NAVAL STRATEGY

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2235, 22 August 1914, Page 7

NAVAL STRATEGY

SOME NOTABLE ADMIRALS. Tlie'man of whom, for some reason or officers of tho Navy seem to hold the highest expectation, is Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, who was re» veccntly sent to command the first battle squadron in his great new flagship itlie Marlborough. Admiral Bayly is not jet 57. The Navy looks upon him as perhaps its finest tactician, and when, the Naval War College—which is attended by Admirals, Captains, and Commanders—was to be established at'' a very high standard of tactfcal and strategical training, he was the man who was chosen for the task. Sir John Jellicoe, who is two years .younger, is a man who believes that the Navy cannot go far wrong as long as it hits hard.Nelson, before his last .and greatest battle, after giving his captains 'a clear idea of the principle's of :his great plan, specially told them that ho did not wish delay to bo caused by any elaborate and unnecessary falling v into* exact line. They" knew, briefly;,''broadly, what whs iq be douo, and, in case any captain found it difficult to carry it out in detail under the circumstances of the moment, Nelson gave them this broad, safo principle to fall back on: no captain, ho said, could go very far wrong who laid his ship alongsidea ship of the the enemy. There is to-day a school of naval thought in Britain which holds that the loss of any. ship is Svorth while, • provided that ehip sends to"tho bottom a ship of corresponding strength in tho enemy's line.

The Belgian Ardennes, now! a scene of war, contain some of the most beautiful country in the world. -Streams, glassily clear, slip like silken" ribbons between steep hills covered With huge, clensej beech forests. Sleepy villages, forgotten of the outside world, iiostlo hero and there ;by ancient Stone bridges. The traveller-may find, 'half a dozen times _in .'the .day, as he .trudges along .tho winding road,iv white post, ami perhaps a.sentry-box,'.ahead of him. That is some portion of the; Franco-Bel-gian frontier, which lie crosses so often along tho Semois River; thatrho almost forgets -.'which country for the time being ho is in. The chances are that tho old inn iii which ho stops tho night is Bomo converted monastery. Around the Walla of tho groat front room aro niches covered wit'h curtains—there the mombers of the innkeeper's family sleep, and live, and hnve their being. For breakfast they will brdug him not a cup of_tea or coffee—indeed, n<it a eup of anything; but a ebrt of overgrown sugar basin, full to the brim with most delioious chooolate. It is the simplest, weetest countryside in the world where the fate of the world;seems likely te h» decided.' ' " ."' —' . •