A VIGOROUS ADMIRAL

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 44, 15 November 1919, Page 7

A VIGOROUS ADMIRAL

e LORD FISHER AS A PRESS WRITER SOME STRONG LANGUAGE (From the London Correspondent,of the Melbourne "Argus") London, September 11. Lord Fisher built the British Navy that defeated the Germans, and therefore Lord Fisher won the-, war. Such is tho kernel of some remarkable chapters of egotism which Lord Fisher is pouring forth in the columns of tho "Times." "Was I wrong," said lie, "about the water-tube boiler, when the whole expert world was against me?" "Was 1 wrong about the turbine when I put it into the Dreadnought?" "Was I wrong with that battle-cruiser which sent von Speo to the bottom?" "Was I wrong about the submarine—when .seven' months before the war I described the sinking of tho Lusitnnia?" "Hid the Fleet at' Seapa Flow on August 1, Iflll, win tho war, or not? livery vessel that was there was conceived when I was First Sea Lord." "Was I wrong _ in bringing the Fleet from the Mediterranean to the North Sea?"-It is clear to everybody that Lord Fisher is never wrong, More than onco in these vigorous letters ho quotes St. Paul, and to show his humility tells his renders that ho "suffers fools gladly"; but lie adds, which is not in the Pauline spirit, "oulv up to a certain point." Apart from his overwhelming ,vanity, no one can deny tho excellence of Lord Fisher's judgment. There is no doubt he stirred nb the Admiralty with a new spirit wliou ho was there in 1901. He asserts that tho present Admiralty is drifting back to the old condition of inefficiency- and extravagance. Its ruinous waste, he says, is incredible. It i costs 110 millions ,s year! Ho demands "that the- whole spendthrift crew" shall be turned out. Ho advises the country lo ho "riithlcs>. relentless, remorseless! Sack the. lot!" But. in another .communication ho reckons"' that as the whole of the present British Navy will lie obsolete, he advocates new ships, and more powerful. Lord Fisher takes credit for his advocacy of submarines, which in Jauuary, 1914, he de=cribed .as the cominr i!.vpo of war . vessel. Ho says he was "literally persecuted" for building submarines. When he, left the Admiralty in 1910 there were 01. efficient: when he returned in October, 191-1, there were only SI. He. therefore, sent for Mr. Schwab, of the Bethlehem Steel Works, and he built a batch of submarines in ftvo months, half the usual timo, and sent them across tho Atlantic direct. to tho Mediterranean, wliero they did good work. "Mr. Schwab should have been ' made a duke, but he had not received even the order of, tho rotten egg." Lord j Fisher adds that the nation (Admiralty) ; "i,s going to make the samo damned mess over tho internal combustion engine." Everv country is pushing ahead with llint'tvpe.- Herr Ballin determined to build a fleet, of 10,000 tons so tilted. "Wo have not fitted a single ship, or oven thought of it." I Tho noble lord's loiters have • many | flashes 1 of quarter-deck language. For | instance, he (ells how that bv industry, • and without anybody's help, ho won his i way to tho top of tho Admiralty; rei counts lioiv ho breakfasted alone with I King Edward on the day he was made I First Sea Lord, in IBM; having "entcr- | ed the navy penniless, friendless, .and I forlorn, but was now equipped with knowledge and power to say to anyone who instructed mo, 'You be damned,' and ho was dawned." Lord Fisher likewise describes how nil tho other nations waited lo see tho result of his experiment of building a. Dreadnought. Tlu.t. new, departure paralysed tho worlds shipbuilding for- eighteen months, because "tho damned thing wn.s so different. from what lliey had expected." lie likewise tells us more than one navy, secret. With his turbine engines ho .got up steam in twontv minutes, which used to toko over five'hours; ho prepared plans lo make ah 18in. gun that could easily fiie acrow the Channel. AVhen ho built What he calls his "real gems." tho bal-tle-c-ruisers, he "bluffed tho Germans' by having the orders entered on t he manufacturers' books as fur tho Sultan of Turkey. He did this because Abdul Hamid was tho champion liar of the time, and the more he denied it the more sure were the Germans fhaf-he was lying, especially when they broke open llio safy and naw the Sultan's order among the archives. ■ Wo ato learn Hint in order lo confuse the German espionage ho purposely left oji his table some wrong Admiralty plans, "which I lie Germans appropriated, jind wasted .DM on the job." Meeting lilio Gorman naval attache in St. James's l'arlc, lie conu'ratulaled him. and added, "You could have had those plans for nothing." . Lord Fisher is proud of llio fact. Ilia!: he selected tho Invincible, with her great speed and powerful guns, to confront, von Speo and Ibe Seharnhorst, and sent th J admiral and his ship to tho bottom without having a singlo man killed or wounded. He' says it Is not his task, or to his taste, to criticise the tactics of the Jutland light; but tho fact lenmins that in spite of miserable ineptitude our navy won tho war. The blockade won it, timorously, but yet wo won il, though masses of wnr material passed through. One ship alone had fiftOO loiiß of copper, which af(enva.rds helped to rotale tho German shells. Lord Fisher's letters are causing much comment and somo amusement. Admiral Penrose Fitzgerald drily comments ou Lord Fisher's "almost prophetic.' 1 inslinct. "his well-known reputation for' modesty." • "No one will expect him to explain or, apologise" for anything I hat he writes, (hough liol, everyone will agreo with him that "it is only damned Cools who argue." Members of the Earori Defence tiitlo Club will fire the (bird match of (ho firsl series Ibis afternoon on iho Trenlhaiu range at ranges of WO nud (10(1 yard.*, ten idiots and sigbler at each range. A -slight cold is dangerous. Don't neglect il. Take "NA/OL"— Ibe neverfailing remedy for coughs and colds. Sixty full doses for Is. od—Advt,