The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-05-13
5ECRET ORDERS OF
 PRESIDENT TO SIMS BARED BY DANIEL S|
British Admiralty Helpless Almost to Point of Panic in Face of Submarine Emergency, Wilson Told
 Admiral in Secret Cable
By Associated Pres,

ther today by Secretary Daniels.
 Continuing his testimony before tn Senate committee Investigating Rear Ad miral Sims charges that the nav. failed to cooperate fully with the allies the secretary read a confidential cable gram sent to Admiral Sims at London ol July 4, 1917 by President Wilson
 In it the President said that in th' presence of the submarine emergency th' British admiralty was helpless almos to the point of panic," and asked the ad miral to submit report based upol independent" thought of the whole situ ation, without regard to the Judgmen of any one on that side of the water.
 The cablegram as presented by tn secretary follows:
 PRESIDENTS CABLEGRAM
 'tFrom the beginning of the war l
 have been greatly surprised at the
 failure of the British admiralty to use
 Great Britains great naval superiority
 in an effective way. In the presence
 of the present submarine emergency
 they are helpless to the point of panic.
 Every plan we suggest they reject
 for some reason of prudence. In my
 view this is not time for prudence,
 but for boldness, even at the cost
 of great losses.
 Tn most of your dispatches you
 have quite properly advised us of the
 sort of aid and cooperation desired
 from us by the admiralty. The
 trouble is that their plans and meth
 ods do not seem to us to be satlSfac-
 tory. I would be very much obliged
 if you would report to me, confiden-
 tially, of course, exactly what the ad-
 miralty has been doing, and what
 they have achieved, and added to
 the report your own comments and
 suggestions, based upon independent
 thought of the whole situation, with
 out regard to the judgments Of any
 ohe on that side of the water,
 'The admiralty was very slow to
 adopt the protection of convoy, and
 it is not now, I judge (protecting)
 conveys on adequate scale, within
 the danger zone, seeming to keep
 small craft with the grand fleet, The
 absence of craft for convoy is even
 more apparent on the French coast
 than on the English coast, and in the
 channel. do not see how the neces-
 sary military supplies and supplies or
 food and fuel oil are to be delivered
 at British ports in any other way
 within the next few months than un- ~der adequate convoy. TherS will
 presently not be ships or tankers
 enough. and our shipbuildng plans
 may not begin to yield important re-
 suits in less than eight months.
 q believe that you will keep these
 instructions absolutely and entirely
 to yourself, and that you will give
 me such advice as you would give
 if you were handling, and as if you
 were running navy Of your own.
 READS SIMS LETTER
 Admiral Sims response, MT. Daniel testified, was "a long telegram of gener Drit ict ad doing" In this connection, MT Daniels read to the committee a personal lette from the admiral to Ambassador Pag' at London on August ', 1917, which sait in part:
 Tn this connection I have suggestion to make. I have received word, pracc1 cally directly from the President, tha he was much dlspleased with my reply t' lis cablegram; that it did not change hi! opinion at all; that he regards me al owned by the admiralty, and so pro-Brit ish that he seriously considered the ad visibility of replacing be by some othei officer
 Secretary Daniels said that the ad miraps reply to the President suggest ed that the proper policy to pursue was to adopt the recommendation h' had made to the navy department most of which, the witness testified had been put into operation before tn' admiral suggested them.
 The naval secretary told the com mittee that Admiral Sims, in his reply evidently had sought to discredit th' navy departments plans and that Tn stead of accepting the department suggestions of great offensive plan or originating some plan that prom ised to stop the egress Of German sup
 1ad aln e his mind to every plan Hooking to thu great offensive, which in the fall O 1918 was the most effective foe O the submarine"
 COMBINED ATTACK PLANS
 Admiral Sims reply to the Presi dent told also of plans for combined sea and land attack to turn the Ger man right flank and cut off Zeebruggi as provisioning base. Mir. Danieli said
 That was the kind of bold and au dacious' thing the President and th' navy department had been urging froir our entrance into the war; declared the secretary But even then, Ad miral Sims said. it had not been defi nitely decided on by the war council though the daring and successful at tack on Zeebrugge came much later It might have been very differen story if it had been undertaken earlie when the navy department was urging some such bold plan. all of which Ad miral Sims thought impracticable when urged by the navy department
 ADMIRAL SIMS IDEA
 Admiral Sims told the President h' had been shown studies of the depart ment,s plans to prevent the egress O
 M- fn1 Is a he considered the scheme impractica ble.
 He evidently sought to discredit th' navy departments plans by saying tha these same suggestions and many sim liar ones had been made by people O all classes since the beginning of th' war; said Mir Daniels. Instead O accepting the departments suggestions of great offensive plans. or originat ing some plan that promised to stol inc eeress of German submarines, hi mind was closed to the above, and al many other extracts show, to ever! plan looking to the great offensiv' which in the fall of 1918 was the mos effective foe of the submarine
 Sims cable to the President suggest ed that the proper policy to pursu' was to adopt the recommendations n had made to the navy department most of which had been decided upoi and put in operation before Admira Sims suggested them" Secretary Dan iels declared.
 He added" the secretary contin ued, that we should adopt an organ ization similar in all respects to tn British squadron and virtually trans fer all naval authority to his head quarters in London. He was carefu not to say, though he regarded tn Queenstown base and surroundings a Lfha scritical araas that aa rapidly A