New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-06-12
Possibilities in the North Sea.

Supplementary reports have not as yet
completely cleared up the confused I'M
preston caused by the earlier accounts of
the battle in the North Sea. The German
and British versions cannot even now be
.reccnciled. and for the present it is idle
to speculate on the facts One thing is
certain: that even if the revised German
statement is true we shall not be obliged
to wait long for positive confirmation.
since, according to no less an authority
than the Kaiser himself, "the English
feet was beaten" and its "tyrannical SUI
premacy shattered"
Part of his recent address to the men Of
the High Sea Fleet may be dismissed az
merely rhetorical. It was obvious non
sense. for instance, to condole with them
because they were forced to wait month
after month for a general battle" and to
pretend that repeated efforts were made
to bring the enemy out" The men Of the
German fleet are not deceived, for they know
as well as any neutral observer that they
have not been engaged during the last
twenty months in blockading the British
coast. IF they were forced to wait month
after month it must therefore have been
for another reason than the backwardness
of tn, enemy. However, now that the SUI
premacy of the enemy has been shattered,
great events are certain to follow, and
upon the sequel the credibility Of the Ger
man report depends.
/ Immediately after the encounter off the
Jutland coast Wilhelmshaven was closed to
visitors by a public proclamation dated
May p but not published until June .. This
may mean that great preparations are max
ing for final blow at the remnant of the
British feet. The circumstance has been
otherwise interpreted in England, where
some seem to doubt whether the fleet will be
fit to put to sea for some months to come.
But if the damage done was so slight as
the official report implies, the Germans will
certainly not fail to follow up their victory,
and we may confidently count on another
and a greater battle in short time. 1t is
difficult, indeed, to account for the hasty
retirement of the feet az the moment of its
triumph and the abandonment Of the en-
terprise upon which it set out, but it is in
conceivable that it should submit again to
long months of fretting in home waters.
At present certain facts stand out
clearly. The first is that the original
German report of the affair was delib
erately falsifed. The losses admitted
were these: One pre-dreadnought battle
ship, one small cruiser, and possibly q
second, with few torpedo craft With
these exceptions it was positively stated
that the fleet had returned into port. The
following day it was admitted that the
cruiser Elbing was lost, survivors having
in the mean time been landed on neutral
territory. Then came the further con
fession that the battle-cruiser LUtzow and
the small cruiser Rostock had also been
destroyed. The truth, it was explained,
had hitherto been withheld "for military
reasons but was now made known in
order to dish the British, with their "le-
gends about gigantic losses This pc
culiar explanation may satisfy the Ger
mans, but it cannot fail to subdue their
enthusiasm over what they were led to
believe was a great victory, for it is
clear that, to say the very least. the state
Of the German fleet in relation to the
British is not improved
That enterprise directed to the north
ward which led to the battle of May 81
cannot have been aimless. If it was de-
signed TO bring about a favorable en-
counter with the enemy the event cannot
be renarded as altogether satisfactory