Letters to the Editor
Admiral Pound Admiral Sir W. M. James, Ludovic Kennedy, Nigel Seymer Taper and the Dog
W. F. Casey Philip Noel-Baker, MP
Nigel Fisher, MP
Easter Morning Surgeon `A Southern Viewpoint' Professor Sir Douglas L. Savory
Middleton Murry Canon J. L. Cartwright Current Scandals C. H. Norman How to Help tha Theatre George Richards
ADMIRAL POUND
SIR,—Sir Robert Boothby and Mr. Ludovic Ken- nedy arc both right. The Admiralty did send Jellicoe the course and speed of the German Fleet which indicated that he was returning to base by the Horn Reef passage, but did not send him a signal de- ciphered a quarter of an hour later which left no doubt at all of his intentions and three subsequent course signals.
Jellicoe rejected the information sent him because an hour earlier he had received a signal giving the position of the German Fleet which was obviously entirely wrong. The Admiralty decipherers were not at fault. The Regensburg, who made the signal, was ten miles out in her reckoning. This is recorded in the German Official History, which was not available when the British official narrative was compiled. It appeared, therefore, to Jellicoe that the decipherers were using an incomplete cipher key and that the course in the signal sent him might be quite wrong.
Quarter of an hour after this signal had been de- ciphered in the Admiralty, a signal by the German C-in-C urgently requesting early air reconnaissance off the Horn Reef was deciphered. This signal, familiar to the decipherers, Was always sent by ships who intended to return by the Horn Reef passage. But neither this signal nor the subsequent course signals were sent to Jellicoe. The Operations Division did not, of course, know that Jellicoe had good reason to mistrust the course and speed signal that had been sent him and thought that that one signal was all he needed, but there is no doubt that the 'Admiralty made a grave mistake in not passing on to Jellicoe the vital air reconnaissance signal. The course signalled by the German C-in-C was not abso- lute proof of his intentions; the request for air reconnaissance was absolute proof.—Yours faith- fully,
W. M. JAMES
Road Farm, Churl
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