620 



The Review of Reviews. 



it (lid nol succeed il may at least be said that I was 

 the only person who had sufficient faith and courage 

 even to try to achieve ideals so far in advance of the 

 average opinion of the time. Let me say, how- 

 ever, that during all these years I have main- 

 ' tained unhesitatingly the fundamental principles of 

 the pacifists' work. I have worked for the organisa- 

 tion of a World State whose tribunals would render 

 the maintenance of armaments unnecessary. 



" TWO KEELS TO ONE." 



I have as sedulously maintained that until such a 

 \Vorld State comes into existence it is necessary for 

 (ireat Britain to maintain on an unas.sailable founda- 

 tion the superiority of her naval power. I have 

 crystallised this into a phrase in which I demand a 

 standard of two keels to one, by which I mean that 

 (ireat Britain's Navy should be twice as large as 

 that of the strongest European Power. I have 

 done this as much in the interests of Germanv 

 as in the interests of Great Britain. Witjiout such 

 a supreme fleet we should have no secm;ity for our 

 national independence and even our national exist- 

 ence. The maintenance of a two-to-one naval 

 superiority has been the very corner-stone of the 

 European State system since the battle of Trafalgar. 



Sl-.e IS now threatened by the German ambition to 

 possess two keels to three, a proportion which, when 

 we remember the much more extended area over 

 which the liritish Government has to operate, would 

 deprive us of that naval supremacy in the North Sea 

 which it is of vital interest should be unassailable by 

 any other Power. 



STRONG BRITISH NAVY ESSENTIAL FOR PEACE. 



I may be quite wrong-^most pacifists believe that 

 I am wrong — but I have always maintained, and 

 maintain to this hour, the doctrine that you can do 

 no greater di.sservice to the cause of international 

 peace than to weaken the Ikitish Navy, and that if 

 the British Empire is to continue to afford the Inter- 

 national World State the. most effective example of 

 liberty with justice, of independent self-governing 

 states united in fraternal union, each leaving the 

 other to pursue its own destinies, securing for 

 all the strength that comes from the co-opera- 

 tion of all, the British fleet must be maintained 

 at a standard of two keels to one, whatever the 

 cost may be. To have a weak Navy is to invite 

 attack, to lead your neighbours into temptation, 

 and to remove the only security which we possess 

 against a possible aggressor. 



Special Announcement. 



Ar.T, those who have read the foregoing article from the pen of Air. W. T. Stead 

 will be glad to learn that wc have in oiu^ pos.session a great number of MSS. which 

 Mr. W. 'J'. Stead wrote from time to time during his crowded life. Interviews with 

 |)rominent men and women, not only of this country but of other lands which came 

 into his sphere of activity, records of conversations, and notes of new schemes, new 

 developments — all of these are included in this material. The jiages of his auto- 

 biographical survey show how wide a groimd mk h MSS. must cover, with what 

 interesting persons and events they must deal. We propose from time to time, in the 

 future, to publish these MSS. in these pages, thus making the magazine not only the 

 fjtgan of the ideas of its foimder, but also the medium, as in the past, through which 

 his words shall reach the world. It is no exaggeration to say that the appearance oi 

 these hitherto uni)ublished MSS. will be an event so important as to be almost 

 sensational. 



