Where, in fact, do we stand?
Any kind of answer must begin with the Navy. For, in the case of Great
Britain, and indeed scarcely less in the case of the Allies, that is the
foundation of everything. To yourself the facts will all be
familiar--but for the benefit of those innumerable friends of the Allies
in Europe and America whom I would fain reach with the help of your
great name, I will run through a few of the recent--the ground--facts of
the past year, as I myself ran through them a few days ago, before, with
an Admiralty permit, I went down to one of the most interesting naval
bases on our coast and found myself amid a group of men engaged night
and day in grappling with the submarine menace which threatens not only
Great Britain, not only the Allies, but yourselves, and every neutral
nation. It is well to go back to these facts. They are indeed worthy of
this island nation, and her seaborn children.
To begin with, the _personnel_ of the British Navy, which at the
beginning of the war was 140,000, was last year 300,000.
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