BRITAIN’S NAVY.

Taihape Daily Times, 23 May 1919, Page 5

BRITAIN’S NAVY.

TRIBUTE FROM FRANCE,

FLEET'S GLORIOUS RECORD,

LONDON, April 23

Reuter’s correspondent at Paris states that a high-placed personage in the French Ministry of Marine has communicated the sentiments' of the Minister and the Navy which were inspired on the occasion of the visit of Admiral Beatty and representatives of the British Navy to Paris. Ho, says:— “France was happy and proud to pay national homage to the sailors who have been France’s Allies from the beginning of the war.

“The British Navy was the impenetrable shield, of victory. It had the

same part to play in the gigantic struggle by sea as the French Armies had to play in the struggle on land.

“To the glorious names of the Marne, Yser, and Verdun, the British Navy added Jutland, Zocbrugge, and Ostend. 7 '

The speaker oulogistically referred to Admiral Beatty as the trainer of the British Fleet, who understood how to communicate to it his own indomitable courage and confidence, and whose names would be inscribed on the annals of the war alongside those of Joffre, Foch, Detain, and Haig.

Admiral Touchard. who delivered the address of welcome to the sailors at the Sorbonne, said that he would recount. the British fleet’s exploits, and its incessant work night and day, against the German submarines, without which the Allies’ victory would have been practically impossible. At the reception at the Elysce in honour of the visit of the British Fleet President Poincare handed 1o Admiral Beatty the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, and paid a. very warm tribute to Beatty, who, he said, had shown throughout the war the finest qualities possible in a sailor. At the reception at the Ministry of Marine, M. (Leygues, the Minister, conferred a. number of decorations on British naval officers, including the aross of Commander Legion of Honour on Vice-Admiral Sir Arthur Leveson. and Sir Osmond Brook.