The Dominion TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1915. A YEAR OF NAVAL WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2530, 3 August 1915, Page 4

The Dominion TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1915. A YEAR OF NAVAL WAR

In*our cable columns this morning will be found a review of the year's naval warfare from the German-' point of view by Count von E-event-low, and an interesting, reply by Me. Balfoue. The Count wants to prove that the. German Navy has justified its existence—that the part it has played in the present war has been commensurate with the enormous expenditure which its creation has involved and the great things which the German people were led to expect from it. His article shows that it is no easy task to arouse the enthusiasm of his countrymen over the achievements of their warships. He is' compelled to adopt the role of the apologist. The brightest episode in the story seems to be "the glorious career of the Emden," which was brought to an end by the guns of the Australian cruiser'Sydney.'The probable objcct of the article is to justify the apparent inactivity of the ICaiseu's main fleet. It does not deal with the operations- of the under-water craft. The German people see that their merchantmen have been swept off the seas and their foreign trado almost annihilated, while the commerce of Britain goes on much the same as it did in_tim.es of peace. The German submarines have certainly done a good deal of damage to British snipping. Nothing can be gained by ignoring unpleasant facts. Our accumulated losses due to submarines must be very considerable, although they only represent a. very small part of the great total of our shipping tonnage. The Germans knows as well as we do that the war is not going to bo won by theSe attacks on merchantmen. When we read of the vessels that aro captured and sunk we should not forget that for every one that comes to grief many hundreds como and go unmolested. Statistics show that despite the wastage of war the shipping tonnage registered in Britain for the year ended June last increased by 300,000 tOns. This is a solid fact that German writers will find it extremely hard to explain away. Tho damage which the enemy has succeeded in inflicting upon British commerce is insignificant when compared with tho loss which our Navy has caused to Germany. The effect of the wa-r on German trado is illustrated in a striking manner in an article which recently appeared in the Tagliche Rundschau, describing the appearance of Hamburg at the present time as contrasted with tho state of affairs before hostilities commenced.

Formerly nil roads ied to tho harbour. These roads are now desolate, and only a wanderer here and. there denotes that somo isolated individuals still take an interest in the vast nren of the harbour. Wherever ono looks there are hulls of hugo vessels and 'their gaunt, smokestacks, thick steel cables fastening them lo anchors in the Elbe inud or to the shore. Not a flag or pennon flutters from their mastheads, not a solitary sailor gazes over their sides, no call comes from an officor on tho bridge. Hero and there you see an old sailor on deck as caretaker. His younger companions are all away at tho war. It is sad to look at those giunt bulks with tho paint peeling off them. You look at their names and are sorrowful. Over thero is a inagnilicent South American liner, au imposing Colossus. with her three funnels. There was a time when she proudly sailed down tho Elbe to the ocean. her bands playing, thousands on the shore waving her their adieus. There she lies still as the grave, fastened immovably by her iron chains. On the other side of the river, at Kuliwardcr, lie the serried' ranks of tho Ham-burg-America liners, tier on tier of them, their sides scraped and unsightly. That is all of the fleet Hint managed to jet home in time. In other great docks and along stretches of quay are the tall, graceful masts of tho failing shim, dry forests of U><yn, dfij'.l foitnUi wulwul s leaf 39. of li£o.

The only consolation which this German writer can find in all this dreary scene of desolation is the fact that "behind the waterways, and in many other places a thousand machines and grinding wheels are singing a terrible song of revenge against England."

Mr. Balfour has no difficulty in making an effective reply to Count vox Reventlow's criticism of British strategy. We heard a great deal at one time about the war of attrition by whioh Britain's margin of naval superiority would gradually be reduced to vanishing point. Then the German Fleet was to sail out from its sheltering places and givo battle. A year of war has now gone by, and Mil. Balfour is in a position to assert that this process of attrition has not yet commenced. The British Navy is stronger to-day than it was when tho struggle commenced. In his recent specoh at Dundee. Mr. Winston Churchill declared that the strength of the fleet has greatly increased actually and relatively from what it was at the beginning of tho war, and it is growing continually every day. Between now and the end of the year fit will receive reinforcements which would be incredible if they were not actual facts." In summing up tho achievements of tho Navy, Mn. Churchill said the terrible dangers of tho beginning of the war are over; the seas have been swept clear; the submarine menace has been fixed within definite limits; the personal asccndancy_ of our men, and the superior quality of our ships on the high seas have been established beyond doubt or question; the measure of the foe has been taken; on the whole surface of the seas of the world no hostile flag is flown. Mr. Churchill-is an inveterate optimist; - but after making due allowance' for his tendency to emphasise the brighter side of things the unassailable fact remains that the British Navy has done magnificent service for the Empire, and has overwhelmingly justified all the money that has been spent upon it. It is true that the test of battle on a great scale has yet to come. But the nation has every confidence that when that tremendous clash takes place our ships and men will not be found wanting. "Tho Navy as a whole," to quote the words of Admiral Jellicoe himself, "has not yet had the opportunity of showing that the old spirit which carried us to victory in the past is with us now; but where our men have had the opportunity of fighting above the water they have shown that they possess tho same pluck and ondurancc as our comrades ashore." An authority on naval matters, in drawing attention to the splendid condition of the Fleet, points out that it has been actually training for war under war conditions for a year. Taking this fact and all other things into consideration, it is no exaggeration to say that our "Grand Fleet must be tho most formidable instrument of naval warfare ever known."