THE ADMIRALTY

Evening Star, Issue 16629, 11 January 1918, Page 6

THE ADMIRALTY

. i' mjBTEEE EESBUEFLINO. / POINTS IN TERMINOLOGY, HOW WORK IS DIVIDED. THE SINKINGS. [By Crixicus.] A further reshuffling of posts and' duties Js in progress at the Admiralty. It is not « matter which need inspire much on- . thusiasm, as these readjustments are becoming of periodical .recurrence, and it is ■ very questionable whether they do much B°ud. >A vague desire for a change for its 1",. ®wn sake is a common weakness of human 1C nature. When a Government has been in office for a considerable time, there gracluftly grows up a desire for a change, and this desire is accompanied by vague and indefinable expectations of great results to flow from the new arrangements. It is much tile sjime with Boards of Admiralty • > and the like. Periodically writers and > speakers demand reorganisation. They have not, as a rule, the slightest idea of what it is they actually desire, or what they expect to gain by"it; but vast, if indefinite, hopes loom vaguely in their imaginations. Often they talk largely of ' setting up a Naval General Staff, as though we did not already possess this. Such a Staff was definitely organised by Mr Winston Churchill during his term of office, and wo had the substance of it even before then, under other names. It is true, however, that it is desirable that all the elements of a General Staff should be co-ordinated in a maimer at once logical and practical, care being taken not to sacrifice the practical character of the arrangement in order to secure a superficial appearance of logical fitness, which is often a great temptation to a certain type of mind ; and it is true that a periodical shaking up has a stimulating effect upon Uhose concerned, and helps to preyent_ them, getting mentally stale and ' falling into grooves. A CONFUSION OF TERMS. While on this subject, it will be useful / 1° call attention to a curious confusion of terminology and idea sometimes noticeable in the use of the term “ General Staff.” The word “ general ” is often used as if it were synonymous, when employed in this connection, with the same word when applied to the commander of an army. Thus, it is sometimes called the "General's Staff,” and the General Staff of the Navy is correspondingly, and absurdly called the “ Admiral's Staff.” But the word “ general ”in . the phrase “ General Staff ” carries the same 'significance as when used in such phrases as “general terms” or “ general purposes.” A General’s Staff is the staff of a general, while an Admirals Staff is the staff of an admiral. Now, this is exactly what a General Staff • is not, for it serves, not the needs of a general or an admiral, but the general needs or purposes of the Army or Navy as a whole. Therefore, we are as fully justified in talking of the General Staff of he Navy or the Naval General Staff , .re are in talking of the General Staff of the Army. There is no need to drag in, such absurd phrases as Admiral’s - Staff,. since “ general ” in this connection has nothing to do with the general who commands an army. IDEAL, Birr YAGUE. We are told' that tlie First Lord of the Admiralty has “seized the opportunity to form a practically ideal Naval General Staff.” This may be so, and Sir Eric Geddes has undoubtedly proved himself an organiser of phenomenal ability. . It may, be mentioned, in passing, that he first came to the fore in reorganising the British railways for war purposes. Then he became Lloyd George’s right-hand man in developing the munitions output, and to him most of the practical work of organisation was due. He it was who superintended the development of the Admiralty’s vast shipbuilding programme, and turned out warships at a speed never before dreamed of. Finally he went to France to reorganise the communications of the British Army there, and did this with a success that won the enthusiastic praise of Sir Douglas Haig. Thus his new methods are not likely to lack a practical character. But there is little light thrown 'upon them in the vague summary just published. The operations are to he divided between .three bureaux —namely, home waters, overseas, and trade protection. That is sound enough so far as it goes, the real difficulty being that of preventing such bureaux from degenerating into watertight compartments, and this mainly depends on the intelligent co-operation of the heads—on the personal equation. The First Sea Lord is to be concerned solely with large questions of naval policy, the distribution ind fighting efficiency of the fleet, the general direction of naval operations, and the superintendence of the Naval General Stuff In short, he is to deal with the problems' of grand strategy; and this is as it should be. The Deputy Chief of the Naral Staff is to be solely concerned about operations in home waters, without infringing the responsibility of the Com-mander-in-Chdef of the Grand Fleet. This ■will be a much more difficult arrangement to work without friction, and it is rather hard to understand what his duties are to be, unless he is to be chiefly responsible for questions of supply, which seem scarcely the functions of a Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff. The strategy to be employed in the North Sea is a matter for the Commander-In-Chief and the First Sea Lord, or the Board of Admiralty as a whole; while for the tactics the Com-mander-In-Chief is obviously responsible. The Deputy' First Sea Lord will deal with overseas questions, being the right-band man of tine First Sea Lord in such, mat•tsra; while the Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff will be responsible for antisubmarine measures, convoying merchantmen', and none- sweeping in home waters. These arrangements seem practical enough. It will be noticed, however, that there is both a Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff and an Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff. On© wanders what their relations are to be. The multiplication of such, titles is not to be desired. In India they have, or used to have, an official who cotfid boast of the wondrous title of Deputy-Assistant-Adrutant-General, usually shortened to D.A.A.G. There were other distinctions almost equally cumbrous. THE SUBMARINES. The 'submarine losses for the past week are exactly the same as for the preceding one—namely, 18 vessels over and 3 under i,600 tons, or a total of 21 British ships sunk. _ The total of arrivals and departures is also very similar to that of Die last report, Italy announces the loss of two vessels over 1,500 tons, and France one vessel over 1,600 tons. The only fart of note in connection with the submarine campaign is an extension of the barred zone to the Cape Verde Islands, over 1,500 miles south-west of the Strait of Gibraltar. The German newspapers boast that this indicates a great increase in the range of action of the submarines, and it probably does, though the number of submarines capable of operating that distance out will be limited for a long time. Every increase in their range of action widens the danger zone and adds considerably to our anxieties. The ‘ Scientific American ’ recently calculated that to patrol the seas effectively over a radius extending 200 miles out from the English Channel would require 3,000 destroyers, and the number required would increase in a geometrical ratio with the extension of the danger zone. But wo are depending mainly on convoy, not patrolling, for the safety of our merchantmen, and that is a very, different matter. Convoy means that the protecting vessels are always on the spot at the moment of danger. Pat■folling means that they are wandering up and down looking for a needle in a hay- ■ stack. , Still, every widening of the danger zone demands more vessels for con- . wji work- y

, L - THE FRONTS. If will be ■ recalled that a day or two back we had a report that 25,000 German troops on the eastern front had mutinied and 'were defending themselves. M. •Trotsky has been interviewed by a correspondent of the ‘ Daily News,’ and he declares ; “Deserters tell me that the soldiers will not go to the western front. Twenty-five thousand Germans at this moment are mutinying behind the German front in the Kovno district, and the High Command, failing to get their comrades to attack the mutineers, surrounded them, hoping to starve them into submission.” This must be received with caution, but it is worth noting, as we know that there has been a mutiny in the German navy. An Amsterdam cable declares that a meeting at Berlin to advocate the annexation of Belgium was broken up by crippled soldiers. There is little donbt that the Russian peace propaganda is having considerable effect upon the warweary and underfed German soldiers. It is officially announced from Palestine that the Arabs are again raiding the Hodjaz Railway northward and southward of Maan. This is satisfactory so far as it goes, but it implies that the Turks still control that line; otherwise it would not be necessary to raid it.