WERE THERE MINOAN FLEETS ? [TO the Editor of the
SPECTATOR.] '
SIR,—I observe that Mr. Porter in his review of the second -
Volume of Sir Arthur Evans'sPalace of Minos makes the
. . astounding statement that Minoan Crete possesied " fleets of Warships." I say " astounding " because it will be obvious to any reader that no evidence for so wild a generaliration can possibly- exist in the first plaee, and because all the standaid authorities, including Sir Arthur Evans himself, are agreed upon the peaceful habits and conditicins of the ancient Cretans, in the second.
It would be hardly worth while to take up space in your valuable columns for the sake.of pointing out an error, however grass. But such misstatements do a great deal of indirect harm in perpetuating the exploded fallacy that early civilization
was achieved and solidified through naval- or military • conquest. At a time when modern civilization is making
concerted if very tentative efforts towards the abolition of war, a crudely inaccurate remark like that, of Mr. Porter appearing in a journal of such wide authority and merited prestige .as the Spectator cannot but hinder those efforts by suggesting a false, and, I may say, criminally misleading picture of the origins and progress of civilization.—I am, Sir,
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