East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1916-07-25
ENGLAND GETS BLUES
AND RAILS AGAINST
FINE WORK OF NAVY
BRITISHERS FAlI. To APPRECI-
ATE SPLENDID BRAVERY OF
FLEET ONLY LOSSES
EMPHASIZED.
BY ED. l. KEEN

Omitted Press Staff Correspondents )
| LONDON, July 9.-(By Maill-
Britishers don't appreciate their navy.
This statement goes as much for Ar
thur Balfour as it does for Bill Bow
bells Both Of them are near-aghted.
Also they lack imagination.
Just because Admiral Jellico in his
initial dispatch regarding the Jutland
fight didn't pin bouquets on himself
and the Grand Fleet. the First Lord
of the Admiralty failed to read be-
tween the lines that the British had
really won the greatest naval battle
since Trafalgar
But it was all there-and he had
| the German wireless report as con-
firmation. After detailing his losses
Jellicoe modestly observed that the
enemy returned to port" The Ger
mans had already told the world that
on May 81 during an enterprise 6i-
rected to the northward" the High
Seas Fleet had encountered the enc
my, etc. and that on the following
day it returned into our ports"
Instead of featuring this one essen
tial fact, Balfour dolefully empha-
sized the great losses sustained by the
British. England went to bed that
night in a blue funk, The psycholo-
gical gloom was thick. Bill Bowbells
and all his friends We're convinced
that Jellicoe and Beatty had gotten
the worst of it, More important still,
the neutral world had been similarly
impressed. German fleet beats Brit
ish," Germans win great sea fight"
read the headlines in American news
papers over dispatches containing
both the British and German admi-
rally communicates
Even if the British losses had been
greater than those of the Germans
which they weren't, according to the
belated admissions of the German
admiralty. news of the loss of certain
ships having been withheld for mil-
tary reasons 1T still would have
been a British victory, in the opinion
of most naval strGtegists in these
parts.
Bill Bowbells isn't much of a strate-
gist, but when he finally gathered that
the Germans had started out on an
enterprise" which they had to abb !
andon in the face Of the foe. and had
returned limping into their ports, he
opined that perhaps Jellicoe hadn't /
been licked after all. Arthur Balfour |
some days after the fight in
a public speech brought ont quite
strongly this fact. !
What magnificent opportunity
for a real press agent! Why even a
fairly competent cub reporter could
have written a more cheerful COM
without adding to or dis
-orting facts at hand.
possible explanation is that Bal
four was so obsessed by previous
public criticisms of the official
Jroneness to withhold unfavorable
lews, that he determined in this case
o let the worst be known at once.
The unfavorable effect upon the
jublic was immediate The next days
British papers were filled with bitter
comment and gloomy forebodings.
The navy had already failed properly
O protect the east coast against spO-
adic raids, and now when it had q
eal chance at the enemy it had suf-
cred disaster There were loud calls
or a clean sweep Of the navy admin
stration. Bring back "Jacky' Fisher,
He'll do the job right" etc.
Balfour and Bowbells-officiald
'ress and public-in their contempla-
ion of the really heavy losses sus-
aimed BY the British fleet not only
lost sight Of the result Of
his fight, what it meant for the fu-
ure security Of the island kingdom
s well As Of the empire and the allies
but they forgot entirely
that the navy has been doing ever ]
ince the war started. Their per- s