of the size specified, which was
approximately the strength of the China Fleet, under the command of
Admiral Bridge, at the time when his paper was written.

All these supplies have to be delivered or obtained periodically and at
convenient intervals in the course of every six months. They are
supplies which the ships must obtain as often as they want them without
necessarily going back to their principal base for the purpose, and even
the principal base must obtain them periodically from the home sources
of supply. There are two alternative ways of maintaining this continuous
stream of supply. One is that in advance of the principal base, what is
called a secondary base should be established from which the ships can
obtain the stores required, a continuous stream of transports bringing
the stores required to the secondary base from sources farther afield,
either from the principal base or from the home sources of supply. The
other method is to have no secondary base--which, since it contains
indispensable stores, must be furnished with some measure of local
defence, and which, as a place of storage, may turn out to be in quite
the wrong place for the particular operations in hand--but to seize and
occupy a "flying base," neither permanent nor designated beforehand, but
selected for the occasion according to the exigencies of the strategic
situation, and capable of being shifted at will in response to any
change in those exigencies. History shows that the latter method has
been something like the normal procedure in war alike in times past and
in the present day. The alternative method is perhaps rather adapted to
the convenience of peace conditions than to the exigencies of war
requirements. During his watch on Toulon Nelson established a flying
base at Maddalena Bay, in Sardinia, and very rarely used the more
distant permanent base at Gibraltar. Togo, as I have stated in an
earlier chapter, established a flying base first at the Elliot Islands
and afterwards at Dalny, during the war in the Far East. Instances might
easily be multiplied to show in which direction the experience of war
points, and how far that direction has been deflected by the possibly
deceptive teaching of peace. I shall not, however, presume to pronounce
_ex cathedra_ between two alternative methods each of which is
sanctioned by high naval authority. I will only remark in conclusion
that though the establishment of permanent secondary bases may, in