NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15158, 23 December 1914, Page 7

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The. war has now been in progress for twenty weeks, and many pooplo—chiefly thoso who in timo of poaco scarcely pivo a passing thought to tho British Navy, unloss it was to lament the "mad rare in naval armaments"—aro now demanding to know why tho Navy doesn't do .-omothinfr, why it lins not prevented tho enemy's ships from raiding the English coast, why it has not smashed •.'.p ihe Gorman Navy. It does not occur to thoso qn-erulous pcoplo to ask themselves what, the German Narysecond only in tho world to that of Great Britain—has accomplished in nearly fiv o mouths. That question can easily be answered.

The German Navy has dor?o none of th 0 things it was generally considered by naval exports it would attempt to do. Tt lias allowed the British Navy to peenro command of tho sea without bavins »0 fight for it: it has sunk a few British warships, the loss of which has not in any way affected our effective strength—our Navy to-day being far stronger and more efficient after twenty weeks of warfare than ever before; it has allowed the British Navy to sweep German commerce completely off tho seas; it has scattered mines indiscriminately on tho hich seas, doing mors harm to the commcrco of neutral countries than to mir Nary or our commerce, and causing a revulsion of fpcling against the German people: it. has raptured and sunk forty-four British merchant ships .and soized twenty small trawlers and their crews, while its mines havo sunk four British steamers and nine, trawlnrs; it has bombarded three ports on the English coast, killing and maiming about .JOO non-oombatants —men, women, and sfhool children.

Tiio Gorman Navy has remained behind its North S*a fortresses and allowed tlio British fleet to transport hundreds of thousands of troops from England to tho Continent and "tons of tbousands rr.oro from Canada. India, Australia, and New Zealand to England, France, an J without let or hindrance and without a single mishap. Tho German Navy was unable to afford the slightest assistance to any of Germany's oversea possessions, which have been faliinp into the- hands of Britain and her Allies liko rip© plums. Togoland and the Cameroons in Africa have been occupied by tho foroee of tho Allies, and campaigns against German East Africa and South-West Africa aro in progress. Germany cannot send a man overseas to help defend theso rich territories which will bo wrested from her very soon. Tho Gorman flas? has completely disappeared from the Pacific The Gorman Pacific Squadron has been annihilated, and tho whole of Ger-

Marshall Islands. I-adrone Islands, and JK.iao-ch.-ni aro iv the hands of bntain and her Allies

Tho British Navy has co-operate., with the Allies' armies in Belgium by bombarding tho coast, and the. German nnvy has not been able to prevent it. A. tew fugitive cruisers have ramed British shipping and havo eunk fonvfour fhips in twenty wckp. but their depredations wero infinitely less thna would have tho case had our Navy not been nilly prepared weeks before tho outbreak of war. Naval experts have al~-avs considered that our foss-TO of merchant ships would t>e. exccedinsly heavy during the hrst few weeks of war. Tn preparing tno war Risks Insurance gehenio, allowance was made for a Joss of five per cent, of our merchant shipping, which is represented by nearly 12,000 vessels of over '20,000.000 tons. Actually the German raiders have sr> far accounted for 4 1 ships of 200.C00 ton?, and since the destruction of tho Gorman Paciic Squadron and the Kniden, and the "bottlinpnp" of tho Konissberg and the Dresden, lit tie danger is feared from the f.vo or three cruisers still at- large.

Having briefly referred to \he little that the German navy lias dono. and the very great deal that it has not done, tlie question of what tho British Navy has dor.c is very easily answered. The' British Xavy has done all tJ:at the German navy has done ;itu! miii'h r.we besides; it Juis also done ino?t of the things tho Gorman navy has not dono and much more besides. It ha« swept German commerce from all the seas of all the world. Tt has destroyed a large number of German cruisers and (orpodo boats and several submarines, it hsss captured, or enabled to bo captured, nearly 400 German merchant ships and eonsißiunonts of cargo in hundreds of other ships, and has exerted a terrific economic pressure on tho enemy. It has enabled British oversea commerce to bo carried on practically without, interruption, thus scouring for us not only our ordinary trade but enabling us to capture much business formerly in the- hands of the Germans. In NewZealand and Australia we have. &carcoly fe.lt the effects of the war, and our oVersea trade has "been carried on without a pinsrlo interruption, save the loss of the Kniparci. AYe hnve tho British Nary to thank not, only for our materia! welfare and our present security, but for our very existence as an Empire.

Viewed solely from ihe liaanci.il point of view, t»be British Navy hue achieved marvellous things during the past four months. The enviug to the- woplo of the British Empire in the cost of food and other necessaries has been worked out on tho very lowest basis of calculation at £15,000,000 per week, so that in twenty weeks the British Navy hn& saved us no less a sum than £300,000,000. Eren this estimate conveys no conception of what the Empire has gained owing to tho supremacy exercised by the Silent Navy since the outbreak of war. Anything lew than complete control of tho main fleets of tho enemy would inevitably mean tho world-wido dislocation of British trade with all tho appalling consequences to internal food eupply and productive industry. Tho sudden result of suspending tha import into the United Kingdom of £6,000,000 worth of food, and £6,000.000 worth of raw material per vf«w>k, would be a deadly blow to tho vrholo industrial vitality of tho country. Tho stoppage of tho export of £8,000,000 worth of manufactured goods ncr week would, mean wholesale unemployment ivi'.h all its attendant misery. No estimate of actual financial loss can in any measure represent disas ters so staggering. Tho British Nary hap, Raved us from all this, and as \\ matter of sober fact, in tho history of tho world, there has never been *any triumph to compare with that trhieli tho Grand Fleet is achieving in the Korth Boa.