Page:An Adequate Navy - The Navy League of the United States (1916).pdf/6

 maneuvers. It is unfortunately the fact that the law does not even fix the responsibility on the civilian officials, but it leaves the whole matter uncertain and unsatisfactory.

The English have recently gone through this phase in Gallipolli. The civilian head of the Admiralty ordered the attack at the Dardanelles. The naval officers feared failure, but they had no right to intervene. They naturally presumed that their chief had political or international reasons for the course he adopted. Their duty was to obey, and thousands of innocent lives paid the cost of the blunder.

When all was over, the head of the Admiralty said that he supposed the officers approved or else they would have objected. They replied that they had not been consulted, and though they had feared for the worst, they had felt it their duty to sacrifice and be silent.

Today, in the face of this war, where the fate of mankind is the prize, our laws do not place on any man or set of men the specific responsibility for the conduct oi naval affairs. The authority and the responsibility are divided, and we are in such a predicament that should disaster come to our fleet a dozen different men will point their fingers at each other and each will say "the fault is yours," while the country will have to pay the price in lives and treasure and will not be able to tell on whom rests the fault.

The Navy League believes that under these conditions no man can be fully effi-