Chapter VI: Public Speeches

I have made four accurately reported public speeches, the fifth one (at Mr. Josephus Daniels’s reception by the American Luncheon Club) is too inadequate to include here. For none of these four speeches had I any notes, except for the one of a hundred words and one of fifty words, both delivered in the House of Lords. The other two were simply and solely my exuberant verbosity, and they must be read with that remark in mind. I was saturated with the subject; and when the _Times_ reporter came and asked me for my speech before I’d made it, I told him with truth that I really didn’t know what I was going to say. I might have been like Thackeray (What a classic case his was!). He was the Guest of Honour. He got up, was vociferously cheered, and was dumb. After a death-like silence he said these words, and sat down:--“If I could only remember what I thought of to say to you when I was coming here in the cab, you really would have had a delightful speech!”

1. The Empress Marie of Russia.
2. The Czarina.
3. Sir John Fisher.
4. The Grand Duchess Olga.
5. The Czar.
]

I.--THE ROYAL ACADEMY BANQUET, 1903.

The Navy always readily appreciates the kind words in which this toast is proposed, and also the kind manner in which it is always received. I beg to thank you especially, Mr. President, for your kind reference to Captain Percy Scott, which was so well deserved. He was indeed a handy man. (Cheers.) Personally I have not the same pleasurable feelings on this occasion as I enjoyed last year, when I had no speech to make. I remember quite well remarking to my neighbour: “How good the whitebait is, how excellent the champagne, and how jolly not to have to make a speech.” He glared at me and said: “I have got to make a speech, and the whitebait to me is _bête noire_, and the champagne is real pain.” (Laughter.) He was so ready with his answer that I thought to myself: “You’ll get through it all right,” and sure enough he did, for he spoke thirty minutes by the clock without a check. (Laughter.) I am only going to give you three minutes (cries of “No.”) Yes. I always think on these occasions of the first time I went to sea on board my first ship, an old sailing two-decker, and I saw inscribed in great big gold letters the one word “Silence.” (Laughter.) Underneath was another good motto: “Deeds, not words.” (Cheers.) I have put that into every ship I have commanded since. (Cheers.) This leads me to another motto which is better still, and brings me to the point of what I have to say in reply to the toast that has been proposed. When I was Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean I went to inspect a small Destroyer, only 260 tons, but with such pride and swagger that she might have been 16,000 tons. (Laughter.) The young Lieutenant in command took me round. She was in beautiful order, and I came aft to the wheel and saw there the inscription: “Ut Veniant Omnes.” “Hallo,” I said, “what the deuce is that?” (Laughter.) Saluting me, he said: “Let ’em all come, Sir.” (Great laughter and cheers.) Well, that was not boasting; that was the sense of conscious efficiency--(cheers)--the sense that permeates the whole Fleet--(cheers)--and I used to think, as the Admiral, it will be irresistible provided the Admiral is up to the mark. The Lord Chief Justice, sitting near me now, has kindly promised to pull me down if I say too much! (Laughter.) But what I wish to remark to you is this--and it is a good thing for everybody to know it--there has been a tremendous change in Navy matters since the old time. In regard to Naval warfare history is a record of exploded ideas. (Laughter and cheers.) In the old days they were sailors’ battles; now they are Admirals’ battles. I should like to recall to you the greatest battle at sea ever fought. What was the central episode of that? Nelson receiving his death-wound! What was he doing? Walking up and down on the quarter-deck arm-in-arm with his Captain. It is dramatically described to us by an onlooker. His Secretary is shot down; Nelson turns round and says: “Poor Scott! Take him down to the cockpit,” and then he goes on again walking up and down, having a yarn with his Captain. What does that mean? It means that in the old days the Admiral took his fleet into action; each ship got alongside the enemy; and, as Nelson finely said, “they got into their proper place.” (Cheers.) And then the Admiral had not much more to do. The ships were touching one another nearly, the Bos’un went with some rope and lashed them together so as to make them quite comfortable--(laughter)--and the sailors loaded and fired away till it was time to board. But what is the case now? It is conceivable that within twenty minutes of sighting the enemy on the horizon the action will have begun, and on the disposition of his Fleet by the Admiral--on his tactics--the battle will depend, for all the gunnery in the world is no good if the guns are masked by our own ships or cannot bear on the enemy! In that way I wish to tell you how much depends on the Admirals now and on their education. Therefore, joined with this spirit, of which the remark of the young Lieutenant I mentioned to you is an indication, permeating the whole Service, we require a fearless, vigorous, and progressive administration, open to any reform--(loud cheers)--never resting on its oars--for to stop is to go back--and forecasting every eventuality. I will just take two instances at hazard.

_Look at the Submarine Boat and Wireless Telegraphy.

When they are perfected we do not know what a Revolution will
come about._

In their inception they were the weapons of the weak.

Now they loom large as the weapons of the strong.

_Will any Fleet be able to be in narrow waters?_

Is there the slightest fear of invasion with them, even for the most extreme pessimist? I might mention other subjects; but the great fact which I come to is that we are realizing--the Navy and the Admiralty are realizing--_that on the British Navy rests the British Empire_. (Loud cheers.) Nothing else is of any use without it, not even the Army. (Here the gallant Admiral, amid laughter, turned to Mr. Brodrick, the Secretary for War, who sat near him.) We are different from Continental nations. No soldier of ours can go anywhere unless a sailor carries him there on his back. (Laughter.) I am not disparaging the Army. I am looking forward to their coming to sea with us again as they did in the old days. Why, Nelson had three regiments of infantry with him at the battle of Cape St. Vincent, and a Sergeant of the 69th Regiment led the boarders, and, Nelson having only one arm, it was the Sergeant who helped him up. (Cheers.) The Secretary for War particularly asked me to allude to the Army or else I would not have done it. (Loud laughter.) In conclusion, I assure you that the Navy and the Admiralty recognise their responsibility. I think I may say that we now have a Board of Admiralty that is united, progressive, and determined--(cheers)--and you may sleep quietly in your beds--(loud cheers).

II.--THE LORD MAYOR’S BANQUET, 1907.

As to the strength, the efficiency, and the sufficiency of the Navy, I am able to give you indisputable proofs. Recently, in the equinoctial season in the North Sea we have had twenty-six of the finest battleships in the world and twenty-five of the finest cruisers, some of them equal to foreign battleships, and over fifty other vessels, under eleven Admirals, and all working under a distinguished Commander-in-Chief, under very trying circumstances and in a very stormy time, and I look in vain to see any equal to that large Fleet anywhere. (Cheers.) That is only a fraction of our power. (Cheers.) And that large Fleet is _nulli secundus_, as they say, whether it is ships or officers or men. (Cheers.) Now, I turn to the other point, the gunnery of the Fleet. The gunnery efficiency of the Fleet has surpassed all records--it is unparalleled--and I am lost in wonder and admiration at the splendid unity of spirit and determination that must have been shown by everybody from top to bottom to obtain these results. (Cheers.) I am sure that your praise and your appreciation will go forth to them, because, remember, the best ships, the biggest Navy--my friend over there talked about the two-Power standard--a million-Power standard (laughter) is no use unless you can hit. (Cheers.) You must hit first, you must hit hard, and you must keep on hitting. (Cheers.) If these are the fruits, I don’t think there is much wrong with the government of the Navy. (Cheers.) Figs don’t grow on thistles. (Laughter and cheers.) But a gentleman of fine feeling has lately said that the recent Admiralty administration has been attended with the devil’s own luck. (Laughter.) That interesting personality (laughter)--his luck is due to one thing, and one thing only--hesitates at nothing to gain his object. That is what the Board of Admiralty have done, and our object has been the fighting efficiency of the Fleet and its instant readiness for war; and we have got it. (Cheers.) And I say it because no one can have a fuller knowledge than myself about it, and I speak with the fullest sense of responsibility. (Cheers.) So I turn to all of you, and I turn to my countrymen and I say--Sleep quiet in your beds (laughter and cheers), and do not be disturbed by these bogeys--invasion and otherwise--which are being periodically resuscitated by all sorts of leagues. (Laughter.) I do not know what league is working this one. It is quite curious what reputable people lend themselves to these scares. This afternoon I read the effusions of a red-hot and most charmingly interesting magazine editor. He had evidently been victimised by a _Punch_ correspondent, and that _Punch_ correspondent had been gulled by some Midshipman Easy of the Channel Fleet. He had been there. And this is what the magazine editor prints in italics in this month’s magazine--that an army of 100,000 German soldiers had been practising embarking in the German Fleet. The absolute truth is that one solitary regiment was embarked for manœuvres. That is the truth. To embark 100,000 soldiers you want hundreds and thousands of tons of transport. You might just as well talk of practising embarking St. Paul’s Cathedral in a penny steamer. (Laughter.) I have no doubt that equally silly stories are current in Germany. I have no doubt that there is terror there that the English Fleet will swoop down all of a sudden and gobble up the German Fleet. (Laughter.) These stories are not only silly--they are mischievous, very mischievous. (Hear, hear.) If Eve had not kept on looking at that apple (laughter)--and it was pleasant to the eyes--she would not have picked it, and we should not have been now bothered with clothes. (Loud laughter.) I was very nearly forgetting something else that the _Punch_ correspondent said. I put it in my pocket as I came away to read it out to you. He had been a week in the Channel Fleet and he had discussed everything, from the admiral down to the bluejacket. He does not say anything about that Midshipman Easy. “In one matter I found unanimity of admission. It was that in respect to the number of fighting ships, their armament, and general capacity the British Navy was never in so satisfactory a condition as it floats to-day.” (Cheers.) So we let him off that yarn about the 100,000 German troops. (Laughter.)

III.--THE HOUSE OF LORDS, NOVEMBER 16, 1915.

Lord Fisher, rising from the cross-benches immediately before public business was called, said:--“I ask leave of your lordships to make a statement. Certain references were made to me in a speech delivered yesterday by Mr. Churchill. I have been 61 years in the service of my country, and I leave my record in the hands of my countrymen. The Prime Minister said yesterday that Mr. Churchill had said one or two things which he had better not have said, and that he necessarily and naturally left unsaid some things which will have to be said. I am content to wait. It is unfitting to make personal explanations affecting national interests when my country is in the midst of a great war.”

Lord Fisher, having delivered his brief statement, immediately left the House.

IV.--THE HOUSE OF LORDS, MARCH 21, 1917.

Lord Fisher addressed the House of Lords.

Immediately prayers were over he rose from a seat on one of the cross-benches. He said:--

“With your Lordships’ permission, I desire to make a personal statement. When our country is in great jeopardy, as she now is, it is not the time to tarnish great reputations, to asperse the dead, and to discover our supposed weaknesses to the enemy; so I shall not discuss the Dardanelles Reports--I shall await the end of the war, when all the truth can be made known.”