STEADINESS IN ADVERSITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 42, 19 February 1942, Page 6

STEADINESS IN ADVERSITY

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Events of the past week seem to have induced some hysteria. An example is- the Press comment from Australia on the fall of Singapore that appeared in the news on Tuesday. It was enough to make one blush—a nar-row-minded search for a scapegoat. Then there was the English comment on the escape of the German warships. It was ironical to compare the editorial strictures of "The Times" with the comment of the naval correspondent of the same paper, Mr. H. C. Ferraby, broadcast from the 8.8.C. Mr. Ferraby made the point that at any rate the ships were now a thousand miles further from the Atlantic trade routes. It is true the Germans got through the Straits of Dover. It is also a fact that they control the whole coast of western Europe from the north of Norway to the south of France. They were steaming along their own coast. Naval history shows how much easier it is for a resolute and skilful force to act at its chosen moment than for the opposite force to be ready at all points at every moment. Take the raid on Scarborough in the last war. People wanted to know what the British Navy was doing. It came out later that the British dispositions were excellent, but just as our ships made contact they were robbed of success by a rain storm. I say a resolute and skilful enemy. The "Daily Mail" refers to the Germans as "not a seafaring nation." This is a dangerous frame of mind. The Germans are a seafaring nation. The British Navy doesn't make the mistake of under-rating "the enemy. Lord Jellicoe, who commanded the Grand Fleet in the last war, had a knowledge of the German navy that perhaps was not surpassed in the service. That knowledge gave him a wholesome respect for the prowess of his opponent, which was justified at Jutland.—l am, etc.,

STEADY-ON.