Page:Heresies of Sea Power (1906).djvu/259



the modern philosophy of Sea Power secrecy is coming to bulk more and more largely, and indications are not wanting of a tendency, in the mere exercise of the means, to lose sight of the ends which it is supposed to attain.

Secrecy, though the fact is generally unperceived, is on the same plane as 'evasion,' and may indeed be termed the mother of evasion. A fleet anxious to evade can do so only by the exercise of the greatest possible secrecy, and the failure of evasive tactics is usually brought about through a failure in secrecy of movement.

Evasion is the handiest weapon of the weaker. That 'evasion' cannot win a campaign is a commonplace so general that it scarcely needs discussion. The mere act of evasion is only another form of flight, the evading fleet is for all practical purposes running away, and seeking to stave off that defeat which on account of its inferiority looms ever over it.

Of course there is evasion of a more logical nature than that which is generally understood by the term—