The _Pamir_ got into Salonica the next morning after kicking around half the night in front of the harbour defences. None too soon the French Admirals have begun to put nets at the entrances of harbours, instead of leaving them as at the beginning of the war when the submarines had only to come in. I tell you, old man, the Germans discovered this before we ever thought of it, and the Austrians, too, in their North Sea, Adriatic, and Baltic ports; and they will discover many other things in which we shall be six months or a year behindhand. The thing that takes my breath away is that I chatted with not a few young sailors of your Navy and they all see it clearly. When I say young, I mean fellows between thirty and forty-five, the kind the English have already dubbed old fogies! In the French Navy these old fogies haven’t the right to an opinion, but nevertheless they see. It can’t be said that they are ignorant of their profession, having followed it for eighteen or twenty years; nor can it be said that they aren’t capable of commanding, because in England men of their age are already commanding a squadron or a Naval Base, and any day one can see an old French Naval lieutenant of forty-five with three stripes going to ask for orders of a young English Admiral of forty-two with three stars. The contrary never happens. Does that mean that the French are not as clever as the English? Tell me if you agree, or if, after your experience of the Navy, you think that the French Admirals are not anxious to rejuvenate the higher ranks? I should like to tell you now all I think about it and what Fourgues thinks too, but I see that my letter has not dealt fully yet with the adventures of the _Pamir_ and so I must wait for another time.