ABSTRACT
The task of making a comprehensive review of the coast defences of our ports abroad, with which he was now associated, was one of absorbing interest. The principles had to apply involved in most cases cutting down not the fighting strength but the personnel of coast defences. Hitherto the defences of our ports had been based on the assumption that France was the country by which our defences were calculated. Our reputation for cutting down the coast defences had everywhere preceded us, no doubt owing to the fact that in its report of the previous year on the home ports the Committee, before he joined it, had recommended drastic reductions. The defences of colonial ports were looked after in the same way by the Overseas Defence Committee, of which the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies was ex officio chairman.
