25 MARCH 1916, Page 2

On Monday four British destroyers sighted and engaged three German

destroyers off the Belgian coast. The German destroyers ran for Zeebrugge, but before they escaped two of them were observed to be hit. Our casualties were four men wounded. According to the German account, our destroyers "broke off the action " after receiving several direct hits, and steamed out Of sight at full speed, whereas the damage to the German destroyers was " unimportant." These words have a familiar sound. When German craft have safely reached shelter behind a minefield, what more natural than that the British vessels should " break off the action " and steam away elsewhere at full speed ? We often wonder what meaning the German people read into the habitual meaningless form of words.