We agree that in the war capital ships were by
no means driven from the sea, thanks largely to their protecting screens of destroyers. But the official theory does- not amount to much more than this : that while doubt has been implanted in every mind, and nobody can say with confidence what would happen to the capital ship in a war in which there were more submarines and, above all, more aircraft, nobody will take the responsibility of declaring that the time has come to scrap the capital ship. This is a highly intelligible situation, for the responsibility would, of course, be very great indeed. Sir Cyprian Bridge, however. with his demand for an inquiry suggests a way out. While making this sensible proposal he also has the good sense to show that he is concerned for the unhappy taxpayer. After all, we won the war largely by our financial resources. If the tax- payer is ruined there will be no more financial resources. The accumulated -wealth of the taxpayer is, in fact, as much a line of defence as the capital ship itself. Unless such ships are really indispensable we simply cannot afford them.
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