SCIENTIFIC NATIONAL DEFENCE 



By COLONEL CHARLES ROSS, D.S.O. 



Autlwr of " Representative Government and War" 



The National Defence problem has, of late years, obtruded 

 itself with no little force on the attention of the surprised and 

 indignant British Citizen. Since the downfall of the great 

 Napoleon he has come to regard himself as perfectly secure in 

 his island home. Guarded by his unassailable fleet and the 

 jealousies of continental powers, he has been able to devote 

 himself to problems of internal politics, to colonisation, com- 

 merce, and sport. From time to time the sudden advent of 

 hostilities in some far-distant colony, a royal review at Alder- 

 shot, or the outbreak of war between foreign powers, has 

 recalled to his mind that he possesses an army, in which, 

 however, he has never taken any very great or intelligent 

 interest. When he comes to think of it, he remembers, with a 

 sense of considerable gratification, that this army enjoys an 

 unrivalled record of past victories in every quarter of the globe. 

 But the British Citizen has always been somewhat hazy as to 

 the reasons for the existence of this army. He supposes that 

 it is really in the nature of an Imperial police force, and cannot 

 quite grasp why it should have interfered in other people's 

 quarrels on the Continent in the times of Napoleon and Marl- 

 borough. But that was in the " good old days," when the 

 British people were, probably, rather harebrained ; and no one 

 would, of course, venture to suggest that anything of the sort 

 should be done in these days of business and hard common sense. 

 On the other hand, he was profoundly convinced of the vital 

 importance of the navy. It had always been evident to him 

 that, so long as he held command of the sea, he would be safe 

 from serious attack in his own home ; and he had held this 

 sea-supremacy for so many years that he had come to believe 

 that some special dispensation of Providence had placed him 

 in his sea-girt isle in order that he might march securely in 



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