Before we leave Lord Rosebery's speech we must endorse most
heartily his protest against the Government's failure to strengthen the Fleet. No one, of course, wants the Govern- ment to mobilise flying squadrons, or to act in an offensive or aggressive way, but it is impossible to urge upon the Govern- ment too strongly the need for defensive naval preparations. If in six months' time, when the pinch is most likely to come, the Admiralty cannot say, "thanks to the keen and incessant labour and care of the last six months we are strong beyond all former experience," but can merely say "we will begin at once to prepare," it will go hard with them in the judgment of the nation. They at least cannot plead want of warning. Lord Salisbury, we regret to say, did not answer Lord Rose- bery, but dealt only with Lord Kimberley's speech. On the whole, the tone of the Premier's speech was far better than that of the speech made at the opening of the Session, but we deeply regret that it contained no pledge for greater energy in the case of both naval and military preparations. When Lord Salisbury said that the present war was not due to overgrown Imperial expansion he spoke, we believe, the absolute truth.
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