BATTLE OF JUTLAND

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11293, 19 August 1922, Page 4

BATTLE OF JUTLAND

The Hon. Sir T. Mackenzie, in the Legislative Council debate on the Naval Bill, found it necessary to make some remarks about the British conduct of the battle of Jutland. He quoted an American authority, who had drawn a very definite conclusion to the discredit of the British side, by pointing out the enormously superior weight of the British tonnage and broadsides over the weight of the German equipments, and the very inferior losses suffered by the German fleet. The line is, besides being misleading, ungenerous in the the extreme. It ignores the fact that much of the British fleet took but a small part in the action, and treats the losses as proofs of British defeat, whereas they only show that the German gunnery, though more fortunate in exploding ships, failed to avert decisive defeat. The quotation included some derogatory reference to the British retreat, whereas there was no retreat. The manoeuvre which has been most criticised was the momentary drawback of a portion of the British line by which the German attempt to torpedo the ships was frustrated. Why the quotation of this particular American authority P A high American authority has analysed the battle, and justified every detail of the British tactics in it. To have picked out the ungenerous, from the material available, and ignored the generous, was scarcely justifiable. More especially in a debate which called for no reference to any battle whatever. And most of all in a place where the British side was entitled to at least bare justice.