Page 206 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

Preparedness for Naval War. 187

Without making a picture to ourselves, with-
out conjuring up extravagant contingencies, it
is not difficult to detect the existence of condi-
tions, in which are latent elements of future
disputes, identical in principle with those
through which we have passed heretofore.
Can we expect that, if unprovided with ade-
quate military preparation, we shall receive
from other states, not imbued with our tradi-
tional habits of political thought, and therefore
less patient of our point of view, the recogni-
tion of its essential reasonableness which has
been conceded by the government of Great
The latter has found capacity for
Britain ?
sympathy with our attitude,— not only by long
and close contact and interlacing of interests
between the two peoples, nor yet only in a
fundamental similarity of character and insti-
tutions. Besides these, useful as they are to
mutual understanding, that government has
an extensive and varied experience, extending
over centuries, of the vital importance of dis-
tant regions to its own interests, to the inter-
ests of its people and its commerce, or to its
political prestige. It can understand and allow
for a determination not to acquiesce in the be-