Peacetime Dominion forces could improve trade security while avoiding some of the cost of improvising them during war. Battlecruisers based in Australia, New Zealand, and India would give the empire ships available to watch for von Spee's departure from Tsingtao. Japanese Kongo-class ships could join that concentration, leaving the East Asia Squadron facing much stronger opposition before it reached open trade routes. Germany might still maintain its squadron despite those odds, but forward deployment would make its escape and return home even less promising.
Notable Point · 1:57:26-1:59:44
Could forward-based battlecruisers trap von Spee at Tsingtao?
Battlecruisers already stationed in the Pacific and Indian Ocean could intercept the East Asia Squadron before its raiding campaign develops.