ed their will
upon the Germans in every turn that these lines make. It reminds one
very much of the herding of sheep, for the German fleet was literally
herded on May 31, 1916, from 5:36 in the afternoon until 9 o'clock
that night. Admiral von Scheer, however, fought the only action which
it was possible for him to fight. It was a losing action, and one
which he knew, from a purely mathematical consideration, could not be
successful.

Through the very definiteness of this understanding of what
constitutes naval strength, Great Britain's navy until recently has
remained a great potential force, becoming dynamic for only a few
hours at Jutland, after which it returned to that mysterious northern
base whence it seems to dominate the seas. Because of the potentiality
of these hidden warships, thousands of vessels have traversed the
ocean, freighted with countless tons of cargoes and millions of men
for the Allies. Even at that psychological moment when the first
hundred thousand were being transported to France, Germany refrained
from a naval attack which might have turned the whole land campaign in
her favor.

To-day, however, the world is awakening to a new idea of sea-power, to
a new conception that will have a far-reaching influence on the future
development of naval machinery.

Sir Cyprian Bridge has stated that one of the functions of a fleet is
the defense of commerce. There is no more important function for a
fleet than this. A nation may be subjugated by direct invasion, or it
may be isolated from the world by blockade. If the blockade be
sufficiently long, and effectively maintained, it will ruin the nation
as effectually as direct invasion.

Thus, in the maintenance of a nation's merchant marine on the high
seas, its navy exercises one of its most vital functions. There can,
therefore, be no naval supremacy for a nation unless its commerce is
assured of immunity from considerable losses through the attack of its
enemy. It is idle for us to speak of our naval supremacy over Germany,
when our navies are failing in one of their most important functions,
and when our commerce is suffering such serious losses. The persons
best qualified to judge are those who are most anxious regarding the
present losses in mercantile tonnage.

While it has been shown that the submersible of to-day, as a fighting
machine, is considerably limited, and in no sense endangers the
existence of the capital ship, nevertheless in the n