n the surface of the sea; and the great guns of
the dreadnoughts command the surface.

[Illustration: George V, King of Great Britain and Emperor of
India.]

When brigandage becomes highly organized, it means enormous expense
in increased police work, particularly if you cannot trail the
brigands to their hiding places and force them to capitulate. In
this case the brigands' hiding places are under the protection of
powerful fortress guns and mine fields in secure harbors.

The British navy, with over three thousand ships, including mine
sweepers and auxiliaries of all sorts under Sir John Jellicoe's
command, was forced to go to immense expense and pains in combating
the submarine campaign. Many submarines were taken; but the Germans
kept on building them. It was a war against an unseen and cunning
foe, which required ceaseless vigilance and painstaking effort. The
amount of material, as well as the amount of ships required in order
to combat the submarines and also to keep the patrol intact from the
British channel to Iceland, could it be enumerated, would stagger
the imagination. Meanwhile, England had to go on building new
dreadnoughts and cruisers and destroyers at top speed, with a view
to increasing her rate of naval superiority over the Germans. Once
the German fleet had come out and been beaten, then the British
would be secure in victory, and they could spare many guns for the
army and devote all their energy to the land campaign.

While the Germans had a "fleet in being," they had an important
counter for peace negotiations. They were as rightly advised in
sticking to their harbor, as the British in holding their command of
the sea without risking their units by trying to force an entrance
into harbors equipped with every known defense of modern warfare.

In all instances the British army must wait for material if navy
demands were unsatisfied. With the tide of fortune going against the
Russians and French on the Continent, the original agreement for
only 120,000 men became entirely perfunctory, in view of the tragic
necessity of more troops to be thrown against the Central Powers on
the Continent. With a large proportion of her regular officers
killed in the first two months of the war, Britain had to undertake
the preparation of a vast army without adequate drill masters or
leaders. She had to make wholly untrained civilians into soldiers
while the war was being waged. This took time, but less time tha