NAVAL WAR SECRETS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3444, 25 March 1920, Page 6

NAVAL WAR SEC RETS.

INTERESTING DISCLOSURES.

ADMIRAL BROWNRIGG’S BOOK.

LONDON, Jan. 28. During the war the secrets of ‘the

Admir‘alty-—and they were very secret —were on pink ‘paper, but the censorshififhafifffifg {Seen removed they are no lbnger“ pifik. Most of them, in connection with the naval war, have now been revealed. Rear-Admiral Sir

Douglas Brownrigg has published an entertziining book called “Indiscretions of the Naval Censor,”——~and he iximself was for 4; years the chief censor at the Admiralty, where he “managed to upset many tempers in Fleet Street” during that period. At the very end of the book there is an‘ outburst in a. note which makes -‘the reader wonder if Admiral Brownrigg has been censored himself. ‘ “I wish,” he says, “I could have told the Whole txuth!,” --

'Ad,lniral Brownrigg recalls more than once encounter, in his official capacity, with Lord Fisher - “that cheery old gentleman,” as he calls him. Lord Fisher once asked if it was true that the admiral, as censor, had stopped a certain cable to America. because his (Lord Fisher’s) name was mentioned in‘ it. When Lord Brownrigg denied the impeachment Lord Fisher remarked: “That is just as well, as all those who get in my way come to a nasty end. They all fdie of some horrible complaint.” And a characteristic letter from Lord Fisher, which Admiral Brownrigg reproduces, begins: “Kindly see to’ it that some d—-——b Scoundrel amongst the censors don’t -garble enclosed message.” - _ 7 Mr Churchill prepared a commun-3 ique on the Falkland Islands battle,J‘ “which -died stillborn, the reason be--I ing that Lord Fisher told Mr Church-ills-that if it Was published he (the‘ First Sea Lord) would resigns” It was Lord Fisher, so the admiral tells us, “who cajoled, and threatened, andl browbeat” Mr Churchill into silence on‘ the loss of the Audacious on Octoher 24, 1914. .. f‘T.here is no doubt,’«’ says the ex-' censor, “that the continued suppres-: sion of the loss of that ship cost us the confidence of the pulblic both here and abmad.” MAKING WAR IN B-ED. ,

The admiral also gives an intimate picture of Mr Churchill at the time of the attempt to force the Dardanelles.

“I used to see the last of him at 1.30 a.m., and I would take him the cable copies and radios that had come in during the night, properly typed out, and be at his bedside at 9.15 am. He presented a. most e}:tx-aordinary spectacle, perched up in a huge bed, with the whole of the Counterpane littered with despatch boxes, red and an colours, and a stenographer sitting at the foot, Mr Churchill himself with an enormous Corona in his mouth, a. glass of warm Water by his side, and a writing pad on‘ his knee! On one occasion he had a badly swollen face, and with two turns of a flannel bandage round it and a. scanty lock esoaping here and there, presented a truly extraordinary picture. The Corona, however, was still there!”

“Barring one ‘bust up,’ ” Admiral‘ 81-ownrigg says he had pleasant as'so- I ciations with Mr Churchill. “He was. a. bit of gambler, that is, he .would.[ hold on to a bit of bad news for a time on the chance of getting a bit‘ of good news to publish as an offset,‘ and i must say that it not infrequently came off!,” ‘A JUTLAND EXPLANATION. As chief censor, the admiral had‘ to‘ bear the storm of crticism that broke i ‘cut with the publication of the first” news of the battle of Jutland, when all the losses seemed to be on our side; but he gives good reasons for issuing the first communique without waiting for fuller -details from, the fleet. “Our ports were"full'_ifii"‘d‘6il¥lT'. aged ships, and the hospitals ‘VIS/',€.{l‘_€‘ full of wounded men,” he pAoint:.s “and the Germans had got ai\v':l‘_yff' I their fairly complete story of t_ll_'el__b'at—tle through their wireless country in the world except tliesel.iS_-, lands. V\~"!hatever ‘be the rights_or Wrongs of the first Adniiraity communique, it had this effect all the world over——our reputation for telling the truth was re-established, and from that time onward I believe it is fair to say that what appeared in our communique was accepted as fact, whereas the Germans suffered irretrievably by their origrinal I_\fing and Vaiu;j;lo:'ious communique which they were compelled to alter.’{ OPPOSITION TO PUBLICITY. Admiral 81-ownrigg pillories cases Of ODDO-““31'-30!! to his efforts to let the World know what the navy was doing. Thus Sir Henr.V Jackson is recorded as saying of a document authorising the film, “Britain Prepared”: “Take it away, I dcrnft agree with Z,'.tV_‘,' of it. f,h.ollgh I have signed it.’ His lmnal was forced. but he refused to see American newspapermen at a time when Admiral Brownrigg thinks. it

‘would have been very useful to unJbend.

I Comedians were almost: as much dreaded as correspondents. The proffered services of Sir H. Lauder and ‘Mr H. Tate were stubbornly refused by the “big wigs” of Soap-a. Flo-w. [After this ‘is was not surprising to tread that Sir Douglas sustained “a bit ‘of a shock;’ when he received from Lord Jellicoe “a bundle of proofs and a letter asking if I would go through them and see if there was anything objectionable in them. . . There was not much with which I could find fault, but I pointed out to Lord Jellicoe certain, technical passages that betrayed things not yet ripe for publicity, and I got a few statements deleted or altered.”