New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-01-18

| Admiralty i'm charge shall be some
+ thing more than servant of party.
/ He is i'm charge OF the life Of the King
/ dom and the Empire. There can be, for
an Englishman. no more sacred trust.
4 II ENGLAND does not command the seas,
/ il She cannot keep watch and ward on
her island shores. II she cannot pro-
Z tcct her trade routes and. above all,
those which bring her food, she ceases
/ 20 exist.
That is the heritage to which Mr..
/ Churchill has succeeded. that the duty
10 the full height Of which he has risen.
| Mistakes Of policy he may have made.
/ Tho Withdrawal, OF ships Of war from
outlyinC stations all around the globe
J the abandonment Of the Mediterranean
TO French guardianship. the exclusive
concentration Of the naval strength of
/ England In and near the North Sea
these are all points on which there is
something TO be said in opposition 10
I his view. But the danger of invasion
I
greater danger than any other, and
/ Mir. Churchill. after all, is acting on the
maxim q Napoleon: always 10 be
stronger than your enemy at the point
Of contact
With ms whole soul. at any rate, he
has striven to make the navy strong, TO
keep the ratio OF superiority TO Ger
many in capital ships at 16 to 10, and
TO make each ship and fleet and the
service as p whole, and the spirit Of
! officers and men as we'll as their tech
nical knowledge. more efficient and
complete than ever before. He has
studied all problems for himself Never
was there a First Lord-who must be
a civilian and only the Parliamentary
head Of the force-who personally SUI
pervised and studied and understood
naval problems as he does.
II is an almost unstinted eulogy. but
to Il has 70 be added that he has done
ali this against constant resistance
from q section of his own party. There
is q group Of Radicals known as the
Little Navy party. They are econo-
mists, sentimentalists. what you will.
They are willing to risk the safety Of
England on their own theory Of what
is sufficient naval force to guarantee
her against invasion and conquest.
Against these men Mr.. Churchill has
had to contend. Certain sacrifices he
has had to make; not to them but
to them through the Prime Minister,
whose conceptions of public duty in
clude the obligation TO keep all Sec
tions Of his heterogeneous following
together. and take them all into the
same lobby on every division. ! count
it no reproach to the First Lord that
he has had sometimes TO yield TO these
influences. ! count it for his glory
that he has. on the whole, resisted
them with success; has fought the good
fight and kept the faith and the navy
intact.
SO far has hostility of this and other
kinds gone that the question has lately
been asked will he remain in the
Liberal party?" Speculations of this
sort have an imaginary interest. That
there are Radicals who would like TO
drive him back to the Unionists may be
true. That he will be driven is none
the less unlikely. AS our Scots friends
say. he is uncanny 10 drive. The Ad-
miralty is TO him the world. 1t has
left on him a broader mark than all
his earlier experiences. 1t has lifted
him higher. 1t has made him more
completely an Englishman, and less a
party man. Country with him now
stands first. His passion for power
may be as great as ever, or greater;
but If is for power to be turned TO
patriotic uses In that he stands nrst
in the Cabinet; as it is hitting the
First Lord should stand: whether he
he OF the Treasury or of the Admiralty.
In singleness of mind he has, as L see
him. no rival among his colleagues
Not to keep himself or his colleagues
in Office but to keep England safe from
the foot Of the invader is his ideal of
public life for himself. Need any
eulogy be added 10 that?
That he was once Unionist makes
il the more improbable that he should
revert to that faith. He has been eight
years a Liberal Minister and six in the
Cabinet: responsible. as each Minister
il responsible, individually as well as
, collectively. for each and all of those
schemes which, under Mr.. Asquith, have
revolutionized the Constitution, the
Government, the social fabric OF Great
britain. How is he to go back on that
record? The Unionists stand pledged
10 repeal such of these acts as are re-
pealable. Can Mr.. Churchill be their
leader i'm that enterprise?
I take for granted that were he 10
return 10 the Unionists it could only be
no Prime Minister. What Lord Lans-
downe and Mr.. Bonar Law may say TO
that can only be conjectured. But II,
which I do not suppose, Mr.. Churchill
allowed himself to be swayed by mo-
tives of personal ambition, nothing less
than the actual and tltular leadership
Could tempt him. In no other post
could he find the scope for his abilities
which he now finds at the Admiralty.
In more abilities he has. among the