I am still going on tracing back the Submarine. In 1907, King Edward went on board the “Dreadnought” for a cruise and witnessed the manœuvres of a Submarine Flotilla. I then said to His Majesty: “The Submarine will be the Battleship of the future!” In February, 1904, Admiral Count Montecuccoli, the Austrian Minister of Marine, invited himself to stay with me at Portsmouth, where I was then Commander-in-Chief. He had been Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian Navy at Pola when I was Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean. We became very great friends out there. The Austrian Fleet gave us a most cordial reception. He also was an ardent believer in the Submarine. That’s why he invited himself to stay, but I refused to let him see our Submarines at Portsmouth, which were then advancing by leaps and bounds. Admiral Bacon was then the admirable Captain in charge of Submarines, and he did more to develop the Submarine than anyone living. The Submarine is not the weapon of the weak. Had it only been properly used and developed, it’s the weapon of the strong, if you use your Naval Supremacy properly, and _seize the exits of the enemy, and make a blockade effectual by Submarines and Mines, which our predominant and overwhelming naval superiority renders feasible_. All that was required to meet a German Submarine Menace was the possession of Antwerp, the Belgian Coast, and the Baltic. We could quite easily have accomplished these three objects. Nearly three months before the War, before the meeting of the Committee of Imperial Defence held on May 14th, 1914, I sent the Prime Minister the following Memorandum which I had written in the previous January; and added:-- THE SUBMARINE IS THE COMING TYPE OF WAR VESSEL FOR SEA FIGHTING. But for that consummation to be reached we must perfect the oil engine and we must store oil. There is a strong animus against the submarine--of course there is! An ancient Admiralty Board minute described the introduction of the steam engine as fatal to England’s Navy. Another Admiralty Board minute vetoed iron ships, because iron sinks and wood floats! The whole Navy objected to breech-loading guns, and in consequence sure disaster was close to us for years and years. There was virulent opposition to the water-tube boiler (fancy putting the fire where the water ought to be, and the water where the fire should be!) The turbine was said by eminent marine engineers to have an “insuperable and vital defect which renders it inadmissible as a practical marine engine--its vast number of blades--it is only a toy.” 80 per cent. of the steam-power of the world is now driving turbines.