The " invasion " manoeuvres ended on Wednesday, when General
French's troops were re-embarked. The criticisms that have been passed on the conduct of the operations have been unusually severe, some of the correspondents going to the length of declaring the manoeuvres to be a com- plete fiasco ; but so far as we can judge, such unsparing denunciation has not been justified. No doubt there were many things done which had better have been done dif- ferently, but on the whole some valuable lessons have been learnt by the superior officers and the Staff, if not by the rank- and-file. In the first place, the difficulties of disembarkation and re-embarkation on an open beach have been fully realised. What was a quick and easy job at Southampton, where every- thing was ready and made for the purpose, was slow, dangerous, and troublesome at Clacton. Again, the great dangers to which an invading army is exposed if it has not secured a really good harbour were fully illustrated. Lastly, some useful lessons were learnt in regard to fighting in enclosed country. The way in which bodies of men crept unobserved to within a few hundred yards of their antagonists was most remarkable. It has been said, we note, that this result of fighting in enclosed land would favour the invader ; but surely that is a mistake. Because men are defending their own country they need not, and ought not to, stand only on the defensive. The surest form of defence is attack, and if an oversee invader is to be repelled, it will only be by using the enclosed land to worry him with constant attacks. The attacks on an invader should never cease from the moment he lands till his retreat to his ships.
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