CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 156, 8 December 1914, Page 7

CURRENT TOPICS.

WATCH IX THE NORTH SEA. A step calculated to em-uie a complete system of search during the winter nioi.thfi in the North Sea has been taken u» by the British Adm : ralty. The following notification has been made at Grimsby, and elsewhere:—"The British Government is very desirous of obtaining early reports of tlie position and movement of any Merman ships of war which may he sighted from British fishing vessels. These reports must be made without a-ny loss of time after

sighting the enemy if they lire to be of any use. Late reports are of no value." The Board of Admiralty lias, therefore, authorised the following special rewards to be paid to any vessel which may bring information of importence: (a) For information which leads to the actual capture or destruction of any enemy vessel down to and including a "minelayer or a submarine, a sum not exceding £IOOO. (b) For information which leads to the enemy vessel, minelayer, or submarine being sighted and chased, the information being proved to be correct, though the vessel was not destroyed, a sum not exceeding .€'2oo. (e) For information proved to be correct, and- valuable, but not delivered at the earliest possible moment, a sum not exceeding .-€1 sterling per mile travelled oil' the dirct course in order to report this quickly." THE LATE REAR-ADMIRAL SIAHON. Rear-Admiral Malum, who died last week, was the leading naval historian of the day. .He was born in I'B4o, bis father being professor in the military academy and the author of text-books in naval and military engineering. The son graduated at the naval academy in 1S.">!1, became lieutenant in 18111, and served W the Congress, Pocohontas, Seminole, and Jakes Adger during the civil war. In 181)5, he was made lieutenantcommander, commander in 1872, and captain in 1885. Meanwhile, he. saw service in the (iulf of Mexico, the South Atlantic, Pacific and Asia. In 1880, he w-as president of the naval war college at Newport, Rhode Island. Between 1889 and 1892, he was engaged in special service for the bureau of navigation, and in

eago, of the European squadron. In lS!l(i, he retired from active, service, but was a member of the naval board of strategy during hetwen the United States and Spain. He was a number of the Peace Congress at The Hague in 1800. In 18!K), Rear-Admiral Mahan suddenly acquired .fame by his masterly work entitled, "the Influence of Sea, Power Upon History, -101)0-1783." Having been impressed by the failure of historians to allow for tlie influence of sea power in struggles betwen nations, he was led to make prolonged investigations of this general theme. The reception accorded the volume was instant and hearty; in England, particularly, it was deemed an epoch-making work. It was followed by the "Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire,'' "The Life, of Nelson, the Embodiment of the Sea rower of Great Britain," and "Sea Power in its relation to- 'the War of 1812." Some of these works have ben translated into French, German, and Japanese. The series as a whole lias been accepted as finally authorative, supplanting its prcdecesors of similar aim, and almost, in the words of Mr Roosevelt, founding a new school of naval historical writing.