Mr. George Wyndham in an interesting speech delivered to his
constituents at Dover on Monday, made a point which should be noted by persons who still believe in the likelihood of a successful invasion of these islands. He pointed out that Great Britain, with an unrivalled position as to the acquisition of transports, and when the problem of safety from sea attack had not even to be considered, bad found a certain difficulty in transporting eighty thousand men by sea, and went on to ask what would be the difficulties encountered by a European Power bent on conquering Canada, Australia. or South Africa. We may ask in addition how would a European Power manage to transport eighty thousand men to these shores,—even supposing our main Fleet to have been destroyed or decoyed away. The notion of a "snap" invasion while we had an adequate force in these islands, even if our Fleet had gone to the bottom, is a pure delusion. We have spoken of an invading army of eighty thousand men, but in reality at least one hundred and sixty thousand would be wanted. The men might conceivably be
carried in tourist steamers, but for the artillery and heavy ammunition a very different sort of ship would be needed, and needed in fleets, and not in twos and threes.
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