must in most cases be left within twenty-four hours on pain of internment; and a big cruiser outside is likely to make internment accepted easily.
On the whole, therefore, provided only the British public can keep its head and accept a few losses as inevitable, the system of stopping earths is almost bound to succeed reasonably quickly; whereas the alternative system of patrols and ocean hunting, promises no success whatever, besides being a system which allows a totally unnecessary number of hostile cruisers to get out on the high seas. Those who advocate the small cruisers on patrol are really no more logical than he who would suggest that instead of destroying the nest individual hornets should be slain on the wing.
On the whole there is only one really serious danger. This is that some large corsair might manage to slip out crammed with prize crews and small guns, and, with a gun and some men convert every tramp captured into an armed tender.[1] It is the kind of thing that some power—Germany for instance—might think of attempting. The commerce war would then be on a species of snowball system, and incalculable mischief might be done. In such a case only drastic measures could save British trade. There would probably be nothing for it but to declare all commerce attack except by proper warships 'Piracy' and to treat it as such.
Of course, all commerce attack is really legalised piracy: and the old system of commerce defence which,
- ↑ In the U. S. Civil War there were one or two mild cases of this.
