Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Third of a Century.] THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1915. WHAT IS THE NAVY DOING?

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14204, 5 February 1915, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Third of a Century.] THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1915. WHAT IS THE NAVY DOING?

» Although naval men will not be inclined to claim the sinking of the Blucher recently as a matter of the very highest importance, but will look elsewhere than to the sunken vessel for the full effects of the action as a whole, still, it is to bo hoped, and may bo believed, that the smashing of a big enemy ship will for a time at least quieten the section of the public that has developed the habit of peevishly asking, "What is tho navy doing?" The saner portion of tho nation knows the foolishness of these others; still their whining is irritating, to say the least of it. We have on many occasions urged that the navy has achieved, and is daily achieving, far more than haa been accomplished in any other war—infinitely more than all the naval experts in the world ever dreamed it would accomplish when it came to deathgrips with Germany. But nothing but fighting and the sinking of ships will satisfy the type of person referred to. Mr Fred T. Jano, the famous naval writer, made reference to this very matter in a recent issue of "Land and Water," and his remarks are well worth repeating. "All over the conntry," says'Mr Jane, "there is a serious and growing mistrust of the navy. It is utterly and entirely wrong; but it is . very little use saying much about it. Tho attitude of tho British public is historically characteristic. In tho old days Hawke was burned in effigy as a rotter more or less coiucidentally with one of the greatest exploits of the British fleet, when, led by him, it destroyed tho enemy in Quiberon Bay. More recently a Japanese m«b burned tho house of Admiral Kamimura for incompetency exactly at the samo moment that he was annihilating Russia's last chanco of success. Concealment of information from the public has much to answer for," he adds wisely. "But it has usually been coincident with the public salvation." Further on, in reference to the peevish criticisms that are being voiced from day to day, Mr Jane is goaded to a bitterness with which all sane readers will sympathise. " . . . Faced with critics of this I type," ho says, "there are times when |

ono could wish that our navy were less efficient than it is. It is having to pay , heavily for the Very fact that it iseffici- j cnt. The British public, trained inJ picture palaces, wants ' Trafalgars.' It is totally unable to realise that the biggest thing our navy can possibly achieve is to havo no battle at all." Tho other day tho British captured Basra, in the Persian Gulf. Basra is the port whence Perßian oil iB shipped. It was Turkish; it is now British. Tho navy made it so, and tho navy's action has solved onco and for over the problem of our oil supply. The British Admiralty was at its wits' end looking for an ample and continuous supply of this fuel. At ono stroke the British navy assured an unlimited supply. Yot many of the public have passed tho affair over as quite a secondary affair, a thing hardly important enough for comment—and havo gone on asking, "Why doesn't the navy do something?"