The full history of the naval manoeuvres of 1913 was never written.
The Press of course indulged in a wordy warfare, and the battles of the Red and Blue were--on paper--fought over and over again.
The men who knew most said nothing, and Jellicoe, a silent man, having done his job, slipped out of the limelight, which he hates so keenly, as quickly as possible.
But very probably his successful raid on the Humber was responsible for the crisis which occurred in the Cabinet when the Naval Estimates came up for discussion early in the New Year. Mr. Winston Churchill, who had been accused of not spending enough money on the Navy, was now accused of wanting to spend too much. As a matter of fact Mr.
Churchill did not on behalf of the Admiralty put forward any new proposals, but simply wished to carry out the policy which had already been adopted by the Cabinet. The Admiralty had long ago decided that it was necessary to have 60 per cent. superiority in Dreadnoughts over the next greatest naval power to ours in place of the former two-power standard.
It was as early as February, 1914, that the name of Vice-Admiral Sir John Jellicoe was mentioned as being the probable successor to Sir George Callaghan as Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleets. It was on March 17th that Mr. Winston Churchill fought his battle in the Cabinet on the Navy Estimates. The Board of Admiralty was with him, and he received authority to ask Parliament to devote over 15,000,000 to new naval construction--the largest sum that has ever been devoted to that purpose.
In July the test mobilization of our Fleets was carried out, the ships pa.s.sing His Majesty the King off the Nab lightship, seaplanes and aeroplanes hovering high above them in the air, while submarines slipped beneath the waters underneath. After the Review was over our ships steamed up the Channel in order to carry out certain peace exercises in manoeuvres, while a patrol flotilla was actively employed in testing a scheme for sealing the exit which the Channel makes to the North Sea. Less than a fortnight later the incredible thing happened.
Rumours of war, sudden, by the majority unexpected.
Then war.
It could not have happened at a more auspicious moment as far as the British Navy was concerned. Sir John Jellicoe was appointed supreme Admiral of the Home Fleets. Two destroyers building for Chile were compulsorily purchased by the Admiralty as well as two battleships just completed for Turkey.
Drake"s drums had rattled.
England in her hour of need had found two great leaders--Jellicoe and French at the head of her Navy and Army. And behind them two brilliant Statesmen--Asquith and Churchill at the head of her people.
What these four men have already done is history. What remains to be done, and what they will do unflinchingly, no matter the cost, will, we all know, make history.
But it is only natural that we, the sons and daughters of the greatest Empire the world has ever seen, who are left in our little sea-girt isle, and strain our eyes through the mist and foam to those seas beyond the North toward one man in whose keeping more than that of any other man lies the destiny of our race; the fate perhaps not only of our great Empire but of the world.
Never before has silence spoken so eloquently as it spoke from the North Sea when Jellicoe led our ships into her mists and storms.
"Not unto us,"
Cried Drake, "not unto us--but unto Him Who made the sea, belongs our England now!
Pray G.o.d that heart and mind and soul we prove Worthy among the nations of this hour."
--_Alfred Noyes._
That we shall prove worthy among the nations it is almost impossible to doubt. With such leaders how could a people fail?
With an Empire on which the sun never sets, and which has given men, gold and even food to the Mother Country with a lavish hand, will not her rich merchants as well as her poorer sons of the Mother Country make as great sacrifices and show as much heroism as the sons of France, of Russia and Belgium?
We cannot doubt it. Though, after three months of the bloodiest warfare the world has ever seen, several million young Englishmen were still listening unmoved to the Drums of Drake--to the call of England, their England, for men to defend her in her hour of danger yet we know that, though slow to understand and hard to move, Englishmen, once they have understood and once they have been moved, will be true to themselves, their inheritance and their beloved little island. With Henley they will cry with one voice and one soul:
"England, My England-- Take and break us: we are yours, England my own!
Life is good, and joy runs high Between English earth and sky: Death is death; but we shall die To the song on your bugles blown."
And they will follow their devoted leaders into battle--French on the land and Jellicoe on the wild North seas.
And those who are left at home to carry on "business as usual," will not they make some sacrifices too?
_Miller, Son, & Compy., Ltd., Printers, Fakenham and London._