THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER 18, 1914. THE RED ENSIGN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15769, 18 November 1914, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER 18, 1914. THE RED ENSIGN.

A remarkable phenomenon of the war is that the trade of non-com-bat-ant nations is suffering far more than the trade of Britain. The North Sea has been Scaled. The German mines that drift in the currents of the Baltic close that sea as effectually to Scandinavian shipping as to British shipping. It is true that theoretically the commerce of neutral countries is protected by Hague Conventions, but the Germans, with their characteristic contempt for " scraps of paper," have flouted the rights of neutrals by sea as well as on land, and have compelled counter-action by the British Admiralty which places further restrictions on the shipping of all nationalities. Meanwhile British commerceunder the only protection Germany respects, that of superior force—is carried on in its accustomed manner without serious let or hindrance. In the early days of the war the Americans talked of capturing the world's carrying trade from Britain, and of restoring its former prestige to their mercantile marine. There is no talk of that kind now. The Red Ensign of our mercantile marine is as supreme as the White Ensign of our navy. The grain of North and South America and of India still reaches England in British bottoms; the meat exports of the Argentine, New Zealand and Australia. and the wool and dairy produce of these Pacific states still goes to our own people in our own ships. The few commerce destroyers the enemy was able to send to sea are wrecked or fugitive, and German cruisers arc gradually disappearing. A recent Admiralty statement showed that while German commerce had been brought to a complete standstill only 39 British ships out of 4000 engaged in foreign trade had been sunk. In German ports 74 British ships, totalling 170,000 tons, are detained. The following are the figures in detail of German shipping detained and captured up to the end of September: —

Vessels. Tons. Detained in British port* at outbreak of war 102 200,000 Captured since outbreak of war 88 338,000 Remaining in Suez Canal zone 14 72,000 Capable of being armed, detained in United StateH porta 15 2-17,000 Detained or captured by allies 168 283,000 Total 387 1,140,000 Eight British vessels of small tonnage had been destroyed to September 30 by mines in the North Sea, but the toll on neutral shipping was proportionately greater, five Danish vessels, one Norwegian, and one Swedish having been lost,

There remains to :be made : the important addendum that the balance of the 2300 ships which comprised the German mercantile marine are lying idle in home or neutral ports, while the British merchant fleet is trading in every ocean.

It is a narrow conception of sea power that regards it as merely preventive. As Bacon wrote a hundred years before Europe had heard of a duchy of Prussia, "he that commands the sea is at great liberty." "What the dominant maritime nation may do is quite as important as what the enemy may not do. The British Navy has prevented the war staining the soil of England, but it has also made it possible for British troops to fight in Belgium and France, for a New Zealand force to occupy Samoa, and for the ordinary business of the Empire to.be carried on. Britain, as a great manufacturing nation and the chief carrying nation, enjoys at all times in her mercantile service a great source of wealth and a great reserve of power. British supremacy in unarmed vessels may be judged by the following comparison giving the total of steamships and sailing vessels under the flags of the leading maritime peoples: —

Number. Tonnage. British Empire ... ... 11,287 20,431,543 United States (largely coastal and on the Great Lakes)... 3,400 5.427 636 Germany ... ... ... 2,321 5,082,061 The trade of the Empire is commensurate with those shipping facilities. Official statistics for 1911— last year available—show that the general and special trade of the belligerent countries was then: — General Special Trade. Trade. £ £ United Kingdom 1,237,036.000 1,031,517,000 France 712,884,000 565,708.000 £« sala — 267,428,000 Germany ... 942,077,000 875,762, Austria — 233,167,000 This trade in itself justifies the British Navy. Were the British Dominions not in question, the Navy would still be required to protect British shipping. This we see to-day. While the British commercial system pulsates with steady energy, German commerce has been destroyed, except such as filters uncertainly through neutral countries. Britain is receiving all the foodstuffs and raw materials she requires, finds all the vessels necessary for the transport of troops, and has ships to spare to maintain the export trade of even such V distant portion of the Empire as New Zealand. The loss of imported foodstuffs may not affect Germany for some time, but the cutting off of raw materials is seriously affecting her industries, which cannot be maintained without constant replenishments of wool, cotton, silk, flax, timber, oil, copper, lead, zinc, I leather, and rubber. Already there are indications of the gravest economic disorders, and these are destined to increase in intensity till Germany is reduced to the stage of exhaustion which will mark the final phase of "the war of attrition."