THE NAVY AND ITS WORK.

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 42, 17 August 1918, Page 11

THE NAVY AND ITS WORK.

"From Snotty to Sub." By the author of "From Dartmouth to the Dardanelles." William Heineman, London. „

"The deadly monotony of the work of the Grand Fleet will probably never hn fully realised by any but those whose fate it was to wait day after day, week after week, for the longed-for encounter with the enemy." This is one of the opening paragraphs in a delightfullywritten little book, which is respectfully commended to "the man in the street." >s it happened, the monotony was soon relieved, for . the naval officer who furnishes the authors with their material was in the battle off Jutland, and a simply-told but thrilling story of it he has to tell. Reference is made to the chilly reception accorded the news of this battle in England, and (it will surprise many people here to know) that "men liinding from the ships-with the knowledge that by almost superhuman courage find endurance they had won the greatest naval fight in the history of the world were yet greeted by the public with cold looks—in some cases even with hisses—and by the press with a cynical pessimism which could only ask why they had not done more !" We know better now, but the Navy is not likely to forget that reception, even if it may have long since, forgiven it. The Foreword to the book is written by "His Mother," who explains that " 'Snotty' is a dreadful word of, I am sure, libellous origin ! But is is pure mivalese. 'Middy' is not a service term at all, and the curlydaired 'middy' so dear to writer's of fiction and comic opera has no existence in fact."