hat time, anyway,' laughed my
husband, as he followed me whistling into the house."

It isn't every woman that has a husband who can talk and laugh and
whistle all at once. Was he the clever man in the French tale, we
wonder, who chanted a Scottish air, accompanying himself on the
bag-pipes?

* * * * *

"Fire has broken out in an oven in Kafr Zarb, near Suez,
completely destroying the fire brigade extinguishing the blaze."

_Egyptian Mail._

Serve them right for their officiousness.

* * * * *

"Wanted, Experienced Ruler (female); permanency."

_Bristol Times and Mirror._

Might suit a widow.

* * * * *

NAUTICAL TERMS FOR ALL.

(_By our Tame Naval Expert._)

It is really surprising what confusion exists in the public mind upon
the exact significance of such elementary terms as "Command of the Sea,"
and "A Fleet in Being." Only yesterday evening I was asked by a
fellow-traveller on the top of a bus why, if we had command of the sea,
we didn't blow up the Kiel Canal!

It will be as well to begin at the beginning. What is Naval Warfare? It
is an endeavour by sea-going belligerent units, impregnated (for the
time being) with a measure of _animus pugnandi_ and furnished with
offensive weapons, to impose their will upon one another. In rather more
technical language it may be described as fighting in ships.

Now in order to utilize the sea for one's own purposes and at the same
time to deny, proscribe, refuse and restrict it to one's enemy it is
essential to obtain COMMAND. And it must not be overlooked that Command
of the Sea can only be established in one way--by utilizing or
threatening to utilize sea-going belligerent units. But we must
distinguish between Command of the Sea and Sea Supremacy, and again
between Potential Command, Putative Command and Absolute Command.
Finally let there be no confusion between the expressions "Command of
the Sea" and "Control of the Sea," which are entirely different
things--though both rest securely upon the doctrine of the Fleet in
Being, which is at the foundation of all true strategy.

This brings us to the question of what is meant by the phrase "A Fleet
in Being." "To Be or Not to Be" (in Being) is a phrase that has been
woefully misinterpreted, especially by those who insist on a distinction
between Being and Doing. There is no such distinction a