The British Empire differs from any other nation or empire which has ever existed.

Our sea communications are our very life-blood, and it is not greatly exaggerating the case to say that the safety of those communications is the one consideration of first-class importance.

Upon a solid sense of their security depends not only our prosperity, but also the actual lives of a large proportion of the inhabitants.

There is no other nation in the world which is situated as the people of these islands are situated; therefore there is no other nation to whom sea power is in the least degree as essential as it is to us.

Four out of five of our loaves and most of our raw materials for manufacture must come to us by sea, and it is only by the sea that we can hold any commercial intercourse with the Dominions, Dependencies and Crown Colonies, which together make up what we call the Empire, with a population of 400,000,000 people.
What, then, are we to do in the future to ensure the safety of the communications between these islands and the rest of the Empire?
As a matter of course we should be in a position to safeguard them against any possible form of attack from whatever quarter it may come.