THE COMMAND OF THE SEA!

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 13 April 1916, Page 2

THE COMMAND OF THE SEA!

WHY DON'T WE USE IT?

IT is pleasing to scan a London daily these stirring war times, and get an occasional clipping that will interest our readers who have not " caught the eye " of the Dominion press and otherwise escaped the censored machinery. On February 14th last, a great meeting of the City London businessmen,who are up against the Admiralty's tactics in. dealing with blockade, was held, when, with Lord Devonport in the chair, it was shown that Germany had amassed no less than 2,000,000 tons of iron ore ■through the "good agency" of

so-called neutral agencies—also, millions of tons of stuff going through Holland.—lt fact, it was an exposure of the laxity of British methods during these most strenuous war times : —

"The demand of the City of London meeting yesterday that the Government shall " give the Navy freedom to use its sea power in the war " will be echoed and endorsed by the whole nation, The public has now watched for nearly nine months the way of the creature which Mr Bowles, in his vigorous and witty speech, described as "the Coalition mule." Certain results'of that political animal's faint-hearted-ness and indecision are set forth in the remarkable article which we print to-day from our Special Commissioner, Mr Kobert Segar, who has just returned from a prolonged investigation in Holland of Dutch trade with Germany. The general consequences were pointed out by Lord Devonport at the meeting yesterday with singular acumen and force. The policy of the "Coalition mule" has broken down because it never was a war policy at all.

The blockade has not been conducted by the seamen, who know what they are doing and are well aware of our rights under the sea law of the past. It has been controlled and misdirected by our civilian Ministers. Forgetting that while votes may qualify a man for Cabinet office, they do not dower him with strategic insight or with that energy of purpose which alone can win in war, our rulers have sought to devise a "blockade without tears" —a blockade in which the neutral may do practically what he likes and be free to import goods which he does not need in order that he may have plentyto sell to the enemy at enormous profit. The figures which Mr Segar gives today prove, for example, that enormous quantities of copra are reaching Germany through Holland. Before the war the Dutch exported only 26,728 tons of this article to Germany ; last year they sent 106,613 tons. It is one of the primary materials of war. From it can be extracted an oil, and that oil again glycerine, and that glycerine is the chief ingredient of the most serviceable of all high.explosives—dynamite. With such figures in view—and they can be repeated in the case of many other articles —it will scarcely be denied that Mr Bowles was correct in declaring that this blockade " leaks in every seam." We agree with him and Lord Devonport that the present idea of sacrificing British safety for the dubious smiles of neutrals is entirely wrong.

The best means of winning the regard of neutrals is to win the war, provided we do not go beyond the rights which sea law undoubtedly gives us, and which Mr Bowles is far better qualified to expound than our Foreign Office pundits.

The naval officer is convinced that if a rigid blockade had been established from the first week of war German resistance would already have been broken. He still thinks that, if given a free hand, he could do much to hurt the enemy. But the sands are running out. The way for us to win is to use our sharpest weapon remorselessly and no longer keep\ it sheathed—to deal with all these difficulties of supply to and through neutral countries by placing the whole control of them in the hands of the Admiralty. That is the way of the sea. If we dare not take, then, indeed, we deserve to go under." — London "Daily Mail."