The Washington herald., 1916-08-27

''Excellently." replied the admiral.
Their gunnery was very good. and they
were under handicap in gunnery' They
have not been able to carry out exten-
sive manoeuvres involving target prac-
tlce In the open sea under battle condi-
tons, and we have been keeping our
serves in trim in that way. / consider
also, that Won Hipper and Won Scheer
showed high qualities of leadership IN
getting their surviving ships home again
after the confusion into which We had
thrown them, and considering that we
more or less blocked them off from their
ports. The only criticism l would make
and remember this is a part OF the bat
tie did not see and know of only from
hearsay-is that Won Hipper should not
have turned and followed Beatty to the
north. when at 4:30 o'clock our battle
cruisers turned around to the north as
the main German forces came up. III
Hipper had continued south at full speed
and Won Scheer had turned and gone
with him the Germans would have aban-
doned the field to us, but they could
claim with some justification that they
had had the best of the encounter. The
forces engaged up to that time had in
cluded one more British battle cruiser
than the Germans had in action, and
probably more light craft, and at the
moment of which l speak, when the OPP
tion of breaking off the action presented
itself to the Germans. they had sunk
two OF our battle cruisers and had lost
none of their own, though some of them
were badly battered The absurd claim
OF victory which they set up would have
been far better justified had they stopped
at ABS and never given any of us ex-
cepting Beatty's ships a chance to get
in shot. But, of course, the strategic
result would have been the same; their
retreat would have shown that they had
no intention of challenging our command
OF the sea-
Beatty Ranks with Nelson.
1t was after l had left the admiral
that the other officers of his ship
told me a German Dreadnought was
seen to go down under the fire of the
great guns l had just been inspect
ing. after climbing down through the
top of a turret. Whether the admi-
raj did not mention this out of mod
esty or because he felt less sure OF
it than his subordinates. l do not
know.
Too soon it was time to leave the
feet, and l stood on the stern OF
the launch that conveyed us back to
land watching. for so long as l could
see it, the white flag bearing sim
gle red ball that waved from the mast
of the famous Lion, denoting the
presence on board of Vice Admiral
Beatty. 1t seems hardly too soon to
say that this officer has taken his
place with the naval heroes of Eng
lands past. with Nelson. Hood and
Drake-at any rate, level-headed ad-
mirals who have studied Beatty's tao
tics in his three battles from data
not yet accessible to the public are
saying There are many things
l do not like about england and
about British procedure in this war
but after what l have seen here
among the northern mists" my hat
is off to the British navy. and as
watched. fading into the distance. the
Lion and her scores of consorts and
fauxiliaries drawn up ready to dash
into battle at a moments notice, and
the white flag with the red ball
growing smaller until 1t became only
a speck. l felt as l should feel If ]
could see the phantoms of the Vic
tory iying Nelson's flag and of his
storm beaten squadrons. I felt that
for once I had looked into the face
of history.