FROM NAVAL CADET TO ADMIRAL.*
Sta ROBERT Halms prefaces his narrative with the modest hope that it may show "what a very pleasant, healthy, and engrossing life it is possible to enjoy in a man-of-war," and so much as this he has proved beyond question. His service
• From Naval Cadet to Admiral. By Admiral Sir Robert Ealitilcl 114/741,
If...Q.11.0. London: WW1 and cot [14 net.i . of fifty-two years began as a Cadet at twelve and ended as an Admiral at sixty-five, and throughout nearly the whole of this period he has a succestioa of stories to tell about war or sport. Two periods, however, stand out from the rest as .having the interest attaching to events of real importance— the Cretan troubles in 1897 and the Boer War, in both of which the Admiral played a considerable part. Let us hope that the Cretan affair will prove to have been the last of the many occasions on which Great Britain, in the character of a member of the European Concert, has had to essay the impossible task of reconciling a popu- lation, at once European and Christian, to Turkish rale. In Crete the effort was specially difficult. Only an eighth part of the inhabitants were Mohammedans, and, as the Turkish garrison had been reduced under pressure from the Great Powers, it fell to an international gendarmerie to main- tain order. By the time that Admiral Harris was ordered to Canes the main part of this force had gone over to the insurgents, those who were left being under the command of one French and three Italian officers, "all of whom were ignorant of the native languages." As the pay of his troops was two years in arrear, they were always on the verge of mutiny, and so quite useless for the purpose for which they had been raised. The Turks had about six thousand men, half belonging to the regular army and half volunteers. The latter were worthless from a military point of view, and, owing to their want of discipline and propensity to plunder, positively mischievous ae an instrument of conciliation. On Admiral Harris's arrival a conference of senior officers was held on board his ship, and an urgent request for rein- forcements was addressed to the Great Powers. Within a few days the naval force was increased by the flagships of four Admirals and a German man-of-war commanded by a Post-Captain. In view of the grave difficulties inherent in a situation in which the Great Powers were anxious to do as little as was consistent with restoring peace and the insurgents determined to make peace impossible, Admiral Harris's common-sense soon convinced him that the object the Powers were striving after was unattainable. The choice really lay between allowing Crete to remain the cockpit of the Mediterranean and handing it over to Greece. Ruling it in the name of the Concert of Europe was an unpromising business, but the Admirals did their best, and in the end their relations with the islanders became really friendly.
The delivery of Kruger's ultimatum on October 9th, 1899 gave Admiral Harris, who bad taken the command of the South African station some fifteen months earlier, a specially difficult task. In all preceding troubles in South Africa the chief work of the Navy had been done on shore, and in this way it had become an accepted tradition that to be "landed from one's ship to assist the army in fighting its battles was a abort way to achieve honours and promotion." Resort to this customary method was now definitely forbidden by the Admiralty. The business of the fleet was to protect the seaport towns in Cape Colony and Natal, and not one of the ships was to be weakened by landing men or guns. Tha reasons for these instructions were privately communicated to the Admiral, but as no one else knew them his strictness in keeping officers and men afloat made him for a time unpopular with all ranks. Almost as soon as war was declared, however, it became impossible to maintain this rule. An urgent message came almost immediately from the general commanding at Cape Town, backed by another from Sir Alfred Milner, asking that two naval field-guns and what men could be spared should be sent to help in defending Stormberg until the arrival of troops from England. This request was too urgent to be denied. The required help was at ones sent, and the news of its despatch cabled to the Admiralty. A return cable came back from home leaving the Admiral's discretion unfettered in cases of great urgency. The work which Admiral Manila least liked came when Lord Roberts asked him by telegraph whether he could undertake the custody of General Cronje. The flagship happened to be the only one available for this duty, and forty- eight hours later the General arrived, accompanied by his wife, his nephew, his secretary, and a black boy, "the whole of their belongings and impedimenta being carried in two very dirty bath towels." Cronje was housed in the Admiral's apartments and he messed with the Flag Captain. He remained on board for two mouths, when he was transferred to St, Helena. The Boer prisoners as a whole were very easy to manage. They were fond of singing hymns, "and it was a pleasing thing on a calm morning to hear their united voices rolling from the camp across the water out to their fellows on board the trans- ports in the bay, who again, in their turn, rejoined with another hymn." Occasionally hearty cheers would he heard from ship or shore, which the Admiral thinks were drawn forth by the encouraging intelligence that the Russians were invading India, or that the Germans or the French were marching upon London, constantly sent out by the Boer agents in Europe. Altogether, From Naval Cadet to Admiral may take high rank as a collection of amusing incidents encountered in service and sport in many parts of the world.
Previous page
