Page 218 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

Preparedness for Naval War. 199

been indicated previously. Being, as we claim,
and as our past history justifies us in claiming,
a nation indisposed to aggression, unwilling to
extend our possessions or our interests by war,
the measure of strength we set ourselves de-
pends, necessarily, not upon our projects of
aggrandizement, but upon the disposition of
others to thwart what we consider our reason-
able policy, which they may not so consider.
When they resist, what force can they bring
against us? That force must be naval; we
have no exposed point upon which land opera-
tions, decisive in character, can be directed.
This is the kind of the hostile force to be
apprehended. What may its size be ? There
is the measure of our needed strength. The
calculation may be intricate, the conclusion
only approximate and probable, but it is the
nearest reply we can reach. So many ships of
such and such sizes, so many guns, so much
ammunition— in short, so much naval material.
In the material provisions that have been
summarized under the two chief heads of de-
fence and offence— in coast defence under its
three principal requirements, guns, lines of
stationary torpedoes, and torpedo-boats, and in