THE BLOCKADERS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 196, 8 May 1918, Page 5

THE BLOCKADERS

4 HOW THE BRITISH NAVY WORKS SEARCH AT SEA \By H. C. Ferraby, in tho "San Francisco Chronicle.") Blockade under modern conditions of war at sea is a far more porilous business for the blockading squadrons than it was in the days when the American l-'ederal ships cut off the oversea, trade of the Southern States. Germany has been iinablo to blockade tho Allies with surface ships, because her cruisers have all been dnvon into port or destroyed, and others cannot show themselves without disking the eamo fate. The most she has boen able to do is to send forth an eccasional disguised raider to sink ships out of hand (which is illegal) and to destroy others with their crews and passengers oil board by means of submarines (which is worse than illegal). Jiritain, thanks to her Navy, has been able to blockade Germany effectively without imperiling tho life of a single person who travels by eea. That was one of tho most stringent conditions of old-time .warfare. It was insisted on by every nation; even the Germans when they published their prize-regulations in 1914 emphasised the necessity for iuenring tho safety of tho persons on board a captured ship. Great Britain has managed to conform to that old humanitarian practice, alfiiough she, no less than Germany, hag found that tho changed conditions of warfare required changed methods of blockade. In th* spring of 1915 Hie British Government replied to the first German "ruthless" submarine throat by bringing jnto oxislonce an entirely new form of blockade.

Very few peoplo have any realisation of the immensity of tho task of maintoining tho blockade. The British patrolling squadrons held up for examinations 25,87-i ships of all nations between t)it> begin mil); ot Ihe war and die end of IMG. That is an average of nearly thirty ships a day. All that most of them suffered was a delay of an hoar or two on their voyage. Even in Buspioious cases flie dolay amounted in most cases to lesa than two days.

The Systom at Work. How has it been possible to reduce me (delay to such limits? The secret is sim. ply business organisation, a thing popularly supposed (particularly by Englishmen) to bo absolutely lacking in every British Government Department. theless, threo of tho maligned public ofiices evolved in a few , days an organisation that will probably bo tho model for •fho world for generations to come. These threo Departments were the Admiralty, the Foreign Office, and the Board of Trade. What was wanted was a sort «>i magistrate's court, which would hold ii rapid preliminary inquiry into the «aso, and either discharge the defendant or commit him for trial at tho Assize's—in this case the I'ri.w Court. Tho court of firet instance was croated in tho form of two committees, onq tho contraband committee to deal with ships suspected of taking goads to Germany; the jother, tho oneiny cspbrts committee, to (leal with ships suspected of taking goods from Germany.

Before you can prosecute, however, you must havo a case to lay before the Court. The police do this by their criminal investigation department. The equivalent in this blockade is the War Trade Intelligence Department, though it will bo seen that , this department in many enses only uses information that has been vollintarily supplied by the 'defendant and is really acting for the defence more than for tho prosecution. Now it will readily bo seen that all this-has little or nothing fe> do with the Navy. The seamen police the seas and arrest the suspected persons, but they have not the tiino or tho technical knowledge to proparo the briefs and try the case. That is where the Board of Trado and the Foreign Office come in—tho former with ite 'knowledge of business conditions all over the world, the latter with its network of consuls.

A Case in Point,

The best way to see tho system at Vork is to tako an imaginary ship and Bupposo her to bo approaching British waters,with a cargo consigned to a neutral European firm in a country adjacent to Germany. SKo is steaming along cheerily in fairly calm weather when a British patrolling cruiser swoops down on lior, fires a blank charge to warn her to heave to and sends a couplo ot officers arid a few seamen across in a small boat to "search" her. It stands to reason that these few men cannot possibly search a ship of perhaps 5000 xons on the high seas. Their search coneists mainly of examining the ship's papera, of opening perhaps ono or two packages in the cargo that can easily be got at, and of taking a general eurvey of the position. If tho ship appears to be in order, if thero is nothing suspicions about her at all, the senior officer makes a note in the ship's log that sho has been examined, signs it, and tho search party leaves. That operation, from beginning to end, takes about three hours in moderate weather. If tho weather is heavy, it may Tie necessary for tho two ships to keep in company until the sear.cli party is ablo to board the merchantman.

Supposing tho search party finds' that the papers are not in order, or that there are suspicious circumstances about some items in the cargo, the officer reports to the captain of the patrol cruiser, an armed guard is put on board, and the ship is sent to ono of the so-called "examination pprts." These are Kirkwall or Lerwick, in the north, or occasionally Stornoway or Ardrossan if tbey aro more suitable. . In the south the ship will bo sent either to the Downs between Ramsgate and Deal, or to Falmouth or Dartmoor, at the western end of tho channel. Since the latest exhibition of submarine frighlfulness began, however, jioutral ships crossing the Atlantic havo boon allowed to go to Halifax, N.S., for examination if they desire to do so. This change only affects the process in detail, and not in principle. Then the War Trade Intelligence Department gets busy. Every fragment of information that can in any way throw light on the real destination and owner, ship of cargoe3 is collected hourly by the department from every possible source, such as cables, wireless messages, confidential reports, and intercepted letters. It is indexed, collatod, and focused as it comes to hand, so when the detailed analysis of the' cargo of our imaginary American ship arrives it is compared with the information in tho department about that particular ship. The prosecution (or tho defonco in somo instances) having thus been prepared by the British Government, tho case goes nt onco before tho committee—Contraband or Enemy Export—according to tho destination of the ship. Each of these committees sits every day and does not rise until all the cases that require consideration have been dealt with. The Court of first instance then has given its verdict. Let us suppose it to bo "dis. charged without n stain on tho ship's character." A telegram is at once sent to the port of examination and tho ship is released.

No Penalty. Even if tho cargo of our imaginary ship is held by tho committee to bo cuilty and tho case is sent to tho Prize Court, no penalty falls on tho ship. She is not even detained until tho Prize Court has heard the case. This is what happens: An official, called the Admiralty Marshal, who is n sort of head jailer for tho Prize Court, is informed that a ship is it one of the ports of examination nid that part of tho cargo is to bo discharged for trial. He is given full details, and it is for him to effect by telegram the formal legal seizure of tho suspected goods and to nnango for tliem to be taken out of tho ship. That cannot be dono at tho port of examination, to ho has to find a berth for tho ship in a business port that has proper facilities for handling cargo. Here ho is aided by another committee—tho .Committee for the Diversion of Ships-whose solo business it is to know oxactly what is going on at every port every hour of tho day, to know the oapacity of each jmrt for handling cargo, and the state of labour there. :

It may he iieosssaty for the committee tn telephone lo sovoral ports before tjioy find one that can handle the eliip quick)j, but M coon a" onn in foflnd tho Art-

mirnlty Marshal is informed and Hie ship goes tliere, to be dealt with in her turn. And, having discharged the suspected cargo, sho goes her way, to continue on her lawful voyage. , What becomes of the discharged fioods no longer concerns her, and it does not afiect her usefulness io her owi.evs one red cent whether tho case comes before the Prize Court in a vrcelc or in a year. It might be supposed Hint the rapidity with which (he committees decide the cases before them would lead to many mistakes. We can easily test this by a reference to tho banking; account ot the Prize Court, whish waa published by the Auditor-General's Department a fewweeks ago. Wo find Ihoro that the amount of money realised by the sale ot cargoes and ships of tho enemy captured was, £6,818,622. The amount 01 money refunded to claimants who had proved that their pods were innocent was £1,232,885. That is not. a bad proportion. It shows that the judgment of the committees (and tho information of the Intelligence Department) was accurate in six cases out of seven. ,