ired between the officers representing both.

The logistic work of expanding the naval forces to a war basis
may evidently be divided into two parts: the adding of vessels
and other craft appropriately equipped and manned to the active
fleet, and the establishment of a coast-defense force, which will
be distributed along the coast and divided among the most important
commercial and strategic centres.

_Adding to the Fleet_.--Naturally, the additions to the fleet will
depend on the service for which the fleet is intended; that is, on
the plans of strategy. If the navy were to be gotten ready for a
definite undertaking, then the additions to carry out that undertaking
could be calculated and prepared; and of course this condition
does come up immediately before any war occurs. But in addition to
these preparations which are to be made at the last moment (many
of which cannot be made until the last moment), the staff must
prepare in the leisure of profound peace for several different
contingencies. Inasmuch as many of the additions will be needed,
no matter with what country the war may come; and inasmuch as the
same general kind of additions will be made, it is clear that there
must underlie all the various plans one general plan, to which
modifications must be made to adapt it to special conditions. And
as, no matter whether we are to take the offensive or the defensive,
no matter whether the fleet is to go far away or stay near our
coast, the matter of additions to it is mainly a matter of degree
(whether for instance ten extra colliers are needed or a hundred),
it seems clear that the general plan should be the one demanding
the greatest additions, so that the modifications to adapt it to
special cases would consist merely in making subtractions from it.
To carry out this plan, strategy must make a sufficiently grave
estimate of the situation; and logistics must make calculations to
supply the most difficult demands that the estimate of the situation
indicates as reasonable, and then arrange the means to provide what
the calculations show. If one has provided a little more than is
necessary, it is much easier to leave out something later than it
is to add more, if one has not provided enough; and one's natural
indolence then acts on the side of safety, since it tends to persuade
one not to leave off too much; whereas in the opposite case, it
tends to assure him that it is not really necessary to take the
trouble to