Our whole Admiralty policy as regards the Colonies is radically
bad. Our statesmen grumble because the Colonies are apathetic, and yet will not allow them, or at any rate will not help them, to make the form of contribution towards naval preparation which they could make, and are willing to make. If we left off dinning into the ears of the Colonies that only contributions in cash were worth having, and that contributions in kind were worthless, we should soon find the Colonies raising Naval Reserves from their seafaring popula- tions, and also equipping small local squadrons. The latter might not be powerful at first, but they would be a beginning, and they would be immensely useful in creating and main- taining a naval spirit in the Colonies. People talk as if " admiralty," in Mr. Kipling's sense, were only to be bought with money, but in reality it depends on the naval spirit. This naval spirit we do practically nothing ourselves to encourage in the Colonies, and when local attempts are made we frown them down with academic dissertations.
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