One really cannot help being touched by the position of
the Little-Navy men, they are so much in earnest and so hope.. lessly impotent. The Government do not fear them in the very least, for they know that if it comes to voting on the Naval Estimates they will get the whole support of the Opposition, which would far outweigh the loss of fifty votes. They know also that on all other questions they are just as sure of the votes of the recalcitrant pacifists as they were
before. The pacifists will never do the only effective thing, that is, say to the Government: "You beat us over the Naval Estimates by relying upon the Unionists, but remember we shall not forgive you for that, and the next time there is a critical division, no matter what the subject is, Home Rule, or the Welsh Church, or Land Policy, we shall join with the Opposition and show you that you cannot ignore us or simply treat us with soft words as you do now." Small minorities are only formidable when they are willing to pursue the tactics of the bravo—i.e., to stab in the back. But who can imagine the mild and mellifluous gentlemen whose names we have given above stabbing anybody in the back or front or anywhere, no matter what the provocation P Mr. Winston Churchill and the Naval Estimates are quite safe from attacks like those headed by Mr. Molten on Wednesday.
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