A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
ICANNOT help sharing the uneasiness which some people have expressed, and more have felt, that the ' Repulse ' should be occupied in carrying the King and Queen to Canada at a time when German pocket-battleships are cruising off the coasts of Spain. The importance of these vessels is that there are only, I believe, three ships in the British Navy which can both out-steam and out-range them, the battle-cruisers 'Hood,' ' Repulse ' and 'Renown.' The Germans carry r -inch guns, heavier than any of our cruisers, and they are faster (26 knots) than any of our battleships. They could therefore keep out of range of any British ship—except the battle-cruisers- whose guns could sink them, and they could easily overpower our ro,000-ton cruisers with their 8-inch guns. There are many vessels, warships or liners, which could carry the King ; the'Repulse's' place would seem emphatically to be in European waters. The answer may be that if trouble were likely the King would not go to Canada at all. But no one thought the Czecho-Slovakia or Albania troubles likely twenty-four hours before they happened.
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