Perhaps the most laughable and silly emanation of these Rip Van Winkles is the outcry against large ships and high speeds, and an Admiral has gone so far as to resort to mathematics and trigonometrical absurdities to prove that slow speed and 6-inch guns are of primary importance in a sea fight!!! Archbishop Whately dealt with a similar critic by a celebrated jeu d’esprit entitled “Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon Buonaparte.” The Archbishop by a process of fallacious reasoning demonstrated with all the exactitude of a mathematical problem the impossibility of the existence of such a person as Buonaparte! But as someone has well said, if these strange oddities can convert our enemies (the Germans) to the priceless advantage of slow ships and small guns they are patriots in disguise, and Providence is employing them (as it employs worms and other such things) in assisting to work out the unfailing and invincible supremacy of the British Navy.
But to say no more—the plain man sees that it is of vital importance that we should obtain the highest possible speed in order that, in face of emergencies on the south or east or west of the British Isles, we may be able to concentrate adequate Naval Force with as little delay as possible, and that had the British Admiralty held the opinions expressed by “the Blackwood Balaam” our battleships would still be steaming at about 10 knots an hour, because he must remember that the progress which has been made from 10 knots to 22 knots (as attained in “Dreadnought” at deep, or war load draught) has been gradual, and at any period during this progression it was quite open to other Balaams to retard the action of the Admiralty by pointing out that the slight gain in speed which has been chronicled year by year in battleships was really not worth the price which was being paid for it! But, Blessed be God! In this and all other criticisms of Admiralty Policy the public pulse is totally unaffected, and the reputation of the Admiralty unlowered.
For 12 months past not a single battleship has been laid down in Europe, and this simply and solely owing to the dramatic appearance of the “Dreadnought,” which upset all the calculations in Foreign Admiralties and deserved the calculated letter written by Lord Selborne to the Committee on Designs. The Admiralty has done more than all the Peace party with all their dinners to arrest the contest for Sea Power!
In the criticisms we are dealing with, “Party” as usual has come before “Patriotism,” but the Sea Lords can, each one of them, confidently say, with the poet’s version of a patriot’s motto,
“Sworn to no party, of no sect am I,
I can’t be silent and I will not lie,”
and so the Sea Lords have no desire to avoid any odium the Tory papers[3] may be pleased to bring upon them. There is undoubted authority for stating that a skilfully organised “Fleet Street” conspiracy aided by Naval Malcontents is endeavouring to excite the British public against the Board of Admiralty, but it has fallen flat.
There is, however, a very serious danger in the propagation of the view so ably combated by Sir C. Dilke in his speech at Coleford, Forest of Dean, on September 27th last, that this country requires a military force of 640,000 men!
His comparison of Navy and Army expenditure is illuminating but has been totally ignored by the Press and the country. The “Fiery Cross” has been sent round to resuscitate the “Invasion Bogey.”
There has been for many years past a general feeling in this country that questions of international relationship and of national defence should be withdrawn as far as possible from the arena of party politics. Such divergences of opinion as must exist on these topics have no obvious connection with the divisions of our internal politics; and it is surely legitimate to go further than this, and say that the main problems in these departments can be dealt with in such a way as to win the assent of every reasonable man, whatever his opinions may be on Trade Unionism or Elementary Education.