The Washington times., 1921-01-09

the Germ an fleet
GUM would have been untensble in
the summer of 1916, and
FOURTH. the war would have
ended in a victory for the allies with.
out the Intervention of the United
tates."
Here the engineer paused and
glanced round the circle of friends.
The naval officer was the first to
break the silence: "T'hat is rather
more than even the most ardent crit
les of Jellicoe are claiming" he said
slowly, would you mind telling US
why you think that"
"All right" replied the engineer,
'let's take my claims up one by one.
Remember that am considering the
German fleet destroyed, or substan-
TALLY so, as the French fleet or the
French and Spanish fleets were Grip
pied after the Battle of the Nile or
Trafalg gar.
First, then, there would have beer
no intensive submarine warfare fol-
two reasons, because the British fleet
could have moved in on top of the
submarine bases; they could have
planted mine fields and nets just out
of gunshOt of batteries on shore, and
they could have maintained the nets
and mine fields in place by patrols of
small craft, destroyers and the like,
so that the Germans could not re-
move the distractions.
This the British could not DO
while the German battle fleet was
in existence, because the English
small craft could not be relied upon
to patrol the mine fields and nets
when they might be set upon by
enemy battle cruisers at any mo-
ment.
1.-THE other reason for thinking
that there would have been no wide
spread submarine activity is that, as
we all know, Won Tirpitz and his
party had hard time persuading the
German government to take it up.
If German arms had suffered a real
reverse at sea at Jutland, | don't be-
'ieve that the government would
have countenanced the ruthless sub
marine campaign. This, you will
see, is matter Of opinion only.
WOULD HAVE AVERTED
COLLAPSE OF RUSSIA.
Second, the collapse of Russia
would have been averted because the
destruction Of the German fleet
would have given the allies absolute
control of the Baltic Sea. Instead
of being a German lake, the Baltic
would have been an English lake.
The allies could have sent stream
Of reinforcements, munitions and
supplies into Russia that would have
kept her armies supplied and her
people contented. Perhaps the revo-
luton had to come, but l believe
that the war would have been over
before it started.
"One of my reasons for thinking
this lies in my third conclusion, to
the effect that the German flank on
the Belgian coast would have been
untenable.
With the menace Of the German
fleet removed, the allies could have
cleared mine fields at will and
landed a force in the rear OF the
German right flank; they could have
maintained it there, and reinforced
t in the summer and fall Of 1916.
The German line in Belgium would
have been compelled to withdraw.
Plans were made to land such a
force, but it was never done, mainly
because of the menace OF the Ger
man fleet and submarines, partly
because the English high command
stupidity wanted to break the Ger
man line by frontal attack before
outflanking it.
IF my deductions so far are at
all correct, my fourth conclusion
follows naturally:
"The allies would have won the
war without the Intervention of the
United States"
"From all Of this" said Ames, the
motor truck manufacturer, scratch
inc his head. IL gather that when
Admiral Jcllicoe turned away from
the enemy at Jutland to play safe,
instead of ATTACHING with all his
might, this evasion saved some ships,
but cost the lives OF several million
men, lost the allies thousands Of mil
lions Of dollars and made the world
unsafe for democracy. ! am more
CuElOuS IMAM ever 10 knOW bDout ie'
and l wish you fellows would keep
quiet and let some one who knows
about these things tell us the real
! story"
The naval man rose from his chair
aud began to pace gravely up and
/ down the porch. Then he said earn
estly:
What you men have said here
tonioht has been good deal of a
surprise to me, thouoh on reflsc-
ton. 1t ought not to be, for we have
much to learn from the rocking
chair brigade (excuse me for calling
YOU ncmee) end we have everything
% learn from history.
"Fall re- to recognize this il the
'au7e of the sorry moving OF the
create I navy in the world in the
war just closed. For the British
navy failed, and tho judgment OF