from the standpoint of operations in an actual war, the
strategic value of a certain position for a base is important,
no matter whether the operations are offensive or defensive; and
the same factors that make a position good for defensive operations
make it good for offensive operations also. For instance, if we
wish to send a fleet on a hostile expedition to a distant point,
it is well to have a base on a salient as far out as practicable
from the coast, in order that the fleet may be able to start, full
of fuel and supplies, from a place near the distant point; and
equally, if we are to receive an attack upon the coast, it is well
to have a base far out, in order to embarrass the transit of the
enemy toward our coast, by the threat--first against his flank,
and later against his rear and his communications. Naval bases
looked at from this point of view resemble those forts that European
nations place along their frontiers.

It is true that any base placed at a salient has the weakness of
all salients, in that fire can be concentrated on it from several
directions; and a naval base has the added disadvantage of a more
difficult withdrawal, if attacked by an overwhelming force, and a
longer line of communications that has to be protected. But this
weakness all distant bases have, from the fact that they are distant;
and, naturally, the more distant they are, the more difficult it is to
support them, because the longer are their lines of communications.

Distant naval bases, therefore, are vulnerable in a high degree;
they are vulnerable both to direct attack and to an attack on their
lines of communications; and the factors that help a base in one
way injure it in another. If a naval base is placed on a rock,
or a rugged little island that holds nothing else, and on which
a hostile army could not land, it is very safe from land attack;
whereas, if it is placed on a large and fertile island, on which
an invading army could easily land, it is extremely vulnerable
to land attack. But, on the other hand, the naval base on the
inaccessible island could be starved out by simply breaking its
lines of communications, while the naval base on the large and
fertile island might be able to survive indefinitely, even though
the communications were wholly ruptured.

The establishment of any permanent distant naval base is a matter
of great expense, even if the natural conditions are favorable.
But favorable conditions have rare