OUR DEBT TO THE FLEET

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2564, 11 September 1915, Page 4

OUR DEBT TO THE FLEET

The heart-stirring description of the ten days' visit reocntly paid by the Archbishop of York (Dr. Cosmo Lang) to the Grant Fleet—the full text of whioh will bo found in another part of this issue—will well repay carcful perusal, It should bring homo to the people of every part of the British Empire a lively sense of their great debt to tho British Navy. The silent yob ceaseless vigil of that mighty fleet iu the North Sea, is exercising a worldwide influcncc, and is ]ust as much a protection to far-away Now Zealand as to tho United Kingdom. It is owing to the courage, skill, and endurance of Admiral Jellicoe and his brave men that wo aro able to dwell in security in this Dominion in midst of the most tremendous crisis in human history, and to maintain our trac'o almost as uninterruptedly as in days of peace.

Safe the corn to the farmyard taken, Grain ships safe upon nil the sensHomes in peace and a faith unshaken, Sailor, what do wo oivo for those? . The Archbishop was deeply impressed by all ho saw and hoard, and he has never had tho privilege of addressing more inspiring audienccs. Writing of one great gathering he says: I havo never seen anything liko it. Neirly 9000 officers and men were gathered in a vast dry dock. I shall never forget that sea of upturned faces frank and bronzed, the stillness with which they listened to every word, the senso of ;m unseen Presence in our midst." Dr. Lang gives us a brilliant word picture of the Grand Fleet—"a world apart with its own life, its- own task, its own wonderful and incommunicable •opirit," It lives day by, day in a. state p£ jjpvjjotual strain, Always

ready for action, and yet denied the thrill and excitement of actual battle. The Archbishop mentions tho all-pervading sense of readiness and the fine feeling of trust and comradeship among all ranks. "We are a great band of brothers," said ono of the Vice-Admirals. The doings of tho Grand Fleet are rightly veiled in sccrecy._ We all know that this reticence is necessary, yet how we long to hear about tho men to whom wo owe so much, and Britishers tho world over will bo grateful to the Archbishop of York for the wonderful glimpse ho has given them of tho daily life of the Empire's sailor-men who are so eagerly waiting, for the opportunity of getting to grips with the enemy's fleet. And what Dr. Lang says of the men of the Grand Fleet can also be said of the men who are on the warships at the Dardanelles, the men of the Philomel, the Pyramus, and the Psyche, and the men on other vessels scattered over the oceans of the globe, all playing their respective parts with tnc same splendid spirit which'has made the British Navy the envy and the admiration of the world.