MR BALFOUR'S TRIBUTE

Evening Star, Issue 16198, 21 August 1916, Page 6

MR BALFOUR'S TRIBUTE

TO A YORKSHIRE ADMIRAL. On June 16 the city of York did honor to the memory of the lato Admiral Cradock by inviting the First Lord of the Admiralty to unveil in York Minster a fitting memorial of the gallant seaman who went down with his comrades in the ships composing the Southern Pacifio Squadron. That -was the naval fight off Coronel in November, 1914, when the Cape of Good Hope, which flew Sir Christopher's flag, succumbed to superior force. In the course of a fine address Mr Balfour said:

I do not know whether it has occurred to many to consider the circumstances of that naval action which ended in the heroic death of Admiral Cradock. After all, the episode which will remain indelibly imprinted in the memory of his countrymen is that final episode which took place off the western shores of South America. What judgment, then, are wo to pass upon this? 1 havo seen a statement contained in a German lotter, written not in critical or hostile spirit, in wliich it was assumed that Admiral Cradock was intercepted by the superior German forces, was brought to action against his will, and fell crushed under the sheer weight of superior forces. That, however, is not the fact. We know little o£ the plans or designs of Admiral Cradock; those who could have told ns have gone away for over; but we do know, from the wireless messages scut through by Admiral Cradock to the( fardistant (Janopus that he intended to attack the enemy. What, then, was his design in attacking a force obviously greatly superior to his own force, which', except for some extraordinary incident, some stroke of unexpected fortune, lie could not expect succeßsfully to cope with? Was it that ho refused to count the risks ? Was it that he simply saw the enemy and resolved to attack him, quite irrespecth-o of the prospects of success, the comparative prospects of success or failure? Such deeds of uncalculated daring mako our blood tingle within us; they move us to perhaps unreasoning admiration, and thero is not one person whom I am now addressing who would not infinitely prefer the man who calculates too little and dares too mucn to the man who dares too little- and calculates too much. Yet there is, after all, a higher wisdom than such calculation and a higher courage than such daring, and that higher wisdom and that higher courage I believe, Admiral Cradock to have possessed.

—Why Admiral Cradock Sought Action.— Why, then, you will ask me, did he attack deliberately, designedly, intentionally? Why did he attack forces which he could not reasonably have hoped either to destroy or to put to flight? I think an explanation, a satisfying explanation, can ho given. Remember what the circumstances of that German squadron were. They were not like tho German High Boas Fleet the other day off the coast of Jutland, close to lb>.■!.- own ports, capable of taking in a damaged ship to their own dockyards and to their own protected The German Admiral in the Pacific was very differently situated. He was far from any port where he could havo refitted. No friendly bases wore open to him. If, therefore, ho suffered damage, even though in suffering damage he apparently inflicted greater damage than ho received, yet his power—great for evil while he remained untouched— would suddenly, as by the stroke of an enchanter's wand, be utterly destroyed. He was a great peril as long as his squadron remained efficient, and Admiral Cradock could not have foreseen, had no reason to foresee, that battle of the Falkland Islands wliich, within a few weeks, put an utter and complete end to the forces with which he had been unsuccessfully engaged. But that event was not, and could not be, within his ken. He could only judge of the circumstances which were before him. and if he judged that he himself and those under him were well sacrificed if they destroyed the power of this hostile fleet, then I say there is no man, bo he sailor or be he civilian, but would say that such a judgment showed not only the highest courage, the greatest unsellish"ness, and absolute neglect of personal interests and personal ambitions, but showed a wise judgment of the interests of his country, and that it proved Admiral Cradock to have been, what all his friends knew him to be, a man who would not allow, I will not say considerations of personal safety, because no sailor will allow that, but personal pride or ambition to stand for one instant in the way of that which he conceived to be his duty to his country. —An Immortal Place in the Roll of Naval Heroes.— It must be to a certain extent matter of conjecture, but if I am right in the account I have given of the motives which animated him. there never was a nobler? act, unsuccessful though it was, than that which he performed off tho coast of South America. Wo do not know—wo never shall know—what were the last thoughts of Admiral Cradock. when it was evident that, outgunned and outranged as he was. success was impossible. We shall never know what he felt when tho setting sun. on that evening threw his own ships up clearly against the bright, western sky, a mark for his enemies, and at the same time rendered his own lire difficult and ineffective by placing them in tho shade. He must have realised then that'his hopes were dashed for ever to the ground, that his plan had failed, and in the face of death, certain and imminent. I doubt not that he thought, if only for a moment, of how his friends and "hi.s countrymen would judge his action. If lie did, I feel sure thai, h- realised, what is the truth, that he could safely leave his fanio to the admiring justice of hi.s countrymen. Ho lies beneath the ocean—no unfitting resting phi.v. of men of our rao\ Hi s body is separated from us by half tho world, and he and his gallant comrades lie far removed f.-„ m the pleasant Homes of England. Yet (hey have their reward. And we, looking at what tTiev attempted, and .nidging what they did in tho light of what they attempted, are surely right in saying that theirs is an immortal place in that (treat roll of naval heroes whoa*, work: has bunt up tho Empire and secured the, freedom of mankind.'whose work at the very moment I am speaking of is preserving that Empire and maintaining that ireedom. and who, God willing, will havo successors who will maintain it until tho end of time.