ABSTRACT
St. John Brodrick, the Secretary of State for War, and Selborne, the First Lord, paved the way to the foundation of the Committee by a joint Memorandum circulated to the Cabinet in 1902. The Duke of Devonshire, the chairman of the previous Cabinet Committee, presided at first, but henceforward the Prime Minister attended regularly and became the real driving force, and, after the reconstruction of the Balfour Government in November 1903, himself assumed the chair. In January 1904 the Committee issued its first report, a prescient document, devoted exclusively to the Committee of Imperial Defence. The British Empire is pre-eminently a great Naval, Indian and Colonial Power. In 1908 the Colonial Defence Committee, which shortly after was renamed the Overseas Defence Committee, was the only permanent sub-committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence. In 1909 a new one was established, called the Home Ports Defence Committee, of which Ottley was chairman and he was secretary.
