s together can prevent the passage of war vessels
through straits ten to fifteen miles wide, no matter how powerful the
vessel's batteries may be. Every war vessel is now filled with
machinery of various sorts, much of which is delicate or easily
disabled. Hence a single shell exploding violently in a sensitive spot
may render a large ship unmanageable, and therefore an easy victim. A
crippled ship will probably be sunk, unless a port is near.

To build and keep in perfect condition a modern fleet requires
dockyards and machine shops of large capacity, and great metallurgical
industries always in operation within the country which maintains the
fleet. No small nation can create a powerful fleet; and no nation
which lives chiefly by agriculture can maintain one. A great naval
power must be a mining, manufacturing, and commercial power, with a
sound banking system available all over the world.

The war has proved that it is possible for a combination of strong
naval powers to sweep off the ocean in a few months all the warships
of any single great power, except submarines, and all its commerce.
Germany has already suffered that fate, and incidentally the loss of
all her colonies, except portions of German East Africa and Kamerun,
both of which remnants are vigorously assailed and will soon be lost.
Nevertheless, she still exports and imports through neutral countries,
though to a small amount in comparison with the volume of her normal
trade. Here is another illustration of the general truth that colonies
are never so good to trade with as independent and prosperous nations.

Again the war has proved that it is not possible in a normal year to
reduce by blockade or non-intercourse the food supply of a large
nation to the point of starvation, or even of great distress, although
the nation has been in the habit of importing a considerable fraction
of its food supply. An intelligent population will make many economies
in its food, abstain from superfluities, raise more food from its
soil, use grains for food instead of drinks, and buy food from neutral
countries so long as its hard money holds out. Any large country which
has a long seaboard or neutral neighbors can probably prevent its
noncombatant population from suffering severely from want of food or
clothing while at war. This would not be true of the districts in
which actual fighting takes place or over which armies pass; for in
the regions of actual battle modern w