orable factors which for centuries have told in favour of the
British race and have kept the fields of England inviolate from the
tread of a conqueror.

There are indications that still more heavy sacrifices will be demanded
from the British taxpayer for the upkeep of the Fleet in the future than
has been the case even in the recent past. Nothing but iron necessity
can justify this unfruitful expenditure, this alienation of the
national resources in men and money to the purposes of destruction.
Even as it is, naval administrators are finding it increasingly
difficult to carry all sections of politicians and the whole of the
masses of this country with them in these ever-increasing demands. The
best way of ensuring that future generations of Englishmen will rise to
the necessary height of a patriotic sense of duty and will record their
votes in support of such reasonable demands is to prepare their minds by
an elementary knowledge of what naval warfare really means.

No Englishman, so far as the writer is aware, is better fitted than Mr
Thursfield to undertake this task, and this little book is a very
excellent example of the way in which that task should be fulfilled. It
unites--very necessarily--a high degree of condensation with a
simplicity of language and a lucidity of exposition both alike
admirable. And Mr Thursfield's right to be heard on naval questions is
second to that of no civilian in these islands. His relations with the
British Navy have been for more than a quarter of a century of the
closest kind. His reputation in the particular field of literary
endeavour which he has made his own ranks high amongst writers as
celebrated as Admiral Mahan, Sir George Sydenham Clarke (Lord Sydenham),
the late Sir John Colomb, and his brother the late Admiral P.H. Colomb,
Sir J.K. Laughton, Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge, Admiral Sir R.N.
Custance, Mr Julian Corbett, Mr David Hannay, Mr Archibald Hurd, and
others. In the domain of naval history, its philosophy and its
literature, he has done brilliant work. When it is added that Mr
Thursfield is known to have been, for many years, one of the chief naval
advisers of _The Times_, enough will probably have been said to ensure a
sympathetic attention for this the veteran author's latest publication.

C.L. OTTLEY

_24th July 1913_

PREFACE

Intelligent readers of this little Manual will perceive at once that it
pretends to be nothing more than an introduction, quite