Though we share Mr. Balfour's anxiety as to the margin
of safety, and would much prefer that Mr. McKenna had taken a line less likely to be represented in Germany as indicating a slackening, or a possible slackening, of effort, and so backing up the argument : " If you only press them a little closer they will give up in despair," we are on the whole not dis- satisfied with the shipbuilding position. At any rate it is quite clear that the " Little Navyites " have not made any converts in the Cabinet. But though our shipbuilding programme can be shown to be just adequate, and though we are sure that the component parts of the Navy, human and material, are as good as ever, we wish we could feel satisfied that our preparations for using our ships to the best advantage are as good as the ships themselves. -Has the study of tactics in the Navy developed, as unquestionably it ought to have developed, with the new departures in shipbuilding and gunnery P Elsewhere in our columns we deal at considerable length, as our able correspondent " Civis " also does, with the question of the battleship of the future, the question which of necessity underlies the whole programme of supremacy at sea.
Previous page
