SIX MONTHS OF GERMAN "BLOCKADE"

Evening Star, Issue 15907, 13 September 1915, Page 4

SIX MONTHS OF GERMAN "BLOCKADE"

Writing in tho 'Manchester Guardian ' of July 24, Mr Archibald Kurd says:— Tho Germans have been carrying out their submarine policy for six 'months. And the result ? In the history of naval warfare there has been no such fiasco as this much-advertised movement to " starve England." Every convention and law was to be torpedoed on the one hand, and on the other every British ship was to be sunk. We have six months' experience behind us, and we have very complete and detailed information from the Admiralty. In the first place, have we been starved? In the second, have neutral ships been terrified into avoiding our harbors'? In the third place, have our merchant sailors become craven under German threats? The answer, of course, is in the negative. For the rest, the results of the German piracy mav be tabulated : Total number of sailings and arrivals 31,385 British merchant ships sunk ... '9B Percentage of loss 3] % Officers and men murdered ... 505 Neutral ships sunk 95 But I can hear some reader saying to himself: "Well, 98 ships would be better employed in carrying goods than lying at the'bottom of the sea, particularly when, owing to the withdrawal from the market or loss of German and Austro-Hungarian vessels and the demands of the Allies, freights are so high. Shipowners must be suffering badly." That is a complete misunderstanding of the position. Every ship sunk is insured and the cost is represented in the freight—which the community eventually pays—and the loss is thus made, good to the shipowner. Shipping is one of the really prosperous industries just now—thanks to the Navy. Ships are at a premium. Thoso that are not sunk arc worth about twice what they were before the war. Those that arc sunk arc paid far by insurance. —New ShipsLloyd's Register has just issued its quarterly returns of new vessels in hand in British yards at the end of June. The facts arc rather remarkable. It is, revealed that, excluding warships, 442 vessels of 1,506,925 tons gross—all but 1,900 tons steel steamers—were under construction in the United Kingdom at the close of the quarter. The total tonnage is nearly 81,000 tons less than what was in hand at the end of the previous quarter, bub only about 215,000 tons less than (ho tonnage building 12 months ago, before tho peace was broken. Thus, on the one hand, a million and a-half tons are building, and in six months German submarines, with the assistance of cruisers at the beginning of the period and of mines, have sunk just under 212,000 tons. " . There is consequently a considerable, balance on the right side, and we need be under no fear that our merchant navy is shrinking. In spite of the activities of the German submarines the British mercantile marine is doing very well, owing to the command exercised by our Navy. It is making large profits, .and its relatively small losses are being paid ' for by the community generally, and, spread over a largo constituency, are costing very little. On the other hand, apart from the destruction of enemy submarines by our fleet and by accident, the Germans—as tho new Note from the United States will remind them—are suffering far more grievously by their outlawry than wo as a nation are doing, and we arc getting a vast return—military, financial, and economic—from our command of the sea.