UNITED STATES NAVY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17935, 14 May 1920, Page 5

UNITED STATES NAVY

MR DANJELS'S DISCLOSURES

A MEDDLESOME PRESIDENT

WABH3NGTON NAVAL DEPARTMENT IGNORED. Prese Association—By Tolograpli —Copyright. WASHINGTON, May 12. Sensational disclosures were made in the evidenco given by Mr Josephus Daniels (Secretary of tho Navy) before the Senate Investigation Committee. A telegram which President Wilson sent to the- British Admiralty disclosed that Mr Wilson was not satisfied with the way the Admiralty was directing the British Navy's work. Mr Wilson was unable to understand why the British exports were unwilling to allow tho Washington Naval Department to tell thorn how tilings ought to be done. Mr Wilson considered the British Admiralty too cautious. They failed to use their great naval superiority against submarines. Ho asked Admiral Sims for independent suggestions, as if tho British Admiralty did not exist. Mr' Wilson commented in a message to Admiral Sims that the British Admiralty appeared helpless to tho point of panic in the face of the Bubmarino danger. Admiral Sims's reply to M rWilson's telegram, according to Mr Daniels, merely reiterated generalities respecting what the Admiralty was actually accomplishing. ft Letters written by j\dmira.l Sims to Mr Page (Ambassador in London) pointed out that President Wilson evidently regarded Admiral Sims as owned, body and soul, by the British Admiralty, and seriously considered his replacement by anothcx officer more amenable to the American Naval Department. Answering President Wilson's charges to tho effect that the British were too cautious, Admiral Sims_ outlined the combined land and sea attack on the Belgium coast, including tho Zeebmggo landing then pending. This, in Admiral Sims's opinion, was sufficiently audacious to please even President Wilson.

Admiral Sims, according to Mr Daniels, disapproved of the American plans for dealing with submarines sis impr.icti cable, as they had already been tested by Britain and found unworkable. Mr Daniels asserted that Admiral Sims was so hypnotised by the British Admiralty that, he tried,, to lure President Wilson into the feeling that regarding future developments the United States could always rely on the British Xavv.—A. and N.Z. Cable.