New-York tribune., 1917-07-24
On the Release of Fleets

Sundry rumors of impending changes in
the conduct Of the war at sea are disposed
of in recent advices from Washington,
showing that there is at present no likeli-
hood of any profound and fundamental re-
vision of the strategy that has hitherto
prevailed. The Navy Department we are
told, has been advised that Admiral Sims
il at one with an overwhelming majority
of British and French naval officers in ap-
proving the present policy and in deprecat-
ing some recent impetuous, if indefinite. de-
mands to get to work and "release the
fleets"
We are not obliged to take this as evil
dence that the submarine menace is under
control, or that the progress made hitherto
is wholly satisfactory. Neither are we
compelled to assume that all thought OF
attack on the German naval bases has for
ever been abandoned as wild and reck-
less. What we may conclude is that, with
the material now at disposal, aggression of
the kind occasionally proposed is a prac-
tical impossibility; that Mr.. Winston
| Churchill's pleasing reflections on the pre-
ponderance Of ships and guns on our side
are irrelevant, and that so far it has not
been found expedient or safe to give over
the shipyards to the construction of a spe-
cial fleet adapted to the desired end.
There has been too much loose talk about
the passive attitude of the navies in this
war, as if it were a consequence of some
new and remarkable doctrine marking g
complete break with naval traditions, from
Drake to Nelson. The blockades of other
days seem to be forgotten, and it is no.
considered how often and for what long
periods the French fleets remained secure
from British assaults in such fortified
harbors as Brest and Toulon. No; a
theory must be discovered to account for
the present situation, and the theory, i'm
puted by the critics TO "a new school OF
thought" now controlling the fleets at sea
is that the enemy need not be beaten.
All of which is sheer balderdash 1t is
/ true that il has been countenanced by so
eminent an authority as Sir Reginald
Custance, but as the point at issue is
purely historical it may be said without
too much presumption that his attempt to
fix the birth Of the new school is fantastic
! and absurd. Nevertheless, his opinion is
accepted as a matter of course, other writ
ers echo his lament, and ten years is
agreed upon as the period in which the
new and pernicious doctrine grew, with the
deplorable consequences now apparent to
the whole world. And then they groan in
concert and long for the great days Of
Nelson, when sailors did things.
What would Nelson have said of some
of the wild projects now put forward for
dealing the Germans a death blow by
releasing the feets'? IL is not wholly in.
conceivable that, much as he believed in
making downright work with his foes, he
would answer as he answered the bold pro-
posal of one Of his own captains: "I can.
not but admire Captain Owens zeal in his
anxious desire 70 get at the enemy, but !
am afraid 1t has made him overleap sand.
banks and tides, and laid him aboard the
enemy. | could join most heartily in his
desire, but we cannot do impossibilites,
and | am as little used to find out the i'm
possible as most folks"
1t is by no means implied that all of the
criticism so generously proifered of late
by naval critics is founded on impossible
tics; still less is it suggested that the
strategy at present employed is the best
conceivable by the best of all possible
brains. We are all justified in hoping that