CHAPTER II

NAVAL A, B, C

In order to realize what principles govern the use of navies, let
us first consider what navies have to do and get history's data
as to what navies in the past have done. It would obviously be
impossible to recount here all the doings of navies. But neither
is it necessary; for the reason that, throughout the long periods
of time in which history records them, their activities have nearly
always been the same.

In all cases in which navies have been used for war there was the
preliminary dispute, often long-continued, between two peoples or
their rulers, and at last the decision of the dispute by force. In
all cases the decision went to the side that could exert the most
force at the critical times and places. The fact that the causes
of war have been civil, and not military, demands consideration, for
the reason that some people, confusing cause and effect, incline
to the belief that armies and navies are the cause of war, and that
they are to be blamed for its horrors. History clearly declares
the contrary, and shows that the only rôle of armies and navies
has been to wage wars, and, by waging, to finish them.

It may be well here, in order to clear away a possible preconception
by the reader, to try and dispel the illusion that army and navy