BRITISH FLEET

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 7 January 1926, Page 5

BRITISH FLEET

JUTLAND BATTLE. CAUSE OF LACK OF SUCCESS. WHEEL GERMANS EXCELLED. BY CABLE —PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. (Received Jan. 7. 11.17 a.m.) LONDON. Jan. 6. Vice-Admiral Sir Cecil Lambert, reviewing' exclusively in the Daily Express the recent pronouncement of Von Tirpitz, says: “This is the most interesting pronouncement so far made on the batftle, Tlrstlv, owing to its source, andl secondlly (because most naval officers will not dispute that in the main the account of Von Tirpitz is true. I leave out the personal aspects, which are of no interest to publish. The lack of success at Jutland was mainly due to the fact that, ship for ship, gun for gun, and engine for engine, there was a. higher standard of efficiency in the German fleet than any the British fleet could claim. I could claim that the greatest, asset on which a British admiral could rely at the outbreak of the war was the incomparable personnel of his ship; otherwise it woulct have been a. melan- ' cholv experience to find that all the public money expended on the assur. ance that we were getting the best money and science could provide, had produced such meagre results. If we look for the cause, probably an explanation will be found in the obsession for secrecy by the expert department- dealing with technical details of ships and armaments. Whatever the cause was, it was certainly proved that German artillery and torpedo fire was of a higher standard than ours. Our guns lacked range, our torpedoes lacked accuracy of fire and efficiency of detonation. ' Our wireless had to be revolutionised after war was declared. Errors in ship construction had to he remedied amid all the haste and expense of war-time. So much for the past. Admiral Von Tirpitz will no have written in vain if he prompts the public to demand an assurance that these errors have been made good,, not merelv by a departmental assurance ox Parliament, but by practical t est ® p know the Admiralty can at present oiflv send to sea five efficient cruisers after the expenditure of upwards of fivehundred millions sterling since the armistice It is believed than suen tert. as the flee, lave made since the war have not ~ , necessary assurance It is time th cards were put on the table. X.Z. Cable Assn.