THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1919. A CAUSTIC CRITIC.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17727, 11 September 1919, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES T HURSDA Y, SEPTEMBER 11, 1919. A CAUSTIC CRITIC.

Through the medium of the columns of The Times Lord Fisher ha 9 been dropping depth charges that havo had the effect of rendering the Admiralty a centre of argumentative comrnotion. Hl3 criticisms are couched in characteristic vein. Ho scorna the rapier, and uses the bludgeon. This tendency does not upon the whole, however, make for impressiveness, at leas£ when we have to depend upon cabled summaries.of the argument which Lord Fisher employs. For pure destractiveness of purpose it might be hard to surpass them. Thus we are told that the current expenditure of the navy showa incredibly ruinous waste, and the only way to stop waste, in • Lord Fisher's experience, is ruthlessly and remorselessly to dismiss the whole spendthrift crew. Again we are asked to absorb the melancholy assurance that half the navy is already obsolete and ought to -be scrapped—including perhaps the "D» class of cruisers to which Admiral-of-the-Fleet Lord Jellicoe of Scapa drily referred in his entertaining speech last night—and the other half will bo obsolete in a "few years, owing to the progress of internal combustion engines, which will yet alter the whole art of sea war. The Admiralty,

it appears, was busy formulating regula-1 tions for officers' dress "when their hearts I should havo been filled with internal combustion engines." Judged by his \ outburst, Lord Fisher would seem to have been bottling up something like an internal combustion engine in his own person since ho left the Admiralty in 1915. la his vigorous raking of the Admiralty fore and aft few escape. There ere the reactionaries who derided tho battle-cruiser, muddlers who likewise deprecated the plan for a great armada, consisting of "amphibian monsters" definitoly outlined by Lord Fisher himself, for the landing of a million Russian troops on the Baltic within ea<=y distance of Berlin. Those who did not appreciate tho mission of the battlecruisers were responsible, wo aro told for the escape of tho Breslau and the Goeben and the entry of Turkey into tho war. Those who prior to tho war were unable to realise the significance of the submarino are likewise remorsely gibbeted by Lord Fisher, who is no doubt ablo to score off them legitimately enough on this subject. In another passage impeachment awaits " tho sillv crowd who want tho navy dispersed all over the world." It j s a littlo difficult after all this quite accurately to "place" our great and victorious navy. It 13

rathor overwhelming to think that half of tho invincible organisation which virtually won tho war for us, or, as Mr Solomon justly put it last night, enabled tho Allied armies to win the war, should bo sent at onoo to the swap-heap—the rest to follow shortly. While ho speaks in terms of economy Lord Fkher obviously speaks also in tonns of enormous prospective expenditure. Clearly the "scrapping" cannot be effected until there ia replacement. Lord FLshor advances his reforms as necessary for tht. very life of tho nation. Bis criticisms may hurt tho national vanity, but they may do good. Their value is a matter for expert pronouncement, and experts almost invariably differ. In tho Unlit, however, of such criticisms wo indebtedness to tho navy and its personnel assuming larger and still larger proportions.