New-York tribune., 1918-01-24
"a Clever Attack"

There is still considerable uncertainty
about the fate of the Goeben According
to the first British report of the action
that occurred at the entrance to the Dar-
danel]es last Sunday she was "evidently,
badly damaged" when beached at Niagara
Point and was subsequently subjected to
prolonged bombardment by naval air
craft. The German denial of heavy dam
age may be disregarded 1t is not denied
that the Goebcn was beached and since
the airmen were still raining bombs on
her over the same spot more than twenty
four hours after it is reasonable to con-
clude that she suffered severely. What
the Turkish communique describes COM
placently as "a clever attack" by her and
the Bresau was not lucky one for, pre-
suming that the Goeben has been de-
stroyed, the two British monitors sunk in
the action cannot be regarded as equiva-
lent to a fine battlc-cruiser and a small
cruiser BESIDES
However, we must wait for more definite
intelligence before drawing concluscns.
The Goeben has survived serious attacks
on other occasions. Six months ago she
was reported badly damaged after great
air raid off Constantinope, and it was pre-
sumed then that she would be out of COM
mission at least for some months On
several other occasions she has been 'un-
officially" sunk; indeed, if rumor were at
all credible, she must be more tenacious
CT life than the cat of fable.
The story of the Goeben and Breslau is
largely mythical. To this day the cir
cumstances OF their famous evasion of the
watching squadron near Messina are un.
known to the public. Commander Gill in
his newly published book on "Naval Power
IN the War; revives the report that the
two ships put to sea with flags flying and
bands playing. This was the story-or
rather one Of the stories-current at the
time, but it was commonly discredited be-
cause no engagement followed However,
1t enabled correspondents with lively inag.
nations to invent all sorts Of fantastic
theories by way of explaining the sequel
A favorita fable current at the time WAS
that the bands were set adrift on RATS in
order to deceive the cns1Ay while the
Goeben and her consort re away in the
darkness and fog.
There were other stories about a stolen
code and misleading instructions supposed
to be issued by the Admiralty in London,
but really emanating from Berlin, nor
must we forget the famous rumor of
treason on the part Of Prince Henry of
Battenberg, followed by the circumstantial
account of how he was shot in the Tower.
All we really know is that the adlnira, ir
command of the Mediterranean SQUADRON
was tried by court martial and acquit' ed
of all blame. This much is certain: that
the watching squadron failed, nor worc
there wanting naval officers who failed to
see anything extraordinary in this cir
cumstance, considering neutral state was
involved and the cruisers were oblged m
remain outside territorial waters. The
possibility of such evasions had FREQUENT
~ been demonstrated in naval manoeuvre,.
The consequences were, however, 50
grave that the excuse, such as it is, has
never been accepted as sufficient Some
perhaps were even inclined to think that
the bold decision taken by Nelson on a
similar occasion would have been better
"Of course" he admitted, "they will saw
we have broken the neutrality if we attack
Ihem IN the ports and if we do
not | shall be laughed at as fool. Pre-
vention is better than cure"
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