It may perhaps be ur g ed a g ainst our view that we
are assuming that nothing but ' Dreadnoughts ' count. In the abstract we are far from saying that such a proposition has been made out, and we note elsewhere Sir William White's arguments in this respect. It seems to us, however, as practical men and not experts, that we are bound to act on what we may call the ' Dreadnought ' hypothesis. To begin with, both parties in the State have accepted that hypothesis, and have declared that they must act upon it. That being so, it is impossible to imagine any expert, however distinguished, being able to change the Admiralty view. Again, right or wrong, the 'Dreadnought' hypothesis has been adopted and is being acted upon by every Navy in the world. It is not practical politics, even if it is thoroughly sound theory, to reject the Dreadnought' hypothesis. We, at any rate, are not prepared to take the responsibility of playing the part of Athanasiue contra mandurn.
