SILENT GERMAN FLEET.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 9 July 1917, Page 6

SILENT GERMAN FLEET.

THE REASON WHY. WHAT THE TEUTONS CLAIM. Germany'c so-called High Seas Fleet' 5s the great barrier standing in the way «f attempts by the allied fleets to raid the submarine "nests," along the German coast, or to block the exits through -which the underwater commerce destroyers leave their bases, according to statements made by Captain von Kuhlwetter, a naval writer, in a long article in the Kolnische Zeitung of April 24, entitled "On 'Silence' in the NaVal War." In the course of this article, •which is extensively quoted in the London press, Captain von Kuhlwetter Bays:

"Of course, we also keep silence about many things. We are silent about the far-seeing calculations and arrangements which enabled our submarines to appear punctually at the Dardanelles, and which transferred the centre of the submarine war now to the Mediterranean, now to the Atlantic and now to the Arctic.

"We are silent as to where and how the iron arms of our submarine Avar are applied; with fists of steel, they grip the trade roads of our enemy and pitilessly seize all that moves on forbidden paths. We are silent about the gigantic organisation which is necessary in order to bring out into the North Sea and the ocean our troops of submarines in unbroken succession, without one of them getting into the way of another, and to guide them back into our ports for rest and preparation for a new fight. We are sileut almost about the untiring and exacting work of our High Seas Eleet, which supplies the indispensable support for everything that is done in the North Sea. But for the High Sea Fleet, enemy forces in adequate strength could at any time approach so near to our gates of exit that these gates could be locked by use of the innumerable resources of naval warfare. But for the High Seas Fleet, England could really put her battle fleet out of commission and employ many thousands of useful sailors for other purposes for which there is bitter need of them. Day after day, month after month, year after year, the High Seas Fleet is ready to nip in the bud every attempt to approach our gates of exit.

'.'Over in Great Britain they have coined the phrase of the fleet that works in silence. With the best will in the world they cannot report anything about their fleet, because it does nothing, and so is really silent.

"The. commander-in-chief has been changed, and an admiral, who is equipped with the halo of pushfulness and is popular with the fleet, has been put at its head, in order to make the public hope that the fleet is unceasingly searching for laurels to the laurels of the Skagerrak. The credulous are supplied ever afresh with the fairy tale that the German fleet cannot be found in the future also unless the successes of the allied armies make its base untenable, and Hindenburg, fn over excitement or despair, forces the ships to the battle of desperation."