Before that year there was no idea of any such contingency, and it is therefore not unnatural that they are eager to make up for lost time.
This fact does not alter the hostile character of the measures and the circumstance that the English preparations for war are exclusively directed against Germany.
We must therefore--as the general position of the world leads us to believe--reckon on the probability of a naval war with England, and shall then have to fight against an overwhelming superiority.

It will be so great that we cannot hope for a long time to be able to take the offensive against the English fleet.

But we must contemplate the possibility of becoming its master in one way or another, and of winning the freedom of the seas, if England attacks us.

We shall now discuss this possibility.

On this matter I am expressing my personal views only, which are not confused by any technical naval knowledge, and rest exclusively on general military considerations, in which our presupposed antagonists can, and will, indulge quite as well as myself.