BRITISH SEA POWER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 September 1939, Page 11

BRITISH SEA POWER

EFFECTIVE CONTROL OF SEA. In the course of time the term “Command of the Sea” .has become firmly rooted in the English language, writes “Taffrail.” In modern naval war, however, there can be no such thing as absolute command, by which is meant the complete exclusion of enemy craft from the ocean. The British meaning of the expression is best interpreted by “Control of the Sea,” by which we mean the effective control of the sea'routes necessary for our purposes, while denying a similar advantage to an enemy. Throughout our long history the function of the Royal Navy has never altered. The advent of torpedo craft, and, more recently, of submarines and aircraft, has neither changed its function nor impaired the supreme potency of sea power to a nation with interests and responsibilities all over the world. In war it is still the main task of our Fleet to obtain effective control of the sea by destroying or immobilising the naval forces of the enemy. In so doing it ensures the protection of dur seaborne trade and the destruction of that of the enemy—Can ensure the free movement by sea to any part of the Empire and the world of our military and air forces, while denying this advantage to the enemy.