ld probably be enormously
valuable to a conqueror; its ruin immensely damaging to the body
as a whole. Either would justify an enemy in running considerable
risks, and would afford him practically sufficient compensation
for considerable losses incurred. We may expect that, in war,
any chance of accomplishing either purpose will not be neglected.
Provision must, therefore, be made against the eventuality. Let
us for the moment suppose that, like one of the smaller countries
whose case has been adduced, we are restricted to localised defence.
An enemy not so restricted would be able to get, without being
molested, as near to our territory--whether in the mother country
or elsewhere--as the outer edge of the comparatively narrow belt
of water that our localised defences could have any hope of
controlling effectively. We should have abandoned to him the whole
of the ocean except a relatively minute strip of coast-waters. That
would be equivalent to saying good-bye to the maritime commerce on
which our wealth wholly, and our existence largely, depends. No
thoughtful British subject would find this tolerable. Everyone
would demand the institution of a different defence system. A
change, therefore, to the more active system would be inevitable.
It would begin with the introduction of a cruising force in addition
to the localised force. The unvarying lesson of naval history
would be that the cruising division should gain continuously
on the localised. It is only in times of peace, when men have
forgotten, or cannot be made to understand, what war is, that
the opposite takes place.

If it be hoped that a localised force will render coast-wise
traffic safe from the enemy, a little knowledge of what has happened
in war and a sufficiently close investigation of conditions will
demonstrate how baseless the hope must be. Countries not yet
thickly populated would be in much the same condition as the
countries of western Europe a century ago, the similarity being
due to the relative scarcity of good land communications. A
part--probably not a very large part--of the articles required
by the people dwelling on and near the coast in one section would
be drawn from another similar section. These articles could be
most conveniently and cheaply transported by water. If it were
worth his while, an enemy disposing of an active cruising force
strong enough to make its way into the neighbourhood of the coast
waters concerned would interrupt