Again, there are the thousands of tons of barbed wire
which must be put up in front of the trench line, for we can assure our German enemies that they will not be able to pick up barbed wire as they march through our coast villages. We have got plenty for our own requirements, we are thankful to say, but even now it is not a thing which our Army wastes, and not long ago it was precious. It is the same with food. If the Germans imagine that they are going to live upon the country, they are quite mistaken. They may find a little, but unless they want to die of starvation they will have to bring their own supplies. A mobile army could conceivably live on the country by rapidly passing from one district to another ; but if the Germans land that is not going to be the kind of warfare. Instead they will have a new edition of the Hindenburg Line, with a British line opposite it, and all 'the old business of a No-Man's-Land between. But this means a vast flotilla in which the ships bringing the men will be outnumbered by the ships bringing the guns and material, the horses and motor- lorries. No doubt the Germans have the shipping, but one must remember that the better equipped they come, the less chance they have of evading our Navy and getting those precious twelve hours they want for emptying an expeditionary force upon some deserted point on our shore.
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