What of the Fleet ?

Horowhenua Chronicle, 10 June 1915, Page 2

What of the Fleet ?

A WEIRD SILENCE,

London, April 9,

Nearly .a fortnight ago it was announced that "tho Admiralty had good reason to believe Tfiat the German U2O has been eunk iritli all hands." iLaet Monday a etatemout received by GernifHi wireless was published, over the signature of tho Oiiei of tho Naval Staff in Berlin, to the ettect tlwut this vessel "did not return from her latest CMiise and tihat in view of the claim by the British naval authorities, the vessel "must, therefore, be considered to be sunk." The U29 was one of the largest and most efficient of the enemy's submarines. One early last month, sho issued forth on her errand of piracy; nothing further has been hoard of her by the enemy except that .somehow and somewhere she has destroyed, and all on board drowned.

Tho Germans will probably never knoiw haw the U2O met her fate, lor apparently our Admiralty authorities do not inite-iid to give the -world any indication of what constituted tilie "good reason" afaremenifcioiieT, and ther liave oaueed a poor journalist tt> ibe prosecuted because ho penned a story concorning a certain torpedo boat having ibtumped into an underwater oibstruction in a certain locality and associating this incident -with the sinking of U2O. His ■iiidiscretion coet him £5, though apparently hit; story did not get into the papere save in an emasculated form.

The U29, we are permitted to believe, was not' the first nor the last German submarine to disappear in a. •manner most mysterious. The gossips say that there are at a certain English post 'half a dozen eiibmanines interned, which are certainly not British by construction, and from timp to dime one -hears: 'very stories concerning fche destruction of Gorman underwater chaft by patrol vessels. The Admiralty neither troubles to confirm nor deny the tales, «nd the silence of the authorities upon these matters is extended to practically everything connected with the nary. When •we eome to think of such things wo realise, for example, that since January 2-1, when Sir D. Beatty's .squadron so badly punished tile marauding. Germans, sinking the Bluener. aitul damaging two other battle cruiisers, tve have no intelligence of the Grand Fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, or any section of it; that since March 1$ we Jiave had no official news of tho progress of the operations in the Dardanelles, where the greatest naval force ever engaged in active operations of a warlike chatraoter is at work, and that for a longer period we have had no word of any other portion of the British havy except vague reports that men-of-war have lately been co-operat-ing with the land forces on the Belgian coast

Our Grand Fleet might be at tlie ibottoin of the Bea, iw all the British public sees about it in the newspapers. The Germans declare that in is "in hiding," but even they do not give us any hint ae to its hiding place at the present time. Some months ago tliej declared it was in ithe Atlantic 1 , off the west coast of Scotland. But n«_ one believed that yarn., and on January 24 the Germans Uhenieelree had 'proof that at least a portion of it .was" in the North Sea.

In the earlier days of the war the silence concerning the working of tilie great naival niacQiine caused a great deal of disquietude, and .gave rise to a number of distressing rumours concerning the fate of the individual ships. But to-day people have got accustomed to official reticence, and have coniu to the couckiMon that if "no x niws" is not necessarily good nwvs, tlio aibseiicc of tidings concerning the navy's dbmgs baa no sinister import. Wo cannot, it is true, quite comprehend why our naval autliorities "keep dai'k" aibout the sinking of Komo of the enemy's submarines, whilst they permit the publication Of all sorts of details about the destruction of others, but wo conclude there is some good reason for this discrimination and that it is really in the best interests of the country tha.t the news of the sinking or capture of

certaiin of the enemy's sulbmiairines should 'be withheld from. us. Thero ie, one point upon wliich vro, should now like enlightenment, aind ■that as Tvliat, jf anyttihing, actually happened to H.M.S. Audacious, which, according to American papers, was sunk off the north-eaet coast of Ireland 6ome six months ago, and which, by British gossip, n-ae variously sunk ljy mines, ran. on a rock and , fouudorod, or was merely damaged and taken to Belfast or the Clyde for repairs. It. certainly fcems strange at this distance of time from the alleged ■ea'tastroplio the "Admiralty should lvfuwe oithor to admit or deny the truth of itilie very oincumetanbiel etorie« tlhait hare been circulated from time to time regarding this 'much-diecusned battleship.