ILLUSTRIOUS ADMIRAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19833, 31 December 1927, Page 9

ILLUSTRIOUS ADMIRAL.

EARL JELLICOE HONOURED,

■■ ■ ' THE FREEDOM OF HARROGAT& TRIBUTE FROM ARCHBISHOP, 1 [fbom our ow» corkespondeni.] LONDON, Not. 16.In the presence of a largo number of townspeople and school children Admiral of the Meet Earl Jellicoe* was presented with the freedom of Harrogate, Yorkshire, on November 9. Among those present were Lady Jellicoe, Lady Myrtle ' Jellicoe, the Archbishop of York, Admiral Sir F. Bridgeman, and Major J. W. Hills, M.P. An inscribed casket was presented to Earl Jellicoe. It was of solid silver covered with 18ct. gold, and was in the form of a scroll, with the arms of the borough carved out of silver on the top. Under tho borough arms were the arms of Earl Jellicoe cut out of the round and handsomely carved. Tho Mayor said the ceremony was honourable alike to Earl Jellicoe and to Har- » rogate. Some might ask what was Lord Jellicoe's connection with the borough.: Every inland town and every seaboard town had an intimate connection with every officer and man who, in the dark days of the war, kept watch au.d ward on the seas surrounding our island home.' (Applause.) Like many s&ilors before him, Earl Jellicoe started his career in the Britannia, where he carried everything in front of him in seamanship and games. England's Hour of Heed. As a sub-lieutenant'he took the coveted prize for gunnery at the Royal Naval College, and there started that great career in a subject which had interested him throughout. He had been associated with Lord Fisher and Sir Percy Scott, and with his knowledge, assisted by. others, had increased the efficiency and the hitting power of British battleships something like 30 per cent. In 1914-16 he commanded the Grand Fleet—(applause) —became First Sea Lord in 1916 and Chief of the General Staff in 2917.-, In 1919 he got to the top of the tree and became Admiral of the Fleet. Three times, but for. the grace of God, England in her hour of need would have been deprived of the services of John Rushworth Jellicoe—in 1886, in 1893 and in the operations for the relief of Pekin. Referring to Earl Jellicoe's services as Governor-General of New Zealand, the Mayor read a letter written by a New Zealander, describing Lord and Lady Jellicoe as "easily the most popular viceroyalties we have evor had." (Applause).' "They took an active interest in every laudable activity. Bis great naval knowledge was the chief means of the Dominion supporting so heartily the Singapore base, and of our whole-hearted efforts to support a local naval force." Three times had England been faced with the possibility of inviision, and oil each occasion had a champion come uv»for England—Drake, Nelson, Jsllicoe. (Loud applause.) , I Tha Archbis'lop's Picture. The Archbishop of York said he thought he might not unfitly represent the whole county of Yorkshire, which joined with Harrogate in honouring a great sailor. He was Earl Jellicoe's guest for some time in his flagship, the Iron Duke, in the first year of the war, and was the first civilian permitted to penetrate into the mists of the northern seas, behind which the Grand Fleet was keeping its watch.. He would never forget the impression made upon lis mind by seeing within his very cabin what it was to be Commander- . in-Chief of the Grand Fleet in time of world-wide war. All the evening long an orderly was coming with wireless messages from the whole circuit of the seaj. The Commander-in-Chief, sitting at a small -writing table, with nothing in front of him but a map and a pad of note-

paper, gave his answer to each message as it was brought to him with unruffled quietness and decisiveness. AU night long, after he had left the Commander-in-Chief's cabin, he could hear- the tread of the orderly bridging those messages on which an immediate decfcitfr had to be given; and- on which -great, issues might be involved. And long before ho was up in the morning he could hear the tread of the Commander-in-Chief as he paced the deck with his chief of staff, Sir Charles Madden, discussing with him problems of the management and control of the great enterprise of which he was the leader. (Applause.) Confidence :&nd Faith. The second impression he got was of the supreme unity of the Grand Fleet,; It fell to him night after night to mett the admirals and captains of the ships that were then concealed and ready in Scapa Flow. He had never been impressed by anything more than by the'complete, unshaken and unshakeable confidence which united every man, from admiral to boy, in faith in their Commander-in-Chief. It was proof of the truth, as Nelson said, that the Navy was a band of brothers. It was the -fact that Lord Jellicoe was first of all himself the chief brother and comrade of every man in the fleet that made him a leader wr.th whom they were willing to watch and serve with unshaken confidence. (Applause). In the last year of the war, added the archbishop, it fell to him to try to interpret the ideals for which at that time we were contending to the United States. He was sometimes ssked, what had the Grand Fleet been doing X He remembered the effect which used to be made on great assemblies when he answered that by saying they must answer another question, what had the German Fleet been doing? It was precisely not where tiny self-respecting fleet would wish to be, in the open sea; it could not get there; and it was prevented from getting there by the coolness, the skill, the decisiveness and the single-minded devotion to. duty which marked the command of the Grand i Fleet on the great day of Jutland by the | youngest freeman of Harrogate. (Loud apI plause.) Earl Jellicoe on Patriotism. Earl Jellicoe, who was received with loud cheers, said he could not conceive why Harrogate had honoured him. He was not a Yorkshirenaaii, &sas, but he knew Yorkshire's strong 'oca.l patriotism, and in the few moments he had been a freeman of Harrogate he had fell; that spirit entering' him, and he vas ready to champion the town of Harrogate all over the world. (Laughter.) Patriotism, local, national or had the greatest possible value. in the traditions of a great sendee, were what had made our K-wy an.vl Army invincible in the past, and what would iuake those services and the Air Force invincible in the future. Patriotism pride of country should be «ncourag. id and fostered, because it brc'jk'hi loith all that was best in human ipfcd tfc&y. not every reason to be proud -3.f~.ihf> *?-, ,we'? It had stood for jiAsiic*/. -freedom the best of civilisation for hundreds; -iv. years. (Applause.)