Page:Heresies of Sea Power (1906).djvu/320

294 was certain, but it would have been well for Japan had he done some harm before going under.

Had there been the faintest grounds for believing that Nebogatoff surrendered with the idea of creating a moral rot in the Japanese, then the situation might have been saved. But it was perfectly clear to all concerned that he surrendered from sheer despair before the triumphant fleet of Japan. It was the flag he surrendered to, rather than to any particular ship or ships.

The British Fleet is Japan's firm ally, the United States Fleet in no way appeared as a possible enemy. France and Germany, though more or less hostile, both gave indications that their navies were afraid of the Japanese. Some form of 'swelled head' was the inevitable result—victory was secured so very easily.

Japan, no doubt, may fight yet another successful naval war, but her future is bound up in the details of that war. If she wins with the same ease that she won against China and Russia her decay will probably be the immediate sequence. A hard-fought fight will save her; but the dangerous sequelæ of easy victory are thick about her. Efficiency can only be maintained when menace exists; when there is no danger there will not long be any efficiency.

There is, however, one thing which tends to arrest naval decay, and that is the advance of invention. The ever-present danger that some new form of weapon will be sprung upon the naval world tends to keep all