AUSTRALIA'S NAVY IN THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 148, 18 March 1920, Page 7

AUSTRALIA'S NAVY IN THE WAR

3 ♦ BATTLE-CETTTSER DREADED BY VON SPEE. [- —~ s London, March 8. ii Sir .Tulian Corhett, the well-known I naval writer, in tho first two volumes r. of his official naval history of 1 the war. n devotes nine chapters to the Pacific and Australian interests. He states that tho Admiralty did not foresee the springing up of the vast mercantile shipping organisation, or the dimensions of the Dominions' contributions. Thee necessitated frequent convoys at critical times, when the Emden and other enemy cr>'t disnlayed amazine powers for. mischief. ■ Sir Julian Corbett mention* Admiral Patey's occasional immobility, and praises the excellence of the * Australians' bush-fighting in New Guinea. "The '* German Admiral von Spee," he' says, II "dreaded the as superior to his whole srnmdron, and the Common- '> wealth's readiness to place the Aust''n--8 linn fleet in the hands of the Admiralty is specially extolled." The writer claim's a that this was vital to success, but ad- " mits that the Australian Government, \ in deferring to the Admiralty and de- , laying its_ convoys, did not reckon with public opinion, which did not perceive the value of the prolonged and methodi- ® cal oierations in ousting the enemy from I the Pacific. , The public regarded only tho British '■ failures, the cut cables, and the triumphs of tho raiders, and hence a marked reaction was observed when the Admiralty was compelled to restrain tho Commonwealth from sending transports unescorted. result was loud complaining that the Government had not Icept tho Commonwealth's fleet in its own hands. Sir Julian Corbett claims that the prodigious nature of the task, the <jinpreccdented nature of tho war, the immensitv of the volume of trade, and the intricacy of tho web of ocean routes ' make the Navy's 6ucce?s greater than the . most. 6auguino had hoped.—Sydney '' "Sun." . 3