Page:Handbook of maritime rights.djvu/149

This page has been validated.
APPENDIX.
135

deprived of them until that Declaration is authoritatively denounced and the rights resumed, which can only be done in time of peace.

It is apparent, therefore, that a more thoroughly combined and organized action is necessary to obtain the desired result—that of freeing this country from the fetters of the Declaration of Paris—and it is felt that the time has come for uniting in one association all persons of every class who desire that the British Empire should remain a first-class naval Power, and who feel it their duty to work to this end.

The following propositions are laid down, as showing summarily the necessity for action in this matter:—

  1. That England, being a maritime country, must depend for her defence upon the power of waging war effectually at sea.
  2. That war can only be waged effec-