Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 268, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1918 — BRITISH NAVAL CHIEF LAUDS WORK OF AMERICAN SAILORS AND SHIPS [ARTICLE]

BRITISH NAVAL CHIEF LAUDS WORK OF AMERICAN SAILORS AND SHIPS

Keenness, Technical Skill and Organization of the Personnel Truly Remarkable—Ships and Equipment All of Highest Efficiency and Latest Design—Close Co-operation Between Allies Minimizes Menace of U-Boat.

By SIR ERIC GEDDES. First Lord of the British Admiralty. In speaking of the United States naval forces, I do so with the great advantage of having seen most of them personally in the course of the last 18 months, and I can assure the public that the morale and efficiency are absolutely on the top line. Not only is the keenness, technical skill and organization of the personnel truly remarkable, but, further, the material of all ships and their equipment are of the-highest efficiency and latest design. What applies to your fighting ships applies also to your depot and parent ships, and I think I may «ay, without giving offense to the great naval services of the twp countries, that the intermingling gnd co-operat-ive working Is giving opportunities, which both services are taking, of picking out examples of the best for adoption in and by the other service.

I am, of course, unable to disclose any details of the numbers of your vessels operating abroad, but with the permission of your navy department I may say that they comprise some of the largest capital ships as well as cruisers, destroyers, submarines, chasers, and many types of aircraft. Taking these various classes in turn, I would like first of all to show you that your battleships are working with our own grand fleet with the most perfect co-ordination and efficiency, and I had the very great pleasure of witnessing their arrival when they first joined up with our own grand fleet, and was able to make a signal of welcome to them on that occasion.

Convoy Balks Germany. As regards your cruisers, they are working with, us in the White sea, North sea, Atlantic and Mediterranean, and I have seen them and admired their efficiency in all these places. It (s to them, as well as to the gallant tittle destroyers, working with the corresponding forces of-all the allies, that (he success of the convoy system is due. It is the convoy system which balked Germany when she adopted avowedly the inhuman and ruthless method of submarine warfare, considered inconceivable and contrary to all noble traditions of the sea before the war, but which we now accept as one of the outward signs of the devil which has to be exorcised before Germany Is fit to take her place as an honorable member of the League of Nations, in whatever form that oftdiscussed organization may finally shape itself. Germany reckoned to end the war last year by cutting the sea communications of the alliance and by the reduction in tonnage; the dissatisfaction of the German nation with the result of their criminal effort Is due in very great measure to the convoy, system, but it is due also to the allied efforts to trap and hunt the submarine on passage and to harass it on elation, and those two functions in subimarine warfare must not be confused. Efficient Naval Protection.

The ocean convoy is primarily a defense organization, and secondarily only, an offensive organization. Ifs complement in this new form of naval warfare is the hunting flotilla and the mine field. These two measures must he carefully balanced and the relative urgency of the demands of one or the other must receive, and does receive, the most urgent consideration and ceaseless care and adjustment of the great naval officers who are charged with that resjfbnsibllity. At the present moment the United States and Great Britain have become the main bases of supply for the armies Jn Europe, and in order to insure these lines of communication being and kept open, every efficient naval protection is required. The large proportion of merchant shipping which brings these supplies must' necessarily be American and British, and consequently the Anglo-American gfiyfff of naval opera tious-—which may j

be considered to Include the Atlantic, North sea, and British coastal, waters —is the area with which we are most vitally concerned at the present moment, though of course the American and British forces are helping to police the trade routes»of the Mediterranean also, in conjunction with our French, Italian, Japanese and Greek allies, whose work and co-operation are altogether admirable. Work of Destroyer.

Turning now to your destroyers, I know that you all appreciate what demands the present conditions of sea warfare impose upon this type of craft. Day and night, winter" and summer, they scour the seas, either hunting the submarine, or keeping a careful watch over the valuable human lives, equipment and transports intrusted to their care to escort. I have both traveled in and been escorted by American destroyers, and I know their high standard. They are an essential phrt of the fighting strength of the fleet, and, together with the cruisers, they are the watchdogs of the allied trade and the terror of the U-boat. It will convey some Idea of the strain Imposed upon the vessels and their crews when. I tell you that each American destroyer in European waters steams between 4,000 and 5,000 miles a month. For hard work, constant vigilance, and perpetual discomfort this record is hard to beat even in this great war , of universal strain and hardship. > What I have said of the destroyers applies in no less degree to your submarines and your chasers. Their untiring and constant harassing of the enemy has helped to bring the enemy submarine to its present position in which we can confidently say that it is now held, though not yet mastered. I lay great stress on these words. A great renewed effort on Germany’s

part Is Impending. We know ft and of its extent. We face it with thai knowledge, and with the steadfast courage of our seamen it will be met Praise for Aircraft.

What your ships of all classes are doing on and under the surface your aircraft in no less degree are accomplishing in their own element, and, among all the instruments of war which are combining to make the life of the undersea pirates intolerable, there is nonewhich causes them greater anxiety and discomfiture than the constantly vigilant aircraft. So far I have given a very brief outline of what your various units are en gaged upon, but in order to gauge the fruits of their labors just bear this one fact in mind: During the last three months seven American soldiers and their equipment have arrived in Ed rope every minute of the day and night, and their maintenance on top of that! That is the formidable fact which the enemy has to face, and that is the result of the exercise of sea power by the alliance, to which the American naval forces are so ably contributing. It is a great tribute to American shipbuilding and to your enterprise that you are now able to carry more than half of these troops in your own vessels, built in your own country, and manned by your own men. Thanks to the mercantile marine of the allies, with their skill, unflinching courage and pertinacity which we cannot adequately extol, we have been able to maintain those sea communications without which our man power, our munitions and .our food supplies would have been disintegrated and paraiyzed^ TDFrecord of the seaborne traffic of the alliance is the clearest proof of the value of sea power about which your great naval historian, Rear Admiral Mahan, wrote so emphatically and prophetically, but this result has only been attained by the splendid heroism and endurance of the seafaring men, whether of the fighting forces or of the mercantile marine. To have had the opportunity of visiting your country in the great war is the very greatest honor and pleasure to Vice Admiral Duff and myself, as representing the British board of admiralty, and it is an added pleasure to us tliat we have eomg, at a time when the allied forces are winning all along the line, and when we are reaping the fruits of the sound naval strategy and the overwhelming power of the allied nations. - \ I cannot close this very brief appreciation of the magnificent work whicji is being undertaken by the United States naval forces operating in European waters without expressing on behalf of the board of admiralty and the royal navy our affection, in many cases personal,' and our admiration- for your officers and men who, side by side with us and the other allies. are keeping open the sea communications of the alliance; are Reducing the enemy’s fleets to impotence, and Save driven his commerce from the seas.. > U. S. Navy Plays B.'g Part.

None of the navies do much talking, but among themselves they talk the same language. They share the same dangers, they undertake indiscriminately the same responsibilities, according to the whole power behind the controlling chief of staff in- each country. Since the' beginning of the war the British navy has escorted overseas to and from all theaters of war some 16.000,000 men belonging to the armies of the British empire, and the loss has been one-thousandth part of a man per hundred carried from all causes —marine risks or enemy action —and it is our purpose and our pride to maintain and reduce that percentage In the great flow’ of young manhood across the Atlantic.

I venture the opinion that when the history of this war is written there will be no more glorious page in that history than the one which tells much that today cannot be told of the work done, the dangers faced, and the privations endured by your navy, in common with the navies of your co-bel-ligerents, and there Will he no greater manifestation of the. overwhelming importance of sea power in a fight such as this has been. In that manifestation the great Arscriean navy. —the third largest in the world —has played a honorable, an increasingly important, part, and It has been to myself and Admiral Duff a great honor to confer In person with thj great chiefs of your navy departmeor