BRITAIN’S SEA GRIP.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17095, 18 February 1916, Page 3

BRITAIN’S SEA GRIP.

THE TRUMP CARD. GER MAX HELPLESSNESS. (Correspondent Melbourne Age.”) In the first official review of tho work of the Britisli Navy in the war, which was delivered in the House of Commons on February 15 last by Mr Winston Churchill, who was then First Lord of tho Admiralty, lie brought his speech to a close with the following words:—“ Wc cannot tell what lies before us or how soon or in what way tho next great developments of the struggle will declare themselves, or what tho state of Europe and the world will bo at its close; but this, I think, wo can already say, as far as as the British Navy is concerned, that although no doubt new (gangers and perplexities will come upon us continually, and anxiety will make its abode in our dwellings, yet tho dangers and anxieties which now are advancing upon us will not be more serious or more embarrassing than those through which we havo already successfully made our way—for in the months that are to como the British Navy and the sea power which it exerts will increasingly dominate the generaJ .situation; will be the main and unfailing resource of the Allied nations; ‘V I II progressively paralyse tho fighting energies of our antagonists; and could, d need be, even in default of all other lavourablo causes, ultimately by itself ieeido the issue of this war.” But it is only now that tho truth ■ontnined in the concluding words of • j Churchill's peroration is being vidcly recognised in Great Britain. For nonths past naval writers have insisted >hat Germany is being paralysed by the ;rn> of the British Navy, but the great mlk of the British public, looking at lie war map of Europe; looking at the act that on every front German armies re- fighting on enemy soil; that Gernan troops are occupying over 150,000 a uare milos nf onnmmiwl

! have felt that the results of the war , 11 P to the present stage have been i greatly m favour of Germany, and that I the task of beating her, which thev ! are determined not to relinquish, is still a formidable one. . Germany ,public confidence in the invincibility of the German armies is " even stronger now than at the begin- 1 niug of the war. This confidence is i based on the success in the campaigns 1 in Russia and Serbia, on the failure of the British and French efforts to i break the German lines in the western i theatre of the war, and the failure to i force the Dardanelles. According to t tho general opinion in Germany, the i war is already won, and peace is" being r delayed only by the stupid obstinacy of the Allies in refusing to recognise .1 that they are beaten. The German Im- 1 penal Chancellor, speaking in the } Reichstag a few days ago. gave official * sanction to this limited view, If our enemies come to us with peace proposals proper to the dignity and assuring c 'the safety of Germnuy, then we are is always ready to discuss them,” he said, t “ In full consciousness of our success we decline responsibilitv for the cpn- c tinuation of tho distress which fills G Europe and tho world. Nobody shall F say that we desired unnecessarily to tl prolong the war because we wanted to si conquer anyone. One thing our enemies si must rceogniso, namely, tho longer and pi more bitter tlioy wage war, the greater is will bo the necessary guarantees.” st

In Germany the people axe suffering privations owing to tho war in spite of i the success of the German armies, but they aro blind to the fact that their privations are caused by the British Navy. And appare-ntly this blindness extends to German statesmen, for they affect to regard the’ military situation on land as tho only deciding factor in the conflict. This confidence in the conviction that the war is already won exists side by side with-the fact that German trade has been swept from the seas and can never be built lip again to its former greatness except by British consent. In all tho large cities of Germany tho prices of the chief articles of food are rising, and the supplies aro inadequate for the needs of tho people. The German poor are being reduced to a state which borders, on starvation. And the State and municipal regulations governing the sale of foodstuff’s have brought home even to the wealthy German families a taste of the privations of war. It ought to be patent to the meanest intelligence in German- that these things are not tho results of German victories on land. xVs regards the military situation, the 1 Allies are confident that the spring and summer of 191(3 will mark a great ; change. Germany is fast approaching ■ the end of her reserves, even if she has nob already reached the end; but, on the other hand, Great Britain and Rus- ' sia are adding to the military strength 1 by equi-"ing newly raised armies. The j time must come when Germany, owing ■ to her inability to find reserves with which to repair the wastage in the ranks of her armies, will be unable to } hold her present lines in the west and j the east. The German lines will either , ho broken by tho Allies, or else the Ger- s man general staff will order a retreat j towards the Germaai frontiers, so that js the lines may he shortened in order to 0 make it •’ossiblo for the weakened Ger-. s man armies to hold them. j p But even if the war came to an un- 0 mediate end, with the situation exactly t as it is to-day, the German nation n would soon bo awakened out of the de- 11 lusion that Germany holds all the cards c for dictating a victorious peace. In ber command of the seas Great- Britain holds the trump card of the peace conference. If a peace conference were Immediately summoned Great Britain nonkl p;av her trump card in a way vhich would nullify all the German vic:orics on land. Great Britain, acting n conformity with her Allies, who have dodged themselves not to conclude a, eparato peace with Germany and Aus-ria-Huinrary, would announce the doerminatiou not to allow a single Ger- f nan ship to sail the seas until Germany | estorcs tho territory she occupies in i Belgium, France, Russia and Serbia. I uid to these teems Germany would be oreed to consent in her own national iiterests. for the free use of the seas ; more important to her than new teritory. Continuance of the British aval blockade means a continuance of ardship and privations for the German eople. But what is of eveii greater ational importance is that it means , 10 paralysis of the industrial life of . j or many. The most outspoken recognition of le value of Great- Britain’s trump ird which has appeared in the Press | contained in an editorial article iu io New York “Tribune,” which fills nir columns. “If peace were to be insidcred to-dav, it- is evident that ermany would have to evacuate ranee and Belgium as well,” states lis paper. “In no other way could e persuade the British to permit her ( ips to sail the seas, and she has no L esent means of compelling such Briti consent. But this would be to rejrc things to their exact status before

[ the war. It would mean that for her - tremendous sacrifices Germany had gained nothing from France or Great Britain, but had lost her colonies. Conceivably the British would not niako such a bargain. Then what? Either Germany would have to offer more or she would have to continue in a condition which would mean the paralysis of her industrial establishments. Her conquests in Belgium and France are valueless savo onl s y as they provia'e a basis for bargaining with Great Britain over the blockade. They look imposing on the map, but acutally Germany is in the position of a burglar who has got into a house and gathered up the silver, but cannot get away with it. In her war with Great Britain and France, therefore, it is plain that Germany has been beaten.” The article concludes with the following statement: “Germany has lost, the war as a whole because she went into the war determined to win world supremacy, and she is coming out of the war at very best heavily burdened with debt, leaving her great foes unbeaten, and leaving Great Britain, her chief rival, organised for war. on something like a German basis, and having lost the world markets in which she found 1 her greatest prosperity before the war.” No official indication of the way in which Groat Britain will use her trump card when the time conies to discuss terms of peace has been made in any of the Allied countries. But it may be taken for granted that- in administrative quarters in every one of them the value of this card is fully recognised. When the time comes for peace, Germany must give . adequate guarantees for the paymont of compensation for all the wrongs she has done —compensation for Ilie devastation of Belgium, Northern France, Russian Poland and Serbia, and also for the murder of noncombatants in torpedoed merchant ships and the innocent victims of Zeppelin raids. In the meantime the German Imperial Chancellor can continue to delude himself and tho German people by dwelling on the enormous indemnities Germany intends to sxact from her defeated enemies.