21 DECEMBER 1918, Page 2

Admiral Beatty's farewell speech to the American Sixth Battle Squadron

under Admiral Rodman, printed in Wednesday's papers, expressed the mingled feelings with which every true sailor regarded the abject surrender of the German High Sea Fleet. " It was pitiful day to see those great ships coming in, like sheep being herded by dogs to their fold, without an effort on anybody's part, but it was a day everybody could be proud of." Our Navy and their American colleagues were naturally disappointed at not being able to show how well they could fight. But they and we must all remember that " the prestige of the Grand Fleet stood so high that it was sufficient to cause the enemy to surrender without striking a blow." Lord Fisher is reported to have said, early in the war, when some one asked him whether the German Fleet would come out : Would you come out from your house if you knew Jack Johnson was waiting for you on the doorstep ? " But at the end of the war, when our superiority had been greatly increased by our own efforts and by American help, the enemy fleet had to come out and give itself up in sheer despair.