As for his praise of German mines and submarines, mine-
laying was not a very glorious method of warfare, though perfectly fair when used against warships. The only new thing in the German use of submarines was their employ- ment against defenceless merchantmen and unarmed trawlers. These purely German and murderous methods had not affected in the slightest degree the economic life of England. What they had done was "to fix an indelible stain upon the fair fame of the German Navy." Mr. Balfour concludes as follows :- "No German merchant ship is to be found on the ocean. Allied commerce is more secure from attack, legitimate and illegitimate, than it was after Trafalgar. The German High Sea Fleet has as yet not ventured beyond the security of its protected waters. No invasion has been attempted of these islands. British troops, in numbers unparalleled in history, have moved to and fro across the seas, and have been effectively sup- ported on shore. The greatest of military Powers has seen its colonies, wrested from it one by one, and has not been able to land a man or a gun in their defence. Of a fleet which has done this we may not only say that it has done much, but that no fleet has ever done more."
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