ON THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 May 1916, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

NAVAL ENGAGEMENT. OFF THE BELCIAX COAST. London, May 17. Official: There • was a aliort engagement off the Belgian coast on Tuesday afternoon, between British destroyers and monitors and German destroyers. The enemy withdrew to his ports. There were no British casualties. FRENCH SAILING VESSEL SUNK. WITH BIG LOSS OF LIFE. New York, May 17. The Norwegian steamer Falkland, which lias arrived at Philadelphia from London, reports rescuing four of the crew of the French barquentine Bernadotte, bound to the Gram) Banks for fish. A German submarine attacked the Bc-rnadotte. Thirty of the crew are believed to have been drowned, A SUBMARINE ADVENTURE. STORY OF THE SEAS. Received Hay 18, 7.25 p.m. London, May 17. A thrilling story is told of a British submarine's escape from total destruction by a mine explosion. She was on a reconnoitring expedition, and made a three-hundred-mile voyage, unaided, though her boats were torn off, and plates crumpled and twisted, two out of the three forward bulkheads were torn to strips and all glass, including instrument glasses were shattered in the bow, and one rudder was useless. Water was spurting in, and the crew were sent sprawling on their faces. Yet the little vessel was so staunch that the torpedoes were not exploded, !/e motors continued working, the djals registering, and the pumps were unharmed and soon got the water down.

The submarine dropped a hundred feet on to th'v sea bottom. An officer says that there did not seem much chance of getting up again. The crew behaved finely, and returned to their stations, before the officer had time to give an order. In less than two minutes the engines were moving and the pumps working. Everything was deathly still, save the welcome sound of the motors turning. Then they reversed the motors they waited for one bad minute. The broken glass began to rattje, and then, says the officer, we knew we were moving. We heard the wireless speak, and knew that we were afloat, in less than ten minutes after the e.vplosion. We surveyed the damage and drove along under our own power in a heavy sea, the waves smashing against the sole remaining bulk-head. So the submarine came home, dodging the patrol, but she nad accomplished her mission and duly made her report.

LESSON OF THE WAR. THE FREEDOM OF THE SEAS. MR. BALFOUR MAKES A STATE- ' ■ , ) .E\ T T London, May 17. Following is the official text' nf nn interview an American journalist namiM Marshall had with Mr. Ralfour, who discussed the freedom of the seas. Mr. Balfour said that Britain had always fought for the freedom of the seas, owing to which America had been able to develop on her present lines. Germany's conception -was very different. She demanded it, not because she loved freedom, but in order to give a worldwide extension to her ideal of a.great autocratic military State. The experience of this war proved that Germany would cast the freedom of the seas to the winds and destroy her enemies' trade the moment it suited her. International law was powerless if unsupported by international authority. If substantial progress was to be made in securing a world at peace for free national development America and the British Empire must explicitly recognise that they shared a common ideal which is an unchanging element of their political creed. This war was essentially a struggle between two ancient ideals, in the outcome of which America was equally as much concerned as the British Empire. Both should work together to ensure the permanent triumph of the Anglo-Saxon ideal. Arbitration did not go far enough. Such precautions as scraps of paper are useless unless they could toe enfgrced. We deluded ourselves if we thought that we were doing good service by merely passing good resolutions. What was needed, until militarism was conquered, was the machinery for enforcing them, and this must largely consist of sea power. The lesson was that Britain and America, instead of giving up their maritime powers, should organise them in the interests of their common ideal, on which the peace of the world largely depends.

AUSTRIA GETS CHEEKY. Received May IS, 5.5 p.m. London, May 17. Austria has sent a. Note to the Allies and neutrals alleging that without warning there have been submarine attacks on Austro-Hungarian merchantmen. The latest affair, it states, was that of the Dubrovnik, sunk on the Dalmatian Coast on May 9tn. GERMAN MINE-LAYER BLOWN UP. Copenhagen, May 17. A German mine-layer was blown up at Falsterbo by its own. mine. One man was killed and a portion of the crew rescued. SHIPPING PROFITS, London, May 17. The White Star Line's profit for the year is £1,0(18,285. After paying Wartax, a dividend of 65 per cent, has been carried, and a huge amount placed to th« depreciation and reserve funds.

ANOTHER MISTAKE. DUTCH STEAMER BLOWN DP. Received May 18, 5.5 p.m. London, May 17. The Bataviera, with a general cargo from London to Rotterdam, has been blown up. Four men perished. BRITISH MONITOR DESTROYED. Received May 18, ft.s p.m. Amsterdam, Mav 17. Official: Turkish artillery fired and destroyed a small British monitor on the 13th. Two men were killed, and two wounded.