WHAT THE OCEAN MEANS TO GREAT BRITAIN 329 



than the apathy of Britons where shipping is concerned, 

 in contrast with the intense interest manifested by 

 Germans in all that concerns their shipping affairs. 

 They have been rewarded, too, by seeing German 

 shipping make colossal strides, and they are beginning 

 to believe that they are destined to occupy the place 

 so long held by Britain, owing to her inability to rise 

 to the occasion and keep the advantage she has had. 

 It is only just to add that the Germans have worked hard 

 for what they have, letting no opportunity slip, and 

 following in our footsteps all over the world, imitating 

 British goods and trade-marks, taking advantage of 

 British free trade, leaving, in short, no stone unturned 

 to win away from us what we are too apathetic to hold 

 on to. 



There are not wanting signs that Germans have 

 long regarded British supremacy in the world's traffic 

 as a matter for their undivided national attention, and 

 that the whole of their policy is directed to one end, 

 which is the abasement of Britain, which they believe 

 to occupy now a place that is theirs by right. But it 

 must be said that if ever they do succeed in this 

 perfectly legitimate aim of theirs, it will be entirely 

 our own fault, because we have not realized what the 

 ocean means to Great Britain. The leaders of political 

 thought in Germany look with sardonic satisfac- 

 tion at our petty political squabbles at home; at 

 the amount of energy which is wasted over things 

 which do not matter; at the ever-increasing number 

 of our men who grow up untrained, unfit for work, 

 a drain upon the country's resources instead of an 

 addition to her strength ; and while they do this, they 

 frame pacific addresses to our professors and litterateurs 



