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Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 247, 21 November 1914, Page 8

If the news with respect to the Turco-German battle-cruiser, the Goe : ben, is as good as it looks, the Eussian Black Sea Fleet has, achieved a notable success. The Goeben, with her scout, the Breslau, was caught on the hop, and, after skilful manoeuvring on the part of the Russian flagship, the latter got in the first broadside. It is reported that' the Russian gunners made excellent so much so that the Goeben, after, a,brief concentration of her fire, was forced to fly.. The details of the engagement suggest that the German-built battle-cruiser was badly hurt! The Turkish Fleet .without the Goeben and the Breslau would not give very much trouble to the Eussian Navy in the Black Sea. The Goeben, in particular, was a „ redoubtable; antagonist. She carried a battery of ten 11-inch guns, with smaller weapons, while she could gather up a speed of over 28 knots. Even to have disabled such a formidable fighting machine is a feather in the Eussian' cap, and if it has so happened that the Goeben has been destroyed the Turkish cause, in the Near East will have received a damaging blow. The Breslau, a light cruiser, escaped unhurt, because she conducted herself on the lines that "he who fights and runs away will live to fight another day." Both 'these particular warships have had an inglorious career, though the commander of the Goeben, after he had run into Messina from the pursuing allied fleet, struck a do-or-die attitude, and led the world to believe that his chief hope in life was to engage a superior force and go down fighting to the last. That he thought better of it is evidenced by the way the Goeben and her mate crept past the searching cruisers and fled through the Dardanelles. There is another such case. The commander of the German cruiser Leipsic, was the hero of a day in San Francisco at the beginning of the war. The representative of a leading 'Frisco daily was accorded the privilege of boarding the Leipsic as she lay off the coast, stripped clean for action. Her voluble commander boasted to the reporter that he was out to cut a swathe in the British merchantmen trading up and down the Pacific. He declared he would sink one ship a day until the s£as were clear of British shipping. Since that day the Leipsic has done little but keep out of the way of trouble. It was left to the Karlsruhe and the Emden, in particular, to damage our traders.