t
in the open generally belongs to a higher type of humanity than he who
only shoots from behind cover.

Moreover, the nations which have the skill and ingenuity to
manufacture new weapons of self-defence belong to a higher class than
those which only acquire advanced warlike munitions by purchase. One
of the early international movements of the twentieth century will be
directed towards the prohibition of the sale of such weapons as
magazine-rifles, quick-firing field guns, and torpedoes to any savage
or barbarous race. It will be accounted as treason to civilisation for
any member of the international family to permit its manufacturers to
sell the latest patterns of weapons to races whose ascendency might
possibly become a menace to civilisation. As factors in determining
the survival of the fittest, the elements of high character, bravery,
and intellectual development must be conserved in their maximum
efficiency at all hazards.

Another potent element in the safeguards of civilisation may be seen
in the increased effectiveness of weapons for coastal defence. The
hideous nightmare of a barbarian irruption, such as those which almost
erased culture and intellect from the face of Europe during the dark
ages of the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries, may occasionally be
seen exercising its influence in the pessimistic writings which are
from time to time issued from the Press predicting the coming
ascendency of the yellow man.

However the case may be in regard to nations which are accessible by
land to the encroachments of the Asiatic, there is no doubt that those
countries which are divided off by the sea have been rendered much
more secure through the rapid advances which have been made in the
modern appliances for defending coasts and harbours. In naval tactics,
also, it will be more and more clearly seen that to possess and defend
the harbours where coaling can be carried out is practically to
possess and defend the trade of the high seas; and the essence of good
maritime policy will be to so locate the defended harbours that they
may afford the greatest amount of protection, having in view the harm
that may be done by an enemy's harbours in the vicinity.

The most effective naval weapon in the future will undoubtedly be the
torpedo, but, like the bayonet, it requires to be in the hands of
brave men before its value as the ultimate arbiter of naval conflict
can be demonstrated. Much fallacious teaching has aris