Untitled

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 156, 7 August 1914, Page 6

The exemplary system of censorship of cablegrams .from the actual centres of operation has resulted in the world at large receiving rumours of wars rather than definite news of war itself. A stray note floats up from the Servian frontier reporting an Austrian repulse, pallid little stories of aviation enterprises emanate from in and about Luxemburg, while of the naval battle in" the Baltic we have heard nothing but an echo. This extreme censorship appears to be quite unnecessary so far as the. colonies are concerned, and it tends to keep the world in suspense as to what are the real circumstances. For instance, the German ileet is "practically, bottled up in the Baltic" to-day, and hovering under, the Danish headlands to-morrow. It is improbable that anybody knows with a reasonable degree of certainty just where the German Fleet is. The German, Admiralty is not likely to take the nations into its confidence oirthis matter. If it should happen that the German squadrons are concentrated adjacent to the North Sea, there is good reason for such a concentration. It is improbable that the English fleet will do otherwise than conduct what is known as a longdistance blockade. According to naval experts, it would be courting disaster, pending a general engagement, to do otherwise, because of the presence of deadly submarines, and the x'ossibility of mines. The submarine is most effective on a fleet at anchor or in slow manoeuvring. In the open, with all speed on, the average battle cruiser can outstrip a submarine, the fastest of which, even when shallowly submerged, cannot do better than 13 or 14 knots. The function of the British fleet will be to keep the enemy penned up in a circumscribed area, in the North Sea. The German battleships must at all costs be prevented from breaking through "into the Atlantic for the purpose either of interfering with British shipping or safeguarding the merchant maritime service of Germany. And the conditions that are likely to deter the British gunboats from approaching German waters will operate against a German descent on the English coast. j