ON THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 January 1916, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

THE SHORTAGE OF SHIPPING. RESTRICTIONS ON IMPORTS. Received Jan. 28, 5 p.m. London, Jan. 27. Mr. Runciman states that in order to relieve the tonnage the Government has decided to cut down non-essential imports. Paper pulp and other paper-mak-ing materials will be lirst dealt with. These materials absorbed two million tons of space annually. The whole of the British mercantile marine will be brought under the Government in order that it may he used to the. best advantage. The Allies' Governments will he assisted by a small committee, of which Lord Curzon will be chairman. The import of raw tobacco, building materials, furniture woods, veneer, and some fruits might shortly be prohibited. A full statement of the method would be announced as soon as possible. The export of waste paper and rags would be prohibited, and the list might be extended until the strain on the tonnage was eased. Mr. Lloyd George 6tatc4 that Mr, A* quith would be unable t6 make a statement on the progress of the war before the prorogation of Parliament.

THE BLOCKADE London, Jan. 27. In the House of Lords, Lord Devonport ga>d that from the commencement of the war to the end of 1915, 300 cargoes of iron ore, amounting to 1,500,000 tons, arrived at Rotterdam, the inference being that they were intended for Germany. The Duke of Devonshire, replying, said the average imports annually from 1911 to 19)3 were 5,500,000 tons, nearly the whole of which proceeded to Germany. The imports to Holland in 1915 were 050,000 tons. Lord Lansdowne resented the suggestion that the Foreign Office, War Office and Admiralty required waking up. FOOD AS CONTRABAND. London, Jan. 27. In the House of Commons, Sir R. Finlay proposed that food should be made absolute contraband. Lord Robert Cecil, replying at the end of the debate, admitted that the blockade was imperfect, but the complications were gre,at. The Government' had not lost sight of the possibility of a block-' ade in the Baltic. We were trending to what no nation had ever attempted before, trying to blockade Germany through neutral countries. It was not a case for high-handedness, but for great caution and circumspection. It was easy to make mistakes which might turn out so seriously as to prevent winning the war. The motion was talked out. NORTHCLIFFE PRESS EXCITED. London, Jan. 7. The Daily Mail opines that Sir E. Grey's attack on the scare-mongering press, was an impudent invention based on grotesque figures. The Daily Chronicle, says the attack on the Foreign Office represents a policy of fouling one's own nest. The Daily Telegraph expects Sir E. Grey's statement will silence impertinent and ignorant criticism. The Times maintains the belief that the Government should establish a regular blockade. If the public misunderstands the Foreign Office it is because the public has been kept in mischievous ignorance. The Daily Mail and Morning Post remain convinced that a Urge quantity of goods is going to Germany, despite Sir K. Grey's arguments. The Morning Po3t says the silence of Mr. Balfour is very remarkable. The 'country holds Mr.' Balfour responsible for any failure to use the full powers of the navy,

A FANCIFUL TRADE ROUTE Received Jan. 28, 5 p.m. Loudon, Jan. 27. The Dutch-American line is opening a service from Rotterdam to Germany via the Rhine, in order to carry goods between Germany and America. BELATED NEWS OF A WRECK. Received Jan. 28, 5 p.m. London, Jan, 27. The Admiralty announces that 96 of the survivors of the steamer Tara, which went ashore on the north African coast in November, are in the hands of the Senussi, and are being well treated. Efforts are being made to send clothing and comforts.

GERMAN SUBMARINE FIASCO. AMERICAN STATEMENTS. The New York correspondent of the Central New 9 writes:— Tha New York newspapers, notably the New York Herald, the New York World, and the New York Times, publish a number of striking statements concerning recent developments of the submarine war. Reference is made to the British Admiralty's policy of secrecy, concerning which opinions differ here, though, on the whole, it is felt to have been justifiable by results, so far as the latter can be judged. But it is pointed out here that it is impossible to impose secrecy upon the captains of neutral steamships who, as one may see from the columns of the American papers, have narrated many interesting and lurid accounts of events which find no mention in the British Press, though they cannot fail to reach Germany. Mr. Robert Mountsier, in an article published by the New York World, makes a series of disclosures based, as he says, on information gleaned by him personally during a journey from Constantinople to New York, via Sofia, Bucharest, Berlin, The Hague and London. Quoting the Kolnische Zeitung and the Berliner Tageblatt for statements proving that Germany admits the failure of her U boat campaign, he asserts:— (1) Since February 18 the British fleet has captured or sunk fifty-eight submarines, while twenty more are listed as "most probably destroyed." (2) The British submarines which have played so much havoc in the Baltic include ex-German U boats operated by British crews, the German patrol

boats having failed to discover the real identity of these erait when .they passed through the Sound. In this connection Mr. Mountsicr says: "The British public. , . . i little, realises what part in the sudden reversal of the submarine situation has been played by the brilliant coup of the British Admiralty in capturing and making use of a valuable flotilla of U boats, once the pride of von Tirpitz and the Kaiser." Officers of the Cunard liner Pannonia are quoted in the New York Times for the statement that during the vessel's last voyage three German submarines were sighted disabled off the French coast. French torpedo-boats were cruising along the coast at that time. TURNING THE TABLES.

'•The tables have been turned on the Germans by the British fleet,'' writes Mr. Archibald ilurd. '•Throughout ilie winter of IR7O-1 —which was intensely cold —they besieged Paris, caring neither for women nor children though they starved; cats, dogs, and rats became luxuries. With absolute ruthlessncss they kept out all provisions. 'War was war,' ihey claimed; 'they were cruel only to be kind—to shorten hostilities.' The results were agonising to the whole world, but not to the Germans. With the passage of time nothing was regretted. Count Caprivi some years Inter, when thinking of the dependence of the United Kingdom on oversea supplies, remarked that 'the private introduction of provisions into Paris was prohibited during the siege, and in the same way a nation would be justified in preventing the import of food and raw produce.' That was Germany's policy towards us; hence her fleet, hence her large number of cruisers, hence her submarines. We are not, happily, in the picture—thanks to the British Navy.* Neither the Germans nor their friends are going to bo starved, however severe the winter for they have resources on which to fall back. So let sympathy be wasted; but the people who have left a trail of blood over Europe and over the seas are going to experience in the coming winter months, in a very minor degree, what Paris experienced in 1870-1, and what it was intended we should experience in a minor degree for standiug in the way of Germany's ambition."