VON TIRPITZ TALKS.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 September 1919, Page 10

VON TIRPITZ TALKS.

HIS ADVICE RriECTED. LOST CHANCES LAMENTED. London, Sept. 7. Von Tirpitz, in the extracts from "The Memoirs of Von Tirpitz," published in the Sunday Times, declares that he alone in Germany realised Britain's desire to crush Germany, and but for the interference of the German politicians would have concentrated all Germany's energies against Britain. He maintains that unrestricted submarine warfare should have been prosecuted ruthlessly to the end, as it was the only weapon which could have saved Germany from defeaf. He declares that the prestige of the British Navy robbed Germany's leaders of their courage at the beginning of the war, when the German navy had a prospect of victory. , Discussing the blunders of German diplomacy, Tirpitz declares tliaf* the despatch of the Panther to Agadir, for which Kiderlen-W'aechter was ((hiefly responsible, was ft grave blunder, which inflicted a severe > blow to German prestige. To counteract this Tirpitz insisted on the introduction of the Naval Supplementary Bill, the announcement of which in the Kaiser's speech of February 7, 1912, led to Lord Haldane's visit to Berlin.

Tirpitz expatiates on Haldane's cleverness as a negotiator, and tells how he dazzled the Kaiser with the prospect of a great African Empire, while "merely claiming the Cape to Cairo railway as England's share. That meant Africa for England." Tirpitz reproaches the Germnri Staff with having under-estimated the British armjN even as late as auti-ran, 1914. He says that he was constantly thwarted in his design 'of concentrating his energies on the cutting of British communications by risking the High Seas Fleet in battle in' order to seize the Channel ports. Tirpitz declares that Bethmann-Holl-weg failed to realise that Britain, having entered the war, was deliberately bent on winning it. He say 9 that leading circles in Germany were quite ignorant of the meaning of sea-power, and the bitter fate threatening Germany if she was driven off the seas. Tirpitz laments the lost opportunity not merely of holding up the traffic of the Channel with artillery l posted at Cape Gjris-INez, but of subjecting London to a concentrated bombardment from Gris-Nez, which would have been far more effective than the bombardment of Paris ni 1918.