NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15138, 30 November 1914, Page 7

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Zeebrugga has attained important***' ■ since tho Germans occupied tho coast north of Ostend and began to make this .-" placo a naval base. Mr George Lynch, who was in Belgium during the first weeks of tho war, describes Zcebrugge - as one of the most extraordinary places ho has ever seen in any part of the fc * world. "It consists of an pier 2800 metres long, that took ietfS years to build, with sufficiently dee"** water for the largest liners to her alongside. Then thero is an cnormc new hotel, two villas, aiuFa hotel 1 ville, big enough for Bruges, which**, bo seen in tho distance. A hotel ft*, villo without the "ville"! The cf' indttstrv of tho town is selling pic*, postcard.?. ... Thero was not a sold/ vessel of any sort alongside tbo }? nor, on enquiry from tho inhabitaii| ,' the hotel, could I learn, that thej-y, ever Been ono alongside. PiorjT hotel wero built,by the Govcrnmef, • enormous cost, the .idea bp_ng|> ■ Atlantic liners would ho induced teg . there, but tip to the time of press-they havo wot called." By o|; r tho ironies of warfare tho B|. " squadron has destroyed property longing to the Belgian Governm " whoso battle it is fighting. ' f' Great satisfaction will be fct.j j India if the havildar who hns * ; recommended for tho Victoria Cra- ; awarded that decoratiou. It W U' tho first Victoria Cress given ( j ; native soldier in the Indian-A j' Prior to 1911 Indian soldiers wero cligiblo for the decoration, but by/i . eial proclamation the King, at tho". j . bar of that year, removed the di- s „ ity. The exclusion was anonialoit j'• other nativo troops were eligible fo~,' ' Victoria Cross. .Sergeant Gordon,. oi'-S. West Indian Regiment, a black 6euc_. was awarded the Cross for bravery , a West African campaign iwenty yefs> ago. The placo of tho Victoria C*—*y in the Indian Army has been taken J" ' the Order of Merit. This decoratitv is the reward of bravery, and carrj*«| with it a life pension. A sepoyj &!&_# successive acts of courage, may ascenG-r from one grade to anowier, tho /aljowanco increasing with each step. -

Tho First Lord of tho Admiralty, speaking in the Houso of Commons. . last week, said that the maximum: re- . inforcements that Germany could re- .- ccivo to its navy by the end of -191-3 would be threo ships, against a British increase of fifteen. 3lr Churchill was, of course, referring only to line-of-bat-tlo ships, and took no account of cruis- ■ ers, destroyers, and submarine., under construction, or projected, in which the British superiority in numbers will be even more marked. When tho war ~ broke out there were two ers and threo battleships nearing "com- .. pletion in German yards, and it is probable that these have since been commisi sioned. The battleships wero the i Gro—er Kurfurt, Konig, and i Markgraf, and the battle-cruisers ___tflingcr and Lutzow. Another battlecruiser similar to these two was also under construction, but had not been launched. *

It is of the utmost importance to remember that nono of those nix ship* mount a heavier gun than the i—n weapon, and that they aro therefore nc better as fighting ships than the Britisibattleships and battle-cruisers commissioned nearly two years ago. The- Neptune, Hercules, and Colossus were the last British battleships, and tho New Zealand and Australia the last battlecruisers to be armed with the 12in gun. Since those ships were commissioned the strength of tho British Navy has been iucreased by twelve battleships and four battle-cruisers, mounting' 13.5 in guns. The German Navy has not a single shin carrying this formidable weapon, while wo have no fewer than 1— of such' gun.. Tho three line-of-battleships which will bo added to tho German Sect by the end of next year are two battleship's, which will mount eight 15in guns, and a bnttle-c-uiser carrying eight 12in guns. There j. also under construction...*"** Stettin, the battle-emi.cr Salamis. foi tbo Greek Navy, and it is r»rob_ | h'e that she will bo taken ovci by the Get-

aan Admiralty. She is a vessel oi •■'*- 19,200 tons, designed for a speed of 2.3 knots, and will carry eight 1 tin guns _s her main armament. *. *• \Since the war started, the British Navy has lircu strengthened by the ■Agincourt and the Erin, which were . completing for Turkey, but which were purchased from their builders by .the Admiralty. The Bcnbow, n sister ship to the Iron Duke, and the battie- . . cruiser Tiger have also been completed and -co:imiis--k»iK-d. and the Emperor of India, which is included in 3lr . Churchill _ <_timate, will commission at the end 0 f tliis month. The Em- . poror of Iniiia, Benbow, Erin. and Tiger are the last of the 13.5iu gun jslups for the British Navy. The new ships, of which fourteen are under . ' construction, will _<• armed with the - row 15in g'nn liyng a slieil of 195011. as (omp-in.l with the 11001 b s-liell of the 33.5 m, and the 8501 b .shell of the ll'in gun. Or* tl:.<-e vessel?. the * Queen Elizabeth, Warspite. Barhatn. and Valiant ships ol" L'7..-C0 ton*, carrying eight loin guns and designed for a siH.-d of ■ 25 knots, are nearly ready to commission. Tne 3Li!aya, a similar ship, is ■ -". .a!rno*-t ready tor launching, while the .Royal Sovereign. Royal Oak, Ramiilies. Resolution. and R.'vengx. should be -.suinclixscl at the end of tbe year. Those ..hip.s are .slightly smaller than the . .Queen l--li__>h_.h typ*». because they are desizned for a speed of 21 i knots', but they v.iii cany the _~mc armament. :., . • The ship, oi the ID]-1-15 programme ins;• elude a sixth Queen "Elizabeth and 2; the- Repulse. Renown, and Resistance of the Royal Sovereign type, and will ali be completed before tlie'end of next year. We _ shall then have fourteen ships mounting 15in guns to Germany's -three. The.re a>-e also twx> :>_.OOO ton brittle, "ships—-the Almirante Latorre and the Almiraiite Cochrane—completing in England for the Chilian iiavv," and i hoe can be taken over by the' Admiralty, if necessary. 7'hey are very fine * *hi p.—hotter than any in the German navy, which will have nothing to equal them until the end of next year. Thee will mount ten 14in guns apiece, _ i.yd will havo a speed cf 23 knots.' The .y. . lench Navy will show a great increase e|' in strength during the next twelve "SJN months, when no fewer than eight "*- Miper-Dreadnought battleships. all mounting 13.5 in guns, will bo added _o . th .?. f } p<, L I" the Baltic also, Germany -\. ■)"'* . iI;IT T to face an enormous increase • ,m.. the Russian Fleet. Nine larr»o _* powerful battleships and battle-cruisers , .ire -under construction at St. Petersi> burg and four or five of these are well o. the way to completion. In spite of • the loss of a few old armoured cruisers , i.Kri one battleship, our position to-day - *- -tronger than it was three month's • ago. (t. W ill continue to improve as time goes on, while Germany's position grows rapidly worse. '" ._-. The -.''T_' l ' ,°, f .Ghflian neutrality -jMiumitt-ed by Admiral yon Spec, Com- " a.ndor-iii-Chief of tho German "Pacific "squadron, m making use of tho Juan -I'ornaiidez islands as a base for his *">ip- "was an impudent act, which is piobablv without equal in the history *-.' na ..'' l y arfare - - N *ot content with |Mis, the German admiral appears to ". a step further, and seized • <>n the high seas, a neutral ship bound . y>* neutral port, taken her to the •j*».ti..l islands, which he was using «s - - imsc, and there stolen her cargo • f *xi l 1 ,s - tJle stor *y of the master tile .Norwiegian ship Helicon which - i arrived at tho Chilian port of ,let.i Colosa. According to the cap- % ii. T.us ship, which was bound to the •ilian port, was seized.iv tho Pacific ; - October 23rd, and towed to Juan uinndez, where her cargo of coal was Jken out of her. The date given was p_ee_. or teu days before the engage--aieut m which tho Good Hope and . -Monmouth wore sunk. The German -Jluns, cufc oh from their real base and Dior coaling stations, were probably -very short of coal after their enforced cruise across the Pacific. The piratical .seizure of the Helicon and her cargo ol coal shows clearly what desnerate -. ";straits the German ships must * havo •■'. k, 00 ", in when they committed tho ; double breach of neutrality involvincr countries. ° wi«- - - - c An unconfirmed report, published in p*the '.Maim," one of the most reliable !\% of i rench newspapers, states- that tho a German battleship Kaiser Wilhelm der Vrosso has been sunk after striking a nine in the Baltic, and that the cruiser was sunk at Libau. If true, this news is very satisfactory, for, while •neither ship was a modern vessel," their >ss will to some extent balance that of io Bulwark. Thc Kaiser Wilhelm der 'rosse was one of tho five ships of tho ybiser class built between 189S and ]\P'2. These ships were for some years |the first squadron of the HtghSeas f\et, but they were finally replaced \f, newer shins in 190S-09, and transjfred to the' Baltic Sea Fleet. The %iser Wilhelm der Grosse was a killer battleship than any of the pldlf British pre-Dreadnoughts, and her '.-Sn armament comprised only four ?4_n guns,-as against four 12in guns I the British ships. The Hertha is "ported to have been 6unk at Libau, ii Ru.sian southern naval base in the ifjiije. This place was bombarded by ''p some days' ago, and the ||rtha was probably sunk by a mine, jj?a torpedo from a Russian submarine. S Hertha was a contemporary of the ish cruisers Hermes and Highflyer, ytl was practically the same size as ||jse ships, with a ..-lightly heavier if lament, which included two B.2in ih-\. Like tho Highflyer, in the BritI? training squadron, the Hertha had »-. some years been emriloyed with her stcr ships. Hansa, 1. ova, Victoria ixtiLse, and Vineta, as a training ship. -V.lf the loss of the Kaiser Wilhelm der • Grosso and the Hertha is a fact, and ■the story of the'Petrograd conespon,d_iit of the "Morning Post" is true, ;**Ge'rman naval losses in the Baltic have _"• Jjeen fairly heavy. When it was announced on September 4th that seven German destroyers and torpedo-boats hnd arrived at Kiel in a damaged condition, and that several others wero ".md-rstood to be sinking in the vicinity o»" the Kiel Craial, __.'ernl explanations were offered. It was suggested that these vessels were survivors of tho Heligoland engagement or that they had been damaged by another German •squadron which had engaged them in a fog in tho Baltic. But tho correspondent of the "Alorning Post" off-H----an explanation, which sounds far inoro ■ feasible. He states that 'Admiral yon Essen, who, by tho way, flies his flag -- in the big armoured cruiser Kurik, disguised his ships by painting them the same shndo as German warships, and contrived during foggy weather to get mto touch -with the enemy's squadron. Beioro his ruse was detected the Rus- ■ M.an admiral opened fire, and sank a -iemian cruiser and badly damaged another, while his destroyers engaced the enemy's flotilla. Whether any of the 'rorman destroyers were sunk* we are, not told, but the statement that a number ot them reached Kiel in a| damaged condition, while others woro reported to be "in a sinking condition m the vicinity,"' shows that they were . well punished.