In the House of Commons on Wednesday Mr. Middlemore asked
whether under present arrangements we shall have in home waters in 1914 twenty-five fully commissioned battle- ships and six battle cruisers to Germany's twenty-nine battleships and six battle cruisers. To this Mr. Churchill replied that " under present arrangements we shall have thirty-three fully commissioned battleships and five battle cruisers in home waters in 1914." He subsequently admitted that a squadron of these battleships would be based on Gibraltar. Upon this Mr. Middlemore asked whether Mr. Churchill considered that Gibraltar was in home waters, to which Mr. Churchill replied, " Yes, sir," adding that the ships based on Gibraltar were available for the general and special defence of the United Kingdom. That is surely a very significant admission, for remember that Gibraltar is nearly four days' sail from the North Sea. As our readers know, we are far from wishing to reduce our naval force in the Mediterranean or at its gate, but we cannot help observing, in the manner of Sir Boyle Roche, that "you cannot be in more than two places at once, barring you're a bird." The Gibraltar Fleet, as far as we understand, has got to be not merely at Gibraltar and in the North Sea at once, but also in the Adriatic. That would be too much to ask even of a German dirigible.
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