The sun., 1910-04-23
Eng iansl's Dan ger starvation Rather
Than InyasIOn.

tsu iauu' . Duu Grr NtarNatton HaahrF
Than Invasion.
The Englishman Who sees red invasion
painted on the pall Of night a. he turns
feverishly ON his pillow will find an
article On -England's Peril by Mr..
! ARCHIBALD HURD in the F0rnighiiy
RevisW for April blessed anodyne.
| There is no ref,uin Mr. HURD's arg,i-
ment that starvation. and not invasion,
, is the real menace TO the Englishman's
home The invasion school has No,
q leg to stand upon when he has sald tho
last word He will convince any normal
I person that England was never bc'tsr
defended by her naval establishment
| than she n to-day. For moment elm
mate from consideration her powerful
Home Fleet Of baitleshipS and cruisers
always s,eamlng up aud down the Cham
mel and the North Sea, easily assembled
or divids,i. as emergency may require
Take into account only the submarines,
torpedo boats and deStroyers N they
are distributed about the Coasts 10 at
tack the transports Of an enemy and
their conveying warships. We quote
from Mr. HURD'S article:
There are aotlna. of submarines abopt two
! dozen always duty In the narrows Of the
channel. with their bases a. Portsmouth, and
Doyer and largs destroyer notiliss are sssortated
with them: thsre are other Submarines. destroy
rr~ and torpedo boats about . hundred IN the
Medwsy wr Rave . group Of twelve submarines
at Harwich. Win ss;l.,. "f 'w"siy four seaeoing
torpedo boat d-stroysrs Of the most ~eawar'hy
type An theSe veSssts are continually exerrts-
lng oa the eas, coast And Ihsn nnsID. mTthsT
n0rth there T. smother sotilla Of submarine. ct
Dundee Trsm Dover nSht away Bsrthwsra
there !. also . .srt~s Of NAr signal statioas oa
TIE ooas, wireless telegraph sIatlnas nnEins TO-
grShsr the whole ot the detraSes
Then Opsu a navy liaI and try 10 grasp
the magnitude Of the SEA power. in
DreadnOughtS and other great hattie
ships and armOr~d cruisers, not 10 speak
Of lesser but still formidable warahip~.
all Of them equipped with the wirele~~
Telegraph. that would be available To
cope with an armada seeking ~ land an
eXpeditiOnary force on the British coast.
Remember that transport 10 40 v'Ilner-
able 10 the well directed shot VI q second
class battssship oE cruiser a. 80 the pro-
IectiIe OF a u inch gun in the turrst u a
Dreadpousht, and England could ss-em-
ble hundreds Of ship Of all classes 20 do
battle with an enemy's iee' and sink its
transports. To the favorite argument
that the feet might he deCoyed away.
"A - % .k -
would make n landing. Mr., HURD re-
plies that wireless biography would
quickly apprise the feet Of irs error.
and that an argument which Ne regard
a. nf far greater Importance modern
fleets are ied To their bases becaIlse they
power which has such a chain VI bases
a. would enable it, ships to 20 far
afield' in a decoting movement Mr.
HURD bids the alarIni-t- rememLer that
the Home Fleet alone comprises SaO ships
u all types. Owing to the development
Of steam applied Ia marine PURPOSES. the
British Empire. he maintains. IA more
consolidated than waS the German Em-
pire in 1870.
hut granting. for the sake of argI-
msnt that the enemy could bafiie all
the Admiralty'S resources and get "a
floating expeditionary forc~ through tbe
line of sea defenC,.. how strong a force
would Il be-the judgment " men
like Lord RoBERTs is Of value ON this
point and what trOOI~ would be avail |
abb. 80 resist the invaders Lord ROB-
FITS, who in truth il something Or an
alarInist himself. estimate. the maxi
mum strength of an elusive invading
for,e at 7O.VD men Of all arms. To re- f,
sipt IL the new Territorial Army Of no. !
40 men not counting n single regular |
could IL quickly mob'li>ed. OF the |
Territorial Army the French General |
LANGIOIs, a membsr II the supreme !
Council Of War. who has visited Eng |
land to study this force. has u high opin-
ion. In his report he says:
The rerf,srisl divisions are morourh,y !
Organized uni;s M me s~rytrrs In Iheyu have l
been created aud work smoothly withOpJ soy
assistance FROM inc regular AMY
The men. saws General LANGIOIs. are |
by "a remarkable energy, !
a great ienacity. q good will above all |
praise In the face 81 a national dan !
ger he il sure they would do great
things Mr. HUED says that -all for |
siRn ObaervaTA have come To much the 1
same opinion as this distinguished |
French Officer
Coming 10 the real peril VI England,
Mr. HURD says that AZ times !
the country has only = seven wesks sup \
ply OF food, and that in consequence
there are always I5.OOO.OOO people living
ON the verge Of starvation. He ds-
clarss thar By -grtting acrOss the trade
and dominating them an enemy
could force England 20 n humiliatinR
I'eace Upon this obvious danger and
logi"Rl method of strategy he doa~ not
spend mu"h time. Bm in the mean
Will" what would the warphips ~ Eng
land not attached 10 the Home Fleet he
doing, II - no' invasion hut aarva-
ton which we have Ia feaT. he dcclarVa.
raaEla III