requiring coal may be counted on as sure to be present. Even
as it is, the L10,080 is a smaller sum than the L11,560 which
the secondary base system costs over and above the amount due to
increased deterioration of coal. If a comparison were instituted
as regards other kinds of stores, the particular figures might
be different, but the general result would be the same.

The first thing that we have got to do is to rid our minds of
the belief that because we see a supply-carrier lying at anchor
for some days without being cleared, more money is being spent
than is spent on the maintenance of a shore depot. There may be
circumstances in which a secondary base is a necessity, but they
must be rare and exceptional. We saw that the establishment of one
does not help us in the matter of defending our communications.
We now see that, so far from being more economical than the
alternative method, the secondary base method is more costly. It
might have been demonstrated that it is really much more costly
than the figures given make it out to be, because ships obliged
to go to a base must expend coal in doing so, and coal costs
money. It is not surprising that consideration of the secondary
base system should evoke a recollection of the expression applied
by Dryden to the militia of his day:

In peace a charge; in war a weak defence.

I have to say that I did not prepare this paper simply for the
pleasure of reading it, or in order to bring before you mere
sets of figures and estimates of expense. My object has been
to arouse in some of the officers who hear me a determination
to devote a portion of their leisure to the consideration of
those great problems which must be solved by us if we are to
wage war successfully. Many proofs reach me of the ability and
zeal with which details of material are investigated by officers
in these days. The details referred to are not unimportant in
themselves; but the importance of several of them if put together
would be incomparably less than that of the great question to
which I have tried to direct your attention.

The supply of a fleet is of high importance in both peace time
and time of war. Even in peace it sometimes causes an admiral to
pass a sleepless night. The arrangements which it necessitates
are often intricate, and success in completing them occasionally
seems far off. The work involved in devising suitable plans is
too much like drudgery to be welcome to those who undert