SCAPA AND KIEL.

Northern Advocate, 3 September 1919, Page 6

SCAPA AND KIEL.

SIR PERCY SCOTT'S DISCLOSURES

Speaking' at a dinner iv London recently, Admiral Sir Percy Scott, responding to the toast of the Navy, said that from the very beginning of the war, nearly everyone considered that so long as the British Fleet cornananded the seas, the 'Huns were bound to lose the war. In other words, that the winning or losing of the war was to be decided by the Royal Navy in conjunction with the merenntile marine, and those magnificent men of the fishing fleet. "In 15)14, after war was declared," the Admiral continued, "we all slept comfortably in our beds knowing that the Huns could not win the war so long as the British Xavy existed, and no one ever dreamt that the Xavy would not exist. When I say no one I mm not quite correct, a few naval officers knew that the British Fleet might on any morning be found to be praetietflly non-existent.

"In November, 1914, I visited the Grand Fleet; they were then at Scapa Flow, in the Orkneys, in an absolutely unprotected harbour. Hun submarines coulld.-have.cb.nie in and sunk them on any night. I slept on board the Iron Duke, My last remark to Lord Jellicoe was, 'Shall we be here in the. morning.? His reply was, I wonder. . Some people have said to me, 'Why did Lord Jellicoe have his fleet in an unprotected harbour?? . The answer is that prior to the yvar we had only considered submarines as toys, so we hud. not got a protected harbour to put o\ir fleet in.

"Then I have been asked, if. that were the case,, why did not the Huns destroy our fleet, and Win the war in 1914. Well, why did not they? Admiral Jellicoe in liis book says that he (thinks the Hun minds could not-conceive that we were such fools as to have our fleet "in an unprotected harbour. There is a story told that Hun airmen having reported in 1914 that they could see no defences at Scapa, two spies were sent, and at that time it was very easy for them to get over. They reported thait there was no protection. The Huns promptly shot them, as they considered they ,were lying. They , then sent two more; they, were not going to take any risks, so they reported that our fleet was.as safe as theirs in the Kiel Canal. Perhaps this is why the Huns did not win, as they could have won, the war in 1914.

"If the Huns had had half >a dozen men of the stamp of our submarine commanders, we should now be a Hun colony. The knowledge of this will, T think, be the bitterest pill that the Huns have ever had to swallow. Lord Jellicoe has been criticised because after the Battle of Jutland he did not pursue the 'Hun fleet and figM them at night. Lord Jellicoe had a very good reason for not doing , so. The British Fleet was not properly equipped for fighting , an action at nig-ht. The German fleet ;was. Consequently, to fight them at nig-ht would have only been to court disaster. Lord Jellicoe's business was to preserve the Grand Fleet, not to risk its existence. I have been asked ■why was the Grand Fleet not so well prepared to fight a night action as the Him navy. My. answer is, ask the Admiralty. -The -Hun> fleet went back, only to come out again when they came like a-flock of sheep to surrender. The Hun sailors were made in Kiel Harbour. This harbour is like the Serpentine-rand yon cannot make a Bailor- on the Serpentine, and that is what was the matter with the Hun -navy."