Page 229 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

2io Preparedness for Naval War.

active force into the reserve. The latter, how-
ever, is far less valuable, man for man. Of
course, a reserve which has not even three
years' service is less valuable still.
The United States is to all intents an insular
power, like Great Britain. We have but two
land frontiers, Canada and Mexico. The latter
is hopelessly inferior to us in all the elements
of military strength. As regards Canada,
Great Britain maintains a standing army but,
;
like our own, its numbers indicate clearly that
aggression will never be her policy, except in
those distant regions whither the great armies
of the world cannot act against her, unless they
first wrench from her the control of the sea.
No modern state has long maintained a su-
premacy by land and by sea, — one or the other
has been held from time to time by this or that
country, but not both. Great Britain wisely
r
has chosen naval pow er; and, independent of
her reluctance to break with the United States
for other reasons, she certainly would regret to
devote to the invasion of a nation of seventy
millions the small disposable force which she
maintains in excess of the constant require-
ments of her colonial interests. We are, it