The battle of the Falkland Islands was a great feat
of arms and worthy of the best traditions of the Navy. While recording it we must be allowed to protest against the talk of injudicious and ignorant people who have been saying that it will " restore confidence in the Navy." The people who indulge in such preposterous talk deserve the contempt of all good citizens. There is nothing to restore, because nothing was lost. The Navy has never for one single instant lost a scintilla of confidence in the mind of any person whose opinion was worth a moment's consideration. As we have said again and again, the Navy has done everything that could possibly have been expected of it. It has run the risks it ought to have run, and it has suffered the losses which it was bound to suffer unless it had abandoned the true function of a Navy and tried to save itself by climbing trees or digging trenches. These losses have not afforded any proof of loss of efficiency, nor have they been due to any want of good leadership. On the contrary, they are only proofs that the Navy has been taking the risks that it must take and ought to take. The Navy will use its trump cards at the right time.
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