A considerable sensation has been created in the United States
by the charges which Admiral Sims has brought against the Navy Department. He made these charges in his evidence before the Sub-Committee of the Senate appointed to investi- gate the distribution of War decorations in the Navy. Admiral Sims declares that the Navy Department went to war without any matured plan ; that it did not enter whole-heartedly into the campaign for many months ; that no attempt was made to concentrate the American naval units during the most critical submarine period ; that lie was not allowed to select his principal subordinates ; and that plans made in Washington overrode the plans which he had made on the spot. Admiral Sims also asserts that he received oral in- structions from the Navy Department that he was not to allow the British authorities " to pull wool over his eyes." The author of these instructions also remarked that the American people would " as soon fight the British as the Germans."
