• Unless rumour is wrong the Admiralty has successfully insisted
on its minimum programme of seven cruisers in the next two years. The case " on paper " for the Admiralty can, of course, be made to look overwhelming: Such :cases always can. It is true, we believe; that of- Shipd. built that steam thirty knots and more 'America' has ten, -Japan sixteen, and Great Britain only six.; It is also probably true that. of the fifty-two -British cruisers only two meet the modern conception of what is necessary in ships that can keep the sea ancladequately protect. commerce. Still—who is our enemy ? Is it- certain or even likely that when the world recovers from. exhaustion and new threats of violence arise the type: of 1925 will be of any use ? Is not conservation of our resources our best protection just now ? Our first. leading article deals with the whole problem.
