DEFENSE. The system of defense and the mili tary and naval arrangements of Great Britain are peculiarly distinctive of that country. The predominating factors in the situation are the insular position of the country and the vast extent of foreign domains that need protec tion. Both of these conditions unite in making England's safety dependent upon the strength of its navy, and accordingly this has long re ceived the chief attention from the Government. The general plan is to keep the navy at least as powerful as the combined navies of any other two countries. The strength of the navy more than doubled in the last fifteen years of the nineteenth century. The personnel is recruited by voluntary enlistment. Preparation for the service begins between the ages of fifteen and sixteen and one-half years, a term of two years being served in the training-ships, at the end of which period the recruit may be drafted into the fleet to serve for a period of twelve years, when he may leave the service or reengage for an additional period of ten years. The mercan tile marine is depended upon to supply a naval reserve, the State having made arrangements whereby a certain number of merchant seamen may secure a given number of days' drill an nually, and engage themselves to join the navy if an emergency should make it desirable.
In the last decade of the nineteenth century the colonies began of their own free will to share in the expense of the maintenance of the Im perial navy. In 1901-02 the total number of men and officers serving in all the ranks was 118,625. The administration of the navy is vested in a Board of Admiralty, the head of which, the First Lord of the Admiralty, is a Cabinet officer. (For the details of the organization, administration, and the statistics of the British Navy, see the article NAMES.) In case of attempted attack or invasion, the navy is depended upon to prevent a landing, and the importance of forts and their garrisons is therefore less than in the Continen tal countries. Some sort of defense is provided for all the principal ports of Great Britain and Ireland, including London, Hull, Newcastle, Leith, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Liverpool, Cardiff, Bristol, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Dover, Chatham, and Belfast. The efficiency of the navy is greatly strengthened by the establishment of numerous naval bases and coaling stations which its widely distributed possessions have made possible. The following enumeration does not include a large number of small coaling stations. In North Amer ica and the West Indies there are Saint Johns (Halifax), Bermuda, Port Royal, Port Castries, Port an Spain, Saint John (Tobago) ; and on the Pacific, Esquimalt on Vancouver's Island. In
South America there are Port Stanley (Falkland Islands), and Coquimbo in vessels are also permitted to coal in the Rio de la. Plata and at Rio de Janeiro. On the west coast of Africa and in Cape Colony there are Sierra Leone, Cape Coast Castle, Cape. Town, and Si mon's Bay, besides the islands of Ascension and Saint Helena. In Australia there are Sidney, Melbourne, Albany, and Hobart (Tasmania), and in New Zealand, Wellington, Auckland, and Christchurch besides. In the Fiji Islands there is Suva. Belonging to the East Indian naval station are Aden. Bombay, Colombo, Trincomali, Port Louis, Zanzibar, and Port Victoria. In the Mediterranean are Gibraltar and Malta and a coaling station at Port Said.
While Great Britain overshadows all other countries in the strength of its navy, its stand ing army is greatly surpassed by those of its principal Continental neighbors. In 1901-02 the total number of men and officers in all ranks was 219,800. The main function of the British stand ing army is the defense and control of the exten sive colonial possessions, and it is considered ne cessary that forces sent to distant possessions he enlisted for longer terms than could be reason ably demanded for conscripts. Consequently, un like other European countries, enlistment is vol untary, and the average term of active service is much longer than on the Continent. The term of active service is from three to seven years, the length of service in the reserve varying from five to nine years. The control of the people over the army is secured by the constitutional authority of the National Parliament to prohibit, if it choose, the maintenance of an army in times of peace, and by the necessity of an annual grant for its financial support. A Cabinet officer— the Secretary of State for War—is at the head of the army administration. (For details of the army organization, administration, and statistics, see ARMIES.) The military relation of Great Britain to its colonies presents some interesting aspects. The Imperial forces have been withdrawn from all the self-governing colo nies except Natal, and local responsibility for self-defense has become a recognized principle. The contributions of military forces by the colo nies during the late Boer War proved the loyalty of these dependencies, and revealed a source of strength which is of great moment to the Im perial cause. The British forces stationed in India are supported by taxes raised in that country.