CRITICS ON OUR ARMY AND NAVY.

Taihape Daily Times, 11 January 1918, Page 5

CRITICS ON OUR ARMY AND NAVY.

LONDON, November 3. From the North of England there has come a wave of criticism, and for the moment it has flooded London, which is angry and anxious and demands victories. Th'c Government that docs not produce victories is to have short shrift. It is a rough method of judgment, but the inevitable method of democracy in war. Manchester has always been critical of the Haig school of leadership, and its strong western theories. This criticism has extended to nearly every city in the north.

While in the south of England the public mind has been most distressed about navq,l inactivity in the north it has been concentrated upon the strategy in, the western theatre of war, and its ultimate prospects. All this criticism is now gathered in London in a general demand tuat wiser counsels shall be secured and followed. “Our military organisation runs to muscle rather than to brain.” is one of the sayings of day. “The greatest navy in the world remains hidden in Scottish rivers” is another. Perhaps the most damaging criticism of naval administration comes from America, where officials and writers do not hide their strong dislike of the Jellicoe strategy. These American experts believe that an offensive against some section of enemy coast would succeed, and that in any case the British method of battle order—“advance in line ahead”—is disastrous because it enables the enemy to concentrate upon each ship as it comes into the lead, as at Jutland. Criticism is easy. And are not critics apt to overlook the greatest fact of the land and sea operations iu this war—the fact that the British navy has successfully commanded the sea communications, hemmed our enemies in. and made our military and industrial work possible?