LORD FISHER'S GENIUS.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 March 1916, Page 10

LORD FISHER'S GENIUS.

TEN TANGIBLE PROOFS, The following article, by Mr. James Douglas in London Opinion, entitle* "The Truth About Lord Fisher," will be read with keen interest at this juacture:— Many years ago Stead wrote "The Truth about the Navy." I wish Stead was alive to-day to write "The Truth about Lord Fisher." It is hidden fro* their eyes. Burning with faith in the British people, I advise' them to unite in an irresistible demand for the recall of Lord Fisher. I do not write as an expert for experts. I write as a landlubber for landlubbers. The truths I have got to tell aro staringly obvious platitudes. They are the simples of simple verities. But the world is composed of fools who will not see the simple things that start them in the face. The genius of Fisher is one of those simple thing*. Stated bluntly and brutally, it is this—that hj« has mado our Navy, that he has foreseen everything, and that 3ie has done i everywhere. He has always been right. I Compared with him, Molt'kc was a pigmy. The difference between the Germany of 187« and the England of 1915 is this: German used her Moltke, but England is not using her Fisher, STROKES OP GENIUS. There i« no statesman in England who can deny the dazzling genius of Fisher It is a truism. Let me catalogue a few of his achievements. His first stroke of genius was the scrapping of 162 warships which could neither flght nor run away. How that stroke was execrated I How it was deunounced! But by it he wade possible another stroke of genius —the system of nucleus crews, which put into each ship its brains, leaving the beef to come along when it Was wanted. Fisher's third stroke of genius was thei adoption of the watert-übe boiler—the biggest revolution on record, a revolution which put the fire where the water was and the water where the Sre was, the conspquence being that instead of taking seven or eight hours to get steam up you take only twenty minutes, you keep your boilers clean, you save your fuel, and you arc ready whenever your enemy arrives. Fisher's fourth stroke of genius was the adoption of the Parsons turbine in the teeth of the bitterest opposition. Fisher discovered the turbine in a penny steamer. He went to its inventor, Parsons. Parsons said; "Will vou see me through?" Fisher saw him through. To-day 80 per cent, of the horse-power on the seven seas is turbine, And yet all the mandarines turned up their noaes at the turbine. There aro many today who put their trust in boards and committees, and hot in men of genius. Let me warn them that the records are against them. " The Board of Admiralty was hostile to the introduction of steam into tbe Navy. Its wooden-headed stupidity is embalmed in a minute. The Board of Admiralty was hostile to the iron ship. Its wooden-headql hostility is embalmed in another minute, which solemnly deolared that wood was better than iron because wood floats, [whereas iron sinks I '""■ ,: OIL FUEIi s ' X Fisher's fifth stroke of genius was the introduction of oil fuel into the Navy, again in the teeth of authority. When Fisher left the Admiralty, official idiots went back to coal and stopped the development of oil fuel. They laid down battleships using coal only. These very battleships have now been transformed into oil-using ships. Once more, Fisher was proved to be right, and the reactionaries were found to be wrong. And yet to-day the genius of Fisher is still fighting against stupidity tlio thing against which even the gods fight I in vain

Fisher! sixth stroke of genius was the concentration of our Navy in the North. Sea. A simple thing, you say. Yes, but the simplicity of genius. Nobody had thought of that simple thing. Fisher divined it and did it silently and secretly, thus checkmating the strategy of Tirpitz. There you have the Fisher touch in its purest form. Yet to-day we let the genius which wrought that miracle run to waste. Fisher's seventh strake of genius was the creation of the Dreadnought, the ship that baffled German ambition and converted the Kiel Canal for yearß into a useless ditch. Do the British people realise that the Grand Fleet, which now stands between Germany and the dominion of the world, is Fisher's Fleet? From the Dreadnought to the Queen Elizabeth and the Inflexible is all pure, unadulterated Fisher. Fisher's eighth stroke of genius was the creation of the battle-cruiser—the greyhound with the big guns. When, after a series of disasters. Fisher was called in a year ago, the first thing he did was to send his battle-cruisers to sink Von Spee's squadron. He must have startled the barnacles when he issued his famous order. One can i«agine their doubts and fears, their waverings and hesitations, their prayers for delay, their pleas for caution. But Fisher swept aside the barnacles, unloosed his greyhounds, and boldly chose as their admiral the very rain who had been honestly and profoundly sceptical about them before they were born! GUESSED THE GAME. Fisher divined the game of Von Spee. He guessed that he was making for Capetown. There he meant to sink the South African squadron, destroy Botha's transports on their way to German South-West Africa, and then get on to the Atlantic trade routes, where he might have cut off our food supply for weeks. Instead of which Fisher's greyhounds caught him at the Falkland Islands and sent him and his ships to the bottom. It was not victory; it was annihilation. Superior speed kept Von Spee outside his own gun-range; superior gun power destroyed him.. The Falkland Islands is the' greatest British victory of the war. It has won through Fisher's strategy by Fisher's ships. Fisher's ninth stroke of genius was the hunting down of the German submarines. He organised that great hunt. The collapse of the submarine piracy was due directly to Fisher's daring initiative. Fisher's tenth stroke of genius was his protest against the Dardanelles "gamble" which has now come t» a disastrous close. IBs last stand probably saved the Queen Elizabeth and other capital ships from sharing the fate of the Majestic. The old year ends drear, ily. The New Year will open auspiciously if the nation demands the recall o! Lord Fisher, the man who has always been right.