WHY SEA POWER WINS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 163, 7 April 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

WHY SEA POWER WINS.

EVEN NAPOLEON FAILED TO BLOCKADE BRITAIN.

Land power consists in the occupation of thi? enemy's territory, accompanied by the seizure of his roads and railway*, so that his daily existence becomes intolerable, and ho has perforce to give way. A vivid, if tragic, example of this method of warfare is daily before us in the German ocenpat on of Belgium. Tlfo essence of son power lies in the control of the highways of the ocean. The Sea Power forbids his enemy to Use them, and keeps them completely for his own use and that of his friends. As water-carriage is the cheapest and most commodious, and in these days of international trade is vital to national existence, it stands to reason that <• Power that can use it with comparative immunity must in the long run bring to its knees a Power that cannot get a hag of wheat across the ocean. The proof of the silent pressure of Set Power is found in Germany's declaration. but a few months after war began, that her people are making drastic food economies.

NAPOLEON MASTER OF EUROPE

Tho<e who may feel undu'y depressed by the loss through submarines ot one or two cargoes of goods occasionally, woulu' do well to turn back to the far more serious effort of Napoleon '■ to conquer the sea by the land," when it was not a case only of the loss of a portion of Britain's mercantile marine —French commerce-raiding then resulted in the capture of three British vessels a day—but in the total exclusion from every European port not on'y of British vessels, but of British goods carried in neutral bottoms.

After Jena and Austerlitz Napoleon was master of Europe up to the borders of Russia, and unable to get control of the sea himself he accordingly determined to render Britain's Sea Power but a useless sham, and to prevent her putting it to any substantia! or abiding use. To cJo this he imposed on Europe what he called the "Continental System." It was a series of rules whereby British vessels were forbidden to put into a European port, and whereby neutral or allied vessels were forbidden to carry goods to or from Britain. To make the boycott complete the Tsar of Russia was enticed into the system, and, accordingly, Britain's control of the sea-routes might n£ well not exist as they led to no harbour worth using. Great Britain simply retaliated by blockading the coast of Europe, ancJ proceeded to wait developments. Slowly but surely the pressure of Sea Power l>egan to be felt.

CLAMOURING FOR BRITISH GOODS.

Europe began to clamour for the West Indian and Indian wares which civilisation has a'most made one of life's necessities. She began to clamour for the raw materials for her industries; she began to clamour for British wares which she was unable to produce, and finally for the right to oend her own goods, not only across th<-oc-ean, but from one country to another by the clieaper method of water car riage. Grauuafly the European masses !»c----gan to assert themselves, and 1 eve \ man. woman, and child became an amateur smuggler of British goods, •v I every British merchant a blockade m-

The climax came when Napo'eon * own army for Russia had to lie shod with British boots, as so low had credit fallen that no European : actary was strong enough to take the eontract. The Russian nobles compelled t!u> Tsar to back out. While the blockade and boycott existed they could not sell a fraction of the produce of their estates by which they livet.', and at last their repeated complaints compiled the Tsar to give way. If one gap was allowed in the ring the whole "Continental System" crashed to the ground, and Napoleon had perforce to invade Russia, with a murmuring France and a mutinous Europe behind him, and the invasion ended in Moscow. Thus ended the last effort to rencJer a Sea Power's control of the oca useless to its mercantile marine.

"D! D!" Mr. Andrew Carnegie made the astonishing announcement the other day tnat he had given away in various charities no less a sum than eighty million pounds. The millionaire has a rare funu of amusing stories about Scotsmen that lie delights to relate to his friends, and a particularly good one concerns the Scottish pronunciatio of English. A very old Scot, named Gordon, was very ill, and his nephew who had expectations" from him, persuaded him to make his will. Afte ra good deal of hesitation, tlie old fellow at last consented to do so, and the testament was duly drawn up. As he was about to sign it, however, his nephew noticed that his hand trembled and he appeared to grow worse. " George Gor " wrote the old man at the end of his will, and then he stopped dead. " Go, on, uncle —D! D!" prompted his nephew in an agony of apprehension lest the will should not be signed. But his uncle sat up in bed and glared at him ferociously. "Dee! Dee!" he shouted. "No, I'll not dee until I'm ready, ye averreecious wretch 1" And so determined to live had this incident made him that ho dic.n't "dee" either.

THE WRONG D.C.M. A man employed by a firm of printers, who joined Kitchener's Army and went to the front, sent a letter to his brother stating he had got the D.C.M. The brother was delighted, and passed the news to one of his mates. A meeting of his fellow workers was called, and steps taken for a suitable present, also a useful parcel. Unfortunately fo r the gallant warrior, however, ere the scheme was carried out another letter came to hand to a chum in the office, in which the soldier stated, " It is jolly rough out here. I've got six days in prison for a drop of c.rink from the District Court jfiutinl. They call ;t the D.C.~M. out nere. - ' Needless to say, the subscription was dropped and the parcel sent to another comrade. Worried Mamma: ''l don't know where our boy gets all ins faults from. I'm sure he doesn't get them front me." Papa: "No, you're right there. You haven't lost anv of vonrs."

"I understand Susie Smartwood was dismissed from the Red Cross hospital in disgrace. " "Yes. She used the chief surgeon's best lancet to sharpen her lead-petted."