When the great naval action will come off no one
can tell. We agree, however, with the Times Military Correspondent in thinking that the Germans must make a dash for it, and we also think it by no means improbable that when the dash comes it will be found that the Germans have behind their naval fighting line a considerable force of men in transports ready to emphasize any piece of luck that may come their way. But the Germans dream that this will create such a panic in this country as to throw us all into hysterics. They are quite mistaken. A raid on the first day of the war would no doubt have been a formidable matter. We are now, however, perfectly prepared for such an event, and if even a hundred thousand men were to be landed in a surprise attack—which is very unlikely—we should be perfectly well able to deal with them. If the Belgian forts at Liege could stop a hundred thousand men with literally hundreds of thousands of men in their rear ready to help them, what would be the fate of a hundred thousand Germans without horses or other transport, and with their backs to the sea ? The only result of a raid attempted, or even accomplished, would be to fill Lord Kitchener's Second Army, not in ten weeks, but in ten days.
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