at Naval Act of 1900, the supplementary laws of 1906,
and the regulations as to the life of the ships in 1908. It is, of
course, improbable that the last word has been said on the subject. The
needs of the future will decide, since there can be no certain standard
for the naval forces which a State may require: that depends on the
claims which are put forward, and on the armaments of the other nations.
At first the only object was to show our flag on the sea and on the
coasts on which we traded. The first duty of the fleet was to safeguard
this commerce. Opposition to the great outlay thus necessitated was soon
shown by a party which considered a fleet not merely superfluous for
Germany, but actually dangerous, and objected to the plans of the
Government, which they stigmatized as boundless. Another party was
content with a simple scheme of coast-protection only, and thought this
object attained if some important points on the coast were defended by
artillery and cheap flotillas of gunboats were stationed at various places.

This view was not long maintained. All discerning persons were convinced
of the necessity to face and drive back an aggressive rival on the high
seas. It was recognized that ironclads were needed for this, since the
aggressor would have them at his disposal. But this policy, it was
thought, could be satisfied by half-measures. The so-called
_Ausfallkorvetten_ were sanctioned, but emphasis was laid on the fact
that we were far from wishing to compete with the existing large navies,
and that we should naturally be content with a fleet of the second rank.
This standpoint was soon recognized to be untenable, and there was a
fresh current of feeling, whose adherents supported the view that the
costly ironclads could be made superfluous by building in their place a
large number of torpedo-boats. These, in spite of their small fighting
capacity, would be able to attack the strongest ironclads by well-aimed
torpedoes. It was soon realized that this theory rested on a
fallacy--that a country like the German Empire, which depends on an
extensive foreign trade in order to find work and food for its growing
population, and, besides, is hated everywhere because of its political
and economic prosperity, could not forego a strong armament at sea and
on its coasts. At last a standpoint had been reached which corresponded
with actual needs.

The different abortive attempts to solve the navy question in the most
ine