We do not for one moment desire to undervalue the
strength of the Navy as it was displayed at Spithead, any more than we wish to depreciate the magnificence of the spectacle. It is greatly to be hoped, however, that those who saw the Fleet realised that, since it takes something like three years to get a ship and her equipment completed, what we have to think of is not so much the power we possess now as what will be our strength three years hence. The Power which is invincible in 1909 may quite possibly have lost the command of the sea in 1912. We do not suggest that this is what is going to happen. The nation, we believe, is determined that it shall not happen. Nevertheless, it certainly would happen if for any reason the British people went mad and for three years built no ships, or not enough ships, or the wrong type of ships. Such a policy would as surely put an end to our command of the sea as if we were to neglect to load our guns or to provide coal for our ships' engines after a declaration of war. We dare not boast of the Fleet we have to-day unless we can feel sure that the Fleet we shall possess in 1912 will be relatively as powerful.
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