The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1917. TRAFALGAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9796, 20 October 1917, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1917. TRAFALGAR

To-day is not the anniversary of the great naval victory ■which, stands at the top of British naval tradition, but it is the day selected for its observance. All must therefore rejoice m the memories evoked and make some effort to realise how the Empire has lived' up to them, and what it has to expect in the future from this practical effect. But before that the ground must be cleared. Franco, defeated at Trafalgar, is now our Ally, for tho second time in the seven decades. of which the first began with the start of the second Napoleonic Empire. Before realising the importance of Trafalgar in our history, we must realise Trafalgar. In one respect Trafalgar is not a thing to boast about. It was not a victory won by the ascendancy of the naval personnel. It was not like Dettingen, or Albuera, or Tnkenman, or the Mens retreat, or the passage of the Aisne, or the Battle for the Sea. or tho two great battles of Ypres, or the wonderful victories of the Indian Mutiny War. Each of these was a battle in which the main factor of victory was the fighting quality of the rank and ffle At Trafalgar the enemy’s men showed as much valour and tenacity as tho men of the British Fleet. Victory crowned the British arms because the British wore commanded by the greatest naval commander in the history of tho world, in a fight with a fleet commanded by certainly the worst commander in the French service. Realising that tho Napoleonic cause upheld by French seamen wont down because Napoleon, contrary to his usual habit, had picked the wrong commander, we arc free to talk of that which Trafalgar means to us without danger of being misunderstood by

our noble Allies whose gallantry is second to none.

Trafalgar gave us the control of the sea, after a series of conflicts going back to the day on which Edward 111. won the battle of Stays, one of the greatest naval battles of history. That battle gave England (and the future British Empire) a great start in the race for the supremacy of tho sea. The great sailors of the; Elizabethan period increased the lead with their defeat of tho Spanish Armada, and opened all tho oceans to English enterprise. After England and Scotland had become a United Kingdom the prowess of Blako and the Admirals who fought under and with him in the time of the Duke of York struck down the power of the Dutch Republic which had become a serious rival for the command of tho sea. From that on to the end of tho eighteenth century wo waged a groat contest with France for tho coveted Trident, with varying fortune. After the addition of Ireland had given the British character to the English fighting effort on tho water, Trafalgar settled the question of the Trident with a firmness of grip which the men of the day thought must bo for all time. •Henceforth all discussions of sea power were conducted with Trafalgar as the culminating point of the greatest naval chapter in the history of tho world. That is tho moaning of tho Trafalgar tradition; that is why wo celebrate Trafalgar to-day. > We celebrate it in tho midst of the greatest war in the military annals of the world, because tho Trafalgar tradition has justified itself a-gainst the strongest effort ever made to wrench the Trident of the Sea from the storing British grasp. When war was declared tho enemy’s fleet was tho _ most powerful that had ever been built to challenge the British command of the sea. The German fleet was strong, and the Austrian was of respectable force. Between them tliey might, if brought together, have reduced tho balance of naval strength to something between a 5 and 10 per cent, difference. It would have been a difference giving to the enemy a good fighting chance. The enemy played his game badly; we. played ours according to the Trafalgar—known ns tho Nelson —tradition. It was a tradition of prompt, concerted, well-directed action. Tho result was that tho enemy’s flag disappeared in twenty-four hours from the surface of the ocean, and the enemy’s fleets remained in their shelters inactive and inglorious, while the enemy's commerce was simply - destroyed. Trafalgar had justified itself. But that was only a part of the sequel of Trafalgar. The British Navy, maintaining the sea routes for the commerce of the British Empire, for the transport of the British and Allied armies oversea, for the continuity of tho munition supplies, turned the scale of war against the great German military machine after its years of preparation of perfection, making Germanic victory impossible. Unable to prevail on the surface, the enemy jettisoning all cargo of morality, inherent, and international law developed by experience of countless wars, took his attack under water with the black flag which civilisation had banished from the surface. And the British Navy frustrated him as Elngland had frustrated all attacks from the days of that great battle of Sluya in the reign of Edward 111. Once the enemy mot this redoubtable Navy on the surface, and, testing the strength of the Trafalgar tradition, fled to his shelters, thankful that the atmosphere had saved his ships, boasting, nevertheless, after his manner. But never again did he dare to meet the fleet of Britain’. To-day, in spite of the utmost efforts of his sea-power, the Navy of Britain (of course, ably sustained by the navies of the Allies) assures the sea communications essential to the swift, harmonious conduct of the great war on its many fronts. Again does Trafalgar, the culminating point ot the greatest of naval histories, justify Itself. And that completes the reason why we celebrate Trafalgar, which has made victory possible. Britain’s army is splendid and great. But without Trafalgar and the fleet neither its greatness nor its splendour would have been possible. Neither would the Allies have had a hope of victory. Therefore, again, do we celebrate Trafalgar.