The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, JULY 8, 1918. A GREAT RAIDING SUCCESS.

Taihape Daily Times, 8 July 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, JULY 8, 1918. A GREAT RAIDING SUCCESS.

(With which is Incorporated The T.bAhapo Post and News).

Much has been said recently about freedom of the seas, and it has been asked what Germany wants in'advocating the freedom of all ocean ways. Seeing that all nations have absolute freedom of all seas, to sail anywheres and everywhere, to trade in all anfi every quarter of the globe, tersely summed up,' we can only conclude that Germany, by freedom of the seas, means that Germans should have unrestricted liberty to establish naval bases to enable a complete conquest of the world wherever such a "base could be of any service to that end; Freedom of the seas seems to involve freedom of the land also, and a right to what the land produces, regardless of what nationality the land may be. Many people read Germany's reiterations about freedom of the seas, and cannot understand what is meant by it unless it is that German ships are not as free to sail where they please an are the ships of other nations. Ir may be said that. it was Britain that fought for the fre'edom of the seas; twice was the life of the British Empire threatened in fighting against maritime monopoly. The defeat of the great Spanish Armada was the result of Spain and Portugal's effort to close the oceans to the trade of other nations. A Papal award in 1493 practically gave a monopoly to those two countries, and it was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth that Britain broke that monopoly and threw open the seas to all peoples. Later, Holland established a partial monopoly ,and r<& fused to allow ships of other nations to trade in certain localities. It was a crushing defeat inflicted on the Dutch Navy v that ended sea monopoly up to the present time, for, although Britain had secured supremacy, there has never been any attempt to lay any restriction whatever on the shipping of any country. Britain is again fighting for this quality of freedom of the seas against that quality which Germany is seeking to establish. Under British freedom German ships may sail wherever a British ship goes, but very different conditions might bo expected if Germany was able to snatch the supremacy that Anglo-Saxons now hold on trust for all the world, Germany not excepted. In war-time the rights of belligerents are governed by generally accepted principles; efforts were made by Britain at an international conference at The Hague to remove restrictions so as to mate trading during war more free and secure, but the German attitude rendered her efforts abortive. To quote Professor Ramsay Muir: —"Britain urged that mines should be illegal, If not, then they should bf confined to territorial waters; unanchored mines should be entirely prohibited, or only thrown out as a means of defence by a retreating fleet, and such' mines j were to be so constructed as to be- | come harmless after an hour's re- I leaso i" Germany would have none of these restrictions; German represen. tatives insisted upon the right to lay mines in the open seas in accordance with certain restrictions which, in this war, she has entirely disregarded and hence New Zealand has been clrcumnavigated by German raiders and mine-layers, and mines have been sown in all the chieF" sea routes from our principal ports. The Port Kembla and the Wimmera are both victims of German mines laid In direct opposrtion to all understood rights of any belligerent power; contrary to" any en. acted or understood naval law, and therefore, every life lost by those mines is a deliberate murder, commit-

teod in cold blood. - What concerns the people of New Zealand most is the fact tfi'at the operations of the raider Wolff have been successful, ana that that pirate craft, after disposing of about five hundred mines where our shipping is likely to pass, has safely arrived in Germany. When Von Tirpitz learned of the • success achieved a vista of crime would be opened up to him, and instead of one Wolff, he will no doubt despatch a whole pack of them to sink everything that floats from New Zealand ports. There is supposed to be an effective patrol to guard New Zealand trade, but when a German raider can, undetected and undisturbed, encircle our land with the deadliest of sea'weapons, what security is there for the safe passing of transports loaded with husbands of our women and fathers of our children? Germany is not sTdw to exploit a success of T?rfs kind or any other, and it is not improbable a whole fleet of the Wolff class of pirate may be on the way to New Zealand waters at this moment. According to all international and naval law and understanding, minelaying is only permissible before naval ports, and in effective blockades. It is obvious that indiscriminate minelaying must result in destroying ships of all -nations, belligerents and otherwise, and the destruction of large numbers of non-combatants, women and children. We in New Zealand have already had ample experience of all this, and it now remains for the Government to re-establish amongst our peoples some feeling of security. Two ships have been sunk close to our shores, and in the wimmera case many lives of our citizens were lost, including women and children; and as we previously pointed out. the German murderers must, have some assistance from some persons from, the New Zealand shores, and that assistance must be paid for by money provided r by Germans somewhere in this country. It is no part of our business to dictate to the Government what it .should do, but it is tho duty of every public journal to leave undone nothing it can do in urging the people to. safeguard the lives of New.Zealanders by every means in their power against that freedom of the seas that is desired by a nation of human sharks.