ABSTRACT
Through the concept of a kriegsverein or defensive union, a school of imperial navalists sought not only to forge a system of collective imperial security. When Fisher became First Sea Lord the need for naval economies was firmly established on the political agenda. Churchill's policy of treating the Mediterranean as a subsidiary naval theatre antagonised large sections of the navalist community in parliament, the press and the country at large. Most accounts of British naval policy before 1914 make little mention of the anger provoked by the principle of concentration and the redistribution of ships it required. The issue of colonial contributions to the Royal Navy dominated imperial defence thinking from the 1870s. Both fiscal and strategic considerations called for fuller Dominion participation in the task of defending the Empire. Under the provisions of the Colonial Naval Defence Act 1865, the Australian colonies organised schemes of coastal and port defence, beginning with Victoria, which established a small naval brigade.
