HOME DEFENCE AND THE INVINCIBILITY OF OUR FLEET.
[To sus Enrros or raz Srrcrnroa."]
SIR,—YOUT reference in last week's Spectator to the nation's "profound belief in the invincibility of our Fleet" raises an im- portant question. There is no doubt as to the prevalence of this belief, and yet we cannot close our eyes to the fact that, to all who bold it with honest conviction, the whole business of training for home defence must often seem little more than a farce, and the problem of arming the men so engaged almost a negligible one. To those, however, who never forget that the vital naval issue—that of the trial of Dreadnought strength in the North Sea—has still to be fought out, the problem of providing arms for the whole of our trained citizen forces is not of tertiary, nor even of secondary, im- portance. It calls for the earliest possible solution, not by the supply of a heterogeneous assortment of weapons, but arms homogeneous in type, removing all danger of non-inter- changeable ammunition. To urge this need is not to under- rate for one moment the superb efficiency of our Fleet. Still less is it to overrate that of the enemy. It is only to act on the belief, accepted in theory by every one, that confidence before the event is not absolute certainty. Indeed, it is upon the direct assumption of some degree of uncertainty in naval matters that the whole structure of home defence by citizen forces has been reared.—I am, Sir, &e.,
Previous page
