It was a wise decision of the commander of the Admiral Graf Spee to scuttle that vessel rather than go out and encounter the imposing Allied naval strength which had assembled during the seventy-two hours' grace, which had been given him by the Uruguayan Government, for he saved his gallant crew from what, humanly speaking, must have been a futile sacrifice. He might have decided upon venturing against the Allied forces with the idea of doing what damage he possibly could before the inevitable fate befell him, but he was just as completely outgunned as he in his turn outgunned the three cruisers which forced him to flee into Montevideo, and it is unlikely that he would ever have been allowed to come within sufficient range to do any serious harm. So the action of last week in the South Atlantic, which the Reich authorities absurdly claimed as a German victory, has reached what could be the only possible sequel, a strikingly dramatic proof of the Allied victory, and the elimination of a pocket-battleship which was doing damage to Allied mercantile shipping. If that is indeed an Allied defeat then the sooner they achieve more of the same kind the quicker will the war be brought to a victorious end. With all due allowance for the manner in which the commander of the Admiral Graf Spee fought his ship, the fact still remains that, when attacked by considerably inferior craft from the point of view of striking power, he was outmanceuvred in a manner which' prevented him doing full justice to his overwhelmingly powerful armament, and attacked at ranges which he himself is reported to have described as audacious. The whole affair is a striking tribute to the efficiency of the commanders and crews of the British vessels, and their traditional readiness to engage the enemy no matter what the odds.
There has been some criticism in Germany of the Uruguayan Government's decision to allow Admiral Graf Spee seventy-two hours in which to effect the necessary repairs in order to make her seaworthy. They would have been perfectly entitled to have insisted that only twenty-four hours should be granted. International law on the subject being somewhat vague, it rests with the government of the nation in whose port a belligerent war vessel seeks refuge to decide exactly what time shall be granted the refugee. Had the Uruguayan Government decided upon only one day's grace the Admiral Graf Spee might have been forced to sea too early for the Allies to assemble the strength which the extra two days gave them. She might have then only had to encounter the Ajax and the Achilles, and the fact that the German commander did not go out at the end of one day may be taken as ample corroboration of the view that the punishment inflicted upon her was such that he could not hope to engage these two weaker cruisers with any real chance of getting away. The naval action was consequently won when the Admiral Graf Spee sought refuge in Uruguayan waters, for it abandoned the field, and was quite obviously unfit to rejoin action with the two remaining British cruisers which immediately maintained a watch over her. The seventy-two hours of grace, however, might have operated seriously against the Allies, for there was always the possibility that sufficient time had been given to permit of German submarines hurrying to the spot in an endeavour to take toll of the Allied vessels waiting for the Admiral Graf Spee to come out into the open again. That was a grave danger, and though no submarines have at the time of writing been reported as arriving on the scene it was always a possibility which could not be lightly disregarded. The fact of the matter is that the Uruguayan Government acted with scrupulous fairness to both sides, for to have permitted the German vessel to remain in harbour longer than was absolutely ne sary to become seaworthy, would have been acting in the most un-neutral manner possible. It is not likely that the sharp protest which it is reported the Reich contemplates making will have any great effect, for it is based upon fictitious grounds and is undoubtedly inspired by pique caused by defeat.
Yue Reich would have created a much better impression throughout the world if it had on this occasion refrained from indulge ing in its hoary old wheeze of alleging that ihe British cruisers used gas shells against their vessel. The inability to accept the blow of defeat with the dignity which inspired the Poles, is a characteristic of the Nazis, who time and again have sought to ko out a case that defeat was due to any and every thing other than the successíui utilization of strength against them. The absurdity of loading armour-piercing, high explosive missiles with poison gas at the expense of the exploding charge has only to be mentioned to be understood, while it is a fact that the British Navy has never been supplied with and has never used this particular type of projectile which' exists chiefly in the agile minds of the Reich propagandists. Again it has been sought to make much of the fact that the full total of British casual-tics was held up. Why the. British Admiralty should be expected to give the enemy any information whatever it is a little difficult to understand, but it has to be pointed out that, with the smallest possible delay in the circumstances, the tale of British loss has been announced, and, in numbers of killed, it is clear that the British paid more heavily ior their victory than the Germans did for their defeat. 1t is possible that the Reich will despatch further war vessels to act as commerce raiders, though with the damage to the Gneisenau and the destruction of Admiral Graf Spee a very considerable hole has been made in the strength of German capital ships. Two of the five with which Germany entered the war have been put out of action, and the accretion of strength which Herr Hitler expected through increased construction has at least been postponed. Whether he will send out more vessels of the type to raid on the high seas remains to be seen, for, compared with the amount of damage done by her, the loss of the Admiral Graf Spee suggests that these ventures are not particularly profitable.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.