SOME SECRETS OF THE BLOCKADE TOLD.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 102, 1 May 1916, Page 5

SOME SECRETS OF THE BLOCKADE TOLD.

ADMIRAL DECHAIR'S INTERESTING INFORMATION. i _______ NATURE OP RUSES DISCLOSE GERMANY'S STRAITS. m (Reed. 10.5 a.m.). / LONDON, April 30. Rear Admiral Dechair, commanding the British blockading squadron ' nntil' March, lifts the veil in an interview with the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. ' He says the blockade was concentrated chiefly on the east and north of ; Scotland. The squadron had grown steadily until it now consists of a com- 1 plicated network of cruisers, through which it was impossible for a vessel ' to pass unobserved. The cruisers were fully converted merchantmen, officered hy navy reservists, with an adequate sprinkling of Royal Navals, f «pnerally about 20 miles apart. Every vessel was boarded, often at great many boarding boats being smashed and their crews immersed. ~ The chief ruses for smuggling were double bottom decks, and copper heels, and on sailers, hollow masts in which rubber and cotton were con- , ceaJed. Flour, coffee, and sometimes rubber were disguised in real honeycomb. Rubber as onions was discovered when an officer dropped one and it bounded in the air. The commonest ruse was a bogus manifest. On several occasions, the captain, realizing the game was up, humourously produced th e genuine manifest, and would assist the inspectors. i Admiral Dechairlpersonally saw cruisers sink four German submarines t •which were about t'd torpedo neutral ships. a