Blockade Threat

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 206, 8 February 1915, Page 5

Blockade Threat

EUROPEAN NEUTRALS ALARMED. AN INDICATION OF WEAKNESS. ' Received 7, 3 p.m. London, February 6. European neutrals are alarmed at the German blockade threat. The Danish press declares that Germany has not furnished proof of Britain's alleged misusing of neutral flags, and in any case this does not justify the menace to neutrals. Leading Norwegian newspapers assert that Germany's avowed reason is merely a pretext. The Dutch shipping companies have culled a conference to consider tiio. position. The Copenhagen Nationatidento says that if the threat is carried out it will cause the utmost resentment among all neutral countries. Tli e Rotterdam Nieuwe Courant say« that Germany's warning to neutral ships looks like a display of temper, and gives tlie impression of an anxiety born of feebleness, which seeks to do in its I ferocity what it lacks in power. ! AN OUTBREAK OF TEMPER. FAILS TO FRIGHTEN AMERICA. Received 7, 3.30 p.m. London, February 0. The Times, in a leader, says the' announcement of the German blockade is regarded in Britain merely as an outburst of temper and bravado, and a confession of strain and failure rather than as a token of confidence and dotermination. As far as it was intended to have frightened American shippers and coerce American opinion into subscribing to the view that Germans were too terrible to be resisted, it has failed, like all other German efforts to gauge the character of ttie American people.