AT GERMANY'S, MERCY.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15267, 1 May 1915, Page 7

AT GERMANY'S , MERCY.

WHEN WE WERE HELPLESS.

VALUE OF THE AUSTRALIA

CHASING YON SPEE.

It is hard to believe that three years ago Australasian cities were more perilously threatened than at any timo during this war (writes the- Melbourne correspondent of tho "Sydney Sun , '); Yet it is trne. German trticulence had brought tho world to the very brink of conflict. Tho little gunboat Panther, now happily snnfc in unfathomable waters in the Mediterranean, had put. her jaunty nose into the Moroccan port of Agadir, hoisted tho German flag, and claimed tho harbour, tho town, and tho inhabitants for the Kaiser. A German claim to a naval base on tho Atlantic -was, of course, a direct act of aggression against tho British Empire. But before tho Germans wero unceremoniously bundled out of Morocco wo had cleared our ships for action, and Franco and Russia had threatened immediate mobilisation. Sorao delicate diplomatic work was done on that occasion, and Sir Edward Grey neatly turned Italy's attention to Tripoli; Inrb that is another story, and is now well known.

What is not well known is that Australasia -was, if war had come, temporarily at the mercy of the Germans. The British auxiliary scjuadron then in these waters was tho old Powerful, the Encounter, and a few of tho luckless P class of cruisers. Wo had nothing to speak of in China waters, and in the East Indies. We thought tho Germans had very little also. But in tho midst of the crisis we were undeceived. Tho Germans ha:l in .tho Pacific not only the Scharr- ■>•<#. but tho Gneisenau and three Hl- • cruisers also. And on tho day on which war was expected, one of tho best-known of our Pacific skippere saw tho -whole German fleot on the northern horizon, bearing down towards tho Australian coast. He reported the' news to the Defence Department, -which to this day fully behoves that this powerful German fleet, of whose presence in the Pacific ■ wo- wero unaware, was making 'for Sydney. . Admiral Sir George King-Hall, a good friend of the,, -Australian Nayy t was then in charge.of the Australasian station. "I would gladly hare gone down," he said at the time;., "but it would have been hard to meet them without a chance of getting a shelP aboard them." The poor old .Powerful had'all boilers except, two out of Tepair during-theso' critical days; wo could have saved neither our trade nor. our cities. • GERMAN PREPARATIONS. These facts are stated to throw into greater relief-the excellence of the work done by the Australian fleet during the first months Of the war. 'After the Agadir days the Powerful was scrapped, 'ihe Admiralty was not to be caught again. • It sent out the Drake—only a sister ship, by the way, to the Good Hope, which the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau accounted for near Chili. It also sont a little later on the Minotaur and the Swiftsure' to the East' Indies and China Stations. "What-the Drake could have done, against Admiral yon Spce must be left to surmise. Yon Spec had the crack crews and tho crack chips of the, German x> avy, and he hail them, when -war actually came, at tho close of a course of threo years' continuous" training in the Pacific. ' The Drake, the Minotaur, and tho Swiitsure might have been ablo to concentrato; they might have proved enough to frighten the Germans across tne Pacific. But, on the whole, it was a cause for congratulation that the Drake had given way to H.M.A.S. Australia before tho war came, and tho P cruisers to the new, speedy Sydney and Melbourne: A map accompapjing the Melbourne writer's article shows tho work done by tho Australia while tho German squadronwwea c within striking distance of Australasian shores. Except during one short cruise south-west from Suva, the Australia wa"s always accompanied by one or more consorts —usually the French Montcalm and the training cruiser Encounter. The other vessels of Admiral Patcy's command occasionally joined in tho Australia's work, as" when, early in September, tho full fleet concentrated at llossel Island and dashed into Rabaul Harbour, hoping against hope to find the Germans there. For the most part, however, the light cruisers and destroyers wero engaged on reconnoitring work, and on the very necessary task of smashing the wireless stations and little naval bases established by yon Speo in numberless islands to the north and north-east of Gorman New Guinea. Not a hint of the Germans' whereabouts was gained during these weeks. Yon Spec had disappeared. He was in.none of his regular haunts; yet he might appear at any time in any place, and Admiral Patoy could not venture very far away from his Australian bases. . ON THE GERMANS' TRACK. New Zealand wanted to take Samoa, and troops could not bo sent across the ocean to Apia without the only effective naval shield provided in the Pacific— H.M.A.S. Australia. The second observation is that tho Australia never pot farther east than Samoa, except for a short cruise, long after the Germans hail passed that way; and never ■farther south than Herbertshobo, until she passed across the equator at the end of November to join-in tho driving. , movements that" sent yon Speo round into admiral Sturdee's , The reason for Ajunif'al . Patey's constant jotyu'eyinfis between Rabaul, Australia, and Suva is plain. He had no inkling, until September" 14th.~ as to the Uerlnans , whereabouts; even after their appear a n<?j> in Apia Harbour on that date he never knew -when they might dart towards, New Zealand or Sydney,

still —towards the many Australian then moving along the coast; and iio had thereioro to - keep guard. Tho German track -on tho map takes thorn from tho time they left Now Guinea on tho declaration of war ,to their departure Irom (Jontrollenr Bayon October 2nd for their concentration > station off the Chilian coast. According to one Jotter from a. German sailor on the Scharnhorot. tho squadron was at Ponapo when it received ite final war orders. This version is accepted , by tho Australian Xavy Office, but. itis not certain yet that Admiral yon Spec did not begin his runaway from Rabanl. -where the Australian destroyers made a dashing night attack on August 12th. The Gorman equadron.at this time certainly consisted of tho Sehamhorst, Gneisenau. and Titania, and it was soon joined oy the Emden. Tho general concentration took place in the Marshall Islands, which tho Emden left on August 20th for tho Indian Ocean, and the Nurnberg left on August 22nd for Honolulu. The Nurnberjj's course is shown as taking ia Fanning Island on the return from Honolulu. She picked tip thirty-eoyen war reservists in the Hawaiian ' Islands, and broke up tho Fanning Island cable, station on her way'south, she, joined tho Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Dresden at an island close to tho Fanning Group. On their way across the i'aciuo . the SchnrnhorstondGneisonau travelled alone, taking in feamoa and x-a-peeto. while the lighter cruisers mado. their own passage to the Chilian island.

Only once did Admiral yon Spec gW© the Australian ships a chanco of meeting him. This was when lie looked-in at Apia- Harbour. Ho had heard, probably as a result of tho NurnbergV visit to Fanning Island, "that a'largo fleet of -warships and transports had been there on August 30th. Ho kn«w well that the Australia would not s tay thero long. And ■■when ho put his ship into the harlronr on September 14th. the utmost he errweted to find wer© some of our smaller chips. Happily. Admiral Patey had left nothing hut woll-tirmed land, forces there, an<J the Germans-pot-no-Ticthns.

SPYING SYSTEM EESULTMSS.

Though we failed to catch the Germans, wo kept them from interfering with our trade or our possessions. They got nothing in return for thoir elaborate expenditure "on spying in tho i?*cific, on establishing' provision bases at many islands, and on their wonderful system of supply ships. This expenditure had been carefully thought out. As many as six supply ships on ono occasion rendezvoused with the German squadron at an unknown island. jSxit not ono British ship did tho Germans sink, not ono shot did they fire at a British port, until they met Admiral Crsulock's numerically inferior fleeti. It a negative" success for Admiral Patoy and his Australians; bat it was nono the less a complete success. ""-