If our readers will study our v 'on carefully, it
will be seen that we have included no fact which anly became known after the issue of Friday week's communiqui. Our additions, if any, are direct, logical, and therefore legitimate inferences from the pre- misses supplied by the Admiralty, and not guesses. The whole of our statement is implicit in the Admiralty's first announcement. The difference of tone is due to the method of presentment, not to the addition of introductiortal facts. Those who admit this will perhaps tell us that we have "written up" the facts, and that the style is journalistic and not worthy of a Government Department. Possibly, but at any rate our version is not nearly as much "written up" as were the announcements of naval actions in former times by the Admirals themselves. No doubt reticence is convincing, but after ter all what the Government ought to give is a true impression, and baldness may be carried to such a point as to produce a false impression. We do not suggest that the Admiralty should be pompous or long-winded, but there is a good deal to be said for the plea that they should trim the boat between this extreme and the extreme of a style which may almost be described as squalid and " pauperesque."
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