LITTLE JELLICOE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 224, 1 March 1915, Page 7

LITTLE JELLICOE.

A PERSONAL SKETCH. (By T. P. O'Connor, M.P.) x Frederick AVilliam, the father of Frederick the Great, who travelled in Enrope for giants, would have been very much disgusted of our choice of our leaders in this great war. In polities we have Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, and they are small men. French, our commander-in-chief, is a small man. 'And, finally, Jellicoe, out* Admiral of the Fleet, is a small man. I have heard him referred to in private even disrespectfully as "Little Jeilicoe." But I should tell the _ circumstances under which the familiar title was applied.

THE COLLISION. As everybody will remember, on the fatal' 22nd June, 1893, he Camperdown, and Admiral Tryon, whose ill-fated order caused the disaster, twenty-one, of his officers and 350 of his men were drowned. But Jellicoe was not drowned. When th«; collision came, he was lying in his berth, and had been there for days, down with a bad attack of fever. It was there that he heard the grinding noise of the collision. He forgot his fever, jumped out of bed, gave the warning to all the sailors and rushed up on deck. Waited till he saw everybody else off the doomed vessel, and the last sight he saw, says the man who tells the story with great gusto, "was little Jellicoe." It wasn't till, the word of every man for himself was givn that Jellicoe jumped into the sea. Then -he was so weak that, but for a friendly midshipman's help, he would have, had to go down. But Midshipman .West held him until they were both rescued by a boat. Indeed Jellicoe ought to have been dead long ago. For he has been in as tight pluces as ever a man was. He went out to the rescue of a boat at Gibraltar in a roaring gale; the gi:r was capsized and Jellicoe was waslvd ashore. TTe frot, a silver medal from thBoard of Trade. That medal went down with the rest in the Victoria. Hasked the Board of Trade for a duplicate, and he was politely told he could have it—if he Daid for it.

A GREAT CAREER. Here is a career that follows apparently its destined course from its first hour. For at school and college Jellicoe carried all the prizes before him. He was from the first determined to be a master of his profession, and he studied every branch of it, and all the literature upon it. His knowledge of every branch of tile profession is described by experts as astonishing. He knows all about the L'uns. it was lie who helped Fisher to revolutionise the guns of our navy. He knows all about torpedoes, he knows all about, and lie could command, if necessary, a submarine. He has always been a man of progress. He helped at the birth of the Dreadnought, at the side of Fisher again. He trampled on the centurv-old traditions of the navy that sailors need not fire straight. Nelson had always sent him ships right up to the ships of the enemy, mid fighting at short range does not demand very skilful marksmanship. But Jellicoe changed all that. When he was in charge of a ship, he insisted on his men learning gunnery, and his ships always took first place in gunnery. nis service has been varied. He nearly lost his life through a had wound during the expedition in China, which Admiral Seymour commanded, when the Boxers were turning things upside down. He has commanded many ships. But there is tilts remarkable fact that this man, who essentially is a man of action, has had abundant experience of the office 'lode as well.

JELLICOE HOLDS HIS PLACE. He has been almost everything in the offices of the Admiralty except First Sea Lord. The modern organisation of the fleet is due largely to his labor not on sea, hut on land; in Whitehall, not in the North Sea, which is on of the reasons why his knowledge is so all-round, and which also makes for greater efficiency. Admiral Jellicoe at sea perfectly understands the working of the great department at home. Want of harmony between the big-wigs in White-, hall and the Admirals at sea has often risked our whole fate at sea. Poor Nelson was often tortured almost into despair by friction thus produced. But Jellicoe understands his place—he was lifted above the lioads of innumerable rivals to the chief command—because of the trust in him which is felt by ■Mr Churchill and Lord Fisher, and the three work together with perfect harmony and entire understanding and sympathy between them. Fisher speaks of Jellicoe with unstinted eulogy, and the Admiral that Fisher trusts, England can trust too. Here is a personal description of this great sailor, which I borrow from the pen of that brilliant writer on the Navy, Mr Alexander Hurd:— In person Admiral Sir John Jellicoe is a typical officer of the British Navy, lie is below average height, but his spare well-knit frame, is full of vigor and energy. lie has fiery eves, a hie' lofty forehead, and the firm mouth which denotes quick decision and inherent fitness to command. All who know him agree that he is a silent man, sparing of speech, but given to short sharp and incisive sentences when lucidatmg any knotty point.