ABSTRACT
The proposals for the regrouping of the fleet had aroused a certain disquiet about the strength of British squadrons in the Mediterranean. The Times, in a leading article of 30 May on the entente with France, mentioned the ‘loose talk’ of the abandonment of the Mediterranean by the British fleet. There was, however, a good deal of public discussion of the importance of the Mediterranean as a main route for the food supplies of Great Britain. The Australian press suggested that if Great Britain increased the number of ships in Australian waters, the colonists might help towards the cost of upkeep. In 1910 two battle-cruisers were laid down in Great Britain on behalf of Australia and New Zealand, instead of the battleships which had been offered in 1909. The ‘strategy of position’ affected the relations between Great Britain and the Dominions scarcely less definitely than it affected the relations between Great Britain and France.
