Mar, 15, Ow the occasion of the annual meeting of the Shanghai branch of the Navy League a phrase which recurred time and again in the despatches of our soldiers; during the war comes to mind. It was that the Navy had been both father and mother to the military expeditions which went overseas and upheld the best British traditions in foreign countries. What the Navy did in those critical days now forms history, but exactly the same remark is applicable to-day to us and those like us who have pitched their tents in the far corners of the earth. Peaceful as our pursuits and inclinations to-day are, We are nevertheless as much under the care and tutelage of our Navy as were those armed forces which fought their way to victory, and equally with them the continuance of our vocations depends upon the work of our sailors. But for the commerce of the British Empire we should not be here, or at any rate very few of us, and for the security of that commerce, borne over thousands of miles of sea, we have to thank our Navy.
We must never forget the work of our sailors in these days of peace. Just consider a small paragraph appearing in one of our Chinese contemporaries this week—that owing to the activity of pirates Wulkienese merchants here have found themselves compelled to petition the authorities for protection for their cargoes. To the rather blase resident here the matter may seem too insignificant to worry about, but if he panses to think it will be evident to him that only the strong arm of our Navy has rendered his own cargoes safe. Conferences such as that at Washington may eliminate the need for navies of enormous size, but that is the most they can do from the naval point of view. The seas have to be policed, and ever and anon there is outrage to be punished and injustice to be righted. And at these times not only we but the other side the long arm.
Memories are so notoriously short that we are all too ready to relapse into a condition of serene indifference to the thousand and one jobs of work which the Navy has to do in times of peace, times when glory is singularly
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.