Before we leave the subject of Mr. Churchill and l un
UM 1 madness we should like to draw attention to the very able treatment of " Mr. Churchill as Strategist " by Mr. Arthur Pollen which is to be found in Land and Water of September 28th. We have not space to sum- marize Mr. Pollen's subtle strategic argument, but we may say that, whereas Lord Sydenham demolishes the late EirsfLord in principle, Mr. Pollen cuts him up in detail, and shows how tumid fallacy is heaped on tumid fallacy to support the intolerable conclusion that national safety at sea can best be secured by a conscious and organized scheme of defensive immobility. Ships, like men who are always waiting to be attacked, are only too likely when the attack comes to give ground :—
" No cutting, give point; were they twenty to one,
Men who wait to be charged, when you gallop will run."
But if our Navy give ground, God help us! Our Fleet has only one objective, the destruction of the enemy's fleet. This does not mean that we must run our ships inland to destroy the foe on his water shelves, but it does mean that whenever he takes to the open sea we must give him battle.
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