SIR ROSSLYN WEMYSS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17324, 25 May 1918, Page 11

SIR ROSSLYN WEMYSS

THE NEW FIRST SEA LORD. Many New Zealanders who saw the new First fcea -Lord (Sir Rosslyn Wemyss) at Mudros will bo interested in the following sketch by Mr Hugh Martin, formerly the Daily News special correspondent in the Eastern Mediterranean: — At Mudros in the spring of 1915 Wemyss was to us, whom he ruled over, tho man who made all things possible. La n Hamiltoil and De Robeck wero figures somewhere out at sea. Wemyss was a pervading force of efficiency there in the harbour. Ho did things, down to tho very smallest things, well. He was trusted rather than admired, likod rather than loved. Almost any morning at 11 o'clock precisely you might be certain of seeing Jinn step ashore, with his monocle, at the sadly overburdened jetty, and, turning to u u (mastica or "koniak" three half-penoe a glass), walk through an already thickening cloud of dust and flies up to the solidly-built little post office, whioh also served as the intelligence headquarters. That gost offico was one of his t?' l arS " a telephone line, which ran to tho island of Imbros, which is only 10 miles off tho tip of tho Gallipoli Peninsula, and has a peak admirably suited for signalling. Tho Greeks being still nominally in charge of the line—for th& international question was at that time highly involved in tho iEgean—it is plain that the arrangement had its disadvantages. But Admiral Wemyss was tho man to defeat disadvantages, whatever form they might take. He tackled eajch problem, from the quickest way of getting troops into boats to tho quickest way of getting spies out of Lemnos, with the pertinacity and minute attention to detail that seem to bo specially associated with men of his physical type— massive shoulders, bull neck, square head; the old sea-dog type that is increasingly finding a supreme outlet for its energy in the art and science of organisation. „ It is in his gift of organisation that those who knew the First Sea Lord when he was in the iEgekn will find the 'key to this fresh appointment. They see in. him the perfect transport officer. If there was bungling at the Dardanelles it was not his fault; he "made good" from A to Z. _ The biggest and hardest job of the kind in history was carried through with tho precision that Sir Eric Geikles would have applied, before he went to the Admiralty, to some railway problem. There were always time-tables at Mudros, and later at Imbros; and the time-tables wero observed. Ships—tho right sort of ships-—could be depended upon to be at the right spot at the right moment. As First Sea Lord Sir Rosslyn Wemyss mil have an opportunity of carrying on the Mudros tradition. TTiere is no reason to think that, in_ the Nelson sense, he is a strategist. His experience of fighting has been of the smallest; at tho Dardanelles he saw active service mainly from a land-locfced base, with tho help of a Marconi operator. But he knows all about every kind of ship. Ho is an expert in convoy* TTi> has had to tackle the submarine. At Whitehall he will bo working with a man after his own heart.. Sir Eric Geddes is a transport officer first and an admiral afterwards. So, in a more limited sense, is Sir Rosslyn. Transport is the vital thing at the moment.