BRITAIN'S STEADY PURPOSE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 273, 28 April 1915, Page 2

BRITAIN'S STEADY PURPOSE.

. MR. LLOYD GEORGE'S VENDETTA AGAINST THE HUN'S, VICTGEY EOR ALLIES MUST BE ASSURED. London, Marclr 12. Next to Mr. Asquith, who is bearing the heavy responsibility that rests upon the Prime Minister 0/ England inTliesc times with a courage, and determination "full worthy of our "groat statesmen of the past, Mr. Lloyd 'George is emerging from the crucible of. war with tlie greateat ireiiown. ..TJij; Chancellor, of the Exchequer lias surprised those observers who did not quite realise the fibre of his character.. ''Mr; Lloyd George is a Welsh Radical and Nonconformist, but neither his Radicalism nor his Nonconformity is of that flaccid, lachrymose, and impractical brand professed .by too man)! of his. friends. The war has toppled oyer awl shivered to smithereens some of Mr. Lloyd George's most cheriaked plans. But lie does not whine, or wring his hands, or speculate feebly about peace. One may judge that tin; "little. Welsh attorney," a title which has ceased" to <be a sneer and become a compliment, has declared a grim vendetta, against the authors of the war. He is heart and soul, tootli and nail, in. the fight to draw the venomed Prussian, fang from the German Empire. Only Mr. Lloyd 'George could have coma to the House of Commons, as he did this week, to ask with such a perfectly insouciant air for powers enabling the Government to commandeer at will all workshops and factories required for any sort of war supplies. The. manner of' it made even a {Socialist like Mr. Philip Snowdwi sit up and stare blankly. But , the little Welsh attorney had his way.

THE GERMAN "BLOCKADE." The general public and the newspapers get to know very little about our naval activities in dealing with the German submarine blockade. Parenthetically it may bo mentioned that the blockade is a complete failure, all the efforts and ferocities of Von TirpiU and his submarine pirates having really no more effect on our position than a few fleabites on a navvy. & 0 far about half-a-dozen merchant vessels of a very small tonnage have been torpedoed, always without warning, but only in one instance has the crew perished. In that case there was a solitary survivor picked up to tell the tale. The German seamen engaged in these exploits have on several occasions come up to the surface to jeer at the merchant mariners as they hastily took to their boats, and the German press boasts of these deeds as if they were heroic feats of chivalry. The Hermans have not even the excuse that these outrages are effective. A handsome price has now been put upon the head of every German submarine by the Government, several British shipowners, and other private individuals. The toll of these craft already begins to be formidable. Three merchant skippers claim to have sunk one each, and our Admiralty authorities support two of these claims. Besides which the navy :!ias bagged at least two of them, sinking the submarines and taking the crows prisoners. The latter are not to be treated as honorable prisoners of war, but incarcerated separately for separate judgment.

"VICTORY AS USUAL." There was some muttering and grumbling by big traders, but Mr. Bonar Law, whose patriotic actions throughout this crisis deserve the widest recognition L and deepest gratitude, while agreeing that these were dangerous powers, declared fearlessly that he would give the Government everything they might ask for so long as it was all eifort directed to the one end. Mr. Lloyd George said there would be reasonable compensation, but he impressed his hearers with the fact that, while we are at war, too much talk about "business as usual" was inadvisable and foolish. What we must aim and strive for, he said amid ringing cheers, was "victory as usual." CONTROL OF INDUSTRIES. A business commission is to be established to control these war industries. Circumstances have made the United j Kingdom the. arsenal for all the Allies, and a step now taken is at once a bold and prudent safeguard against any further holding up of supplies by petty trade disputes. It is the first indication of the big operations that will begin with the spring, for which huge reserves of pmmuiiition will be indispensable. The big advance brilliantly executed in the historic neighborhood of La Bassee this week by the British infantry, covered bv heavy French guns is perhaps the first harbinger of spring. Almost equally important is the significant French advance in Champagne. Neither the Allied genorals in command in France, nor the soldiers in the trenches, accept the theory of a stalemate. They are confident that under favorable conditions they can roll up the Germans and thrust them hack into territory where their language is better understood and their manners perhaps better appreciated.

J SUBMARINE BAITING. j Some extraordinary operations have been carried out by our Navy. The Fnglish Channel lias been netted across by means of torpedo nets, and small vessels anchored at short intervals and equipped with searchlights and guns. Dragging operations have been carried out by some of our fast destroyers, in some instances with complete success. But our naval men have discovered .'inother way of bringing up any lurking Herman submarines whose whereabouts has been located. It would be inadvisable to describe the process, but it is simple and highly efficacious, and compels the submarine to rise to the surface in order to clean its periscope. The blinded thing then falls an easy prey. The practice of submarine baiting is entirely novel, but our men are developing it to something like an exact science. A great dilliculty has been to deal with the supply ships from which the Germans Jdraw their oil and spare torpedoes. These'vessels use a neutral flag, and pretend to be everything that they are not. Hut these also have now been'turn- , ed to account, and at least one German submarine, hastening to the rendezvous to ask for oil got a bullet instead. Allowing for those submarines known to have been destroyed, others believed to have been ;uit hors du combat, and others that must have succumbed in the rough and tumble to what may be described as "natural causes," 'it is a pretty safe inference that at least a third of the enemy's under-water craft has been disposed of. This may seem an optimistic estimate, but when the facts are known later on it will probably be justified.