A DEFEAT ACKNOWLEDGED.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 December 1939, Page 4

A DEFEAT ACKNOWLEDGED.

may be thought of the standard ol naval conduct it implies, the scuttling of tin* German pocket-battleship Admiral Graf Spee at least is as complete and unequivocal an admission as could be desired of decisive defeat and ol the victory gallantly won by three British ships—tin* Exeter, Ajax and Achilles—whose combined striking force was very much inferior to that of their single opponent. In addition to a naval disaster, Germany has suffered another in the exposure ol the propaganda methods by which she sought to represent as a victory what was in fact a crushing defeat. The moral eliect of the exposure is limited only by the extent to which German propaganda had already become a synonym for falsehood. Detail facts which have been made known within tin 1 last day or two deepen not a little the admiration that must be felt for the achievement of the British cruisers. The commander of the Graf Spee, Captain Rangsdorf, is reported .as stating that the Exeter was damaged severely before the Ajax and Achilles could get into action. “It was the latter s sixinch guns, however, that, really rocked the Admiral Graf Spee.” Wonderful seamanship and wonderful gunnery were needed to make such an attack possible. Tin* honours that have been conferred on the officers commanding the three cruisers and art* Io be conferred on some of those who served under them have been earned most handsomely, but the greatest, honour of all perhaps is that which will be shared by every member of the three ships’ companies—the honour of having taken part in an action, carried brilliantly to--success against heavy odds, which will live in naval history and in the history of the British Empire. What the people of New Zealand think of the action and of the part played in. it by I heir own cruiser no doubt will be demonstrated in an unmistakable fashion next time the Achilles enters a New Zealand port. Now that Ihe curtain has been rung down on this drama of the sea. many thoughts come crowding on the mind. Not the least of these is grief for the gallant men who met death or suffered injury in the bat tle, and sympathy for I host* who have been bereaved. H is here once again demonstrated most impressively how nine,lt we owe as a nation to the officers and men of the Navy and are dependent for security upon their unceasing effort and valiant sacrifice. More than ever in these days of stress, and of emergency far enough as yet from being al an end, we should be conscious as a people of our dependence on the Navy and of the obligations il implies Io those who are living and to the dependants of those who have died