FALKLAND ISLAND'S FIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 215, 19 February 1915, Page 2

FALKLAND ISLAND'S FIGHT.

GERMAN PLAN TO SEIZE GROUP AS BASE. A GARRISON AFLOAT. is just as well, wrote the naval correspondent of the London Times j last month, to take some of the pic- i turcsquc accounts of the battle off the . Falklands, which are now coming home with a grain of salt. There are descriptive touches in these stories which require explanation. Stripped, too, of their garnish, the narratives add but little to the official accounts which were published on December 10 and l-lt What we learn for the first time is that the battle cruisers Invincible and Indexible had been sent out from home to deal with the German squadron, and that the secret of this move was well kept. The date on which those vessels left is not stated, but it must have been in the second week of November, or within a few days of the news arriving of Cradock's defeat. It is also clear that they only arrived at Port Stanley on December 7, or just in time, since on the following morning the German squadron turned up. It was a fine piece of work, calculated .with the utmost nicety, and a splendid tribute not only to those who devised the stroke, but to the ships which were selected to carry it into effect, and their officers and men, particularly the engineering staffs. A , distance of 14,000 miles at high speed had to be covered by the ships on their journey, and their arrival on the spot to the minute constitutes an unparalleled feat. It is clear that the German admiral was well supplied with information about the movements of the, ships in South American ' waters. The knowledge that an Anglo-Japanese' squadron was approaching from the north must have warned him that he had come to tlie r-nd of his tether in the Pacific. Doubtless lie knew or guessed that the Canopus was sheltering at the Falk- ; lands, and Port Stanley, if it could be captured, offered facilities with its store of coal, and wireless station, as an ad- j mirable base for raiding purposes. It | is reported that the German admiral had ' several thousand reservists with him on' board the Prinz Eitel Frederick to form. , a garrison, and had he succeeded in his J enterprise it would have taken a strong

force to regain the islands. Incidentally lie hoped, no doubt, to send a few more warships to the bottom. The Canopua was the cheese in the mouse-trap. Just when the prize seemed within liis grasp the appearance of the two great battle-, cruisers must have been a severe disappointment. It was a trmmlph for the policy of mystification, for which the Admiralty have sometimes been taken to task. ,It is when one looks for details in or- ■ der to reconstruct the action that these American narratives are found so bald and unconvincing. For example, if the Germans were really within range of the smaller British cruisers and made such good shooting, how is it that there were no casualties in these light vessels <! It is more in accordance with the official statements that the fight took tlie character of a eliase rather than that as we are now told, the German armored cruisers fought broadside to broadside, and that their shells "rattled vainly" against the heavy armor of the British battle-cruisers. It is at least more likely that flic former were separately overhauled and destroyed, the Gneisenau two hours after the flagship had been sent to the bottom.

THE WHITE FLAG STORY. It is also saiiUthat after an action of two hours between the Glasgow and the Leipzig the latter hauled down lier colors, and hoisted the white flag. A white flag.is unnecessary as a signal of surrender afloat, and if it were not that there is a story in the British Australasian of the sinking of the Emden which says this German cruiser also hoisted the white, flag, one would be disinclined to give credit to such an incident. If it b e true, the German cruisers must oe tlie first ships of any nation to take a white (lag to sea with them for the purpose of denoting surrender. It seems to indicate that they expected sucii a termination to their careers. Probably not all the ships were alike, since the captain of the Nurnberg. refused to surrender and fought till his vessel sank. It will be remembered that Captain Sclionberg is reported to have said at Honolulu, "The Nurnberg will very likely be our coffin, but wo are ready to fight to the last." With the officers of the Glasgow, we must hope that the sliot lired from the Leipzig after she liad surrendered was accidental, but from other incidents of the war it is questionable wliether the Germans deserve to be given the benefit of the doubt in such a case.