The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-31
VEIL OF SECRECY
FROM THE
KAISER'S FLEET
Silent Vessels Are Performing
Important Function In
World War.

Zurich. Switzerland. Dec.30.-Des-
cribing a. recent visit to the German
fleet, DR.. Otto Gaup writes in the
Muenchener Neueste Nachrichtens
"Our silent fleet say the English
Our silent fleet can we also say with
equal right, which still and earn
est, unseen and. unmarked day and
night. summer and winter, in storm
and in sunshine, stands on guard in
the North Sea. and in the Baltic, there
by playing role, Of whose higher,
I might also say more decisive impor-
lance, 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 greatest bat
tIeships, our large and small crusier
our ever increasing torpedo boats.
which stand behind these submarines
and make their successful activities
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 1ivehest activity
never slumberfng watchfulness5 and
everyone burning to serve the Father
land, not by passive, but active en-
gagement in a conflict, whose fear
fulness would exceed even that of the
fighting in the trenches. One need
not be long with the fleet to be con-
WINGED that the 4strictest secrecy in
var is for 1t even more necessary
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 distance of twenty Ai1ometers.
Another command and a few hours
later the fleet is many miles from it's
firsts 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 journey
can bring a decisive battle on the re-
suit of which the fate of world en-
pires may depend. One need only
think a little to understand the abso-3
lutte necessity that nothing at all
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 ca
pitu1ation, DR.. Gaup goes on to say
that 1T is not easy for a German to
understand clearly the part the Ger
man fleet now plays.
TT is not Germany's only protection
and only weapon" he writes, 'tbut the
fleet is a piece of arnlor covering a
vulnerable spot, and thereby making
the free handling of arms and shield
posi- BILE. Without it the enemy would
lie thick before our harbors 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 protection.
Without the fleet our most important
Baltic, would have been shut from
the first days of the wars Without it
England could have brought entirely
different pressure to bear on Dem
mark, and in the Dardanelles, and
might have terrorized the whole Bal
kans into Joining the entente, without
it every attempt of the neutrals to
restrict the English despotism over
the sea would be hopeless. Only the
existence of a strong German fleet has
forced England to pay certain re-
gard to the United States; without 1t
chance of wearing US down
into peace, would be ten times greater
than they are today.
'I do not believe that any English
man with technical expert knowledge
doubts that our flee has pursued the
one correct, and for England, fatal
strategy, of continuing as a fleet in
being and so made the enemy's SUI
premacy at sea only provisional and
To provoke a decisive
battle against overwhelmingly super
i or force would be heroic, but it would
not be, war, it would be playing the
enemy's game. That our navy would
take any opportunity to measure her
self against the foe, where the chances
were at all equal, she has proved suf-
and will also prove further.
It is also certain that the English
will give them no such opportunity. If