f war. A sufficient indication of the colossal nature of the work they
were called upon to perform will be found in a moment's reflection of
what the administration and control of such a large and nondescript
fleet, spread over the world--from the White Sea to the East
Indies--must have meant to the small staff allowed by the exigencies of
an unparalleled war.

OFFICERS AND MEN

The greatest problem in modern naval war is, undoubtedly, the supply of
trained men. For this reason it has been left to the last to describe
how the difficulty was faced and overcome by England and her oversea
Dominions in 1914.

Before doing so, however, it may be of interest to give here a few
extracts from an excellent little official publication, showing how the
British fleet was manned and expanded in bygone days of national
peril[1]:

"In time of war there has always been an intimate
connection between the Royal Navy and the Merchant
Service. Latterly, and more especially since the
Russian War of 1854 to 1856, this fact tended to
be forgotten, partly because men-of-war developed
on particular lines and became far more unlike
merchantmen than they had ever been before, and
also because, by the introduction of continuous
service, the personnel of the Navy seemed to have
developed into a separate caste, distinguished by
its associations, traditions and _esprit de
corps_, as much by its special training and
qualifications, from other seafaring men. This war
has proved once again, to such as needed proof,
that the two services cannot exist without each
other, and that the Sea Power of the Empire is not
its naval strength alone, but its maritime
strength. Even at the risk of insisting on the
obvious, it is necessary to repeat that, for an
Island Empire, a war at sea cannot be won merely
by the naval action which defeats the enemy; naval
successes are of value for the fruit they bear,
the chief of which is the power that they give to
the victor to maintain his own sea-borne trade and
to interrupt that of the enemy.

"An elementary way of looking at the problems of
manning the Royal Navy and the Merchant Service
is to consider that there is in the country a