The quickness with which the House of Commons passed the naval estimates indicated by token sums, but which in all probability run into very many millions, is in itself a striking testimony to the work of the British Navy in the present war and of the readiness of Parliament to make sure that its efficiency shall not suffer from inadequate funds. It may not be until after the war is over that what Great Britain is now spending will be made known, but, from all the reports of naval building activity which [have come to hand, there is every reason to believe that the money voted must represent a very handsome amount in these days of almost astronomical figures. Mr. Churchill's humourous quip when declining to give the House details regarding the proposed strength and cost of the Navy, on the ground of its being unnecessary "io tell the enemy more than is good for him about' what we are doing," suggests that not for one moment would the First Lord do anything to dishearten the leaders of the Reich, though it may safely be believed that if they could know what was being prepared they would face the future with rather more uneasiness than they do at present. The general tone of Mr. Churchill's speech was decidedly encouraging. He has not sought to minimize British naval losses, and his admission of the damage done to H.M.Ss. Barham and Nelson, belated though it may be—and that for reasons which must be perfectly obvious,—clearly indicates that the British public are being given all possible information, and that the policy of truth is still being adhered to by the Government. It is just as well to allow the Reich to continue to hold its monopoly of lying, for its policy in this regard has defeated itself and German information is being regarded in neutral countries for exactly what it is worth, and that it has been shown is very little. Mr. Churchill makes an important point when he supposed that the House realized that Herr Hitler and his Nazis have quite definitely exceeded the worst villainies which Imperial Germany committed in the last war. That is one of the main reasons why the various reports of German inhumanity fail nowadays to arouse the indignation which was to be noted twenty-five years ago.
It is a shocking thing that a nation should acquire such a reputation for brutality, and outrage that reports of these things should now be taken so much for granted, that surprise could only now be felt if the Reich were to return to the observance of the ordinary canons of decency in warfare. The machine-gunning of innocent fishing boats and their crews has obliged the Admiralty to fit these vessels with means of defence, and this the Germans, with cynical pervert sion, now claim as justification for the attacks on those craft. it is an important fact and one which stands out prominently that German fishing vessels operate in Heligoland Bay, that British aeroplanes daily fly over them, but that the German prevaricators have never once thought of alleging that British airmen were guilty of the foul practices of the German air arm. It is quite conceivable that the Reich Ministry of Propaganda would have put out the story had it managed to think of it, and failure in this respect can only be attributed to a failing imagination on the part of the verbose Dr. Goebbels and his adjutants. It may be that it was thought of, but not used because of the knowledge that the world at large realizing how the Allies conducted the last war and are conducting this would never, for one moment, believe such a story. It is interesting in this connection that no British statesman has ever suggested that for each example of atrocious behaviour there should be retaliation in Kind. The temptation to do so is great, but it speaks well for Great Britain and France that they prefer to win this war with clean hands, and to let Germany lose it with dirty ones. It is the old story of chivalry being opposed to brutality and chicanery from which comfort is to be drawn that history has shown not once, but many times, that the good does prevail in the end, even though the ungodly may for a season seem to flourish like the green bay tree. That is not to suggest that Germany is doing much flourishing at the present moment. It is clear that she is not, for on balance the naval situation of the Allies is infinitely superior to that of Germany, while the damage which has been done to the Allied mercantile marine is, when what has been captured from the enemy is taken into account, a very small proportion of the shipping at risk.
The Reich may be able to take some comfort from the fact that its campaign against defenceless neutral shipping, on the contrary is proving so highly successful. There its submarines have made a big showing of ruthless-and general depravity, which may prove acceptable to the German people as representing the prowess of their fleet, though io the rest of the world it will appear as nothing more than another smirch on an already greatly soiled escutcheon. The weighty preponderance of strength of the Allied navies over that of Germany has permitted war vessels to range over a much wider area than was the case during the last war, and only a comparatively small proportion of the total Allied strength has to be held in readiness against the German fleet venturing out for the purpose of joining action. Mr. Churchill freely admitted that the blockade was not yet perfect. It would become far more efficient as their forces increased, and long nights turned into long days as the summer advanced, and fairer weather permitted: amphibians to range constantly all over the blockade area. It is in order to take advantage of the long nights that German shipping has been leaving ports which it sought refuge on the outbreak of war, in the hope of being able to return to Germany. The chance of their being able to do so is all the more favourable because of the long hours of darkness, but the time is rapidly approaching when daylight will be in favour of the Allies, when such attempts at blockade running will be carried out under far more difficult conditions. One of the last taunts in Mr. Churchill's speech refers to the fact that though the Barham and the Nelson were damaged a long time ago, and that thousands of Britons were necessarily aware of the fact, the news only recently leaked into Germany, and that after it had ceased to be of any importance whatever. The much vaunted German secret service has again let Berlin down, or else British counter-intelligence methods have again proved superior to the German.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.