The Blockade of Britain.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 29 October 1915, Page 3

The Blockade of Britain.

1 CANDID ADMISSION BY THE ENEMY.

Amsterdam, August 11

A remarkably candid appreoiaton of six •months' German submarine warfare since February appears in tho Berliner Tageblatt'from the pen of Captain Poreius. After quoting the words of the German proclamation declaring the ■water round Groat .Britan and Ireland .1 war zone, he recalls the interview granted by von Tirpitz in November to a representative of the United Press «>' America. Von Tirpitz on that occasion, said:—"Great Britain wants to starve us. We can play tho same game and torpedo every British or Allied ship that approaches the English or Scottish ports and thereby cut viff the greater part of. Groat Britan's im_ports"ftf foodstuffs." Captain Porsius then proceeds to make a series of statements and admision about the results ol submarine warfare, which are virtually a condemnation of the extravagant expectations of von Tirpitz. 1 1< writeslt .will be remembered that i' the beginning of February high hopes were placed in Geriuanv on submarine warfare, and many believed that as the Britxh Fleet bad cut us off from overseas imports, it would not be difficult now for our. submarines to do the same to Great Britain. Part of our press must unfortunately bo held responsible, for the extravagant expectations which many of the public connected with submarine war against commerce. Tn this paper it has often been emphasised that from an export estimate of the efficacy of the submarine, and in view o c the number of our submarines, the success and the effect- of the new naval warfare could appear only after considerable time. Again and again we have counselled patience. Tlow necessary this was is evident from a simple fact the concealment of which to-day would seem dishonest, that the results of the activity of our submarines in their war on commerce are viewed in many circles as —shall we say—"very modest?" 1

The curve of our submarines' successes lias been greatly varied. There have been weeks when hardly one hostile ship has been torpedoed, while in otlier' weeks more than a dozen ships have been destroyed. Thus for the weeK ending August 4th it was announced that six English merchant ships and liiue lishing steamers it'll victims lo the I boats. It was added that tin. departure and arrivals ox ships from and at United Kingdom ports were 1435. These figures may be considered too high, but there can be no doubt that in any case at least I,OUO ships within one week have traded with iitsli ports. When we consider the result of our submarine activity hitherto to be that teu of these thousand ships were destroyed, it can tie understood that many persons will declare themselves not satis lied, these being oi course tne prisons, wno without Cecil meal knouleugc ci)erisht.u expectations wnich were no. sliaiod by those nlio in some Uegree eouoiUered the conditions. a small nunwer o. suumai'inca is i'e quired to attack tne l,otu &uip.?, mute or less, winch uiuin one week cine* liritsli pons. Accoiuung to -N.tuiieus. in .May, l'Jil, we possessed 'J. 6 completed submarines. ihere id no icaoun not to accept the nguies oi mis ouoa, which are derived lioin oihcial souiccs. JNow many people ass tune t-hat Mibiiiariuet> being so sinali can be produced .n a \ery snort time. ihe lnouern liign seas U boat, however, is by no means small. It. displaces up to a tiiousanu and more tout and is, therefore, considerably larger than a torpedo boat, it presents a combination of the most minute and complicated paiaphernalia, everything on board has to be set with the utmost precision in the smallest space, and it is therelore clear that the period for the construction of a L" boat, which means that the task ol commanding and managing it is not simple or easily learnt and that considerable time must elapse before the commander and crew are familiar wibn the boat. "At the beginning of the war our submarines sank a scries of warships ana now one lieairs of almost nothing of the Bvrt." This is the 'way soino "armchair" sailors talk. There is no better school than war. It is a pity, however, that it is not only we who learn in it. Only a child would accuse the British ct being bail seamen. They know howto defend themselves, so they devised many kind of protective measures. It becomes more and more difficult tor b boats to get near hostile ships and launch a torpedo. Almost fabulous skill is required to avoid all the pitfalls, and get away from torpedo destroyers, and nevertheless make a successattack. Service aboard submarines demands the greatest tension or all the mental and physical forces. Apart from the quantity and quality of our firstclass material there is the question ol quality of personnel. That should be remembered when calculations are made of anticipated successes in submarine war against commerce.

By the way of consolation, Captain Pereiue concludes by dwelling on the increasing number of submarines and trained crews. "Everyone," ho says, "who is not guided by the optimism ot in experience ,tlTTnks with satisfaction of the achievements of German 0 boate."—Router.