1 SEPTEMBER 1906, Page 3

The Times of Wednesday contained an article from its Military

Correspondent on " Moltke and Over-sea Invasion" which is well worthy the attention of all interested in national defence. He shows from Moltke's correspondence that in 1861 the Chief of the Prussian General Staff was prepared, practically without a fleet, to tow an army corps over strange waters, which he did not command, for the purpose of sub- jugating an armed and virtually insular State. It was a deliberately worked out plan, all the perils being foreseen and discounted. This being so, an invasion of England can never be pronounced impossible, and must be regarded as one of the contingencies of war. It is a project on which two of the greatest masters of strategy, Moltke and Napoleon, have been agreed, and before we differ from them we should remember that the problem of invasion must be studied, not from our own point of view, but from that of the enemy. Upon such a subject we should refuse to accept dogmatism, and we should so "organise the land forces in this country that the very inception of plans like those of Moltke should be made as unattractive as possible."