In the Commons on Thursday afternoon Mr. Balfour, in explaining
the conclusions arrived at by the Committee of Defence, made what is admitted on all bands to have been a speech of a most momentous significance. The two essential assertions were (1) that Great Britain is safe from invasion, even when circumstances have temporarily reduced her naval strength to the lowest point ; and (2) that India is safe also, provided that Russia is not allowed to develop her strategic railways in Afghanistan. In regard to the advance of a Russian strategic railway in the direction of Afghanistan, Mr. Balfour declared that he had not the smallest ground for believing that the Russian Government intend to make such a railway ; but if such an attempt were made, it would be a blow directed at the heart of the Indian Empire, and must be treated accordingly. In regard to the question of invasion at home, Mr. Balfour declared that such invasion could not possibly be attempted by less than seventy thousand men, and that the transporting of these seventy thousand men would require some two hundred and fifty thousand tons of shipping. To disembark that force calm weather -would be required, and calm weather "is exactly the time when submarines and torpedo-boats have their chance in the greatest perfection."
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