On Friday week the Times published a sensational but wholly
unconvincing letter from Sir Percy Scott, directed to showing that it was no good to build any more Dreadnoughts because they could so easily be knocked out of time by sub- marines. To speak quite frankly, the letter was a most approved example of the mare's-nest. As was said by Brougham of an opponent's speech, "there were things new in it and things true in it, but unfortunately the things that were true were not new and the things that were new 'were not true." Lord Sydenham and other writers have shown how perfectly ridiculous it is to treat the submarine as if it were a weapon of precision which could be relied upon to a, the kind of things it is expected to do in Sir Percy Scott a futurist view of naval warfare. No doubt the submarine has a great future, but it is not going to send fleets of battleships to the bottom before you know where you are. Its rile will be very different and very much restricted.
Previous page
