The Daily News. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1914. THE HIGH SEAS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 131, 27 October 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1914. THE HIGH SEAS.

The announcement of tlie British Admiralty regarding tho protection of shipping and trade routes is eminently satisfactory. Though Germany lias a mighty naval force, second only to thai of Britain, only eight or nine of her ships are "at large" to menace and piv.v on our shipping and territory. Searching for them are upwards of seventy Hrilieh and the Allies' cruisers, not ii:cliiding the auxiliary cruisers (converted merchantmen). But ta run their quarry to earth is no easy matter. The oceans are wide and hiding places innumerable. All the German coaling places have been seized, but that hs.s nut up till the. present prevented t-be German vessels from obtaining supplies. We have seen from recent cables that Germany, with that careful and methodical preparation that r nas charaeteri-.fi her every action in connection with this (to Germany) long-expected war, has her colliers at secret rendezvous from which supplies have been drawn. To

discover these colliers the Allies' cruisers have been bending their energy, but the work is very difficult, as one ,-vn imagine. But tinio is in favor of the Allies in this matter, as in respect >i£ the land lighting, and against the Germans. The discovery and destruct : n of the few enemy cruisers are, as' the oflicial report says, largely a matter of time, patience, and good luck. The results of the work of the Navy up till tinpresent are magnificent. Of 4U)O British ships engaged in foreign trade, only 27 haw so far been sunk by tin- em-iny, whilst -i-icii are o\crdue. And some oi these, it appears, would have been saw 1 I had t : " captains not taken (iiing; 1-o muck lor grunted, and obeye,l -Ailui.r----j ally i.e-tructions as to the course in .-d.eer aii-i the precautions nectary to take. As the report says, tin- v. r, vaitu".-; of the sea which has enabled tlie German cruisers to avoid eapuiie will protect the mercantile- juarw l'-i:t if we have lost 27 vessels, a number considerably less than was anticipate.*, the authorities before the war, we have some substantial gains, \Ye have already cantured 133 German ves;-'!.-:, or

nearly four limps tile ntimllcr v.v ha'.-e lost, lint we have done more. We iistVr swept the. great German mereaniiv marine from the seas, and with it destroyed, probably irretrievably, the whole of the German overseas tia-i... it. is n. wonderful naval achievement, an i one for which we have every rca.-.i>n to feel grateful. We call See now as w? could never have seen before wlw. u>.v;>l supremacy means to the. British jimpi.v. Take our position in Now Zealand. If

we. had not command of the occan-i, N-.nv Zealand would of a certainty be attacked jtnd annexed by Germany, or,. U ',iv were spared this fate, producers wow'.tl be umib'e to dispose of their products, with the result that the country would soon be in a state of stagnation an-.! acute financial embarrassment. As :'t

is, this country is immeasurably better olf than any other part of the world. This happy and enviable state of things we owe entirely to the British Navy. Of course, there is always the possibility of the German fleet, novr lying snugly in their unassailable 'oases, dasning out, engaging and perhaps breaking through the British naval cordon, b-jt even if it succeeded we in tile southern seas would still be comparatively vife. The German navy was built to protect Germany's vast mercantile marine. It has failed in its object. Will it continue to shun the open sea and remain passive under the shelter of the batteries of its forts? Upon this point the current number of the magazine Life has something interesting to say. The writer, Dr. Fitchctt, states:

I It is absurd to imagine that the Kaiser, who claimed to be the. "Admiral of the Atlantic," has forgotten the existence of bis licet, lie is beyond doubt nursing' it until ho can use it with deadly effect; and it is not di.Ticult to imagine a condition of affairs in which that fleet would be a fatter of tremendous value. If the original plan of the German Staff had succeeded, the German forces by this time would iiave held Paris, and France might have been compelled to make terms with her conqueror. Then Germany would have joined Austria in active operations against Russia, and the German licet in the Baltic would have conic into the fight. St. Petersburg would lie almost within reach of its guns. Or an army could have been landed midway between Revel and Cronstadt, and marched 011 St. Petersburg. If Germany had, in this way, compelled France and Russia to make terms, it could, and would, liavc compelled Ttaly to become an active member of the Triple Alliance; and this would have mado possible a naval combination against England mightier than that of which Napoleon dream"d. The British command of the sea would have been challenged on equal terms; the invasion of England would have been within the realm of possibility; and all the rich, far-scattered dominions of the British Empire might have been cast into the melting pot. It is not tliinkI able that Germany has so completely . forgotten the existence of its own fleet, or thinkg so meanly of its fighting power, aa to allow it to be cancelled out as a factor in the present war without i shot being fired. It is being reserred

for use iti exactly sucli a combination as wo have sketched; and the possibilities such a scheme opens up may well supply tho text for pome disquieting meditation to all tile self-governing dominions of the British Empire."