WAR NOTES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4054, 10 May 1917, Page 7

WAR NOTES.

THE\REPETITION OF HISTORY.

Is history about to repeat itself ? If the submarine campaign fails, as it will fail, to achieve., the hopes which the Germans have placed in it, will Germany's military dictator force the High Seas Fleet to sea ? The battle of Trafalgar was fought not because Villeneuve had any hope of success, but because Napoleon told hiiji to fight. As war dictator by land arid sea, Napoleon ken w as much or as |ittle of sea affairs as the present dictator of German policy knows. Napoleon could never think in terms of the sea. He had a grandoise idea of using his navy and army as one' weapon, but he had no conception how it was to be done. Villeneuve, the seaman, suffered, as the naval instruments of all military tyrants are apt to suffer. Early in October he realised that in entering Cadiz he had disappointed the Emperor, who had expected him to sail up the Channel and intimidate the British people at the very moment when the French army was on the eve, of achieving its great triumph at Austerlitz. The effect of that victory on England, though it was preceded by the naval victory off Cape Trafalgar, can be judged from the fact that when Pitt, dying, heard the news, he cried, pointing to a map of Europe: "Roll up that map; it will not be wanted these 10 years." Austerlitz, according to Wilberforco, "killed Pitt." It was Napoleon's plan that the effect produced by his victory on land should be accentuated by the victorious passage of the French fleet up the Channel. Villenouve hesitated to carry out the orders which ho had received and which he had pledged himself to execute. On returning from the West Indies, instead of proceeding up the Channel, he took his ships into Cadiz after his action with Calder. The admiral thus interfered with the dictator's plans. He was nervous in consequence. At last lie learnt that another officer was on his way from Paris to supersede him. Then he came to a decision and issued forth to meet a defeat which he had always believed to be inevitable.