The Washington times., 1920-01-31
Sims Decries Valor
OF u. S., But Praises
Bravery of England

win this war. i wish TO state to all
present that William 10 by far the
best coached boy In this class. For a
long time now he has been In my
special charge and has proved him-
self most apt pupil, II only all OF
you were so apt to learn your lessons.
So. Sir William arises and tells the
world-weil. what he has told them
already through a censored press
from London and what he told them
the other day in Washington sbbut
the American navy. And now IL
seems the army did not do It's share,
either.
Let us place Admiral Sims in on,
more new light In this matter. Our
Consressmen were over there in
France TO get some nrst-hand knowl
edge or what was going on; naturally
they went to headquarters for II.
With many more OF the American
public they had been educated up TO
where most of them thought that
Sims was about the only American
naval officer doing anything. or
course, he had the right dope about
things. Can you see Sims. after a
cozy little dinner in Paris res
taurant. slipping his stun across the
table to the visiting Congressmenf
"assAs !" OI
Congressman, IL .amensble and not
too wide-swake, can be made pretty
useful-in more ways that one; but
there are wider avenues for propa-
ganda than even the halls of Con-
gress. There are boys and girls In
schools and readers In libraries, an
endless number of good Americans
In shops and offices all eager to be
stuffed with facts by one who knows
them first-hand-by one WHO
KNOWS. one with AUTHORITY be-
hind him-one they can TRUST.
And so enters Sims with a little
book he Is writing OF the war. The
book is now being published in in
stalments by American newspapers
on Sundays. Read his issue of last
Sundays and see what we get. They
have been running for weeks, but
take last Sundays for illustration be-
cause anybody can go out and get a
back number and verify what i say.
The entire instalment is given over
to telling the exploit of the crew OF
British mystery ship" Let me say
a word about mystery ships. (Q-boats
la their service designation.) Some
fine men manned those Q-boats, but
their value to the Gauge and the dam
early stages have been exaggerated.
The Q-Boat Affair.
The men of a Q-boat ship are all
taking chances, but at that not near
the chances that the crew OF the
U-boat attacking them are taking.
The Q-boat, usually a good sized
merchant. has a good big hull which
can stand much shelling and still re-
main afloat. That ship of which /
spoke yesterday, the one saved from
U-boat by the destroyer I was
cruising with, had fifteen shell holes
in her-four of them between wind
and water, and one which landed In
her engine room and put her steam
department out OF commission: and
yet, two hours after we got to her
she was headed back for our convoy
under her own steam and later made
port. And she had been shelled by
one of the new big U-boats of nearly
300 feet long and carrying two so
guns-pretty big guns.
The U-boat engaged by Sims much-
praised British ship was up against
one Of the older type OF U-boats,
smaller and carrying = single three
OF fOur-inch gun-with much less
range and penetrative pswer than the
Dhnraven's. A U-bOat, because of It's
being SO much lower in the water,
makes a poor target, an advantage to
her. but any one well placed shell will
start her for the bottom, and when n
U-bOat starts for the bottom her crew
are thrOuRh-no getting away In
| boats and being picked up for them.
So there IL for that British stunt OF
which Sims makes SO much.
Later, when the U-boats got he
Q-boats "doped" out and came at them
with bigger guns and in different
way, the Q-boats went quickly out
| of fashion, but while they did busi-
| ness they were a picturesque lot and
their crews great heroes in the pub
| lie eve. And why not? Any man
who fights at sea ought to be boost :
ed for a hero. Besides being blown up
he has a chance to be drowned, too.
That British officer whom Sims
praises SO highly was n good, brave
man, but not a foolish one-he q-it
the Q-boat game before the newc"
type of U-boats got working.
Americans To Rescue.
Sims admires so wonderfully the ex-
ploit of the Dunraven that one in
stalment is not enough for him to
tell about it-he Is making a con-
tinued-in- next history of it; but
our fellows did some pretty good
things over there, too, and some of
us who are interested in our own