On the Sea

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 6, 5 August 1916, Page 5

On the Sea

THE NAVAL POSITION.

REVIEW BY MR BA-FOUR.

Press Association —Copyright, Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. London, August 3.

A. J. Balfour (First Lord of the Admiralty) has issued a review of the naval situation on the second anniversary of the war. He states that the moral and material consequence of the Jutland battle cannot easily ho overruled, for it happened at the moment when tho tide began to flow strongly in our favor. Every week since then had seen new Allied successes on tho field and elsewhere.

Before the Jutland fight the German fleet was imprisoned, and after the Jutland fight it sank again into impotence. This was not merely the British view, for Gorman utterances give precisely the same impression. Both parties are agreed that the object of the naval battle was to obtain the sea command, and we had not lost it. Our blockade had been tightened since the Jutland fight. The Germans admit this by using greater violence and invective against Britain. We were not wearied by the repetition of the German cry : “Britain is our arch enemy and must at all costs bo humbled in the dust.”

If the Germans felt they were reaching maritime equality would they spend so much breath in advertising the performances of submarines, flying the mercantile flag, which carried 280 tons of German produce, so say nothing of the Kaiser’s autograph letter, from Bremen to Baltimore. The whole interest lay in the fact that by using submarines the Germans would elude the barrier the British had placed between Germany and the outer world,-and which they knew the German fleet could neither break nor weaken.

German newspapers, upon the second 'anniversary of the war, exhorted the people to take comfort in studying maps. The amount of comfort -desirable depends on the maps chosen. F.ven the map of Europe shows an (ner-shrinking battle-line. The maps of colonial empire showed that most had gone, and the remainder were slipping from their grasp.

The Germans were aware that their victorious fleet was useless, the re fore tlio submarine warfare makes a double appeal to German militarism—an appeal to precedence and brutality—because it cannot be carried out on a larger scale. The constituted laws of war requirements showed that humanity still possessed energy wherewith merchantmen could defend ihomscdve , from being driven by the German Admiralty.

j The latest and most stupid aet of calculated ferocity was thy judicial murder of Captain Fryatt. Ho did not propose to argue the case; it was not worth arguing. Why should wo do the Gorman military authorities an injustice by supposing that they were an-

imated by any solicitude for international law, and blundered into illegality Ijy soni.o unhappy accident that sunk twenty-two. British ships without warning? He knew that Captain Fryatt, in refusing bravely to submit, was doing hi:; duty as a man of courage and hmior, and this the Germans had resolved, at all cost, to discourage.

THE FRYATT MURDER. Paris, August 3. ,\l. Clenienceau, com men ting on the assassination of Captain Fryatt, says, it is time that Britain made her full weight felt, especially in the blockade, which was too often released to prevent a quarrel with Washington.

KING TO THE WIDOW.

London, August 3

Tlio King has written to Captain Fryatt’s widow expressing his abhorrence and deep indignation at the outrage. His Majesty added that her husband’s action in defending the Brussels against an enemy submarine was a noble instance of the resource ami self-reliance so characteristic oi the merchant service. SUBMARINE DEUTSCHLAND. New York, August 3. Nothing further has been seen of the 'Deutschland, which it is believed has passed the three-mile limit and is proceeding homeward.

THE STORY OF THE LE TIMBRO.

Malta, August 3.

Twenty-eight survivors of the mail boat Lo Timbro have arrived. She carried a crew of 57 and 113 passengers, including women and children. The submarine was observed four miles away. She chased the Le Timbro, shelling continuously, and when she overtook her the Le Timbro lowered her boats, which the submarine shelled, smashing live. It is believed the occupants were drowned, whilst many were killed by shells.

THE LOST BRITANNIC,

New York, August 3

The officials of the White Star Line state that their steamer, the Britannic, is laid up in a British port, and lias not been used in the passenger service for some time. ITALIAN SUBMARINES MISSING. Press Association —Copyright, Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received 12.30 p.m.) Rome, August 4. Official;—Two Italian submarines left on a mission to the enemy coast and have not returned. It is considered they are lost.