Was it not, perhaps, as near the mark as that of our airmen
hosts on March 1st has proved itself to be? "Have patience and you'll
see great things! The situation is serious, but quite healthy." Two
months, and a little more, since the words were spoken:--and week by
week, heavy as it still is, the toll of submarine loss is at least kept
in check, and your Navy, now at work with ours--most fitting and
welcome Nemesis!--is helping England to punish and baffle the
"uncivilised race," who, if they had their way, would blacken and defile
for ever the old and glorious record of man upon the sea. You, who store
such things in your enviable memory, will recollect how in the Odyssey,
that kindly race of singers and wrestlers, the Phaeacians, are the
escorts and conveyers of all who need and ask for protection at sea.
They keep the waterways for civilised men, against pirates and
assassins, as your nation and ours mean to keep them in the future. It
is true that a treacherous sea-god, jealous of any interference with his
right to slay and drown at will, smote the gallant ship that bore
Odysseus safely home, on her return, and made a rock of her for ever.
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