Nothing is said by the Admiralty as to the British
vessels engaged. To this wise reticence no sane man will make any objection whatever—till, of course, the facts are published in Germany and America, which presumably they will be before very long. Then, but not till then, we shall have a right to know what our enemies will know. The action clearly reflects the
greatest credit upon the Navy and the Admiralty, and proves how long is the arm of our Navy, and with what strength and certainty it can strike at anything that floats upon the open sea. Against navies that live and move and have their being, not on the salt water, but in inland canals, it must no doubt confess itself powerless. Our readers must remember that this was not a collection of a local force in the Pacific to avenge Admiral Cradock's defeat and to bring the German raiders to action, but a thunderbolt which struck and anni- hilated the enemy many thousand miles from the place where that thunderbolt was launched. A month ago Admiral Sturdee was in London. Then came the news of the German victory off the coast of Chile. At once the Admiralty, without fuss or talk, arranged for the despatch of a squadron—whence gathered, who can say P—competent to deal with the enemy, and within a period which, of course, we cannot calculate, but which we know must have been almost incredibly short, the German account was settled off the Falkland Islands.
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