The torpedoing and sinking of a British naval Jair station by a German submarine will rank Jas ons of the outstanding feats of the present. hostilities. No details are given regarding the Jatiack beyond the fact that it was due to clever tactics adopted by the U-boat, but considerable. ingenuity must have been exercised by. the [U-boat commander and the German propaganda service and it is to be hoped that the: JAdmiralty, in investigating this amazing cccurrence, will not overlook the possibility of the Jsutmarine having come up the drainpipe to {fulfill its mission. 'The facts are perfectly' clear fand do not reflect much credit on the authors lof the story. According to long tradition, the! British Navy gives its shore stations names. [ships and HMS. Kestrel Is a naval alr station many miles inland. A recent German broadcast [claimed that HLMLS. Kestrel had been torpedoed land sunk by a German submarine, and, there fore, another naval casualty had been added to list, How on earth a submarine could sink Jo naval station unless the frightful Invention Possessed by the Germans is a land-travelling) submarine something like the machines used by the men from Mars in H. G. Wells' book will remain a mystery until the hostilities are con eluded. It is comparable in assinity and unintelligibility to the report ree: ntly" published a Japanese newspaper which informed its readers, with rare disregard for facts and geosrapby. that the German submarine Deutsch Hand had sunk the American steamer City of) {Flint off Stonegate, the latter being the name of the ship whose crew was transferred to the: Deutschland after being sunk.
An Old Bogey 'The rumours, which have been current recently to the effect that Herr Hitler con-{templates an invasion of Great Britain, receive ladded point by the public fleet in' the "Deutsche Allgemeine Zel-which writes that there Is "no divine law that the island chosen people' should {be immune from entrance by an enemy." The paper goes on to state: "The plan at' which Jexperts have often mildly sneered may change ]with surprising suddenness. 'The future will show whether the Island, largely denuded of fighting forces, is still unassailable." It is the Jold Napoleonic dream revived again as a bogey' for the purpose of frightening the British, and they will decline thus to be frightened az' they were over a century ago. Napoleon could not ido it, and there Is nothing whatever to suggest that the German corporal has so far advanced military science since the last war as to be) Jabte to outshine that master strategist. It is! Jobvious that, before any such attempt can be made with any prospect whatever of success, it will be necessary for Germany to have com= plete control of the seas, and to have destroyed the British navy. "Without that being done, it would be impossible either to transport" a HSuelently formidable army across the North Sea to cause the. British authorities grave con-Jeern, of to maintain it in England if ever It were allowed It" would be necessary also to have command of the air. Britain hoe [mastery of the seas and there is plenty 10 suggest that she is well on the road to superi-Jority in the air. Possessed of both she would Ibe able very quickly to put an end to any German dream of invading Britain. Indeed in Jsuch circumstances it would not even be attempted. unless, of course, Herr Hitler's control of the German high command is greater then it appears to be at the present, for a more, insane venture at this period of the war cannot be conceived. Destruction of the Allied naval Jand alr fects is an essential prerequisite and funtit that has been achieved, avery unlikely Jevent indeed, there need be no fear of Germans [eesconding on the British coasts. They would Jeven then meet with a decided hearty recep-ion which would not be entirely to their liking.
connection with this subject it is Interesting fo note that the German paper goes on to. say A war is not won by the application of rigid, traditional rules, but with courage, and imagination." With that st is entirely' possible agree. It was courage and imagination which won the last war, and rigid, traditional rules which lost it. 'The amount of imagination which has been displayed by the Germans up to the present in this war is practically negligible. [They may have acquired that quality since the: ast war, but if they have, they have succeeded mightily' in keeping it up their sleeve.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.