British.—About sixty-seven tenths of an inch; or over six inches and a quarter.
We hear a good deal of the rapid growth of the German and American Merchant fleets, and not so much of the growth of our own. Yet certainly we have not stood still.
According to the above comparison, which is taken from an American, not a British report,[12] we have not held our own badly during recent years. British transport has actually grown the most. True, we have merely added sixteen tenths to an already great length; whereas, in the same period, the German fleet, adding three and a half tenths, has nearly doubled itself, and the Japanese, adding about two-tenths, has trebled itself. But a very small amount is easily doubled or trebled; and the nearest is still a long way behind the British total.
[12] Merchant Marine of Foreign Countries, vol. xviii.
This should not be allowed to induce a spirit of over-confidence, which might probably mean in time the tortoises overtaking the hare. And although our Merchant fleet is still almost the double of all other Merchant fleets upon Earth put together, yet the proportionate difference has begun to grow less than it once was. Other countries are straining every nerve in the race; and if Great Britain would keep her present position, this is no time for slackening of effort.
Powerful though our Royal Navy undoubtedly is, it has not that vast preponderance over other Fleets of War which our Merchant Navy has over other Mercantile Fleets.
The aim generally set before Great Britain of late years has been to make and to keep the Royal Navy strong enough to be able to cope with any two other War Navies existing.
But if we had a War Navy proportioned to our Merchant Service, which might seem only reasonable, it would have to be nearly equal in tonnage to all the other fighting Navies in all the world.
Is our present aim high enough, in view of the tremendous interests, the enormous risks, involved?