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I spent the afternoon in Laszlo's studio. I went to a dinner given me by General Ellison. He placed Admiral Lord Fisher to my left and General Sir Ian Hamilton to my right. The other guests were, General Sir David Henderson of the Flying Corps, and two officials of India House. It was one of the most interesting dinners I have attended. Lord Fisher was at his best, he criticised the Government, Winston Churchill, the Allies, and every- thing and <sic>everbody</sic> in such a humorous way that it kept the table in an uproar. He told of the fateful days preceding the war when Great Britain's decision hung in the balance. According to him, it was he who suggested immediate mo- bilization of the fleet, and he was the one who first brought 80% of the fleet into home water. Out of his humorous stories I gathered much of value. He is a great believer in fast battle cruisers and in large guns, that is, he does not believe in having a variety of guns on any one ship. It is the fast battle ship and the big guns, according to him, that win. He said trying to win a battle with numerous ships of slow speed and small guns is like trying to catch a hare with an army of tortoise. "God made the hare to be caught by the gray- hound, and not by the tortoise". He said the whole thing revolved itself into the cookbook formula for cooking a hare which starts by stating: "First catch the hare". He, it was, that took two of the fastest battleships from Jellico's fleet, and sent them after von Spree's cruisers in South American waters. There was much opposition to this procedure, but he won his way. The ships reached there in the nick of time and did the work without harm to themselves, and sim- ply because they were out of reach of von Spree's guns. Fisher claims to have told the Japanese how to destroy the first Rus- sian fleet in the Russia-Japanese War. The Russian Admiral, he thought, would do the stupid thing. His ships were three knots slower than the Japanese to
Title | ms_0466_s2_v4_081 |
Transcript |
I spent the afternoon in Laszlo's studio.
I went to a dinner given me by General Ellison. He placed Admiral Lord Fisher
to my left and General Sir Ian Hamilton to my right. The other guests were,
General Sir David Henderson of the Flying Corps, and two officials of India House.
It was one of the most interesting dinners I have attended. Lord Fisher was at
his best, he criticised the Government, Winston Churchill, the Allies, and every-
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