Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 296, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1915 — JELLICOE MOST POPULAR OF ALL BRITISH CHIEFS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

JELLICOE MOST POPULAR OF ALL BRITISH CHIEFS

Frederick Palmer Writes of Fighting Commander of Britain’s Great Fleet. MASTER OF HIS PROFESSION No Matter What Difficulties Arise He Is Always Smiling—The One Man Who Cannot Risk Being Absent From the Fleet — Loved by Officers. By FREDERICK PALMER. London. —Of all the great leaders of the war Sir John Jellicoe, commanding the British grand fleet, is least known to the world, and his is the portrait which receives the most cheers wben it is thrown onto a screen at a London theater. But the British public knows nothing of him except that he is the fighting commander of the "invisible” power of the British navy. When war was threatening it is related that a meeting of admiralty lords and others who would have the say was held to decide who, in case of hostilities, should command tho British fleet. The opinions ran something like this, it is said: “Jellicoe! He has the brains!” “Jellicoe! He is young. He has the health to endure the strain. He has the nerve.” "Jellicoe! His fellow-officers believe in him.” “Jellicoe! He has been tried in every branch- of the service.” That sort of recommendation helps when a man has to undertake such an Immense responsibility. He was given supreme command and the rest left to him. A Marked Man. "From the time he was a midshipman, Jellicoe has been a marked man In the service,” said one of his admirals. "He is one of those men who seem to be born with tireless energy.

No matter what difficulties arise, he is always smiling. Both he and Beatty were on the first attempt to relieve the Peking legations at the time of the Boxer rebellion. Captain Jellicoe was then Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Seymour’s chief of staff. When he was wounded and the little band of seamen were surrounded by Boxers and it looked as if every minute might be their last, he was smiling as cheerily as if he had been on the quarterdeck. Nothing ever ; seems to ruffle his equanimity. His personal charm would win him his way anywhere; but when you have served with him, then you realise what a master of his profession he is.” Only the commander in chiefs flag which she flies distinguishes the flagship, which is in the center of the fleet, from the rest of the gray fighters in their precise lines at anchor in harbor. Sir John takes his exercise and his holidays pacing the quar-ter-deck. He never leaves the fleet even for a few hours. The commander in chief is the one man who must take no risk of being absent if the German fleet should come out Not tall, spare, his face tanned by the breezes, he walks upland down the deck, with his aides or with his chief of staff, again with one of his offirials. Everyone in the fleet is familiar, with the quick, light step of that slight figure with a telescope always under his arm. If a ship should come to anchor with a bow out of line, he knows it - All his fighting ships are under his eye and every human being on the fleet feels his personal presence. Makes It Look Easy. Descend a ladder under the shadow of two great 13.&-inch guns and the visitor is in a large cabin extending

from side to side of the ship, which in a house wpuld be called the dining room. Here when he was in port In time of peace the commander in chief would give his official dinners. In time of war the cabin is partly screened off, as there is more room than Str John and his staff need for meals. Aft of this is what would be called in a house the sitting room. The furnishings are of the simplest Everything inflammable could be removed promptly in case of action. The few names in the visitors’ book on a table were suggestive of the fleet’s isolation from intercourse with the rest of the world. One name was the king’s and another the prince of Wales, and a few others were those of high officials.

The visitor looked about in vain for signs of the immense amount of official detail which would seem necessary for the focal point of a vast campaign. Some staff officers and a few records were all. The flagship is kept cleared for action in this as in all other respects. The actual directing of the three thousand ships and auxiliaries of the British navy is carried on in a space occupied in a New York office by a lawyer and two or three clerks. An orderly went and came with mess&ges from the wireless room, which aside from the installation, had space enough for the wireless operators to stand and no more.

Officers said that it was difficult to contemplate how such a naval campaign as the British in this war could have ever been conducted without the wireless. Sir John could talk with the admiralty in London or with any ship, whether off Helgoland or Iceland. He knew what each one was doing. Let a German cruiser chow her nose in the North sea and he had the news in a minute or two after she was sighted. His Fighting Admirals.

Beatty, who sank the Bluecher, is the youngest of Sir John’s young admirals, forty-four years of age, boyish and quick. Sturdee, victor of the Falkland islands battle, smooth shaven, as smiling as Sir John, is quiet-spoken and rather studious in appearance, he is an expert in naval strategy.

In the British navy promotion is by selection up to the grade of captain. A man with a single flaw in his record as lieutenant must wait on others before he can become lieutenant commander. Those with perfect records in each grade are canvassed by boards and those who have shown industry and Initiative are chosen to go over the heads of less active men. The aim is to apply the

system of clvfl life, wbsr* ability rises and mediocrity must be content with the lower rungs of the ladder. Jellicoe, Sturdee and Beatty entered the nary a* boys of fourteen. None had any particular Influence; they made their way by industry. Sir John has served In every branch. He is regarded as possibly the ablest ordnance expert in the navy, which means that he knows the guns which he will Are in section.

Despite his amiability, all agree that he has only one criterion —success. If an officer falls he is superseded. Most of these young admirals sleep on the bridge even in harbor. For the last ten years the average British naval officer has worked harder than a man of any profession In civil life. They have kept up the grinding drill, which continues since the war began. “We can take no risks,'* one of them said. “Our responsibility to the nation requires that we neglect nothing that devotion to duty will accomplish. Most of these crews you see have been at their posts, whether gunpointing or passing ammunition, for five or six years. We want each maa to be letter perfect in his part.” Prompt In His Decisions. In all actions thus far the firing has begun at extreme range—eighteen thousand yards. At that distance a dreadnaught painted the color of the sea Is a vague speck. But one fortunate hit may be vital, and either side wants to get that fortunate hit first. The accuracy of fire both at the Falkland islands and In the battle of the Dogger Bank, officers said, had been as good as at battle practice.

Seen among his admirals. Sir John Jellicoe seems the head of a family. In frequent consultation, they know one another in the fellowship of their confined existence. If he had anything to say to one of them or they to him, the definiteness of their remarks and the promptness of his ro* plies were Impressive. Decision seemed automatic with him. He showed the visitors over the flagship himself, calling attention to things which he thought would Interest them, as he led the way along the cramped passages behind the armor or pointed the way to enter one of the turrets where the gun crews were going on with their drill, which they went through like so many machines. Most of them were in the late twenties or early thirties, mature, experienced and confident. “All they ask is that the Germans will come out,” said an officer. “They could not work any harder than they did before the war. But the war has given them renewed eagerness.”

Sir Jahn Jellicoe.