NAVAL MATTERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 November 1915, Page 10 (Supplement)

NAVAL MATTERS.

THE GRAND FLEET. ITS PERPETUAL ACTIVITY. A FRENCH IMPRESSION. M. Pierre Mille, representing Le Temps, recently paid a, visit to the British Fleet. He was a member of a party including if. Pichon, formerly Minister for Foreign Affairs, aud now a senator and political editor of the Petit Journal; Senator Reinaeh; A Rene Bazin, Academician and novelist : and M. Ponset, of the French Foreign Office. Relating his impressions in Lo Temps, AL Mille writes: — "It is not enough to say that British naval strength ia formidable. It is invincible, owing to its position and the number and power of its units. The British fleet is mistress of the seas, and will remain/ so. Of this it is impossible to eutertain any shadow of doubt." Speaking of the German submarine warfare, LM. Mille says:— "The British have sunk so many submarines that it would seem that they only desire a continuance of submarine activity. They attribute Germany's conciliatory attitude towards America to a desire for finding an elegant pretext for abandoning this mode of warfare." REFUSING TO GO IN SUBMARINES.

"Two years are necessary for training an efficient submarine craw. The German losses are so great and irreparable that sailors taken for submarine work become so terrified that, in spite of their habits of passive obedience, they refuse to eirtbark on submarines. The German Government have, therefore, adopted the subterfuge of asking for volunteers for Zeppelins, which are considered less dangerous service. The trick cannot fail soon to be discovered by interested parties; then recruiting for Zeppelins will also be difficult." M. Mille was much struck by the youth of British naval officers of all ranks, and cites the ages of Admirals Jellicoe and Beatty and others. Referring to the damage sustained by different units of the fleet in action, M. Milk says:— "In the battle of the Dogger Bank on January 24 two of the principal British ships received, one of them fifteen heavy shells arid the other eight. The latter had one of her funnels holed 'and was entirely traversed by a shell near the engine-room, while several were killed aboard the first ship, but neither ship lost an inch of speed nor a whit of her attacking power."

ACTIVITY ON THE FORTH. The French visitors were authorised to reveal the gigantic effort of the British Admiralty to make an arsenal on the Forth, which would be the largest in the world, with huge dry docks and a whole equipment of workshops and machines capable of repairing and arming the largest ships and giving employment to '<3ooo workmen.

Hundreds of large warships will be there, while the yachts, armed trawlers, net-drifters, mine-sweepers, and auxiliaries of every kind will be counted in thousands. The base is under the command of Admiral Lowry. M. Pierre Mille also says:— "One day a German submarine was. sunk in English waters. Her commander had sworn to sacrifice his own life in finding the British ileet, but when he stood a prisoner on the deck of an English ship, and his eyes searched the seas for the armada, not a single vessel appeared on the horizon. *But where is the fleet?' he asked, amazed. Needless to say, I do not intend to say where the fleet is. It is, in fact, sufficient to declare that the British irresistible naval power will remain inaccessible to the enemy until the day it is pleased to risk the general attack, which can only be victorious.

MANY "U" BOATS SUNK. "A3 long as I have to talk of German submarines I may affirm, despite contrary statements made by the German Admiralty and by the newspapers, that England has already sunk a lot of them. Indeed, the number they have sunk is so considerable that their one desire seems to be for submarine warfare to continue. ''Admiral Jellicoe has under his orders, as a fleet in being, not fewer than 3000 ships of all kinds—Dreadnoughts, cruisers, and torpedo-boats; destroyers, submarines, and auxiliaries. The number includes at least 300 warships. This tremendous fleet has always got steam up, and is always ready. Its activity is perpetual. "The boss of the 6000 workmen told us "They work well now, but to get the maximum from them we hail to send some of them to the [rout to see what this war is like. They did not understand. They lacked imagination.' '■ 'Yes,' added a British naval ollicer to me, 'our people Jack imagination,- yours possess too much. But we are tenacious and pugnacious; we shall never n-ive up'"

FRENCHMEN SEE OUR FLEET. AX EXHILARATING ACCOUNT. M. Pierre Mille, one of the little group of prominent French journalists who recently visited the British Fleet, gives an exhilarating account of that visit in the Paris Temps: "The British Admiralty has done for us what it has not yet done for any English journalist. It lias shown us its ships—nil, or almost all, its ships—the incomparable force which has transformed Germany into an island separated from the rest of the world, and has realised against her the old Napoleonic dream of a Continental blockade.

' "It goes without saying that we shall not reveal what must be kept secret. It is enough that we may legitimately assert that the irresistible naval power of ■Great Britain will remain inaccessible until it may please the enemy to risk an encounter.''

M. Pierre Mille declares that the British Fleet is not only formidable, it is inexpugnable by its situation and invincible by number and the power of its units. He explains that Admiral Jellicoe has 3000 ships of all sorts under his orders, including at least 300 warships. "All," he says, "arc under steam, always ready to move out. Activity is perpetual, and immobility is as eflk'ient as movement. They insure, all the same, command of the seas for the Allies.

"One day a German submarine was sunk jn English waters. Her commander had sworn to sacrifice his own life in finding the British .Fleet, but when ha stood a prisoner on the deck of an Knglish ship and his eyes searched the seas for the annada not a single vessel appeared on the horizon. 'But where is the fleet!' he asked amazed. "Tha British irresistible naval power will remain Inaccessible to the enemy an-

til the day it is pleased to risk the g en " eral attack which can only 1)e victorious, "As long as 1 have to talk of German submarines I limy affirm, despite contrary statements made by the German Admiralty and I>y the newspapers, that "England has already sunk a lot of them. Indeed, the number they have sunk is so considerable that their one desire teeing to be for submarine warfare to continue. Tlie duty of the submarine has become a nightmare to the German fleet. Despite their habits of passive obedience, the crews have flatly refused to go on board, and the Government \k obliged to appeal for volunteers." The French visitors were authorised' to reveal the gigantic effort of the British Admiralty to make an arsenal on the Forth which would be the largest ia the world, with huge dry docks and a whole equipment of workshops and machines capable of repairing and arming the largest ships and giving employment 0000 workmen.

FISHING FOR SUBMARINES. Albert Dorrington writes as follows to the Auckland Star, from London:— On Sundays we hunt foi German submarines. Near my week-end bungalow 011 the Isle of Wight is a depot where expeditions are organised and whole parties turn out in boats armed with grappling irons, for the German "sub" often enters our sandy coves to rest from its labors and give its crew a sunbath on the lovely beaches, A whitehaired man, with a pickaxe, accompanied one search boat. On August in, a long, grey shadow was spotted near tile entrance to the Solent. It was lying in six fathoms, and before it could rise the grapplers had hooked it by the stern. Then came the tug-of-war. The Germaris sjtarted their powerful engines, but in a trice the irons had foul* eil their propeller. The "sub" rose, with the intention, no doubt, of using her quick-firers. Just here the man with the pick-axe got to work, and put llfty gashes in the thin steel hull before he could be stopped. Then the grappling irons broke and the "sub" plunged to tlio bottom. She was recovered a weeklater with her drowned crew. At the enquiry, evidence wa3 produced showing that the man with the pickaxe had a wife and three children drowned on the Lusitania. He was acquitted.