HARROGATE HONOURS LORD JELLICOE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20291, 27 December 1927, Page 11

HARROGATE HONOURS LORD JELLICOE.

ARCHBISHOP OF YORK’S REMINISCENCES. DRAKE, NELSON, JELLICOE. PRAISE FOR NEW ZEALAND. (From Ouu Own Correspondent.) LONDON. November 16. In ti e presence of a large number of townspeople and school children Admiral of the Fleet Earl Jellicoe was presented with the freedom of Harrogate on November 9. Among those present were Lady Jellicoe, Lady Myrtle Jellicoe, the Archbishop of York, Admiral Sir F. Bridgeman, and Major J. W. Hills, M.P. The suitably inscribed casket presented to Earl Jellicoe was of solid silver covered with 18ct gold, and was in the form of a scroll with the arms of the borough carved out of silver on the top. Under the borough arms were the arms of Earl Jellicoe cut out of the round and handsomely carved. The Mayor said the ceremony was honourable alike to Earl Jellicoe and to Harrogate. Some might ask what was Lord Jellicoe’s connection with the borough. Every inland town, and every seaboard town, had an intimate connection with every officer and man who in the dark days of the war kept watch and ward on fhe seas surrounding our island home.— (Applause.) Like many sailors before him, Earl Jellicoe Started his career in the Britannia, where he carried everything in front of him, in seamanship and games. As a sub-lieutenant he took the coveted prize for gunnery at the Royal Naval College, and there started that great career in a subject which had interested him throughout. He had been associated with Lord Fisher and Sir Percy Scott, and with his knowledge, assisted by others, had increased the efficiency and the hitting power of British battleships something like 30 per cent. Ip 1914-16 ho commanded the Grand Fleet—(applause)—became First Sea Lord in 1916 and Chief of the General Staff in 1917. In 1919 he got to the top of the tree, and became Admiral of the Fleet. Three times, but for the grace of God, England*' in her hour of need would have been deprived of the services of John Rushworth Jellicoe —in 1886, in 1893, and in the operations for the relief of Pekin. Referring to Earl Jellicoe’s services as Governor-General of New Zealand, the Mayor read a letter written by a New Zealander, describing Lord and Lady Jellicoe as “ easily the most popular viceroyalties we have ever had.”—(Applause.) “ They took an active interest jn every laudable activity. His great naval knowledge was the chief means of the Dominion supporting so heartily the Singapore base, and of our whole-hearted efforts to support a local naval force.” Three times had England been faced with the possibility of invasion, and on each occasion had a champion com© up for England—Drake, Nelson, Jellicoe. — (Loud applause.) ARCHBISHOP’S PICTURE. The Archbishop of York thought he might not unfitly represent the whole county of Yorkshire, which joined with Harrogate in honouring a great sailor. He was Earl Jellico6’s guest for some time in his flagship, the Iron Duke, during the first year of the war, and was the first civilian permitted to penetrate into the mists of the northern seas, behind which the Grand Fleet was keeping its watch. He would never forget the impression mad* upon his mind by seeing within his very cabin what it was to be Com-mander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet in time of world-wide war. All the evening long an orderly was coming with wireless messages from the whole circuit of the seas. The C.-in-C., sitting at a small writing table, with nothing in front of him but a map and a pad of notepaper, gave his answer to each message as it was brought to , him with un ruffled quietness . and decisivenes. , All night long, after he had left the C.-in-C.’s cabin, he could hear the tread of the orderly bringing those messages on which an immediate decision had to be given, and on which great issues might be in volved. And long before he was up in th 4 morning he could hear the tread, of the C.-in-C. as he paced the deck with his Chief 61 Staff. Sir Charles Madden, discussing with hi/n problems of the management and control of the great enterprise of which he wa* the leader.—(Applause.) CONFIDENCE AND FAITH. The second impression he got was of the supreme unity of the Grand Fleet. It fell to him . nighr. after night to meet the admirals and captains of the ships that were then concealed and ready in Scapa. Flow. He had never been impressed by anytning more than by the complete, unshaken and unshakeable confidence which united every man, from admiral to boy, in faith in their Commander-in-Chief. It %vas proof of the truth, as Nelson said, that the navy was a band of profilers. It was the fact that Lord Jelliooe was first of all himself the chief brother and comrade of every man in the fleet that made him a loader with whom they were willing to watch and serve with unshaken confidence. —(Anplause.) In the last year of the war, added the archbishop, it fell to him to try to interpret the ideals for which at that time wo were contending to the United States. He was sometimes asked, what had the Grand Fleet been doing? He remanberde the eeffet which used to be made on great assemblies when he answered that by saying they must answer another question, what had the German Fleet been doing? It was precisely not where any self-respecting fleet would wish to be, in the open sea; it could not get there; and it was prevented from gutting there by the coolness, the skill, the decisiveness, and the single-minded devotion to duty which marked the command of the Grand Fleet on the great day of Jutland by the youngest citizen of Harrogate.— (Loud applause.) Mr J. Angus Mackay, seconding, said Earl Jellicoe inspired confidence in his men, and during the war the nation’s confidence in him never wavered. ' VALUE OF- PATRIOTISM. Earl Jellicoe, who was received with loud cheers, could not conceive why Harrogate had honoured h’im. He was not a Yorksbireman, alas, but he knew Yorkshire’s strong local patriotism, and in the few moments he had been a freeman of Harrogate he had felt that spirit entering him, and he was ready to champion the town of Harrogate all over the world.—(Laughter.) Patriotism, local, national, or Imperial, had the greatest possible value. Patriotism, pride in the traditions of a great service, were what had made our navy and army invincible in the past, and what would make those services and the Air Force invincible in the future. Patriotism, pride of country, should be encouraged and fostered, because it brought forth all that was best in human beings. Had they, not every reason to be proud of the Empire? It had stood for justice, freedom, and the best of civilisation for hundr<xls of years. — (Applause.) Harrogate had at present a strong link with the Royal Navy in the person, of Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman. He himself was present merely as a representative of the great sea services, and his only qualification for being selected was p<sssiblv the fact that during the first two and a-half years of the war he commanded the Grand Fleet, and later went to the Admiralty. In honouring him they were mindful of the services of those who preceded him at the Admiralty, the officer who succeeded him in command of the Grand Fleet, and all those who commanded squadrons Or fleets, and who by their great service* lied deserved so much of their country. They were also not unmindful of the leaders who in pre-war days brought the navy to the high state of efficiency in which it was when he took oyer the command—among those leaders being Sir Francis Bridgeman. with whom he received much of his training—and lie was certain they were not unmindful of the gallant services of the hundreds of thousands of officers and men who served in the Royal Navy and the other allied sea service.”—) Applause.) It was because of the gallantry and devotion to duty of those officers ana men that the original German menace to our trade, hy cruisers and auxiliary vessels, was brought to nothing in the early days of the war. Later, when the German submarine me a nee attacked our sea communications, it was the determination, the gallantry, and tha devotion of (he officers , and men of the Royal Navy and the mercantile me- : -« wlrch defeated that menace, and I civilisation.—(Applause.) Thcv w e honouring not only the Royal Navy, but also the great mercantile marine, without which it would have been absolutely impossible for the war to have been won. These men brought imperishable gloiy upon themselves and upon the craft ia which they served*