THE COMMAND OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. (To THE EDITOR OP THE
"SPECTATOR."
SIR,—There are so many excellent reasons why we should never abandon the "command of the Mediterranean" that one regrets to see any fallacious one advanced, especially if such reason is based on a mistaken apprehension of facts. In your article on this subject in the Spectator of July 5th you observe: "But for Delagoa Bay and Durban the ultimate sea route must be through the Mediterranean and the Canal. and not round the Cape," &c. As the difficulties of navigating a ship through the narrow Mediterranean and Red Seas are far greater than are encountered on the broad ocean, as there is necessarily a lowering of speed in going through the Canal, and as there are the tolls to pay and the dreadful heat of the Red Sea to be endured, the advantage of that route over the Cape rouee to Delagoa Bay and Durban must, I suppose, be thought to lie in its shorter distance. Now, let any one take the largest globe available and measure the respective distances carefully, and he will find them to be about as follows :—
Nautical Miles.
From Liverpool to Delagoa Bay, via Suez... ... 7,580 the Cape ... 7,190
IS „ to Durban, rid Suez
7,880
PP PP JP 31 „ the Cape ... ...
0,890
I say these are " about " the distances, because on that small scale exactness is unattainable. But a trial will show at once that the ocean route is very materially shorter than the other. For many years I have noticed erroneous statements as to long sea distances put forth, no doubt in good faith, and accepted as authoritative. I have no doubt the errors arise from the measurements being made on maps instead of on a globe. The map, being a representation of a portion of the globular surface of the earth on a flat sheet of paper, must be a distortion, and the distortion, and consequent error, increase rapidly as the area mapped extends, so that in long distances the possible error becomes very great.—I in; Sir, d:c.,
CAUTION.
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