“The whole thing culminated in a series of very disturbing events. First it was announced that German mines had been laid north of Ireland, and that the _Manchester Commerce_ had been sunk by striking one. Were any of our waters safe for our own battle squadrons, if the enemy could lay mines with impunity right under our noses? This was swiftly followed by our hearing that the _Good Hope_ and _Monmouth_ had been sunk by the _Gneisenau_ and _Scharnhorst_ off Coronel. Then came the sinking of the _Hermes_ and the _Niger_, one in mid-Channel, the other lying in the anchorage at Deal. And just when nervous people were wondering whether the mine and submarine had really driven the English Fleet off the sea, only to find that ports were not safe, there came the startling news that a German squadron had appeared off Yarmouth.... To many it looked as if this was the last straw. We had sacrificed four cruisers to patrol the neutral shipping in these waters, and when, almost too late, it was discovered that our methods made them too easy targets for submarines, we announced the closing of the North Sea. The public undoubtedly understood by this that, if we closed the North Sea to neutrals, we had closed it to the German Fleet also, and the appearance of this squadron so soon after the announcement was made, and its escape back to its own harbours without being cut off and brought to action, made people ask if the closing of the North Sea had not really meant that Great Britain had resigned its possession to the enemy.” It is difficult, this being the situation, to overrate how cheering was the news of _Emden’s_ destruction. If the Canadian naval contingent were the first of our Colonial subjects to shed their blood in this war, then certainly the Australian ship _Sydney_ was the first to assert Great Britain’s command over distant seas, by the triumphant destruction of a ship that dared to dispute it. We began our debt to the Colonies early. Captain Glossop’s despatch was not published till January 1, but a good many other accounts had been published before, and some have become available since the action. A very interesting letter from an officer of the _Sydney_ was printed in _The Times_ of December 15. With this account was also published, later on, a plan of the action which, with certain corrections which I have reason to believe are required, is reproduced here. A second account, by another officer in the _Sydney_, has been sent to me so that it is possible to add some not uninteresting or unimportant details to Captain Glossop’s story. But of all of the accounts Captain Glossop’s is at once the most interesting and the most complete, and I print it in full, because it is in every respect a model of what a despatch should be. “H.M.A.S. _Sydney_, at Colombo, “15th November, 1914.