The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 1916. ADMIRAL LORD FISHER.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 84, 15 March 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 1916. ADMIRAL LORD FISHER.

There lias been a good deal of talk of late regarding activity at Kiel ami many warnings have been issued about what, the German Fleet, after its long rest in harbor proposes to do. A few days ago a great array of German ships did venture forth a little way, hut whatever tine tale may have been told in Berlin, the fact remains that commanders of the Kaiser’s ships were careful to take no risk of getting anywhere/ near a British squadron. For more than a year the British Navy has held the seas unchallenged, so far as honest warfare is concerned, though there have certainly been many foul deeds of German piracy on unarmed and inoffensive merchant vessels. Doubtless strenuous effort to build more ships have been made in Germany, but any effort of our enemies has’ been fully countered by 'Britain, and this was as fully explained by Mr Balfour in. his late speech, as it was possible to explain without giving unnecessary information to the enemy. At such a time we should certainly be making use of the best brains and experience at Britain’s service, and for this reason many experts on naval affairs are insistent that Admiral Lord Fisher should again take an active

part in the direction of our naval af- ( j fairs. Lord Fisher left office over a purely political dispute, though it 'sj undoubted that when lie resigned it came as a blow to the nation which' reposed fullest confidence in him. “The genius of Fisher.” writes James Doug-1 las in London Opinion, “is one of thosesimple things. Stated bluntly andbrutally. It is this—that he has made our Navv and that he lias done every-' thing. There is no statesman in Fng-| land who can deny the dazzling genius of Fisher. It is a truism. Lot us catalogue a few of his achievements. His first stroke of genius was the scrapping of one hundred and sixtytwo warships which could neither fight, nor run away. How'that stroke was, execrated! How it was denounced! But by it ho made possible another stroke of genius—the system of nucleus crews which put into each ship brains, leaving the beef to come along: I when it was wanted. Fisher’s third 'stroke of genius was the adoption of ' the water tube boiler —the biggest re-

volution on record, a revolution which put the tire where the water was ano the water where the tire was, ;he consequence being that instead of taking seven or eight hours to get up steam, you take only twenty minuter, you

Peep your ’boilers clean, you save your fuel, and you are ready whenever your enemy arrives. He went to the mt enter of the Parsons turbine in the teeth of the bitterest opposition. Fisher discovered the turbine on a penny steamer. He went to the inventor,' Parsons. Parsons said: ‘Will you seej me through F Fisher saw him through, j To-day 80 per cent, of the horse-power, on the seven seas is turbine. And yet all the mandarins turned up their n()S es at the turbine. Fisher’s fifth stroke was the introduction of oil fuel into the Navy, again in the teeth of authority. The sixth stroke was the concentration oi our navy in the North Sea. A simple thing, but the simplicity of genius. Nobody bad thought of that simple thing. Fisher divined it and did it secretly, thus checkmating the strategy of Tirpitz.j The seventh stroke of genius was , the creation of the Dreadnought, thei ship that baffled German ambition and} converted the Kiel Canal for years into a useless' ditch. His eighth stroke > t genius was the creation of the battle- 1 cruiser—the greyhound with the big guns. When, after a series of disasters. Fisher was called in a year ago, the first thing lie did was to send his battle-cruisers to sink Von Spec’s squadron. Fisher swept aside the barnacles, unloosened his greyhounds,' and boldly chose as their admiral the very man who had been honestly and profoundly sceptical about them be-1 fore thev were horn!' Fisher divined the game of Von Spec. He guessed that he was making for Capetown. There he meant to sink the South Afri-j can squadron, destroy Botha’s transports on their way to German South-' west Africa, and then get in to the Atlantic trade routes, where he might l have cut off Britain’s food supply for, weeks. Instead of which, the grey-j hounds caught him afc the Falkland Islands and sent him and his ships to the bottom. The Falkland Islands Is the greatest British victory of the war. j If was won through Fisher’s strategy! by Fisher’s ships. Fisher’s ninth stroke of genius was the hunting, down j of the German submarines. He organised that gi;eat bunt. The collapse of the submarine piracy was due directly to.. Filler’s daring initiative,, Fisher’s tenth stroke,.of genius, was his protest, against.. -the, .Dardanelles ‘'gamble/' ! which lias now, come to,a disastrous |close. Whilst he has.bpen blamed for 1 not absolutely vetoing the whole. pro- ! posal, the full facts and arguments are 1 not available to enable us to pro-; nounce judgment. His last stand, j however, probably saved the Queen, . Elizabeth and other capital ships from ■ sharing the fate of the Majestic. ’ Such is the opinion held of this great Admiral who for months past has been merely a silent onlooker. He has now been called upon to meet the War Council, and it is almost certain he will again be given office in some posi- : tion where his great gifts as a naval, strategist may be used to the Empire’s advantage and the further discomfiture of Germany.