THE WAR'S GREAT LESSON.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11392, 24 October 1904, Page 5

THE WAR'S GREAT LESSON.

What for an island power like ours ; makes the case at present so interesting as it is (says the military critic of the Daily Telegraph, London), is the mutual relation between navy' and army which is illustrated by it. ( The importance of Port ' Arthur is almost only and wholly because of itd harbour. Its capture can only be effected by an army; yet that army would . have no hope of success if it were not that the navy of the same Power is, at all events, for the time being, dominant at k sea. To make that temporary dominance ' permanent is the , great, purpose the sacrifices of the army, yet the reason why i the- supreme question for Japan is the secure possession of the harbour of Port Ar- j ' .'. ' thur is not nearly so much that she must be supreme at sea in order to make secure the wealth of the seas by commerce, much more largely it, is because, without a supreme navy, her army is|neither safe nor able to* exercise its full power. ,If Ja- [ pan lest command of the sea, her army , launched into Manchuria would be in perilous case. The great object of hastening "the fall of Port Arthur," in the sense of the term in which I have above described it, is that the fleet may be free in order' that it may put a stop to those raids which have made insecure the passage of reinforcements and supplies -tc\ the army. No doubt, incidentally, the fleet, when freed, will also, put a etop to that interference with commerce which, in itself, hampers the success of the war by its effect on Japanese finance.