The sun., 1919-09-10

ecution TO train So per cent. OF the guns
OF the Britieh navy on Germany and
make tho North Sea, or as tho German
Emperor liked to call II, the German
Ocean, into its regular cruising grounds7
your battle ground should be your
drill ground" said Nelson.
Each Admiral thought he was being
Inundated by his ships being taken
away a few at time and brought homo.
Some of them mutinied and ought to
have been shot, but we only shoot a
poor devil like Byng, who had no friends.
All the SANG, am glad Byng was shot,
otherwise we should not have had Vol
taire's "Encourager les Autres"
What think Is one of the fearful
things of the late war Is that we had
no Admirals or Generals shot. We only
promoted them. Least of all did the
Germans suspect my 1903 project They
rubbed their heads with malignant glee
and thought the British Admirals were
mutinying, so that there was only a
suspicion when Belt related his con-
versation with the German Emperor,
who told Belt that Notwithstanding pro-
testations of peace and unity Sir John
Fisher would cook up the German feet
II allowed and would land an army
OH the coast of Pomerania, eighty-two
miles from Berlin. He was right, for 30
Il Il
30 in 1908 when I was accused OF It.
Declines to Give Plan.
Consequently when on this very morn
ing, September I, 1919, l am asked to
give my plan for reducing navy esti-
mates to the $4,000, 900 figure that
we had in 1904, when was First Sea
Lord and the Scapa Flow feet began
TO build, answer in the immortal
words of Burke: II will not give my
plan unless have the execution OF It."
What the public doesn't realize Is that
even half of the navy that is not obso-
| lete Is unequal to all the navies OF the
world put together In its efficiency. Born
fools could build ships, but wise men
reckon the ability of the crews The
most efficient ship in the world doesn't
count IL 1t Is inefficiently manned AND
commanded. 1t is our sailors and Of
ficers who are-the cream OF the world
and 1t is absolutely true what Nelson
said, that one British sailor was equal
to any three others.
If some congenial idiot imagines thai
/ should cease all shipbuilding, well, he
Is the stupid ass that he was born
| have believed and some beliefs have
to be like the resurrection. They require
faith. Our stupid people do not believe
| In the internal combustion engine or II
oil. / have faith In both. Those two
are not only going to revolutionize ses
war but they are going to revolutionizt
sea commerce. for the ample and con.
vincing reasons which shall set forth
In my book.
/ should at first build. not necessaril,
fighting vessels, but I should build
tramps to carry oil with every i'm
movement in internal combustion
! engines fitted in them experientia docet
You cannot have an internal combus
ton engine all of sudden, like Min
erva out of the head of Jupiter. How
the ancients swallowed that fable al
ways puzzles me. 1t says in Lem.
prieres dictionary that she emerged
from the head of Jupiter fully armed
would build like anything now. bu
they would be inexpensive vessels, mor'
or less hulls to carry these experimental
internal combustion engines, and tn
vessels would be used for war com
modities.
About the year 1878 I gave a couplet
to Sir Nathaniel Barnardy, K. c. B.