Mr. Balfour's reply was very pregnant. Our Empire, he said,
which depends for its safety wholly on its Navy, is in some respects more difficult to defend than any the world has ever seen. So far from the Conservatives regarding this as a party attack, they think it infinitely less important what the Government of the country may be, than they con- sider it "whether there shall be a country to govern." If the Government would do what the Conservatives want, the Conservatives care not at all bow the Government choose to set about it. Sir Charles Dilke (who walked out without voting) followed with a speech that represented the danger as far greater than even Lord George Hamilton had represented it. He declares that our Mediterranean and Channel Fleets combined are already outnumbered by the French Mediter- ranean Fleet taken alone. We could not hold the Mediter- ranean against the French in case of war. Then, again, our relations with France are not satisfactory, and in ease of war we should have no allies. There is no Power in Europe so unpopular as England. In short, Sir Charles Dilke is as profoundly pessimist as Mr. Gladstone is optimist.
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