Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/100

 eminent has engaged in a military policy of an adventurous kind and that if such a policy had actually been contemplated by the Government it would involve a very serious consideration of the military resources of the country. ' ' As a matter of fact, the latter was a just conclusion from the actual situation as it really existed, notwithstand- ing the denial by the Prime Minister.

In March, 1913, when during the discussion of the Navy estimates, the Mediterranean situation came up, Lord Beresford suggested that Mr. Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty) must be trusting to France the duty of guarding the Mediterranean. Mr. Churchill had said in the course of these discussions: "In conjunction with the Navy of France, our Mediterranean Fleet would make a combined force superior to all possible combinations." Sir C. Kinloch-Cooke referred to this as a remarkable statement, and one "somewhat difficult to reconcile with the re- cent pronouncement of the Prime Minister as to our understanding with France in the matter of armaments." He added: "In one case we have the Prime Minister repudiating an obligation on our side of any kind, and in the other we have the First Lord of the Admiralty relying for the safety of our Eastern Empire, our trade and our