"AND AFTERWARDS ... WHAT THEN?"
... They leaped at the sun
To give it their loving friends to keep;
Naught man could do have they left undone,
And you see their harvest, what they reap.
. . . . . .
In triumphs, people have dropped down dead—
"Paid by the world, what dost thou owe
Me?"—God might question; now, instead,
'Tis God shall repay:—They are safer so.
(_With apologies to Robert Browning_)
_Those whose men took part in the Battle of Jutland may forgive—I think
they can never forget—the way in which England received the first
tidings of that heroic fight. It is the custom in many quarters to
blame the Admiralty for the wording of their first published report;
but, as my son wrote to me: "They only said that there had been an
engagement, and that we had lost certain ships. Why should people jump
to the conclusion that the enemy's losses were less than ours?"_
_~Why~ indeed! It showed, not only a complete lack of imagination,
but a singular want of faith in the efficiency of the Navy, in which
they had always proclaimed such unbounded confidence. It would appear
that the great majority of the British public had not the faintest
conception of the magnitude of the sacrifices involved in a naval
battle fought under conditions of modern warfare. Were the people
so dazzled and blinded by the century-old memory of Trafalgar as to
forget the fact that at Trafalgar there were neither submarines, nor
mines, nor aircraft, nor 15-inch guns to contend with? It would seem
incredible—if it were not true—that men landing from the ships with the
knowledge that by almost superhuman courage and endurance they had won
the greatest naval fight in the history of the world, were yet greeted
by the public with cold looks—in some cases even with hisses—and by the
Press with a cynical pessimism which could only ask why they had not
done ~more~!—and this, remember, at a moment when they were on the rack
of mourning for so many gallant friends and comrades who had bought
Victory with their lives._
_Well, it taught the Navy, if not a new, certainly a very hard lesson:
the lesson that although "in the performance of plain duty man mounts
to his highest bliss," yet the consciousness of duty done to the
uttermost must be its own reward. From the "man in the street," the
Service may in time win an understanding gratitude and recognition, but
it seems that they are to be denied that instant generous appreciation
which would do so much to atone for the tragic sense of personal loss
inseparable from even the grandest victory._
_Shortly after the battle, one of the greatest of their leaders wrote
to a friend as follows: "Our sacrifices were great, but they were
worth it.... Those who died, died gloriously, in a spirit of great
exaltation, and supremely happy.... And, even if nothing else had been
gained, there is the knowledge that the Old Sea Spirit still lives
in the English Navy—an absolutely unconquerable Spirit, strongly
manifested on the 31st of May."_
_How ~much~ was gained we know to-day. Lest I be betrayed to unbridled
speech, such as they would be the first to deplore and resent ... let
me leave it at that._