ON THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 January 1916, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

THE BLOCKADE. A VARIETY OF OHXIOXS. Times and Sydney Sun Services. London, January 25. Mr. Garvin, in the Observer, remarks that Sir K. Grey's repudiation of the charge that the Foreign Office is practically feeding the Germans lias not settled flic public conviction that move strangulation measures are possible. Xaval opinion on both sides of the Atlantic agrees that it is now possible to replace illegal Orders-in-Covmeil by a declared and regularised blockade. Other publicists point out that victory is more and more depending on the naval strangulation. A Copenhagen message says that the legality of the Orders-in-Council has never been admitted, but they have been accepted calmly because 'Britain's war necessities were understood. If tho trade agreements fail there will be a reversal of public opinion against England. Evil forebodings are general in Christiania, and opinio)), especially in industrial circles, is bitterly anti-British. The control of the seas is thought to "oo too arbitrary in view of the fact that no goods are in transit to Germany. The Customs and police are watchful and enforce the prohibition against export by confiscation, fine or imprisonment.

* Stockholm reports say that Swedish industry lias already suffered through 'the dearth of raw materials. Owing to lack of sulphuric acid some paper mills are closing. The proposed tightening of the blockade is bitterly discussed. The suggestion of putting the,nation on rations is regarded as impracticable and humiliating- The figures showing the increase of Swedish imports are said to be exaggerated and due to the import of home necessities from the United States instead of from belligerents. The German press is pretending to scoff at the blockade. The Munich Neusto Xachriohten suggests that the tightening is, like the blockade itself, mere humbug. The Cologne Zeitung says that first the English tried to make ns tyuy things that were not necessary in view of helping its bankruptcy, and is now trying to starve us altogether. This is plain futility. THE PERSIA./ AMERICA WILL TALK TO TURKEY. Washington, January 25. TTid State Department, on learning from Berlin that Vienna denied that Herman or Austrian submarines sank the Persia, intends to ask Turkey if she 'ifi responsible. If Turkey admits she is responsible, a Note will be sent.

TWO STEAMERS SUNK. NEUTRAL VESSELS HELD UP. Received Jan. 20, 9.3 p.m. London, Jan. 23. The Dominion liner Noreman has been sunk. An Italian steamer picked up the crew and passengers of the Cunard boat I'allentia, which foundered in a gale. Fifteen cases labelled "hammers" were, seized on the Swedish steamer Varna, bound front America to Copenhagen. They contained copper, brass and aluminium fillings. Sixty-nine postal parcels that were seized aboard the Dutch steamer Gelrha contained four hundred revolvers, consigned to Copenhagen and Amsterdam by Spanish Arms.

\ WHAT NEXT! GAS USED AT SEA. Received Jan. 26, 9.50 p.m. Copenhagen, Jan. 25, Two German destroyers, by means of suffocating gas, enveloped the steamer Lambert and endeavored to force her out of territorial waters off Fulsterbo. A Swedish warship drove off the aggressors. Pessimists should ponder the following extracts from Mahan's "Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire":—The »ea power which constituted the chief strength of Great Britain furnished her with two principal weapons: naval superiority, which the course of the war soon developed into supremacy, and money. The thriving condition of the manufacturers and commerce of England, protected from the storm of war ravaging the Continent and of such vital importance to the general welfare of Europe, made it inexpedient to withdraw her people from the ranks of labor nt a time when the working classes of other nations were being drained for the armies. For these reasons great operations on land or a conspicuous share in the continental campaigns became, if not absolutely impossible to Great Britain, at least clearly unadvisable. It was economically wiser, for the purposes of the coalitions, that she should be controlling the sea, supporting the commerce of the world, making money and managing the finances, while other States, whose industries were exposed to the blast of war and who had not the same commercial aptitudes, did the fighting on land.

A dastardly trick resorted to by the German submarines in the Mediterranean to trap mcrchantment is described by Reuter's correspondent at Athens. The Bulgaria, the vessel on which the correspondent travelled from an Italian port to the Piraeus, is unprovided with wireless apparatus, and that saved tliem (lie writes) from one very real risk. The liner America, which arrived in Naples about five days previously from New York, picked up a wireless message soon after leaving Gibraltar, instructing her to proceed along a certain course, when she would be joined by an escort. The message purported to come from Algiers, but the wireless operator had his suspicions, because it seemed to originate from a spot closer than Algiers. Shortly afterwards he managed to get into touch with the latter place, found the alleged instructions were really a trap, and the America immediately steered a different course, eventually reaching Naples safely. This slim trick on the part of the German submarine's commander, for there can be no doubt that the message emanated from one of them, which so nearly spelt the fate of the America, may have been more successful in other cases, of which we do not know the rlotaiig.