SIR DAVID BEATTY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 262, 15 April 1915, Page 5

SIR DAVID BEATTY.

HERO OF TWO FIGHTS. TREMENDOUS ENERGY. "1 Perhaps the finest character sketch of Vice-Admiral Sir David Boatty, the nero of two North Sea fights, is that attribnted to a fellow officer, and which npi peared in the February number of Collier's. He begins by asking the reader to suppose himself standing on the bridge reserved for the admiral's use:—

"There is a light, quick step on the ladder below you, and the figure of the admiral swings into view. From the platform where he now stands he directs the movements, not only of this ship alone, but of all the ships in the squadron. To this eminence in the ;rreatcst sea war of all time has risen David Beatty in his 45th year; and stands there at this moment somewhere in the North Sea, with a great part of linnland's and the world's destinies in hut hand.

"Look well at this man as he paces backward and forward across the airy platform out among the smoke and rigging and sea wind. It is a small figure, for he is a little man—little and neat and well proportioned, yet giving you ail impression of physical strength and a' contained energy that is positively dis-* turbing. I have never seen anyone who gives me such a sense of energy and vitality that can be contained in one human body as David Beatty. You feel that energy has been poured into him' at enormous pressure, that it is'working 'and boiling within him, and that some one is sitting on the safety valve.

LUCK AND PLUCK. "The brilliant action of the British' fleet oiT Heligoland in.the middle of September was the first intimation to the world at large that in David BouUy the British fleet possessed a young commander in whom the priceless qualities of dash, coolness, and judgment were remarkably combined. And his daring exploit at the end of January, when lie sank the Bluclirr, was merely the wholesome confirmation of ■Rutland's high! hopes f f him. For years he haa been a' marked man, marked by fortune, as well as by his own qnnlitics, for the higln-sj position in the British Navy. Since lie' first stepped upon it as a midshipman SO years ago, the road of his destiny has lain clear and straight before him. His iluck is proverbial. He got on well from the first; went through his routine train ins vapidly and efficiently, and got his chance with Kitchener in the Soudan campaign in 1808. "That great winnower of human wheat from the chaff found mßeatly's combined coolness and dasli, and above all in his conimonscnse and efficiency, a' youngster after his own heart. If there were anyone to tell it adequately, a romantic story might be made of the .building of a British gunboat far away on the banks of the Nile, and of the things which happened on her trial trip. At the end of the campaign Beatty wan decorated and promoted to commander, a rank which he attained at the unusually early age of 27. Luck gave him another chance in the Boxer rising of 1000, when he again distinguished himself in war service, and created a new record by being promoted to captain at the age of 20. His Inst command as captain was the Queen, and on relinquishing her he went to the Admiralty as Naval Adviser to the First Lord.

AT>VTBEK TO MR. MeKEXNA. ■'There arc many ways of being a First Lord, and there are many ways of giving naval advice: it is enough to say here that tlie views of Mr. MeKcmia and of the naval adviser were so inharmonious that Captain Beatty was put on half pay. But when Mr. Churchill went into that office one of the first things he did was to reinstate him as his adviser; an association which continued, with the happiest result, until Beatty returned to the sea to command what is, perhaps, the most formidable squad* ron unit at present occupying the seas. "When one speaks of Bcatty's luck" one must not omit to mention the fact that through his marriage to the daughter of Marsha!) Field. of CMcapo, he shares the enjoyment of a fortune so considerable ' that if he had been less keen, less sound, less ambitions, it would have been *Ji6 death of him professionally. "Tfis great qualifies do not stand alone or isolated. TTc m surrounded by men in some measure lik<* himself—thestrongest, the bravest, the cleanest, and most efficient men in the world. Wl«itever one may be anxious about in this war, one need have no anxieties about such men as these; and when T think of my friend David Beatty out there. ;'iunpling day and nisM with Ibe tremendous pioblems of his co m <md, I p i .•'■tly happy as one thinks of things well done and well ordered, and of the riffht man in the right place. I know (.hat whatever happens it will he well wit® j£Bk u ■- - ■ -' ■ ■*—■*■