摘要：It gives me great pleasure to introduce the seventh issue of the International Journal of Naval History. This marks the beginning of the journal's fourth year. With the help of our colleagues, we have made huge strides to develop this journal as a popular on-line resource for everyone. In this issue, I am proud to tout Douglas Ford's article on British naval Policy, which covers the period just before the beginning of World War II, and follows the British and their conduct of the war until 1945. This revealing and thought-provoking piece scrutinizes the ability of the British to fight the Imperial Japanese Navy. To make his case, Ford reviewed and analyzed that country's resources and finances, its intelligence gathering, doctrine, technology and the battle experience of the British Navy. Ford contends that all these elements shaped the successes and failings of the British to deal with the well-prepared and perceptive Japanese. Ford's article should create lively discussion among our colleagues. The book reviews in this issue are as diverse as our field of endeavor and should further the scholarship as well as advance the exchange of ideas. The editors would like to thank again Professor Eric Mills of Dalhousie University for providing the History of Oceanography Newsletter. His newest issue will appear with us in August. In addition, our illustrations in this number of the IJNH demonstrate the variety of artistic expressions one can find in ship patches and symbols
