Page:Can Germany Invade England?.djvu/134

The answer to this question is clear enough—the expedition would not escape discovery, and as both sides to the Invasion Controversy agree that, if its coming were known it would come in vain, we are once again driven to the conclusion that no such expedition will ever threaten our shores; nevertheless, for the sake of the lessons to be learnt from following its fortunes to the end, we will allow the three German flotillas to sail from their respective ports, pass safely through the sand-banks and shallows which shut in Germany's coast,^[1] and issue out into the North Sea. Here the troopships must be got into something like a compact forma-

1. On this coast the sands are constantly shifting and the courses of the rivers changing, which "explain, in conjunction with the frequent bad weather, the dense fogs, and the severe storms, the numerous accidents reported in the Press which occur in our German North Sea river-mouths, but . . . they afford at the same time most valuable protection to the trade centres and naval ports situated on them."—"The Defence of the German Coasts," translated from Die GrenzbotenNo. 3, of January 17, 1912. See Journal Royal United Service Institution for June 1912.