The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1915. THE PAPER BLOCKADE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 62, 13 March 1915, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1915. THE PAPER BLOCKADE.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The "blockade" of the Britieli coasts and British shipping about which the Germane talked co portentously, has now troen in operation for close upon a month, and it is possible to make a rough estimate of its value as a factor in the war on its naval side. Looking at the situation ats impa-rtially as poeeible, we think that the verdict, of any unbiaseed observer must bt> that this lnudly-vauntcd scheme has been an ignominous failure, and that its effects upon the course of the war fully juetify the supreme conudvnce of the British people in our invincible naval strength. Before the "blockade" began Germany warned the world that the British mercantile marine was to be swept from the eeas; but what has happened? During the first week of the "blockade," according to the official statement beued by the Admiralty, about 700 ships arrived at British ports and 670 nailed, all traversing the ocean highways '"blockaded" by the German 6ubmarinc3; and of this huge total only seven were •sunk. Since "the "blockade" started, it is ■safe to say, the total number of, merchant sh'n>s destroyed by the German submarines has not Tcached a ecore, including neutral veeecls; and this in epitc of the fact that many thousands of ehipe (lying the British flag are afloat in the Atlantic and in European waters, carrying on England's sea borne trade precisely as if torpedoes and submarines had never been invented, and tho "paper blockade" had never been declared. After this pitiable collapse it ie hardly strange that the G-erman -Admiralty publicly announced that, for important reasons that could not he revealed, the 'rigour of the "blockade" would be relaxed for some little time to come.

In view of the relatively trivial injury that England has suffered through this much, advertised "blockade" it is difficult to understand the "scare" that the submarine seems to have created in certain circles at* Home. Xo doubt some of this anxiety was aroused by the success of Sir A. Conan Doyle's sensational story, "Danger," which describes ho-w England's food supply was cut off, and the nation ■was brought to its knees by a squadron, of eight submarines. The general public docs not possess much' technical knowledge of submarines, and it -was not in a mood to discriminate; and'it-failed to observe that while Sir A. tl Doyle's submarines might be. very succemfiil in their own sphere half a the world so far has seen nothing like them, and neither England nor Germany possesses submersibles anything like so efficient and dangerous. Tho few experts who considered tho position in tho liffht of their o-wn special knowledge were far from being perturbed at Germany's threats. They knew in the flrst place that Genma.ny could no£ have many more than 20 submarines available for the purposes of the "blockade." To utilise all these in attacking merchantmen would be to relieve the British Navy for the time of one of the most serious obstacles to its activity. But assuming that the whole of Germany's "undersea boats" were occupied in "the blockade" we must remember that they carry on an average .only four torpedoes each, which would mean 80 torpedoes in all. Now, as a rule it takee two torpedoes td eink a warship, and a merchantman, having no magazine to be exploded, usually requires at least two, if not three, to destroy it. Then we must allow for "misses," which may be fairly put down at about 50 per cent of the torpedoee actually discharged. Time Mr. F. T. Jane, the distinguished naval expert, who edits "The World's Fighting Ships," arrived at the conclusion that with good luck the German submarines •employed in the '*blockade" would destroy perhaps 20 of the four or five thousand merchant vessels flying the British flag before they returned to their haee. Under th-<j circumstance*, Mr. Jane's clcecription of the threatened "blockade" as ''a stupendous piece of cheap bluff" has been fully justified. But we must remember further that scores of British and French destroyers are spending all their tinre hunting for German submarines; and it is now reported that

eince the 'beginning of February 11 German submarines have been destroyed. We must make allowance for reserves of Bubmereibles, which Germany may have prepared secretly, and for the strenuous exertions the enemy is now making to repair the wastage of the war. But it ia quite certain that the submarine strength of the German navy ie far less now than it wae when this pretentious "blockade" started, and that England has nothing ■whatever to fear from her enemy's desperate efforts to ent off the British food supply or to destroy our mercantile marine.