PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 80, 28 December 1917, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

A good deal has been heard from critics of the Admiralty who maintain that its policy is unduly cautious and demand that the Navy should bo allowed to engage in an active offensive. As the First Lord of the-Admiralty (Sir Eeic Geddes) observed in a recent speech, the , question is often asked whether the Admiralty is not contenting itself with a concentration on the . defensive role instead of adopting bold offensive measures." borne people, no doubt, will assume that Sib John Jelucoe's resignation of tho position of First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, which is announced to-day, is a, direct outcome of criticisms of this character, but such an assumption may easily be quite erroneous. Sie John Jellicoes resignation will no doubt please some critics of British naval policy. _ It is none the less true that he retires with the record and reputation of a successful commander and a highly capable' administrator, and that he has rendered splendid services during more than three years of war. in which the British Navy has met unprecedented demands in a fashion worthy of its noblest traditions. The news of his resignation is accompanied by an announcement that he has been raised to the Peerage in recognition of his very distinguished services and that it is hoped that his experience will bo utilised later by his'appointment-to another important office. *** • *

It is as well to remember that apart from commanders and administrators who have found in tho war a grave of reputation, there are a number who rendered capable and oven brilliant service, some of them for lengthy periods, and yet reached a poinfc at which it became expedient that they should give place to new men whom the war itself had brought to the front. Like so much else that the. war has touched, the British Navy has developed and expanded enormously under, its stimulus. It is likely enough that the highly important Admiralty change reported to-day is part and parcel of a progressive policy which aims at the ever more effective assertion of sea-power. But in any case Sir John Jemjcoe has behind him a record of work and achievement, as Gommander-ini-Chief of the Grand Fleet during the first twenty-eight months of tho war, and as First Sea Lord during the past year, of which any commander and administrator might bo pryud.

While it is to be admitted freely that all sorts of new developments are possible in naval'warfare, it is well within the facts to say that tho achievement of the British Navy during the. period which Sib John Jellicob spent in command of the Grand Fleet and at Whitehall is without parallel or precedent. History affords no other example of as effective a control.of tho seas as Britain established in the first days of the war and has maintained for more than forty months. In spite of the measure of success gained by the enemy submarines this holds good both of the protection afforded' to, Allied sea-transport and commerce and the blockade imposed pn the enemy. In the days before America entered the- war, the efficiency of tho commercial blockade was seriously limited by the concessions which Britain and her Allies, rightly or wrongly, deemed it necessary to make to neutrals: but this casts no reflection oii the Navy or the Admiralty, though it addscl many complications and difficulties to the• al- ' ready onerous problems and duties with which they had to cope horn day to chy. Tun achievement of the Navy to the present date is at once, too vast

and too complex to be indicated in any brief statement, but some- of its salient features were well brought out by Mb. Archibald Hurd in an article published in tho Fortnightly Review in August last. "'ln tho course of three years," he observed, "not a single German battleship, battlc-ctuiser, or light cruiser has escaped through , tho meshes of Uio Grand Fleet, though the passage between tho Scottish coast and Norway has a width of over 300 miles, Norway on the eastern side protecting ho'r neutral rights. That is a notable record. It is particularly notable in view of the fact that when the war opened the enemy possessed, forty light cruisers with speeds ranging from 21 to $1\ knots, in addition to nearly 150 destroyers. Every one of the 1000 days of war has been succeeded by_ a night, and yet not a single raider of. the regular Navy has eluded British forces and got_ out on the trade routes. Disguised merchant ships, it is true, have managed by artful design to got out on to the trade routes, but their careers were short and tho damage done slight.

We may add to this some facts which were supplied by Sin Eric Geddes, in his maiden speech as First Lord of the Admiralty, in the House of Commons last month. Hβ stated that the Navy had transported across tho eea to Allied armies 13,000,000 men, 2,000,000 horses, 25,000,000 tons of explosives,: 61,000,000 tons of fuel, 130,000,000 tons of food. Of tho 30,000,000 men who had crossed and recrossed the sea only 2700 had been lost by the action of tho enemy. The First Lord had something to say also to critics who demand a more active offensive policy. In particular ho instanced one comparative fact to show how the Grand Fleet differs in its role from the defensive) part played by the High Seas Fleet. Ths British Fleet in its northern base, he stated, lay behind no shore defences, but relied on its own strength alone. '•'There are those in this country, and possibly in this House," he added, "who do not appreciate the activities of His Majesty's Navy in home waters,, who think that it lins in its bases like the Hi.<rh Seas Fleet with the North Sea in between. I speak from the intimate knowledge I have of the day-to-day situation in the North Sea, and I can state with the fullest confidence to the House that the North > Sea— 140,000 square nautical miles—is swept day .and night from north to south and east to west by the British Navy." Durincr a recent month, the First Lord added, tho mileage steamed by British battleships, cruisers', and destroyers in , home waters amounted to 1,000,000 ship miles. The ceaseless patrol of tho Naval Auxiliary Forces amounted to well over 6,000,000 ship miles in home waters in the same month.

In recent times criticism of the Admiralty has centred chiefly in an allegation that it is not going to the heart of the matter in dealing -with the enemy submarine campaign. Against these criticisms there is to be set first of all the fact that splendid progress is being made in measures directed to countering the enemy's underwater effort. Tonnage losses arc declining, the rate .it which submarines are being destroyed is increasing rapidly (though it baa not yet outpaced new construction), and a 'vast programme of shipping construction in Britain, America, and elsewhere affords a further guarantee of the ultimate defeat of the enemy's underwater campaign. In the speech already quoted, Sir Eric Geddes stated that between 40 ana! 50 per cent, of the German submarines commissioned and operating in the North Sea, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans had been sunk, and that dui'ing the previous quarter the enemy had lost as many submarines as during the whole of 1916. He also quoted figures showing a heavy decline in tonnage losses, and observed that, "in spite of an increased number of ships passing through the- danger zone, our defensive measures have, during the past seven months, proved so efficacious that there has been a steady .and very great reduction in the damage done by the enemy underwater craft. Meantime, we are sinking enemy submarines to an increasing extent. Our offensive measures are improving* and becoming more effective, and will still more- considerably improve and multiply." ' It is, of course, true that thft German submarine campaign will nover be finally defeated until it has been made impossible for the underwater craft to emerge from their harbours into the open sea. A partial, solution of the problem is being approached in Flanders, where- the nnemy's most valuable submarine bases are threatened by the developing British offensive. But the one final policy against submarines, as a well-known writer nas said,' is "to carry our mine-fields up to the edge of the German harbours and to pen the enemy within his own bases." This demands, however, that the elusive High Seas Fleet should be put out of action, and it is easier to state the problem involved than to suggest a solution. Criticism of the Admiralty and of Sir John Jelmcob in his capacity as First Sea Lord for not penning up 'the enemy in his bases wn,uld only become effective if it could be shown that there are practicable means of attacking a fleet which .shelters behind mine and submarine defences and under powerful shore .artillery and steadfastly refuses to come out into the open and fight. It is.not effective criticism to demand impossibilities, and it has yet to appear that there are practicable means' of preventing the egress of submarines from German ports.

In'details little that is new is added to the story of-the terrific struggle lately in progress, on the Asiago'Plateau, but news.; of a heavy snowfall on this an A other sections of tho front indicates that the Italians are at last assured of a respite, and that the enemy has made great sacrifices in vain, so far as his efforts to break into the flank of the present Italian line are concerned. Only minor events are reported in the Western theatre, and at time of writing there is no reference to Macedonia. A recent Washington report which stated that the Germans had opened a powerful drive in Macedonia is by this time somewhat discredited. !* * > * * A new, but not altogether unexpected, turn is given to-day to the position in Russia. It is stated tlmt the Germans have asked for a postponement of negotiations to January 2-1, and it is added that it is exwct'.'d thai they will absohue"iy vcfuse to discuss a preneral peace, and that thi-: will lc;id to negotiations b'.'ing broken off. Tho' whole suggestion of the news is that.the Germans arc using the negotiation?

only as a cloak for schemes aiming at the greatest possible domination of llnssia, and the explicit statement is made that thoy aro massing huge forces on the south-western front. With corru'pt and feeble muddlers like the Bolsheviki still at the head of affairs in Fctrograd and over a great part of Russia, and the actively loyal sections of the nation largely cut off from assistance, _ the outlook is sufficiently _ disquieting. But a separate peace is not coming into nearer prospect.

Fon some reason the usual weekly return of shipping losses did not arrive last week, but the missing figures, received from Australia, by mail, are published in the news today. They show a material improvement on the figures of the preceding week, and a still more considerable improvement is_ shown in the return of losses during the past week, which has come punctually to hand. Fluctuations from week to week convoy no very definite information, but trie returns of the next few weeks are to be awaited with somo interest in view of the report that the enemy had planned an augmented submarine effort in October-November, in furtherance of a peace offensive during tho winter. Figures as yet in hand indicate that the effort was made, though with no very pronounced success, and that submarine operations have entered another period of decline. But the position should be more clearly defined a few weeks hence.