1 FEBRUARY 1919, Page 3

It was appropriate that the dispersal of the victorious Grand

Fleet should be marked by the conferring upon Admiral Beatty of the freedom of Edinburgh. Mr. Kipling wrote, in a different context, many years ago :—

" Far-called our Navies melt away, On dune and headland sinks the fire,

Yea, all our pompe of yesterday Are one with Nineveh and Tyre."

Our navies disperse but to the relighting of the coastwise beacons for peaceful seafaring : our naval pomp of yesterday, when the Grand Fleet " returned with the High Seas Fleet "—to use Admiral Beatty's modestly reticent phrase—will live on through countless years as the climax of the justice of God and as the guarantee for and seal upon human liberty.