]
I may dismiss the debate on the Navy with one or two further
observations. Sir Edward Reed, though he knows a good deal about
ships--for he has had something to do with them all his life--is not an
authority whom one can implicitly accept. He is not a politician who has
prospered according to what he believes and what are doubtless his
deserts, for he is a very clever man, and politicians who are a little
disappointed have a certain tendency to ultra-censoriousness, which
damages the effectiveness and prejudices the authority of their
criticisms. Thus, Sir Edward has been always more or less of a pessimist
with regard to the doings of other men. On August 28th he spoke in
decidedly alarmist terms of the lessons which should be taught to us by
the loss of the "Victoria." Speaking with the modesty of a mere layman
on the subject, I should have been inclined to think that the chief
moral to be drawn from that terrible and tragic disaster was the
terribly important part which the mere personality of the individual in
command still plays in deciding the fate of hundreds of lives; that, in
short, the personal equation--as it has come to be called--- is still
the supreme and decisive factor in all naval enterprises.
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