"THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS,"

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1043, 4 February 1911, Page 14

"THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS,"

❖ . THE BOOK ABOUT THE GERMAN ISLANDS. At tho trial of Captain Trcnch and Lieutenant Brandon, of tho British Navy, on charges- of spying at Borluim and at oilier places alontr Germany's sea const, the plea was advanced by the defence that some of the information alleecd to have been "secretly" obtained was to be found in Jfr. Erskine Childers's book, "Tho Itiddle of the Sands." liclo-.Y will be fonnd extracts from tho book. The central figure of Mr. Childers's story is Davies, the crude, absolutely fearless, simple-minded, resourceful, "single-banded" yachtsman, who invites his old 'varsity friend Carrutliers, now of the Foreign Office, for a cruise in the Baltic in a beamy and somewhat rough seven-tonner during a boisterous autumn. Tile object of this cruise, subsequently rovealed, is tho examination for purposes of naval navigation ... of the German sen coast in the" North Sea. And here, in tho words of Davies, is its purpose: ,( Well, think of Germany as a new sea-Power. The next thing is, What is her coast-line? I'ar the most important bit of coast-line is that.which lies west of Denmark and looks on the North Ssa: It's there that Germany gets her. head out into the open, so to . speak. It's thera that she fronts us and France, the two groat sea-Powers of Western Europe, and it's there that her greatest ports are and her richest commerce. "Now it must strike you at once that it's ridiculously short compared with the huge country behind it. From Borkum to the Elbe, as'the crow flies, is only seventy miles. Add to that the west coast of Schleswig, say 120 miles. Total, say', two hundred. Comnare that with tho sea-board of France and England. Doesn't it stand to reason that every inch of it is; important? Now, what sort of coast is it? Even on this small map you can see at onco, by all those wavy lines, shoals and sand everywhere, blocking nine-tenths of the land altogether, and doing their best to block tho other tenth where the great rivers run ' in. Now let's take it bit by bit. You- see it divides itself into three. Beginning from the west the first piece is from Borkum to Waugeroog—fifty odd miles. What's that like? A string of sandy islands backed by sand; the Ems River at the western end, on the Dutch border, leading to Emden—not much of a place. Otherwise, no coast towns at all. Second picce: a deep sort of bay consisting of the three great tstuaries—the Jade, the Wcser, and. the Elbe—leading to Wilhclmsliaven (their North Sea naval base), Bremen, and Hamburg. Total breadth of bay twenty odd miles only; sandbanks littered about all through it. Third piecetile Schleswig coast, hopelessly fenced in behind a six to oiglitmilo fringe of sand. No big towns; one moderate river, tho Eider. Let's leave that third piece aside. I may be wrong, but, in thinking this business out, I've pegged away chiefly at the other two, tho seventy-mile stretch from Borkum. to the Elbe—half of' it estuaries and half islands. '

"About this coast. In the event of war it seems to mo that every inch of it would be important, sand and all. Tako (he big estuaries first, which, of course, might be-attacked or blockaded by an enemy. At first sight you would say that their main channels' were the only things that mattered. Now, in time of peace there's no secrecy about tho navigation of these. They're buoyed and lighted like streets, open to the whole world, and taking an immenso traffic; well charted, too," as millions "of pounds in commerce depend .on thorn. But now look at the sands, they run through, intersected, as I showed you, by threads of channels, tidal for'tho most part, and probably only known to smacks and shallow coasters. "it strikes me that iit a war a lot mißht depend on these, both in dcfenco and attack, for there's plentv of water in them at the right tide for patrolboats and small torpedo-craft ■. . ." It is the value of the seven islands and the channels separating them from the mainland—value both for' defender and aggressor—that Davies seeks to emphasise, with the doubt if "there's a soul in ( Our Fleet who knows these channels": "Look at those islands! They're- clearly the old line of coast, hammered into breaches by the sea.. The space behind them is like an immense tidal harbour thirty miles by live, and they screen it impenetrably. It's absolutely made for shallow war-boats under skilled pilota'e. I hey can nip in and out of the gaps ami dodge about from end to end. On one side is _ the Ems, on the other the big estuaries. It s a perfect baso for torpedocraft." •