A SCOTCH PAPER'S LAPSE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1623, 12 October 1916, Page 4

A SCOTCH PAPER'S LAPSE.

Some little time ago, a great deal of fuss was made in New Zealand over a North Island paper giving vent to its editorial feelings, in commenting upon the first Admiralty communique on the Battle of Jutland, and the editor had to apologise for drawing somewhat dismal conclusions from the slender information of a, first message. For fatuous pessimism, however, the lapse of the New Zealand journal cannot be compared with that of the Aberdeen Free Press, a copy of which has lately reached an exchange. The readers of this Scottish paper were cheered and consoled in the following inspiring strain; —“Our arms have sustained a crushing defeat, and the German arms have, as againsl us, won the greatest victory the war has yet witnessed. The results of the naval battle fought off Jutland on Wednesday afternoon is (sic) to the British Navy and the Allied cause a lamentable disaster, all the more appalling because it lias occurred at a grave juncture, and because, as a German triumph at once solid and spectacular, it will vastly lower British prestige and produce all the world over a profound moral effect in favour of the enemy. This crushing blow turns to dust and ashes the pride and the confidence wo have felt in out Navy as the ‘sure shield’ not only of the United Kingdom, but of the British Empire.” And instead of chasing the editor with an axe, and calling him pro-German, even the Seot-ssaw the humour of the situation, and smiled visibly.