now WAR WOULD INTENSIFY POVKIITV 103 



world, a largo number ol" warships would necessarily have to 

 1)0 detached from the Home fh-et and detailed fov this duty. 



Tiie annual value of these iiu^e l"o(xl imports readies th(! 

 astounding total of £172,000,000,* and it f(jllows, that if we are 

 foolish enough to depend upon foreign countries for nearly the 

 whole of our wheat, and for the hulk of our other food supplies, 

 we must necessarily sufler in spending enormous sums to main- 

 tain a powerful fleet of war vessels to keep the seas clear, while 

 we must also be prepared to detail a powerful squadron of 

 these vessels during war time to convoy our food ships. 



That this paramount duty would draw away a number of 

 vessels and considerably weaken the Home fleet, there is no 

 question ; but whether this weakened fleet would still 1)6 

 powerful enough to guard our Islands and crush the formidable 

 squadrons of Germany, even naval experts are not able to 

 decide. 



What Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge says 



One of our admirals, writing on the subject as recently as 

 August, 1908, said— 



" Oermany, as a matter of fact, is far from having a rmmbL-r of 

 fighting ships equal to ours, and the strength of her naval personnel 

 is less than half the strength of ours. It is, therefore, probable to 

 the verge of certainty that Genuauy would not now, and cannot foi- 

 some time to come, prove superior to us at sea." 



• • • • • • • 



" It seems desirable to remind people that war is a two-sided 

 affair ; and as war between us and Germany must be waged largely 

 at sea, it is now, and if we do not relax our ]>reparations it long will 

 be, in our power to do her much more harm than she could do us." 



* • • • • • • 



" In order to injure us in war to the point of forcing us to yield 

 to any terms that it may impose, a great Continental State nmst 

 try . . . to starve its inhabitants into submission by stopping our 

 supplies of food and raw material ; ... to capture or ruin our 

 mercantile marine. 



" These tw^o operations must be purely naval. If Germany proves 

 superior to us at sea, she may reasonably look forward to being able 

 to carry these out." j 



It is interesting, and alarming, to note that although 

 Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge's somewhat sanguine predications 



* " Agricultural Statistics " (Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, 1907, Cd. 

 42Ci). 



t Admiral Sir Cvprian Bridge. Extracts from a letter to the Clarion, 

 August 14, 1908. 







