THE JUTLAND REPORT.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 November 1920, Page 7

THE JUTLAND REPORT.

DEMAND FOR PUBLICATION. ATMOSPHERF, OP SUSPICION. j London, Oct. 28. A special article in the Times dealing with the battle of Jutland condemn tho refusal to publish the official account of the battle, for the first reason that by this refusal ttie Navy is being deprived of the greatest opportunity of learning how to right, and secondly, that when shipbuilding programmes are. on the brink of revolutionary changes the country is prevented from studying the only battle where Dreadnoughts fought, and where great destroyer attacks were made rfh them.

Admiral Lord Beatty and Admiral Lord Jellicoe represent two schools of thought as wide as the Poles asunder, and their officers have won an almost equal number of decorations. The article instances a fleet-surgeon who received the D.S.O. for his arrangements with regard to the treatment of the wounded. It is now. disclosed that there was not a single wounded man on his ship. "Such facts," states the article, "accompanied by the concealment of the official story of the battle, make the very worst of" impressions on the public." '■There is mo demand for a courtmartial in connection with Jutland" continues the writer, "but there is a growing atmosphere of suspicion that the general conduct of the battle was bad for the country and its trust in the Aavy. However painful it may be, the only way (c> re-establish confidence in the Navy and safeguard the future is fearlessly to reveal the facts, and allow the public to judge." Tho Daily Mail publishes a leading article headed, "The Jutland Hush-up," to which the paper has incessantly referred lately. It now definitely accuses Admiral Lord Jellicoe of having prolonged the war for two years by" turning away from the beaten ■ German ileet, which was half his strength, and which was placed in his hands by the gallant fight of Admiral Lord Beatty. Colonel Sir James Craig, Financial Secretary to the Admiralty, informed \iscount Curzon (Coalition-Unionist), m the House of Commons, (hat it was not proposed to publish the official account of the Battle of Jutland, but all the evidence prepared by the Admiralty would be incorporated in a volume l\V Sir Julian Stafford Corbett, Director of the historical section of the Committee of Imperial Defence, which would be published next year.