THE BALTIC SEA

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20990, 18 December 1939, Page 8

THE BALTIC SEA

FOUR CHANNELS OPEN STRATEGY OF THE POWERS Only in one, very unlikely, contingency would it be possible for the British Fleet la intervene actively in the Baltic—if Denmaifi decided (as she is bound to do under international law) to keep the Belts unconditionally open to all shipping, even to the warsnips of belligerent States, and to uphold this decision in spite of a probable German ultimatum, wrote a Scandinavian corresponded L of the Manchester Guardian recently.

It must be kept in mind that of the four channels connecting the North Sea with the Baltic one, the Kiel Canal, belongs to Germany; two others the Great and Little Beits, are under Danish sovereignty, while the fourth, the Oresund, or Sound, is jointly controlled by Denmark and Sweden. From a naval point of view the Little Belt, which is strategically comparable to a river (especially since the completion in 1935 of the Little Belt Bridge), can be left out of consideration. Any major British Fleet would have to choose either the Great Belt or the Sound for entry into the Baltic.

Large Vessels Barred The shortest way goes through the Sound, which is normally the most frequented trade route, with an annual tonnage not much inferior to the Panama and Suez Canals (23,000,000 tons, according to recent Swedish statistics). However, the shallowness of this channel automatically bars from it all very large vessels. True, the entrance to the Sound from the Kattegat between Elsinore and Halsingborg is easily navigable, in spite of its narrowness, for here the water is comparatively deep. The trouble lies at the other end of the Sound, where it debouches into the Baltic proper between Copenhagen and Malmo. At this place the sea bottom, rising considerably, forms around the isle of Saltholm a long shoal through which run two parallel channels: “Drogden” on the Danish side, “Flintrannan” on the Swedish. The Drogden’s bed, originally 23 feet deep, was scooped out 11 years ago to a maximum depth of 26£ feet. Flintrannan, on the other side, is no more than 24 feet deep. This means that battleships and heavy cruisers as well as big liners are automatically excluded from both runs of the Sound. The Great Belt Thus the only way of access left for a big fleet, including capital ships, is the Great Belt, the main passage from the North Sea into the Baltic, with a depth varying from 73 to 82 feet, which allows even the largest vessels, ocean-going liners as well as battleships, to pass at ease. And the Great Belt is controlled by Denmark alone. On August 5, 1914, the Danish Government, yielding to a German ultimatum (which was officially termed an “inquiry”), reserved its declaration of the day before and closed all the three seaways under her sovereignty with mines. Sweden, on her side, rejected a similar request from Berlin regarding “Flintrannan., - ’ which was throughout the war the only access to the Baltic open also to Allied ships, but all vesels drawing more than 22 feet of water are automatically excluded from this channel. There cannot be the .slightest doubt that the measure forced upon Denmark in August, 1914, was illegal both under international law, which has a rule that straits connecting two open seas must remain open even to belligerents, regardless of the fact that they may belong to the territorial waters of a neutral State, and also because Denmark on several occasions, especially by her two declarations of neutrality on December 20, 1912, and August 4, 1914, had committed herself to keeping the Belts and the Drogden open to all ships.

Mining the Straits It is not certain that Germany in the present war will again ask the Danish Government to mine the straits on its own, for. as the experience of the Great War showed, , this measure subsequently hampered considerably the movements of the German Fleet and has been criticised since by German naval experts. Much more likely is a Nazi move intended to bring the Danish coastline along the passage under direct German control, with a view to barring the British Fleet from the Baltic, while the German Fleet will go on using both tiie Kiel Canal and the Belts.