LIFTING THE VEIL OF THE BLOCKADE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2760, 2 May 1916, Page 5

LIFTING THE VEIL OF THE BLOCKADE

GLIMPSE OF THE GREY STEEL WALL By Telegraph PreEs Association —Copyright •• .. ' London, April 30. Rear-Admiral Dechair, who was in command of the British blockading squadron until March, lifts the veil in an interview with the Brooklyn "Daily Eagle." He says, that the blockade was concentrated chiefly on the east and north of Scotland. The squadron has grown steadily, and consists of a com-, plicated network of cruisers, through which it is impossible for a vessel to pass unobserved. Cruisers and fully converted merchantmen, - officered by Naval Roservists, with au adequate sprinkling of officers of the Royal Navy, are generally stationed twenty miles apart. Every vessel sighted is boarded, often at great risk; many of the boarding parties 1 boats were smashed and the crews immersed in the sea. The chief ruses used for smuggling are! double bottoms and decks, copper keels on sailing vessels, and hollow masts, in which rubber and cotton are concealed'. Sometimos rubber is disguise ed as onions. This was discovered when an officer dropped one. and it bounced in tho air. The commonest ruse is a bogus mainfest. On several occasions a captain, realising that tho game was up, would humorously produce the genuine manifest, and assist in the inspection. Admiral Decliair says that he personally saw cruisers sink four German submarines whioh were about to torpedo neutral ships.