Mr. Balfour began a series of speeches to his constituents
in East Manchester on Monday with a really great speech on National Defence, which he treated as a question entirely above party,—as even Sir William Harcourt recognised when addressing his own constituents at Derby two days later. Mr. Balfour greatly regretted the action of the Government in treating Lord George Hamilton's motion on the Navy as an attack on the Administration, and declared that he would give them a hearty support in any measures they might take to prevent the naval supremacy of this country on the high seas from being undermined. He held it to be a great mistake to regard this country as safe, if it were safe only from the landing of a hostile force. On the contrary, it would not be safe for a moment if our great import and export trade were seriously imperilled. Indeed, that would imperil the country's food, which would never be sure unless the ships which bring it, and the ships which take the merchandise by which we pay for it, were safe. "To me," he said, "it seems that of all the Empires of the world, the British Empire is the one that has the least defensible frontier." He dwelt with pleasure on the friendliness of foreign States and statesmen to this country; but he pointed out how unpopular this country seems to be with the French people as distinguished from the French statesmen, and how easily we might be forced into an attitude of very serious and sudden hostility. Of Mr. Balfour's important suggestion that the defence of the Empire would be materially improved by having a single depart- ment specially concerned with it, whether on its naval or its military side, headed by a Minister responsible for its adequate defence, we have said enough in another column. The speech was the speech of a large-minded statesman.
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