Another expedition from Australia to attack German New Guinea had also been organised by the Government of the Commonwealth. The uncertainty about the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau invested all movements in those waters with a certain hazardous delicacy. It was thought, however, that the light cruisers Melbourne[[57]] and Sydney could convoy the Commonwealth New Guinea expedition northward, keeping inside the Barrier Reef, and that before they came out into open waters the New Guinea convoy could be joined by Australia and Montcalm, who would by then have completed the escort of the New Zealand expedition to Samoa. We thought it above all things important that these expeditions, once they had landed and taken possession of the German colonies, should be self-sufficing, and that no weak warships should be left in the harbours to support them. Any such vessels, apart from the difficulty of sparing them, would be an easy prey for the two large German cruisers.
Samoa was occupied on the 30th August. The wireless station at Nauru was destroyed on the 10th September. The Australian contingent was picked up by the battle-cruiser Australia on September 9 and arrived at Rabaul safely two days later.
We had now to provide for the Australian convoy to Europe which was due to leave Sydney on September 27 for Port Adelaide, where they would be joined by the New Zealand contingent and its own escort as well as by the ‘Australian Fleet’ (Australia, Sydney and Melbourne) as soon as they were free from the New Guinea expedition. Our original proposal for the escort of the Australian Army was, therefore, Australia, Sydney and Melbourne, with the small cruisers from New Zealand. To cover the Commonwealth during the absence of all her Fleet, it was arranged that the Minotaur, together with the Japanese Ibuki and Chikuma, should come south to New Britain Islands.
In the middle of September the New Zealand contingent was due to sail for Adelaide. The Australia and her consorts were still delayed in New Guinea, where some delay was caused by the German resistance. Great anxiety was felt in New Zealand at the prospect of throwing their contingent across to Australia with no better escort than the two P class cruisers. They pointed out the dangers from the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, which on September 14 had been reported off Samoa. The Admiralty view was that it was most improbable the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau could know of the contemplated New Zealand expedition, still less of the date of its sailing; that in order to deliver an attack in New Zealand waters they would have to steam far from their coaling bases north of the Equator, and would indeed have to be accompanied by their colliers, greatly reducing their speed and hampering their movements. In these circumstances the Admiralty foresaw but little danger to the New Zealand convoy in the first part of their voyage, were unable to provide further protection for this stage, and expressed the opinion that the risk should be accepted. To this decision the New Zealand Government bowed on September 21, and it was settled that the New Zealand convoy should sail on the 25th. Meanwhile, however, renewed exploits by the Emden in the Bay of Bengal created a natural feeling of alarm in the mind of the New Zealand and Australian public; and without prejudice to our original view, we decided to make arrangements to remove these apprehensions.
On the 24th news arrived that the New Guinea expedition had successfully overcome all opposition, and we then determined on the following change of plans, viz. Minotaur and Ibuki to go to Wellington and escort the New Zealanders to Adelaide, while Australia and Montcalm, after convoying the auxiliaries and weak warships back from New Guinea to within the shelter of the Barrier Reef, should hunt for the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the Marshall Islands, whither it seemed probable they were proceeding. This decision altered the composition of the escort of the Australian convoy, and their protection across the Pacific and Indian Oceans was to an important extent confided to a vessel which flew the war flag of Japan. This historic fact should be an additional bond of goodwill among the friendly and allied nations who dwell in the Pacific.
Meanwhile the depredations of the Emden in the Bay of Bengal continued. On the 22nd she appeared off Madras, bombarded the Burma Company’s oil tanks, and threw a few shells into the town before she was driven off by the batteries. This episode, following on the disturbance of the Calcutta-Colombo trade route and the numerous and almost daily sinkings of merchant ships in the Bay of Bengal, created widespread alarm, and on October 1 I sent the following minute to the First Sea Lord, proposing, inter alia, a concentration on a large scale in Indian waters against the Emden. This concentration would comprise Hampshire, Yarmouth, Sydney, Melbourne, Chikuma (Japan), Zemchug and Askold (Russian), Psyche, Pyramus and Philomel—a total of ten—and was capable of being fully effective in about a month.
October 1, 1914.
Secretary.
Chief of Staff.
First Sea Lord.