WHY THE GERMAN FLEET MUST FIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 March 1916, Page 6

WHY THE GERMAN FLEET MUST FIGHT.

AND WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO IT WHEN IT MEETS THE GKAND FLEET. (By Fred. T. Jane, the famous Naval Writer, in Pearson's Weekly). Will there be a big naval battle before the end of the war? I am asked to write an answer to this question. Put in these words, one is driven to reply that it depends on what is understood by the word "battle." On land there has been incessant fighting for nearly eighteen months, yet there has not been a single "battle'' in the old sense of the word. Similarly on the sea tilings have hitherto tended to be of the nature of skirmishes rather than set fights. No battleship lias once engaged another battleship, and even when—as on the Dogger Bank—battle-cruisers fought each other, there was no stand-up fight on the old lines. Things have altered much riiiriuy the last few years, and sea-fights now are apt to be lost and won before a shot is fired. | If, however, the question is put in [ another form, such as "Will the German 'Fleet come out?'' then I answer that I believe' it will, and that once having come out it will never return! But that does not necessarily mean a spectacular fight on Trafalgar or Tsushima lines. Dreadnought hammering Dreadnought, till one side is annihilated in the crash of a titanic struggle. WHAT OUR SUBMARINES WJLC DO. More probable it is that our submarines (in which we have now an overwhelming superiority) will slaughter the German Dreadnoughts what time our battle fleet hangs around waiting to mop up the piece?. There is no poetry in modern naval warfare; scientific slaughter is now the order of the day. And as to how and why the Germans will come out, this will probably be due to the pressure of public opinion in the Vaterland rather than to any strategical objective. Here enters another factor. When Villeneuve was sent out to meet Nelson at Trafalgar by orders of Napoleon he knew right well that he was going to destruction. But he went. Ten years or so ago, when Rodjestvensky was sent with the Baltic. Fleet as a last eil'orl against Togo and .Japan, he knew that lie, too, was going to destruction. But he went. So, also, I take it, will the Hermans go. They will know well enough of the useless sacrifice to which they are going—but they will go. And as like J as not they will go cheerfully, in order to win our esteem! Which sounds strange, but so things are! There is a thing known as "The Brotherhood of the Seas." And that Brotherhood is this, that you love the man you have killed or maimed, and, equally so. he loves the man who has hammered him. In neither Fleet probably is there a single olficer or man animated by anything of the nature of personal hate. The Fleets will kill each other merely for the sake of personal esteem. Consequently, even though the pressure of German public opinion failed, even though all diplomacy demanded that the German Navy should remain safely in harbor to the bitter end I believe that the German Navy will cc > out and die at our hands, and all <".:. t this "Brotherhood of tlw Sew.' -

Of the German Army, the least said the soonest mended.. We know its vile atrocities. In tlip mr.ti.or of Belgium it lias—to its own thinking—excused itself on the grounds of "necessity." Whether or no we believe this, it does. GERMAN SAILORS NOT BLACKGUARDS. For ther est, however, it has against it innumerable crimes which admit of no palliation. But of the German Navy as a whole none speaks ill. It has (or had) its blackguards, like those who massacred the Lusitania and other lesser ships. On the other side of the scale were men like Captain von Muller, of the Emben, who conducted war as officers and gentlemen. In doing so they were certainly not "Prussians"—it is doubtful if they were "good Germans" in the Kaiser's ideal. Sill, when all is said and done, the German Navy has for years modelled itself on the British Navy and sought to follow British ideals. On that account 1 am of opinion that it will follow tin; British model, and believe that it is better to die fighting man to nice an ir..'_'iorirv.H surrender. Our Admiral Cradock, who perished off Chile fighting against Von Spee, set the example. He might have run away; but he preferred to die for the honor of the flag, much as Sir Richard Grenville did "in Elizabethan days. Germany has spent enormous sums in creating that Navy, which at present lies idle in the Kiel Canal. From the Kaiser's point of view an unbeaten fleet is some kind of asset to bargain with in case of land failure, or to do something with in ease of victory. ,W :■ bn-iiie-:. i.!-,,,,, ~r.: m i U,U ;* ~p..»,| enough, or would bo but fof the fact that the German people have for years been taught that both their ships and men are better than ours. It is quite untrue, of course, but they have been told the lie so often that ';

the majority of them honestly believe it. And so—when the land pressure grows too severe, there will probably be a frantic demand for a last sporting hazard on the sea—a demand so insistent that the Kaiser will be unable to resist it. ; DESTRUCTION SURE AND CERTAIN. Indeed, when it is realised that the game is up, the Kaiser himself may be driven to lead his fleet to destruction, the fleet being his special toy and ho the man who first told his people, "Our future lies on the water." It will be tmt |ii-.ei,e jii-ties if this b« !iia doomto go to perdition with the fleet which he created of set purpose to destroy us. | That it will be destruction for the i Germans is sure and certain. We are 1 about three to one against them in Dreadnoughts, every British Dreadnought's crow inured with eighteen mouths of hardship what time the Germans have grown fat aiid lazy in harbor. In submarines mir superiority must be quite ten to one—possibly more. It is inadvisable to attempt to give exact figures. In all subsidiary craft, from battle-eruiseres to destroyers, the superiority rests with us—thanks to the Navy League. The British Navy League never talked about "The Day," as did its German rival. For one member that our Navy League had, the German concern numbered ten. But, like Gideon's little army, our Navy League was kept up. If few they were, they fought the fight and foiled the .-laval dreams of the Kaiser. HUNS' NAVY LEAGUE WILL FORCE MATTERS. The numerical strength of the German Xiu' I "iii.nie wii''li will probably eventually force the Kaiser's fleet to come out, is well over a million. Our Navy League in its palmiest days probably never had more than 20,000 members, men and women—or rather, perhaps, I should say, women and men, for it was the fair sex which did most of the work. It sounds far-stretched, of course, but, all the same, it is no exaggeration to say that a handful of Englishwomen are mainly responsible for the coming fate of the Kaiser's navy. All honor to them! And I think I may say that this is how the British Navy hopes that the German High Sea Fleet will end. It wi'l prefer to kill the enemy as sailormen. It hopes that they will die like men. GERMAN FLEET MAY MUTINY. It does not believe in abusing the enemy. It desires to destroy them, leaving the abuse to others. And from what I know of the German Navy, I think that rather than face tame surrender, it will, if need be, mutiny and come out to "die like men and fall like one of the princes." There is some Psalm in the Bible which puts it that way. The German Army, as indicated, is befond the pale. But the German Navy is a copy of the British Navy and so has imbibed certain ideals which the Prussianised German Army lacks. Our Navy will kill them without mercy till they throw up the sponge; thereafter save them from death as much as may be. It may be a hard thing for the general public to understand, but it is a matter of sportsmen v. sportsmen The Germans, when they come out, will yet their gruel, but our men as they kill J them will love them for coming out to i asath.