And again on October 15.

Sydney should escort Australians and thereafter hunt Emden.

This shot as will presently be seen went home.

The press and the public were not in a position to understand all that the Admiralty were doing nor to appreciate the general results achieved. All they saw at this time was that a few German cruisers were apparently doing whatever they chose upon the oceans and sinking British merchantmen day after day. A great deal of discontent began to make itself heard and felt. I therefore prepared a note for publication in the hopes of placating our critics.

The Secretary of the Admiralty makes the following statement in regard to the capture and destruction of British merchant ships by German warships:—

Eight or nine German cruisers are believed to be at large in the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian Oceans. Searching for these vessels and working in concert under the various Commanders-in-Chief are upwards of 70 British (including Australian), Japanese, French, and Russian cruisers, not including auxiliary cruisers. Among these are a number of the fastest British cruisers. The vast expanses of sea and ocean and the many thousand islands of the archipelagos offer an almost infinite choice of movement to the enemy’s ships. In spite of every effort to cut off their coal supply, it has hitherto been maintained by one means or another in the face of increasing difficulties.

The discovery and destruction of these few enemy cruisers is therefore largely a matter of time, patience, and good luck. The public should have confidence that the Commanders-in-Chief and the experienced captains serving under them are doing all that is possible and taking the best steps to bring the enemy to action. They have so far been also occupied in very serious and important convoy duty, but this work has somewhat lessened and the number of searching cruisers is continually augmented.

Meanwhile, merchant ships must observe Admiralty instructions, which it is obviously impossible to specify, and use all the precautions which have been suggested. On routes where these instructions have been followed, they have so far proved very effective. On the other hand, where they have been disregarded captures have been made. The same vastness of sea which has so far enabled the German cruisers to avoid capture will protect the trade.

The only alternative to the methods now adopted would be the marshalling of merchantmen in regular convoys at stated intervals. So far it has not been thought necessary to hamper trade by enforcing such a system. The percentage of loss is much less than was reckoned on before the war. Out of 4,000 British ships engaged in foreign trade only 39 have been sunk by the enemy, or just under 1 per cent. in all.

The rate of insurance for cargoes, which on the outbreak of war was fixed at 5 guineas per cent., has now been reduced to 2 guineas per cent. without injury to the solvency of the fund. For hulls, as apart from cargoes, the insurance has also been considerably reduced. Between 8,000 and 9,000 foreign voyages have been undertaken to and from United Kingdom ports, less than five per thousand of which have been interfered with, and of these losses a large number have been caused by merchant vessels taking everything for granted and proceeding without precautions as if there were no war.

On the other hand, the German oversea trade has practically ceased to exist. Nearly all their fast ships which could have been used as auxiliary cruisers were promptly penned into neutral harbours or have taken refuge in their own. Among the comparatively few German ships which have put to sea, 133 have been captured, or nearly four times the number of those lost by the very large British mercantile marine.

In these circumstances, there is no occasion for anxiety and no excuse for complaint. On the contrary, the more fully the facts concerning our oversea trade and its protection by the Royal Navy can be disclosed, and the more attentively they are studied, the greater will be the confidence and satisfaction with which the situation can be viewed.

The various changes of plan necessary to meet the natural anxieties of the New Zealand Government entailed a delay of three weeks in the sailing of the Australian convoy. This, Lord Kitchener declared, made no difference, as they could continue their indispensable training equally well in Australia. By October 25, when the convoy was about to sail, the rebellion in South Africa introduced another disturbing element. It was decided by the Cabinet on that date to make arrangements for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps to come via the Cape instead of via the Suez Canal, so as to be available in South Africa if need be. Alternative arrangements of a complicated nature were therefore prepared. On the 30th, however, in view of later advices from South Africa, it was arranged for the whole convoy to proceed together to Colombo and for the decision about the last part of the route to be delayed until then. The convoy started on November 1 under the escort of the Minotaur, Ibuki, Melbourne and Sydney.

Before they reached Colombo the Sydney found her quarry and the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps was more needed in Egypt than at the Cape. But this will appear in its proper place.

It remained to carry the Canadian Army across the Atlantic. Upwards of 25,000 volunteers of a very high individual quality, partially trained in Valcartier camp, were embarked in the St. Lawrence in a convoy of thirty-one ships, to which were added two ships carrying the Newfoundland contingent and a British battalion from Bermuda. Rear-Admiral Wemyss with a squadron of light cruisers was entrusted with the actual duties of escort, but the essential protection of the convoy was secured by far more distant and powerful agencies. All the Cruiser Squadrons of the Grand Fleet were spread in two lines between the coasts of Norway and Scotland to guard against a sortie by the German fast vessels, and the Grand Fleet itself remained at sea in their support to the northward. The North American Squadron under Rear-Admiral Hornby covered the German merchant cruisers which were lurking in New York Harbour. Two old battleships, the Glory and the Majestic, were ordered to meet the convoy at a rendezvous well off the beaten track, and Admiral Hornby himself in the Lancaster accompanied them the first portion of the route. Lastly, the Princess Royal was detached from the Grand Fleet to meet the convoy in mid-Atlantic and thus guard against any German battle-cruiser which might conceivably have slipped through the wide areas patrolled by Sir John Jellicoe. The movements of the Princess Royal were kept secret from everybody, and even the Canadian Government, in spite of their natural anxiety, were denied this reassurance.

The convoy sailed on October 3 and ten days later safely approached the mouth of the English Channel. The intention had been to disembark the Canadian troops at Portsmouth, where all arrangements had been made for them. But on the very day they were due to arrive a German submarine was reported off Cherbourg and another was sighted off the Isle of Wight by the Portsmouth Defence Flotilla. On this we insisted, whatever the military inconvenience, on turning the whole convoy into Plymouth. During October 14 this armada bearing the first flower of the martial spirit of Canada was safely berthed in Plymouth Sound.

With this event, all the initial movements in the Imperial concentration had been completed. They had comprised the transportation of the equivalent of 5 divisions from India to Europe and their replacement by 3 divisions of Territorials from England; the collection of the 7th and 8th divisions from all the garrisons and fortresses of the British Empire with consequential replacements from home and from India; the transportation of approximately two divisions from Canada to England; and lastly—though this was not finished till December—that of approximately two divisions from Australia and New Zealand to Egypt. The effect of this concentration was to add a reinforcement of 5 British regular divisions (7th, 8th, 27th, 28th and 29th) and 2 Anglo-Indian divisions to the regular forces immediately available to support the 6 regular divisions with which we had begun the war, raising our Army in France by the end of November to approximately 13 divisions of highly trained long-service troops. In addition the 4 Canadian and Australian divisions were completing their training in England and Egypt, and were held to be in a more advanced state of preparation than the 10 divisions of Territorials which remained in England or the 24 divisions of the New Armies which Lord Kitchener was raising. The whole business of transportation by sea while all the enemy’s cruisers were still at large had been conducted without accident of any kind or without the loss of a single ship or a single life.