Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1936. EARL BEATTY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 129, 13 March 1936, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1936. EARL BEATTY.

The death of Admiral of the Fleet Earl Beatty removes one whose name was known to everyone but the very young in the British Empire. Of the two outstanding naval figures in the Great War, New Zealanders naturally place Lord Jellicoe first, for the years he spent in this Dominion as Governor-General will live in the memories of even those who were then too young to realise all that he represented in the Empire’s history. But this personal touch should not lead to forgetfulness of the fact that Earl Beatty played a considerable part in achieving victory of the fleet over the German Navy. As Commander-in-chief of the cruiser squadron at the battle of Jutland he was one of the centra! figures in an argument that raged for many years after the Armistice. In this connection it is well to recall the tribute which Earl Jellicoe paid to him at the time. He declared that Beatty “once again showed his fine qualities of gallant leadership, firm determination and correct strategic insight,” and expressed sympathetic understanding of his subordinate’s feelings when the evening mist and failing light “robbed the fleet of that complete victory for which he had manoeuvred and for which the vessels in company with him had striven so hard.” Apart altogether from any difference of opinion as to his action then, the Empire owes to Earl Beatty a great debt both as a commander and as a member of the Admiralty. His career in the Navy was remarkable for its brilliant rapidity. It was, in a sense, so far as the Navy was concerned, a career unhelped by influence, unknown by the public, undistinguished by the kind of fame attained by the passing of examinations. He was never at the top of any of the lists of his rank, but by sheer merit passed from one list to another. When the Great War broke out he was in command of the First Cruiser Squadron, the fastest and most powerful scouting force ever launched, having hoisted his flag on the Lion in March, 1913, being one of the youngest men to become an admiral. He had an instinctive certainty that war with Germany would eventuate in his time, but it arrived a little too early for him to have reached the position he aimed at, that of Commander-in-Chief, which he desired above all things so that he might determine the destiny of the Grand Fleet and plan for its future. When he did succeed to it, Viscount Jellicoe had left his mark on the fleet as a strategic weapon and for good or for ill Earl Beatty had to conform to the policy arranged by his previous superior officer. From the culminating hour of the surrender of the German Fleet, Lord Beatty passed, as First Sea Lord, to the difficult and worse than thankless task of administration involved in the demobilisation of the greatest naval force that has ever been brought into being, and its reduction, while retaining its efficiency, to a peace strength much below that maintained before the war, and soon to be yet further reduced as an outcome of the Washington Conference in 1922. In this he showed an aptitude of planning, equal to his resource in command of a fleet at sea. In many ways Lord Beatty has left his mark on naval administration — in the redistribution of Britain’s naval strength, in the building up of the Dominion sea forces, and in the expansion of peace-time training to meet the needs of the new naval warfare.