21 NOVEMBER 1914, Page 14

Heaven forbid that we should seem to preach to the

Navy a policy of mere defence, or seem to suggest for a moment the lowering of the signal: " Engage the enemy more closely." In the last resort action is essential for the Fleet, but it is equally essential that action should be at the right time and not at the wrong time. The man who takes action not because he knows that the time for it has come, but out of what Bacon calls " niceness and satiety," and because he is determined to do something and does not know what else to do, is contemptible. The tiger which springs for the sake of springing, and not for what is to come of the spring. does not exist. If the Navy has to watch for two years for the right moment, it must watch.