Grand-Admiral Von Tirpitz Grand-Admiral von Tirpitz, who died at the
age of eighty on Thursday, March 6th, was in some ways the strongest figure of the Germany which drove the world to war. As a boy he had a passion for the sea. Although he came of a family which had traditions of service in the Army, he deliberately preferred the Navy, and joined it at a time when it was an insignificant force with no social prestige. He was a man of great ability, but with no scruples. He made himself master of all the technique of the sea, and spent his life in advocating the cause of a great Navy. He hated Great Britain with a deadly hatred. The German Navy was to be the instrument of humbling her when the " day " came. The German Emperor was easily won over to his side. Thereafter Tirpitz's task was relatively easy, though he made heavy weather in the Reichstag, where he had to teach himself the arts of debate and to try to satisfy the doubts of many politicians—above all, of the Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg. Tirpitz's policy of Thorough became a horrible thing in the War when he was faced with disaster. His only subsequent lament was that ruthlessness had not been carried farther. He thought that if it had been " might," after all, would have proved to be " right." * * * 4.
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