Lord Rosebery made an interesting speech on national defence in
Edinburgh yesterday week at the prize-giving of the 7th (Leith) Battalion of the Royal Scots. He could not believe in an unprovoked attempt by Germany to invade our shores ; none the less, we must be secure against risks which could be contemplated by any sane man capable of forming a judgment. Though the figures on which Mr. Balfour in 1905 based his speech on the impossibility of invasion were admitted to be obsolete, it was unjust to the foresight, common-sense, and ability of the present Govern• ment to suppose that they were wholly heedless of such con- tingencies. The question of our Fleet was not a question for discussion at all. It was a question of existence, and he could not believe that any Government would be so insane or negligent as to send our Fleet elsewhere at a moment when there was any possible contingency of sudden invasion. If Mr. Haldane's scheme broke down from lack of men, they would inevitably have to fall back on a system like that of the Swiss, in which he believed as a really democratic scheme of defence, and which, moreover, was a traditional method of defence in England, and part of the common law of England.
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