On the other hand, it was Tirpitz who not only conducted the practical advocacy of these schemes in the Reichstag, but also organized the service of propaganda in the German press and on the platform, putting popular pressure on the parliamentary representatives of the nation and constraining them to agree to the enormous expenditure which these schemes entailed.
In the conduct of the naval war the official role of Tirpitz was confined to reporting and advising at general headquarters, the actual conduct and initiative in operations being in the hands of the higher command of the navy at Wilhelmshaven, subject to the Emperor's approval or veto.
Tirpitz advances two contentions; first, that he would have sent the navy into decisive action at an earlier stage of the war; secondly, that he would have made an earlier and more ruthless use of the German U-boats; but his opponents traverse both these claims, and in particular assert that as Secretary of State he had neglected the construction of submarines, so that Germany entered the war with a comparatively small supply of these vessels.
Lord Haldane, in his book Before the War (1920), records his impression of Tirpitz when he visited Berlin in Feb.
Bethmann Hollweg, Lord Haldane thought, was willing to entertain the British suggestions; it was Tirpitz who behind the scenes offered a most strenuous opposition to any restrictions.