New Britain herald., 1916-06-06
The First of June.
Springfield Republican,


 If the sea fight had ended more prosperously the British would have been more disposed to recall that it ended on June l. That is a glorious anniversary in British annals, and one of the few days of the year which have given a generally recognized name to a battle. Yet Howe's famous victory in 1794 was not so very much of victory. Both sides suffered heavily, and each was well content to pull off and let a tough adversary go home for repairs. Eleven British and 12 French ships had been dismasted. Howes best ships were disabled, and the French fleet appeared so strong that he was content to gather up six prizes and limp home with them te Portsmouth.
 It was a downright hammer-and- tongs fight, of the traditional British sort with no refinement of strategy such as Nelson introduced. It can- not even be said that the fleet behaved well the captain of the leading ship ignoring the admiraI's orders. What carried the day was the superior sea- manship of the British, and the ag- gressive fighting of individual ships. When Howe's fagshp passed under the stern of a huge 120-gun French ship nobody thought to send orders to the lower deck; a junior officer there happened to open a port saw a ship few feet away, and fired the battery with his own hand. When the Brunswick rubbed sides with the Vengeur the lower ports could not be- opened, and the Englishmen fred
 
 In this ding-dong fashion was won, so far as it was won, the great and famous battle of the first of June Though not decisive, it was a vic tory, and England needed a victory in 1794 even more than now. It was the first break in two years of failure. The campaign in Flanders had been a tragic farce in comparison with which, the record of the British there in the present war has been a glorious triumph. At Toulon a good chance had been thrown away by laundering neglect; the COrsiCan adventure had come to, nothing. On every frontier, after two years, the armies of France were advancing triumphantly to the strains of a new tune called the 'Marseillaise," and of the continental powers only Austria was holding out. For Britain, torn with domestic troubles and deserted by it's allies, it's prestige incomparably lower than now, the moment could hardly have seemed darker.
 The battle of the first of June, though barren of results, was the first ray of cheer. It showed that the British naval ascendancy,, so painfully won in the previous war and still by no means the matter of course thing it has since become had not been lost, and it encouraged England to keep on till sea power in a 2O-years' war made an end of French suprem- acy on the continent. For such a vic tory, even at heavy cost, the British have been longing; failing that, it is not surprising that they should take some comfort in the fact that the bat tie has showed on their side no weak ness except the traditional reckless courage of the British sailor, and no secret black art on the side of the adversary to upset calculations. Wait ing is nervous work when the oppO- nent is shreWd and resourceful; if despite the heavy losses incurred the battle is regarded cheerfully in Eng land, it is because it has relieved a rather anxious suspense filled with rumors of superguns, Zeppelin at tacks and unheard of internal ma chimes. The British may not be where they would like but at least they are. The North Sea battle which end ed on June 1 is no battle of the first of June, but as a reassurance as to the mastery of the seas it serves in a more limited measure somewhat the same end.