from the Moors by Ferdinand of Castile in 1309; a relic of the Moorish occupation still survives in the 10 old castle which we see here; of the sieges the last three alone concern us. In the autumn of 1704, only a few months after a British admiral had hoisted the flag and claimed the Rock in the name of Queen Anne, France and Spain with a great fleet and army attempted its recovery. In the spring of the next year the garrison, without food or powder, reduced by disease and fighting to less than 1,500 effective men, and facing the constant attack of a vastly superior force, could scarcely hope to hold out much longer. But relief at last came from the sea. A British squadron broke through the blockading fleets and brought supplies and reinforcements; and though it sailed away again the real siege was over. On the land side the Rock was impregnable; the guns of that day were useless against its defences; Gibraltar was ours to hold so long as we could command the sea.

At the peace of Utrecht, which ended the war of the Spanish Succession, we retained Gibraltar, and the people of England, impressed by the siege and the splendid defence of the Rock, resolved to keep it. It was only natural that Spain should wish to recover a fortress which was geographically part of her territory and of little value to us at the time. For years her diplomatists tried to persuade us to restore it; and when diplomacy failed, force was attempted once more. In 1728, great preparations were made for another siege; even Cadiz was stripped of its guns to provide a siege train, and an army of 20,000 men fronted the little garrison of 1,500. The Government in England set small value on the place, so that the defences had been utterly neglected. The guns were worn out and the fortifications in decay, but the garrison worked day and night in parties of 500 to repair the damage. A heavy bombardment undid much of their work, but it also ruined the large brass guns of the enemy, while month by month we poured in men and supplies from the sea, until the garrison was raised to over 5,000. The siege proved that Gibraltar, properly manned, had nothing to fear from an assault by land, and the people of England were more than ever convinced that it was quite impregnable. The real danger was to come fifty years later, when we lost for a time the command of the sea.

The last and greatest siege began in 1779, when the fortunes of England were at a low ebb in the war of American Independence, and a French and Spanish fleet had sailed with impunity up the English Channel. In spite of despatches from Governors and discussions in Parliament, the defences of Gibraltar were again in a thoroughly neglected state. It is not to the English Ministers or Parliament that we owe our present possession of it, but to the energy and foresight of General Eliott, the Governor at the time. It is true that at the last moment we hurried out more troops and supplies; but when the attack began in June, 1779, the garrison, with no hope of further relief from the sea, was ill fitted to withstand a long siege by the joint forces of France and Spain.

Let us climb up to one of the great galleries begun during 11 the siege and hewn out of the solid limestone rock, with their rows of gun-ports like windows in the face of the precipice. Let us look out through one of these windows and try to imagine 12 the scene in the days of the siege. Here we have a fine view of the country below. The blank space, without houses, which 13 we see is the neutral ground, and beyond it the besiegers’ lines were drawn right across the isthmus. Across this narrow space the guns fired round shot, the enemy attacked and the garrison made sorties. Further away is the town of Linea, and right under our feet is the goal of the attack, the narrow entrance to the fortress itself. But the scenes on the isthmus can never be repeated; long-range artillery has changed the conditions of warfare; the heavy guns on the landward side of the Rock now keep watch and ward over the distant hills.

This was the view of the besieged on the land side; the sea also was closed to them. Our fleets were engaged elsewhere and supplies were cut off by a swarm of hostile cruisers in the Strait. The troops were on half rations from the first, while at the end of a twelvemonth the people were glad to search the Rock for wild roots and weeds. Gibraltar was never nearer to surrender. At the last moment, Rodney, on his way to the West Indies, defeated the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent and brought in a convoy. But he could not stay, and the siege closed in for a second year. Morocco joined Spain, so that the small supplies which had reached the garrison in spite of the blockade were now cut off. To crown all, the food brought from England was mostly salted, and scurvy broke out. To add to the trials of the defence, the enemy now attacked from the sea with small gunboats rowed in close to the shore under cover of darkness. The town was a fair target which they could hardly miss, while they were small and offered no chance in the darkness to the gunners of the garrison. So for the rest of the siege this nightly bombardment went on unchecked, as to reply was mere waste of powder which could ill be spared.

In the spring of 1781, a powerful English fleet again brought relief, and later in the year a brilliant sortie by the garrison ended in the destruction of the besiegers’ lines and delayed the final attack. But early in 1782 Minorca surrendered to the French, who were thus set free to prepare for a great joint effort. For a time there was a lull in the storm, while ships were collected in the bay and men and stores on the mainland. Rewards were offered for the best plan for capturing the fortress, and people came from all over Europe to watch the final act in the great drama. The preparations ended in a grand assault by land and sea in September, 1782. For four days without ceasing thirty thousand men with nearly three hundred guns attacked from the isthmus. In the Bay were fifty warships with the gunboats and the famous floating batteries. To oppose this huge armament with its five hundred guns or more, the defenders had some eight thousand men and less than a hundred guns. It was enough. How the attack failed is told in every history. It is worth remark that the losses of the garrison in the bombardment were very small, not more than might have been expected in a mere skirmish. The guns of those days were of little use against the natural defences of the Rock. Soon after, Lord Howe, in the teeth of the combined fleets, broke the blockade and brought the third relief; and although the fighting continued for a time, the real siege was over as soon as the English fleet had forced the passage of the Strait.

When we think of these sieges, we can perhaps understand better why Gibraltar, rather than any of the other four towns, holds the key to the Strait. When our fleet was away the fortress was powerless and the enemy could close the passage. A fleet alone could keep it open, but a fleet, now as then, must have a harbour close at hand as a base. In the case of Gibraltar only of the five towns do we find both fortress and fleet together.

The history of Gibraltar in the nineteenth century has been mainly concerned with the difficulties of governing its miscellaneous population and the problem of improving the defences and adapting them to the ever-changing conditions of modern warfare. Towards the end of the century the need of further dock accommodation for the fleet became pressing. The new harbour was begun in 1893, but while it was in course of construction the science of artillery was also making great progress, and it has been pointed out that the docks could be assailed by the fire from long-range guns hidden behind the hills on the mainland. So from the purely military point of view the fortress is perhaps less impregnable than in former times.

In the matter of internal administration there has been much improvement. Gibraltar has gained a bad reputation in the past for climate and health. The bare rock adds to the burning heat of the summer sun; the town is shut off from fresh breezes by the hill, and when the Levanter blows from the east, and heavy clouds hang over the summit of the ridge, the clammy air makes the heat still more oppressive. There have been severe epidemics on the Rock, due largely to the bad drainage of the old town and the want of sufficient water. Most of the rain falls in the winter months, and a heavy downpour is soaked up at once by the porous rock. There are no springs, so the water is collected in tanks from the roofs of the houses, while the authorities have built reservoirs and artificial catches on the lower hill slopes and have set up condensing engines as a reserve in time of need. 14 Here is one of these catches on the north peak above Catalan Bay; it is made of sheets of corrugated iron, coated with cement, and lies like a roof over the porous sand beneath. There are wells, too, on the low ground to the north; but the water is brackish and not good for drinking. Better drainage and more water have greatly changed the condition of the town; so that the water famines and epidemics of the past are not likely to recur; but food must always be imported, as there is no room to grow it on the Rock, with its small area and poor soil.