Page:Robert Barr - Lord Stranleigh Philanthropist.djvu/210

 "That is true, sir, but the wireless locations are few, while the coastguard depôts are many. You took a retrograde step in abolishing the coastguards, whereas you should have taken a forward step by supplying all the coastguards with wireless apparatus."

"That was proposed, my lord, but fortunately overruled." "Why fortunately?"

"Because this dream of invasion is a mere nightmare; the effect of ignorant imagination. No foreign country would be so foolhardy as to land men on this island; they'd never get them off again. Invasion is impossible."

"It has been accomplished in the past, nevertheless."

"In the past! Pouf! Remember our advance in science and speed of communication."

"Other nations have advanced as far as we; some of them further. America excels us in invention, and Germany in execution."

The Right Honourable Dennis Macgregor Wynn leaned back in his chair, and drew a handkerchief across his brow.

"It is really too warm, Stranleigh, to discuss a policy so momentous. Besides, we should never