NEWS OF THE WEEK
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THE greatest victory that the British Navy has ever won is being achieved as we write on Thursday by the surrender of the best part of the German High Sea Fleet to Admiral Beatty in the North Sea. Ten of Germany's most modern battleships, six battle-cruisers, eight light cruisers, and fifty destroyers pass into our keeping. The surrender of all her submarines began on Wed- nesday. The rest of her Fleet is to be disarmed and laid up. Naval history records no triumph so complete as this, and the fact that it has been achieved without a final battle at sea in no wise lessens its profound significance. The British Navy, though we have heard little of its doings, has won the war. But for its command of the sea, the Allies could not have continued the struggle for over four years—still less have hoped for the complete and overwhelming victory that has been vouchsafed to us. The Allied Navies have helped in the great task, but the chief burden of the long and weary watch at sea has fallen on our incomparable sailors, who, under Providence, have saved both the British Empire and the Allies.
