The Sun SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1917. CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM AT THE ADMIRALTY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 1164, 3 November 1917, Page 6

The Sun SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1917. CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM AT THE ADMIRALTY.

The extent to which we are impressed by the speech of Sir Eric decides will depend, in the main, on the degree of our concern preceding it. If we are of the hysterical school of the "Daily Mail" we shall see nothing in the First Lord's review but a palpably thin coat of whitewash for incompetent administrators. The fact will remain that an affront was offered to the service in home waters, and that there seems no intention at all of exacting satisfaction. shall feel, indeed, that the whole truth is blacker than the half we had a fortnight ago. Acting on "information received," two enemy cruisers slipped up by night to an established convoy route, annihilated everything at leisure next morning, cruised unmolested for the remaining hours of daylight, and slipped hack unscathed through our vaunted impenetrable blockade. And all (lie lime the enemy was carrying out a smashing and spectacular action against an Ally in another sea. If, however, we are of the school that worship a blue uniform simply because it is blue, who regard the Navy hardly as a mundane institution any longer, but as a symbol almost and an object of adoration, we shall wonder probably at Sir Eric's ridiculous meekness. Either he should ignore criticism altogether, or he should reduce the faultfinders to the gutters from which they emerge. Rut to sane folk following a middle path? How of the First Lord's statement to them? Indubitably it is more than a little cautious and bald. Either Sir Eric has not quite reconciled his earlier life and his new, or he is quite definitely of the opinion that a great deal remains to be done. The last seems the more likely conclusion. He is by no means alarmed, but in no sense at all officially satisfied. Take first the convoy affair to which reference has just been made. He does not blame the admiral commanding at the Orkneys. He says quite definitely, indeed, that having regard to that officer's other orders and duties, the Admiralty was satisfied with his measures of precaution. But that is a very long way from approval of all the circumstances preceding. In spile of Hie enormous difficulties of watching 140,000 square miles of sea, and of guarding at every hour in the twenty-four an unprotected coastline of 5(56 miles—in spile of the little the enemy has done, and the magnificent devotion with which he has invariably been met—Britain will yet do more. The First Lord suggests that, or his remarks mean nothing at all. And then there is the bigger problem of countering the submarines—after all, the only naval problem in the proper sense. The blockade has never been endangered. It is as complete to-day as vigilance matched with justice can make it, and the croakers may say what they like. But the submarine menace remains. Ships are going down each week, more ships and bigger than the average man realises, but fewer by 50 or 100 per cent than the enemy pretends to believe. It is an extraordinary position. Germany is bluffing shamelessly: of that there is no shadow of doubt. Her claims are so far removed from the facts that they are merely preposterous and maudlin. We, on our part, are not exaggerating when we claim that if Germany were to admit the severity of her losses there would be dangerous depression at home. But that does not mean victory. It does not mean even reasonably comfortable security. The enemy has not yet done his worst. Most people thought he had. But Sir Eric Geddes warns us against careless optimism. There arc to be bigger submarines, faster, more deadly, as well as a more rapid and determined replacing of losses at Wilhelmshaven. And either purposely or as a mere coincidence, the First Lord is silent about the Mediterranean. He is silent about the baffling successes of the German intelligence department. In every ocean and sea, our sailings are more or less known. The enemy is told when to leave port, and when to keep cruisers safely at home. He knows as a rule before il sails when a convoy is too strong for attack, and when he may dash in, and sink, and run. One is justified, says Sir Eric, in regarding the future with confidence. Compared with Germany we are in a kind of mercantile paradise. But we have appalling anxieties, and belittling them might conceivably mean tripping as we enter the straight.