Several persons did so, but being mostly sailors they were
not listened to. In actual practice the whole domain of imperial
strategy was withdrawn from the intervention of the naval officer,
as though it were something with which he could not have anything
to do. Several great wars had been waged in Europe in the meantime,
and all of them were land wars. Naval forces, if employed at all,
were employed only just enough to bring out how insignificant their
participation in them was. As was to have been expected, the habit
of attaching importance to the naval element of imperial defence
declined. The empire, nevertheless, continued to grow. Its territory
was extended; its population, notably its population of European
stock, increased, and its wealth and the subsequent operations
of exchanging its productions for those of other countries were
enormously expanded. At the same time the navy, to the strength
and efficiency of which it had to look for security, declined
absolutely, and still more relatively. Other navies were advancing:
some had, as it were, come into existence. At last the true
conditions were discerned, and the nation, almost with one voice,
demanded that the naval defences of the empire should be put
upon a proper footing.
Let no one dismiss the foregoing retrospect as merely ancient
history. On the contrary, let all those who desire to see the
British Empire follow the path of its natural development in
tranquillity study the recent past.
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