The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1915-12-27
FLEET IS FELT
SILENT THE GERMAN NAVY
MAY BE, BUT 1T Is ALSO
STRONG

Correspondence Associated Press
Zurich, Switzerland, Dec. 17.-De-
scribing a recent visit to the German
fleet, DIR. Otto Gaup writes in the
Muenchener Neueste Nachrichten:
"Our silent fleet" say the English.
"Our silent fleet, can we also say with
equal right, which still and earnest,
unseen and unmarked, day and night,
summer ana winter, in storm and in
sunshine, stands on guard in the
North Sea and in the Baltic, thereby
playing role, of whose higher, /
might say more decisive importance,
only few among US can have any
conception. We hear of our sub
marines, which have so embittered
England's sea supremacy, but who
has heard for months of our great
battleships, our large and small cruis-
ers, our ever increasing torpedo
boats, which stand behind these sub
marines and make their successful ac-
tivities possible.
There can be no German who
doubts that behind the thick veil COW
ering our battle fleet, everything is
in the best order, the liveliest activ-
ity, never slumbering watchfulness
and everyone burning to serve the
Fatherland, not by passive, but active
engagement in conflict, whose fear
fulness would exceed even that of the
fighting of the trenches. One need
not be long with the fleet to be con-
vinced that the strictest secrecy in
war, is for it even more necessary
than for the army. On the warship
one gets the impression of enormous
concentrated force, and power of
movement, of which a modified fleet
is capable. A curt command, and
dozens and still dozens of gigantic
guns fire enormous shot, it may be at
a distance of twenty kilometers. An
other command and few>hours later
the feet are many miles from their
first position. Ships in action must
carry everything they need, for battle
and existence, there are no reserves
for them, no impossible ways, they
cross the waters with the speed of
railway trains and a few hours jour
ney can bring a decisive battle on the
result of which the fate of world en-
pires may depend. One need only
think a little to understand the abso-
lutte necessity that nothing at all
should be made public regarding the
movements, the location, the compost
ton of the fleet"
After pointing out that the British
admiralty need hardly trouble to ex-
plain to their country the value of
their fleet in this war, that it consti-
tutes the only protection against the
immediate destruction OF the empire,
and that its loss would be followed
by a blockade, famine and instant
capitulation, DR.. Gaup goes on to
say that it is not so easy for Ger
man to understand clearly the part
the German feet now plays.
"It is not Germany's only protec-
ton and only weapon" he writes,
but the fleet is piece Of armor COW
ering a vulnerable spot, and thereby
making the free handling of arms and
shield possible. Without it the en-
emy would lie thick before our har-
bors in the Baltic and the North Sea;
without it our armies would have to
reckon with hostile forces landing on
our coasts at any moment, and thus
tieing up large armies for their pro-
lection. Without the fleet our most
important way into the open, leading
over the Baltic, would have been shut
from the first days of the war. With
out it England could have brought
entirely different pressure to bear or
Denmark, and in the Dardanelles, and
might have terrorized the whole Bal
kans into joining the entente; without
It every attempt of the neutrals to re
strict the English despotism over tn.
sea would be hopeless. Only the ex
istence of a strong German fleet ha.
forced England to pay certain re
gard to the United States; without i
| Englandss chances of wearing ri