THE BRITISH NAVY.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1919, Page 7

THE BRITISH NAVY.

WON THE WAR.ON AUGUST 4, 1914. LORD FISHER'S BLUNT AND BREEZY STATEMENT. By Telegraph.—Press Assn —Copyright. London, Sept. 0. Lord Fisher, discussing the beginning of the war, asks why the Germans failed to attack or mask the fleet at Scapa Flow in order to gain time to carry out their original plan of landing a million men at Cherbourg, whence Paris might have been easily reached. The answer was that the British fleet was ineffably superior, and the Germans knew it. Some of our naval Jeremiahs have since written a lot about the handicaps of the fleet and the critical position of commerce in 1914, but you cannot get over the fact that the Germans boxed up the door, which was slammed and barred. Two damned fools of German spies told Admiral Ingenohl, commanding the Second Squadron, that he could attack Scapa. He promptly shot both, being persuaded that they were traitors luring the fleet to destruction.

Admiral Arburthnot wrote recently a private letter: "This modern navy is Fisher's. Nothing could have saved the Germans from a stunning blow if our commanders had used the Renown, Re* pulse, Glorious, Furious, and Courageous, laid down on Fisher's advice and specially dseigned for Baltic fighting." Lord Fisher points out that when the construction of the best ships of the victorious fleet was begun the Nary estimates were at the lowest point, because I the construction of Dreadnoughts had temporarily paralysed German building

He adds: "It will doubtless be interesting to hear our successors recall what appalling things might have happened. The only substantial question is: 'What did happen?' And the answer is that the British Navy won the war on August 4. 1014."—Times.