THE OLD MAN OF THE SEA.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume X, Issue 16, 2 January 1920, Page 7

THE OLD MAN OF THE SEA.

VON TIRPITZ IN A NEW LIGHT. Von Tirpitz’ whiskers, were .“.daz--zle painting.” They disguised . the real man from the gaze of the world. We in this country were led to regard him as a sort of “Fe-fl-fo-fum,” a figure of laughter. It is a vastly different figure that emerges from his “My Memoirs,'’ says the London “Daily Express,” published to-day. It will now be possible for people in this country to realise at first hand iwhat a formidable antagonist he could have been. Gould have been! Yes, that is the strange truth we have now to digest, for throughout the war von Tirpitz was a nonentity. : Power at German G.H.Q. waste the hands of men who did not know how to use a.fleet, -so the man who had made.it[ who had every qualification for using it to good effect, was elbowed teto the background, his advice unsought, his vast knowledge ig I ?9 re d.Voh Tirpitz was'a big man. How otherwise could he have raised Germany in seventeen, years to the position of' the world’s second greatest natal Power 1 But he was more than an Organiser and a shipbuilder. He . was a strategist and he had, what scarcely one German in a hundred thousand has, the ■: true seasense.

He was no apostle of- frightfulness.

“Muller has complained about the Zeppelin raids, and I thtek tiute.be is. quite right. I shall try to put a stop fo thu-childish juggling -with Zeppelin airships; ‘ ‘.The indiscriminate dropping of bombs is wrong ; they are repulsive when they hit and kill an old woman and one gets used-to-them.'lf one could set fire to Lond9n - m thirty places then the repulsiyeness would be lost sight of in the immensity of the effect?’

Sse two quotations from his ne letters are important, because they, serve to put . him in the right perspective. He was quite prepared to be ruthless, but for a legitimate war aim. It was the same with,his strategy. . . “We hear via Poldhu that the English, the-day after the rinkiim of their ships renewed their attadt ©a the Dardanelles. That is the right spirit!” BLOCKED BY THE KAISER.

It was not to be expected that such a man could stomach the inactivity of the ,fleet he had built with the sole object of making ’ Germany a menace to the 'greatest Be* Power, He could do nothing, though. The Kaiser tfas Comm*nderrin-Chid. Admiral Mullet was chief of the Naval. Cabinet: Admiral vbn Pohl Wfis Chief of the Naval State ‘-Ute * viously, : the Kaiser is prejudiced against me.’’ . “Pohl is ghastly. There isn’t ai scrap' of nerve in the man. Muller was ‘a countier out. of touch with-the sea..’ ” * Von Tirpitz sent memorandum after memorandum. In one, written. on October 1, 1914, he foretold the end : “If the fleet continues to remain in its withdrawn position its moral - strength and capacity will of necessity deteriorate, with resylte that cannot be. overlooked.” Then came the submarine business and there agate he saw ; blunder after blunder. It .was a mistake to declare tiie “war zone” in February, 191j5- He would have had a blockade restricted to the mouth of the 'Thames,* and refilly effective. Had ? it' been done w6 should have' suffered .bitterly from disorganisation. When the first false step had beeh taken, however, he knew the ohly thing to do was to refuse stubbornly to be moved from that course by any protest. The Court camarilla wavered, wobbled, . issued All sorts of contradictory orders to the submarine commanders—some secret, some public—till the whole campaign came to a standstill te bewilderment. Then the politicians and the courtiers proceeded to ar-, gue and negotiate for a year and ** half. Von-Tirpitz clamoured for a prompt renewal of the attempt with* the larger submarines he had built. He knew that Britain was not sleeping;. that anti-submarine methods were bound to develop. He wanted the campaign in 1916. It .came in, 1917—and by that time Lord JeUi-| coe had set te train a whole armada* of naw devices and new.-craft. It w-as too late—blit only just too late, .as the'figures for.April* May, and June of' that year remind us.