ourselves that we are not able
to postpone this attack as we wish. It has been already mentioned that
the recent attitude of Italy may precipitate a European crisis; we must
make up our minds, then, that England will attack us on some pretext or
other soon, before the existing balance of power, which is very
favourable for England, is shifted possibly to her disadvantage.
Especially, if the Unionist party comes into power again, must we reckon
upon a strong English Imperial policy which may easily bring about war.

Under these circumstances we cannot complete our armament by sea and our
coast defences in peaceful leisure, in accordance with theoretical
principles. On the contrary, we must strain our financial resources in
order to carry on, and if possible to accelerate, the expansion of our
fleet, together with the fortification of our coast. It would be
justifiable, under the conditions, to meet our financial requirements by
loans, if no other means can be found; for here questions of the
greatest moment are at stake--questions, it may fairly be said, of
existence.

Let us imagine the endless misery which a protracted stoppage or
definite destruction of our oversea trade would bring upon the whole
nation, and, in particular, on the masses of the industrial classes who
live on our export trade. This consideration by itself shows the
absolute necessity of strengthening our naval forces in combination with
our coast defences so thoroughly that we can look forward to the
decisive campaign with equanimity. Even the circumstance that we cannot,
perhaps, find crews at once for the ships which we are building need not
check the activity of our dockyards; for these ships will be valuable to
replace the loss in vessels which must occur in any case.

The rapid completion of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Canal is of great importance,
in order that our largest men-of-war may appear unexpectedly in the
Baltic or in the North Sea. But it does not meet all military
requirements. It is a question whether it is not expedient to obtain
secure communication by a canal between the mouth of the Ems, the Bay of
Jahde, and the mouth of the Elbe, in order to afford our fleet more
possibilities of concentration. All three waters form a sally-port in
the North Sea, and it would be certainly a great advantage if our
battleships could unexpectedly unite in these three places. I cannot
give any opinion as to the feasibility of this scheme. If it is
feasib