29 AUGUST 1914, Page 2

In the naval theatre of war we have done well

during the week. On Thursday Mr. Churchill was enabled to announce in the Commons that the British cruiser Highflyer ' had, "off the coast of West Africa," sunk the swift German liner 'Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse,' of 14,000 tons, converted into a cruiser at the beginning of the war. Exactly how David—the Highflyer ' is only a third of the size of its late opponent, and was quite outmatched in the matter of speed—managed to slay Goliath does not appear. Most of the crew of the German ship were rescued. Our loss was one killed and five slightly wounded. The Germans have also lost a cruiser in the Baltic —the Magdeburg,' which went ashore in a fog off the entrance of the Gulf of Finland. Her commander blew her up under heavy fire from the Russian Fleet. The "wearing-down" process which is gradually to destroy our Fleet would seem to be a two-edged weapon, as also does the fog, which it was supposed would somehow have a German bias.