have not elapsed since we were on the verge of war with the United States, and, however reluctant we may be to recognise it now, the truth still remains that a positive war frenzy seized at least the Western States of America, which threatened at one time to force hostilities upon our more sober-minded kinsmen.
The military force required to hold Canada, with its population of 6,000,000, against the resources of a great nation numbering not less than 70,000,000, cannot be computed at less than 500,000 men.
Integrity of Belgium.—Our treaty obligations as regards Belgium, shared though they be by other European Powers, may at any moment force us to take active military measures for which a large army would be required.
We have, moreover, only recently emerged from a war within the Empire which necessitated 448,400 men being placed in the field; and the 'North Sea incident,' so lately as October last year, brought us within measurable distance of war with a first-class European Power.
The Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for War have, moreover, definitely adopted the principle that the defence of England is not the passive military defence of English snores, but the active offensive defence by a powerful navy. Naval and military strategists have always held this view, but the corollary of this principle must equally be remembered, that it is not possible for any navy, however invincible, to defeat and destroy the fighting power of our enemies by land as well as by sea. It has been truly said that war can only attain a successful end by the annihilation of our enemies, and annihilation by a navy alone is impossible. The real defence of England, Australia, and all the component parts of our vast domain, must therefore be in the future, as it has been in the past, by a vigorous offence, by a policy of war forced upon our enemies, and fought out to a finish upon other than English soil. Thus did England defeat Napoleon in the nineteenth
