LORD FISHER'S GENIUS

Southland Times, Issue 17661, 19 February 1916, Page 9

LORD FISHER'S GENIUS

TEN TANGIBLE PROOFS', DEMAND FOR HIS RECALL TO THE ADMIRALTY. [Cable advices recently informed us that there was a strong and growing feeling in England in favour of recalling Lord Fisher to his former position in the Admiralty. The "Grand‘Old Man of the Navy” is popular, and has always been so. His recent manly and loyal action in refusing to engage -in a controversy while the-country is at war has greatly increased his popularity. The following article, by -Mr James Douglas in London Opinion, entiled “The Truth About Lord Fisher,” will be read with keen interest at this juncture.”] Many years ago, Stead wrote "Tho Truth About the Navy.” I wish Stead were alive to-day to write “The Truth About Lord Fisher.” The British people do not know the whole truth about Lord Fisher. ft is hidden from their eyes. Burning with faith in the British people, 1 advise them to unite in an irresistible demand for the recall of Lord Fisher. I do not write as an expert for experts. I write as a landlubber for landlubbers. The truths I have got to tell are slaringiy obvious platitudes. They arc the simplest of simple verities. But the world is composed of fools who will not see, tile simple things that stare them in tho face. The genius of Fisher is one of those simple tilings. Stated bluntly and brutally, it is tiiis—that lie has made our Navy, that he has foreseen everything, and that lie lias done everything, lie has always been right. Compared with him, Moll he Was a pigmy. The difference between the Germany of BS7U and tho England of 101.7 is tills; Germany used her Moltke, but England is not using her Fisher. There is no statesman In England who can deny the dazzling genius of Fisher. It is a truism. Let mo catalogue a few of his achievements. His first stroke of genius was the scrapping of ItH! warships which could neither fight nor run away. How that stroke was execrated; How it was denounced! But by it be made possible another stroke of genius the system of nucleus crews, which put into each ship its bruins, leaving the beef to come along when it was wanted, fisher's third stroke of genius was the adoption of the water-tube boiler—tiie biggest re.volut ion on record, a revolution which put the lire whore the water was and the water where the tiro was, Hie consequence being that instead of taking seven or eight hours to get up steam, you take only twenty minutes, yon keep your boilers clean, you save you/- fuel, and you are ready whenever your enemy arrives. Fisher's fourth stroke of genius was the adoption of Hie .I’arsons turbine in the teeth of the bitterest. opposition. Fisher discovered the turbine in a penny steamer. lie went to its inventor. Parsons. t’a.rsons said: "Will you sec- until rough V" Fisher saw him through. Today SO per cent, of I lie horse-power on the seven seas is turbine. And yet all the mandarins turned up their noses at tiie turbine. There are many to-day who put their trust in hoards and committees, and not in men of genius. Bel me warn them that the records are against them. TinBoard of Admiralty was hostile 1-> lee introduction of steam into the Navy. Its wooden-headed stupidity is embalmed in a minute. The. Board of Admiralty was hostile to the iron sit ip. Its woodenheaded hostility is embalmed in another minute, which solmeniy declared t;.at wood was better titan iron le cau.se wood floats, whereas iron sinks; Fisher's fifth stroke' id' genius was (he introduction of oil fuel into the Nat y, again in (lie teeth of authority. When Fisher loft the Admiralty, official idiots went back to coal and stopped the development of oil fuel. They laid down battleships using coal only. These very bat t ieships have now been transformed into oil-using ships. Once more. Fisher was proved to he right, and the roaelionaries were found to lie wrong. And yet to-day the genius of Fisher is still lighting against stupidity • the tiling against which oven tiie gods tight in v-iin. Fishers sixth stroke of genius was the aoiM-i n I fa t ion of our Navy in tiie Nor. hj See., ,\ si tuple tiling, on say. Vc,., hut the simplieit y of genius. Nobody had • hough l of teal t '.tuple thing. Fisher divined it and Lit it silently and secret-

ly, thus checkmating the strategy of Tirpitz. There you have the Fisher touch in its purest form. Yet to-day we let the genius which wrought that miracle run to waste. Fisherts seventli stroke of genius was the creation of the Dreadnought, the ship that baffled German ambition and converted the Kiel Canal for years into a useless ditch. Do the British people realise that the Grand Fleet,, which now stands between Germany and the dominion of the world, is P’isher’s Fleet From tlie Dreadnou gilt to the Queen Elizabeth and tlie Inflexible it is all ' pure, unadulterated Fisher. Fisher's eighth stroke of genius was the creation of the battle-cruiser —the greyhound with the big guns. "When, after a series of disasters, Fisher was called in a year ago, tlie first tiling lie did was to send his liattlevcniisers to sink Von Spec's squadron. He must have started the barnacles when lie issued his famous order. One can imagine their doubts and fears, their waverings and hesitations, their prayers for delay, their please for caution. But Fisher swept aside tlie barnacles, unloosed his greyhounds, and boldly chose as their admiral the very man who had been honestly and profoundly sceptical about them before they were born! Fisher divined the game of A on Spec. He guessed that he was making for Cape Town. There lie meant to sink the South African squadron, destroy Botha’s transports on their way to German SouthWest Africa, and then get on to the Atlantic trade routes, where he might have cut off our food supply for weeks. Instead of which Fisher's greyhounds caught him at tlie Falkland Islands and sent Itim and his ships to the bottom. It was not victory; it was annihilation. Superior speed kept Spec outside his own gun-range: superior gun-power destroyed him. The Falkland Islands Is the greatest British victory of the war. It was won through Fisher’s strategy by Fisher’s ships. Fisher’s‘"ninth stroke of genius was tlie hunting down of the German submarines. He organised that great hunl_ The collapse of the submarine piracy was due directly to Fisher's daring initiative. Fisher’s tenth stroke of genius was his protest ■ against the ..Dardanelles “gamble" which has now como to a disastrous close. His last stand probably saved the Queen Elizabeth and other capital- ships from sharing the fate of the Majestic. The old year ends drearily. The Now Year will open auspiciously if the nation demands the recall of Lord Fisher, the man who has always been right.