THE TIGHTENING OF THE SCREW.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 February 1916, Page 4

THE TIGHTENING OF THE SCREW.

According to German high authorities her submarine campaign was designed as a reprisal for the blockade of her porta, and in the voluminous correspondence that has passed between Berlin and Washington relative to the murder of innocent American citizens by the piratical practices of this submarine warfare on trading and passenger ships, this aspect of the question has been

stressed to the utmost. We are now told there is striking evidence that Germany is "leeling'' the blockade. That U certainly putting the position mildly, but tlie ingenuity displayed by the German authorities in endeavoring to hide the effect of the blockade from the people, while, at the same time, imposing drastic regulations controlling the whole of the products of tne German textile industries, speaks volumes as to the gullibility of the people if they swallow their official medicine without knowing what disease it is intended to cure, or alleviate. If the veal truth were known there would certainly be no little danger of a revolution. The blockade screw has been tight Mied up—a process that should have been adopted long since—and food supplies in Germany are rapidly reaching a vanishing point. The German press—evidently by command—are asking the people to submit to deprivation "so long as it is. impossible for Germany to secure supplies.'' If any inquiry is made as to the length of time involved, it is scarcely likely the answer will be "until the British Navy is destroyed," but that is the true reply. Britain is at last alive to the value and power of her blockade weapon, and the Zeppelin raids, as well as the submarine campaign will only cause an extra turn of the screw. Meanwhile it is satisfactory to note that her industrial and shipping trades are not adversely affected by German raids.