Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-05-12
BRITISH NAVY WAS
Continued from page 1.

/ ai itipNb VI Nbui tioffstttii'1 9ph iaShNs
/ quite properly advised IFS of Tia e sort OF
aid and cooperation desired from us 10y
| the admiralty. The trouble is that then
| plans and methods do not seem 80 u'
| etiicacious. would be very much oblige,
| to YOU if you would report To me, con
! iidentially, of course, exactly what The
| admiralty has been doing and what they
! have accomplished, and add to the re.
! port your own comments and sugges'
tions, based upon independent thought OF
! the whole situation without regard to the
Judgments of anyone on that side OF the
water.
SLOW WITH CONVOY PR RoTECTI ON.
'The admiralty was very slow to adopt
the protection of conveys, and it is not
now, judge, protecting conveys on
adequate scale within the danger zone,
seeming to keep small craft with the grand
fleet. The absence OF craft for conyoys is
even more apparent on the French coast
than on the English coast and in the chan
mel. | do not see how the necessary mill
tary supplies and supplies OF food and fuel
oil are to be delivered at their ports in
any other way within the next few months
than under adequate convoy. There will
probably not be ships or tankcrs enough
and our shipbuiding plants may not be-
gin TO yield important results in less than
eighteen months.
II believe that YOU will keep these in
tsructions absolutely and entirely to your
self and that YOU will give me such adj
vice as you would give il you were handling
and if YOU were running n navy of your
own
REGARDED SIMS As BRIyISH-owN
Mr.. Daniels also read letter from
Admiral Sims to former Ambassador Page
at London. written August Z 1917, which.
IN part, said;
In this connection have a suggestion
to make l have received word practical
III directly from the President that he
was much displeased with my rcnly to his
cahlcgram: that it did not change his
opinion at all: that he regards me rs
owned by the admiralty and 50 pro-Britlsh
that he seriously considered the adviS-
ability Of replacing me by some other Of
fcer
ATTACK on ZLEBRU UGGE.
admiral Sims reply to the President
told also Of plans for a combined sea and
land attack To turn the German right
flank and cut off Zccbrugge as \ pro-
visioning base, Mr.. Daniels said.
That was the kind of bold and au-
audacious thing the President and the
Navy Department had been urging from
our entry into the war" declared the
secretary
But even then, Admiral Sims said,
1T had not been definitely decided on by
the War Council, though the daring and
successful attack on Zeehruggc came
much later. 1t might have been very
different story if il had been undertaken
earlier when the Navy Department was
urging some such bold plan, all OF which
Admiral Sims thought impracticable'
when urged by the Navy Department.
Admiral Sims told the President he
had been shown studies of the depart
ment's plan to prevent the egress Of sub
marines, Mr.. Daniels said. and that he
considered the scheme impractlcable.
SIMS OPPOSED EFFECTIVE PLAN.
lie evidently sought to discredit the
Navy Department plans by saying
that these same suggestions and many
similar ones had been made by people Of
All classes since the beginning Of the war.
said Mir. Daniels Instead Of accepting
the department suggestion Of great Of
fensive plans or originating some plan
that promised to stop the cgress Of Ger
man submarines. his mind was closed 10
the above and as many other extracts
show. TO every plan looking To the great
offensive, which, III the fall OF 1918 was
the most effective Zoe OF / ne submarine,
SUGGESTED Plan ALREADY ADOPTED
Sims cable to- the President suggested
that The proper policy 10 pursue WAS 10
adopt the suggestions he had made to the
department. most OF which had been
decided upon and put into operation
before Admiral SIMS suggested them
Secretary Daniels declared. He added
the secretary continued, that we should
adopt an organization similar IN ali re-
spCcts TO the British squadron and virtual
ly transfer all naval aut hority to hls head
in London He WAS careful not
to say thougb. be regarded tue Queens
town base and surroundings ~ tho critical
area, that as rapidly as American destroy
ers arrived the British dcstroyers were re-
moved to another area, although hc noH
makes the prcposterous statement that
the failure io have more deotr0ycrs in
hat critical area fwc had 81 ~ that time
out of our total of so. occasioned the loss
of 500,0 600 lives aud fifteen billion. dol
lars Of money"
SIMS HYfNoTI2ED BY BRITISH.
Two remarkable and significant
stamps. in Admiral Sims reply to Presi-
dent Wilson We're cited by MIR Daniels as
evidence that the admiral was 50 'hypno-
tized by British influences that he was
willing 10 try to lure the President Of the
United States into the feeling that re-
gardless Of future developments We can
always count upon the support Of the /
British navy.
The first was that the views he had |
were ~ all cases ''au inde- |
pendent opinion based on specific facts /
IN the admiralty and other gov
srnment departments. The second was +
4s follows.
Depend upon the fact, which | believe /
% be true. that regardless Of any future de- /
,eiopments. We can always count upon /
.he support Of the British navy ] have +
1eon assured Of this by important gov +
.rnnent officials. +
sfMs' RIDICULOUS CLAIM.
IL would be interesting 10 know what +
British government officials assured him /
nat regardless to future developments the +
fnifed States can always count on the
support Of the British navy" said Air.
Daniels 1t seems inconceivable that
nv admiral could have regarded such as
urances was worth paying tolls %
transmit. Every school boy should know
hat in democratic government no gov
,rnsnent official could pledge his coun-
rvs navy 70 support another government
egardless Of future developments. IT Is
20 be hoped that if Admiral Sims has such
he will send q copy Of the pledge
n writing with the name Of the important
official appended thereto 70
)e filed in the archives of 'sops for the
imple