The publication of a book by Admiral Harper on the
Battle of Jutland has anticipated the Harper Report which is, after all, to be published by the Admiralty. The immediate effect of the book, which the reviewers have some reason for calling " sensational," is to swing the balance heavily in favour of Lord Jellicoe and against Lord Beatty. This swing of opinion will be counteracted to some extent when the Beatty school produces its criticisms. The rival schools of strategy and tactics draw upon a much wider field of evidence, of course, than a single battle. It has been said that Lord Jellicoe's strategy of containing the enemy was a declension from the Nelsonian doctrine of destroying the enemy. The answer of the Jellicoe school is that the conditions have entirely changed. Mr. Churchill in his book, though admitting that Lord Jellicoe by one rash step might have " lost the War in an afternoon " inclined to Lord Beatty's side. The main interest of Admiral Harper's book is that it flatly presents Lord Jellicoe as having the Nelson touch at Jutland and Lord Beatty as thwarting him. He says that Lord Beatty's memorable signal, " Follow me," caused the van of the Fleet to come less near to the enemy than before. Lord Beatty's " fatal and elementary mistake " was in " dividing his forces." Admiral Harper declares that Lord Beatty lost the first round, that Lord Jellicoe won the second, and that the omission of the Admiralty to let him, know the course of the German Fleet lost Lord Jellicoe the third.
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