The Washington herald., 1922-02-06
STEED TAKES issue
WITH LORD LEE ON
CASTEX ARTICLES
Says French Writer Inac-
curately Reported on
Submarine.
BY WICKHAM STEED.
editor Of the London TimesD

LONDON, Feb. 5.-A point of ap-
parently minor. although of very
real importance-inasm as II
concerns the question of good
faith-needs to be cleared up be-
tween France and England.
1t relates to the articles on Ger
man submarine warfare by Capt
CasteN, which were cited by the
first lord of the admiralty, Lord
Lee, in a speech before the sub
committee on naval Limitation at
Washington, on December 80.
+ These articles, Lord Lee con-
tended, expressed approval of Ger
man submarine methods.
The alleged inaccuracy OF Lord
Lees quotation from these articles
aroused resentment in France
resentment which was accentuated
by his contention that the general
meaning of the Castex articles was
as originally described, when on
February 1, Ambassador Jusserand
asetes Lord Lee.
This is a point requiring eiuci-
dation. In his original statement,
Now. this officer. who has been
appointed principal lecturer to the
senior officers course, will no
doubt, unless there is a change of
policy, be pouring what we regard
as infamy and poison into the Off
GERS Of the French navy. That is
justification for what I can only
describe as our apprehensions. even
the bitterness that we must feel, in
the thought that under any con-
oil "a -
allies and last comrades in arms
should contemplate the possibility
of warfare of kind"
Earlier in the same speech Lord
Lee alluded to Premier Briknd's
quotations from opinions expressed
by Ludendorff and Moltke. as show
ing the aggressive tendencies of
Germany. BY Implication he as
signed equal Importance to the ar
ticles in the Revue Maritime by
Castex. whom he ddtcribed as the
chief OF staff and admiral of the
second division in the Mediterra-
! mean, and designated as the prin-
cipal lecturer of the senior officers
course next year"
Finds Qnotation Incomplete.
Whether Castex is or is not the
French equivalent of Ludendorff is
a secondary matter. The main
point is whether Lord Lee quoted
and interpreted him correctly. Cas-
tex published in issues of the Re-
vue Maritime in January, Febru-
ary. March ana April, 1920, a series
called "The Synthesis of Subma-
rine. Warfare"
Not until the Frankfurter Zeit-
ung called attention to them was
their existence revealed to the pub
lie. 1t would be Of some impor-
tance to ascertain whether Lord
Lees quotations were translated
from the original French or 9TH
erwise. 1t would be difhcult to
understand why. when quoting from
the first article, he read the pas
sage: Thanks to the submarine,
after many centuries Of effort. and
thanks to the ingenuity Of man, an
instrument is at hand which will
overthrow for good and all the
without saying that, the paragraph
began with the words; Thus the
Germans reasoned" Il
There is no doubt that in the
form in which he made them Lord
.
article were incomplete and mis-
leading. II he or any of his ad-
visers understands French and pre-
pared from the original texts the
extracts he read at Washington,
these omissions are objectionable.
But IL he and his advisers had be-
fore them only a general summary
of Castex's articles the question
merits closer examination.
Yet. even in this case. 1t is
strange that the first lord of the
admiralty should not have main
tanned more strongly than he did
that Castex's thesis was in broad
agreement with the contention of
the British delegation that subYfia-
rines are a much overrated weapon.
That this was not absent from
Lord Lees mind was shown In the
following passage from his speech
Of December 80:
There are many other passages
Nof similar description (from the
Castex atticles). Interspersed with
them Is the laying down of a doc
trfne regarding the value of sub
marines, to which we heartily sub
scribe
Unless 1 have entirely. misread
the Castex articles, this "doctrine-
is not "interspersed" among them,
but is the essence OF his whole ar
gument. This seems to have, been
overlooked by Lord Lee and his
advisers. who fastened onto II some
questionable passages regarding
justification of German submarine
warfare from a strictly military
point of view and have given this
unfair promine4cs.