NAVAL COMMANDS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1351, 23 January 1915, Page 4

NAVAL COMMANDS.

The triends of Sir George Callaghan will read with interest a statement which appears in the Quarterly Review. It consists of an explanation of the circumstances under which the change was effected in the command o. Home fleets on the outbreak o r war. It is common knowledge! that Admiral Callaghan had completed two years in his appointment in December last, and had been given a year’s extension. If he bad continued to fly his flag until December he would have been continuously employed, at sea for a period of between eight and nine years, and thus a change of command would have occurred during the course of actual warfare. In these circumstances the Admiralty decided that, as Sir John Jellicoe was well fitted by experience, knowledge o r British naval policy, and comparitive youth, being seven years Admiral Callaghan’s junior, the shitring of flags should take place at once. So much has been common knowledge, but the writer in the Quarterly Review proceeds t - exatuine precedents, with results which are of some interest, Every modern naval war has opened with just such an incident as occurred in the Home fleets. On the eve of the naval operations against Italy in 1566, the Austrian Admiral, who had tiained the crews, was relieved of his command in favour of Tegetthof, then only 39 years old. When war between the United States and Spain be came inevitable, the Navy Department at Washington called upon Rear-Admiral McNair, who was in the Pacific, to haul down his flag, which was replaced by that of Admiral Dewey. In the Atlantic the American naval forces, which were under Admiral Sicard, were immediately turned over to Captain Sampson, a very junior officer, who was thus called upon to fly his flag for the first time when the Spanish fleet was already in movement. Similarly, in the Far East, when war was declared by Japan against Russia, Admiral Togo, who was acting as Superintendent of the Navy Yarn at Maznru, was suddenly required to assume com maud of the United squadron in relief of the officer then in authority. la each of the instances quoted, the officer selected had won high repute as a strategist and tactician, and had the advantage of youth, and, therefore, of ability to stand the strain of war.