The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-08-02

7
the terrible sacrifice and the decima-
ton of the fleet that would be invoIv
ed.
People-even very distinguished
people like Lord Sydenham ask US, if
Drake and Nelson, would have been
content with the policy Of watch
full waiting that is the keynote of
grand fleet strategy today. Well, so
far as Drake is concerned, it is true
that he went down to Cadiz in 1887
land ''singed the King of Spain's
beard" bat he neither broke the
power of Spain nor prevented the
sailing of the Armada. 1t is also
quite certain that if Drake had kept
his fleet of Cadiz, and waited for the
| Spaniards there instead of letting
them get into the channel before he
| set about them, the Armada would
not have met the overwhelming fate
that actually befell it.
| AS for Nelson, who ever heard of
him trying to dig the French fleet
out of Toulon? He was not such a
fool as to pit his ships against forts
! and he had neither mines nor sub
marines to worry about. At the Bat
tile of the Nile he did sail in and at
tack-and all but destroy-the
French fleet as it lay at anchor but
in the first place the harbor was I'M
defended; and, in the second, the cir
cumstances were such as to fully JUS
tify him in taking any risk. The
| French army was in Egypt, and Mel
sons sole object was to cut off its
communication with France. 1t was
an urgent and vital matter. It would
have justified Nelson in losing the
whole of his own fleet provided he
could at the same time have Destroy
ed that under Admiral Brueys That
he succeeded at very small cost is
tribute to his genius and the capac-
ity of those under him, but the es-
sential point is that be balanced the
risk against the result and acted ac-
cordingly.
/ II there were anything great to be
achieved by digging out the German
High Sea Fleet the task might be at
tempted. IF the U-boats were so near
beating US that the destruction of
their bases remained the only rem
edy, then it would be perfectly right
and proper for the grand fleet to ex-
| pend itself, If need be, in an attempt
to destroy those bases. Only few
! weeks ago it was urged that this was
the actual position at sea, but now
we know better. We know that we
can get the better of the submarine
i W1thtut throwing away he grand
fleet, whose business is not to fight
submarines but to hold the sea
against the best the germans can
lsend to challenge it.
Do not let us worry about the
strategy of the grand fleet or pay too
much attention o the views of admir-
4 ais, long since pensioned, who never
i In their lives were given the oppor-
tunity of commanding fleet
1t is "a remarkable thing but true
i one, that there are thousands of peo-
pie up and down the country who
would willingly confess their inability
to run a butchers shop, or drive a
motor car. or tell you how many feet
OF water there are over the Dogger
/ Bank, who are. nevertheless, conf
i dent that they could handle the Bril-
fish navy better than those who are
i doing their best with It today, and
who have been studying the problems
4 OF naval warfare since they entered
the Britannia at the age of thirteen,
i Officers and men in the grand fleet
are impatient to 'sget at, the full ma
val forces of the Kaiser, but SO long
as those forces cling to shelter, what
could our men useful1y do? Experts
and retired adn1irals tell us that we
cannot expect to command the sea
6 without fighting for it, but the grand
fleets complaint for the last three
yearssfs that there has only once been
anyone to fight. and then the enemy
was only intercepted by accident of
4 Jutland Bank, within a couple OF
s hundred miles of his bases, to which
he returned at top speed.
q People who think the navy has de.
Perforated because II isn't always
fussing around giving pyrotechnie
displays have not taken the trouble
! to get hold of the rudiments of their
q own history. Our last war with
FRANCE stretched. with a brief inter.
val, from 1913 to 1915, and in those
II twenty years only three big naval en-.
!, |gagements were fought with the
French. The idea that sea-power ii
battering force is false. You car
choke the life out of Germany with
the strangle- hold, but you canno,
punch 1t out of her by foolislnly try.
ing to lombard the Kiel Canal.