ION OF NAVAL FORCE 111

IX. THE DISTRIBUTION AND SUPPLY OF NAVAL FORCE 129

INDEX 147

INTRODUCTION

The title chosen by its author for this little volume would assuredly
commend it to the Naval Service, even if that author's name were not--as
it is--a household word with more than one generation of naval officers.
But to such of the general public as are not yet familiar with Mr
Thursfield's writings a brief word of introduction may perhaps be
useful. For the matters herein dealt with are by no means of interest
only to the naval profession. They have their bearing also on every
calling and trade. In these days when national policy is at the mercy of
the ballot-box, it is not too much to say that a right understanding of
the principles of maritime warfare is almost as desirable amongst
civilians as amongst professional sailors.

Regrettable indeed would it be if the mere fact that this little book
bears a more or less technical title should tempt the careless to skip
its pages or pitch it to that dreary limbo which attends even the best
of text-books on subjects which we think do not concern us. The fruits
of naval victory, the calamities attendant on naval defeat are matters
which will come home--in Bacon's classic phrase--to the business and the
bosoms of all of us, landsmen and seamen alike. Most Englishmen are at
least dimly aware of this. They realise, more or less reluctantly
perhaps, that a decisive British defeat at sea under modern conditions
would involve unspeakable consequences, consequences not merely fatal to
the structure of the Empire but destructive also of the roots of our
national life and of the well-being of almost all individuals in these
islands.

Elementary prudence insists on adequate safeguards against evils so
supreme, and amongst those safeguards the education of the people to-day
occupies a foremost place. Our Empire's destinies for good and evil are
now in the hands of the masses of the people. Sincerely as all lovers of
ordered freedom may rejoice in this devolution of political power to the
people, thoughtful men will be apt to reflect that an uninstructed crowd
is seldom right in its collective action. If Ministerial responsibility
has dwindled, _pro tanto_ that of each one of His Majesty's lieges has
enormously increased; and it is more incumbent on the nation's rank