BOOKS OF THE DAY
. THE TIRPITZ MEMOIRS. To the LudendoriY Memoirs have succeeded those of tho man who ■ for tho first two years of tho war was practic-ally,-if not nominally, tho head of the German Navy. In "My Memoirs" (Hurst and Blackett, per Angus and Kobertson, Sydney, and Whitconibe and Tombs, Wellington), Grand Admiral von Tirpitz gives us his account of the. part played in tho war by the German Navy whilst it was under his control, with numerous comments, some of them of a severely denunciatory nature, upon the conduct, especially tho faults of omission and commission, of certain of the tnoro notable Hun commanders, both naval and military. The "Memoirs" exhibit their author in the character of a whole-souled German patriot, imlefatignbly industrious in the pursuit of his official duties. Underlying the whole of tho narrative, it is easy to perceive ft sense of irritation against tho interference to 'which he, an expert in naval matters, was continually being subjected 'by highly-placed.officials of the Court. Specially does lie take exception to the Naval Cabinet which was attached to tho Kaiser and him personally and privately, quite independently of tho counsel tendered by fhe Executive Command of the Admiralty. As a matter of fact, -what Lord Eishcr has complained of in his book, civilian interference, is pretty much the same thing as Tirpit;: is evidently so soro about. In tho long run Tirpitz succeeded in.getting the Kaieer's ear.-He found him a very obstinate man, but his dictation was not, however, no awkward an obstacle to get. over as the meddling of the civilian Naval Cabinet. Thus we find Tirpitz writing as follows-.—
Any attempt, on the part, of men in iesponsible positions to check the encroachments of the Cabinet came to an abrupt end; for as the Chiefs of tho Cabinet skil. fully adapted themselveß to His Majesty, tho Eniperor looked upon them as his clerks, whose main duty was to put his will into form of command. The Emperor has several times stressed this fact in conversation with me. I often thought o[ 18C6. In war-time particularly, the extremely slight power of .judgment that emanated from tho Cabinets once mora became- a source of evil to the nation. Whilst I found a natural and constitutional support under flohenlohc and Kulow against the encroachments of tho Cabinet, tho opposito was the case under Hon- von liothniann. '
One had to speak to the Emperor totc-a-teto The says in another placol, becaimo if there were a third person present' his own real opinion was easily influenced by his strong impulse to act the Emperor in every decision. The power of the Cabinet was rooted in this fact.
Tirpilz is convinced that the wisest policy for Germany would have ten. to use • hov fleet unsparingly and without fear of any consequences, in 1914. Ho contends -that, ship for ship, the Gev Irian, vessels were, the superior of the British. The German Derfflinger could pierce the heaviest armour of the Tiger at a ranyo of 11,700 ■ metres, whilst tho Tiger could not pierce (hat.of the Derffliiijrer until it was within'7Boo-metr'-s range. If our ships, which were handed over to the enemy in. aush a. shameful manner, are scientifically- examined, tho English will be amazed as they work through tho whole, as well as through Hie hundred-ahd-one details, to find what rivals they had in the Germans in their own particular province o£. shipbuilding. The .English have not been nearly so conscientious and intelligent in their work as we have been. .As the English are not Germans however, they will only reluctantly admit'that tho foreign Work is better lhan.tlicir own. 1: nm reluctant to make this statement. But if our nation is to learn anything from its fate, it mUBt realise the suicidal tendency in its nature. For many did not understand the weapon that they possessed in tho German Fleet until after th'.' Haftlo of Jutland. There was too much delay in drawing at the. right moment the historical consequences from its possession.
"The German Navy," says our author, "had only to be told the truth, and they would have been able to go into battle in August, 1914, with an unconquerable feeling of superiority." All very.well so far as it goes, but the • deciding point, would always have been the morale of the men beliind the guns, and although Tirpitz bitterly nsfails in turn Admiral Pohl, Jiethmann Holweg, and the Kaiser for want of an-, da city, it may be that after all they were better judges of the fighting quality of the German naval commanders and crews than was the Grand Admiral,
The inherent brutality of the Hun, more particularly the German naval and military authorities could surely find iio iL-oro enlightening■ exemplification than in an entry in Tirnitz's'diary in October, 1911. He had been summoned to Berlin to .i consultation about possible peace terms. After replying with ah almost offensive curtness that, no peace was ixkf'iblo until after a complete - -ind (rushing victory, he records his pergonal opinion that England is the enemy. "If only," he proceeds, "they.could set London on fire in thiity places instead of scattering bombs on unimportant .towns and villages, Ihe repulsiveness would ho lost in the immensity of the. effect." Evidently, to the Hun mind, .murder in unite justifiable and proper provided it be committed wholesale.
In some ways there is not a little to admire, in this hard-bitten Prussian of the old Bfcmnrckian type. At least le had the courage of his opinions, and scorned any truckling to the Kaiser. He does not conceal his poor opinion of AV'ilhelm, and pictures him fs a va'n nnd ineffectual person, inwardly suffering from ghastly anxiety the moment anything goes wrong, Mid blown nut with unjustifiable pride over the smallest success. Tirpitz, ) ; ke our own Lord Fisher, is very outspoken. p.On .M'C ■'•ceasion the ex-Kaiser, who prided himself upon his classical knowledge, v;ns consoling himself with some simile from the second Punic War. "His Majesty talked on the way back from church to the castle about the second Piiiiie, War, v/itli which he evideatly comforts himself. I combated the view as much as I nossibly could. After that fearful struggle there was a long pause of from fifty to n hundred years; all we had to think of now was how this war was to end." On one occasion we read of how he was summoned fo a special interview by the Kaise.rin. "I told her :i y invnrmshed opinion of the state of things; fiat the Kaiser is encircled and hemm?d in here by a crowd of weaklings. 'Yes,-unfortu-nately it is true,' she said."
One of the longest and most interestins chanters in the two volumes deals with the submarine campaign. It is difficult, of course, to know when a German, especially a German of the Tirpitz type, is lying and when ho is telling the truth, but he assures his readers tliat he was opposed to the declaration of tho extended "war zone" in February, 1915, nnd that his own individual programme would have limited the submarine blockade to the Thames. By the spring of 1910. however, he had, apparently, become a convert to the doctrine of' "ruthlessness." and ho not only personally advocated an "unrestricted submarino campaign." bnt resigned because . he could not. ncrsuade' the High Command of its necessity. He made no disguise of his opinion that if the unrestricted policy eventually adopted had been started earlier the result would have been veiv different from,what it was.- But he wilfullv ignores the fact, and it is a fact, that the campaign stopped because the Huns wero outwitted by the British Admiralty; they were actually, beaten before Berlin had decided upon the discontinuance of the worst features of the campaign.
Tirpitz. thorough-going Prussian autocrat that ho writes himself down as beinsr. is clearly a shrewd observed of modern tendencies. On some questions his ideas are ouife of a liberal character. Throughout the book arc scattered numerous pipages which express the most profound contemnt for tho more stupid and reactionary of tho Junke.r party. He writes of the Kaiser in terms
which would certainly, if used in prewar times, have laid him open to a charge of.lose umjestnat. liven in September. 191-1, he had become convinced that whatever the result of the war "it is all up with tho rule of caste and class." "Victory or defeat, we shall got pure democracy." His book is writtea in a frank, vigorous style and undoubtedly constitutes an interesting and vn<uable contribution to the literature of Die war. "Tho Guild State." T-> go back to 'he industrial methods of tho Middle Ages seems (o lie rather an audacious proposition as a solution of twentieth century problems, yet this, in eniiio- decree at least, is what is suggested bv Mr. G. li. Sterling Tavlor in his little hook. "The Guild State: Its Principles and Possibilities" (Georgo .Alien and Vmvin). Tn successive . chapters he discusses the historical basis of.the guild system and its three leading features—organisation by function, self-management, and decontr.'ilisal'on and small unils. Later on ho worka out. in detail what would, so ho contends, be the consentient results of the guild principles; discusses the relations between guilds and the Slate; and gives us a iniildsmnn's philosophy of life. 'Ph.e author is severely sarcastic upon the reconstruction proposals of statesmen, and professors. AVhether, however, a decentralisation system under which, apparently, the cotton workers of Lancashire would work out their own industrial salvation miite apart from tho agricultural workers of. say, Suffolk, and tho metal workers of Sheffield and Bi'-minsham from both cotton workers and agriculturists, would work out satisfactorily in these days when a general unily of industrial - effort is. by so many people, considered urgently desirable and necessary, will, I fear, be seriously doubled by most of Mr. Taylor's readers. It seems, too, a pity that the author should deem if. necessary to accuse "newspaper proprietors and university dugouts" of "splattering decent people with the -grease of their ideal world, bred in their coal pits nnd factory yards," and of "doing their best to turn a beautiful earth into a noisy pig-, sty." Mr. Taylor does not convince me that the best way In cope with modern industrial problems is to put the clock back. "Letters to a Young; Man." In his "Letters to a Young Man on Love and Ileelth" (T. Werner Laurie), Mr. Walter M. Gallichan. a well-known writer on sex questions, gives some sound counsel to young men, from the ago of sixteen upwards, upon a variety of subjerts of spec'al importance to the youthful male. There is nothing mawkish or sentimental •in these letters. Problems arc firmlv'fncod and honestly dealt with, the special temptations and dangers attendant upon youths who arrive at the age of puberty 'beine; set forth clearly and courageously. Too many bonks of this kind.' Ihou'th no doubt woll-inlen-lioned,enough, have, it is to be feared, done more harm, than good. Mr. Gallichan's method of instruction in sex knowledge is so well planned, his counsel so wisely .worded, that there can be no suspicion or chance of his wnrk pandering to any tendency towards mere unwholesome curiosity. A better book to be placed by a headmasl«r or father in ' the hands of an intelligent, welleducated, youth on leaving school could not well bo imagined.
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Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 114, 7 February 1920, Page 11
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1,892BOOKS OF THE DAY Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 114, 7 February 1920, Page 11
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