The sea is denied
to his invading and important raiding expeditions, and indeed to
most of his individual cruisers. At the same time it is free
to the other belligerent. To effect this a vigorous offensive
will be necessary.
The immediate theatre of operations, the critical strategic area,
need not be, and often ought not to be, near the territory defended
by our navy. It is necessary to dwell upon this, because no principle
of naval warfare has been more frequently or more seriously
misapprehended. Misapprehension of it has led to mischievous and
dangerous distribution of naval force and to the squandering of
immense sums of money on local defence vessels; that is, vessels
only capable of operating in the very waters from which every
effort should be made to exclude the enemy. Failure to exclude
him from them can only be regarded as, at the very least, yielding
to him an important point in the great game of war. If we succeed
in keeping him away, the local defence craft of every class are
useless, and the money spent on them has been worse than wasted,
because, if it had not been so spent, it might have been devoted
to strengthening the kind of force which must be used to keep
the enemy where he ought to be kept, viz. at a distance from
our own waters.
The demand that ships be so stationed that they will generally,
and except when actually cruising, be within sight of the
inhabitants, is common enough in the mother country, and perhaps
even more common in the over-sea parts of the British Empire.
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