GERMAN NAVAL ACTIVITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16373, 30 October 1916, Page 4

GERMAN NAVAL ACTIVITY.

Whether it is due to the elevation of Hindenburg or to the change in the German naval command which resulted in the dismissal of Tirpitz, it would seem that Germany is searching for new fields for naval activity. The Jutland battle of May 31, the brush in the North Sea on August 19, and the destroyer raid on cross-channel transports reported to-day, all indicate that Germany is dissatisfied with a navy which can only attack merchant ships. The first phase of German naval policy was the indiscriminate scattering of mines and submarine attacks on British warships. It was confidently believed that by such means the British Navy would be so reduced in strength that the Kaiser's fleet could safely engage it. A few British ships were lost by both mine and submarine, but adequate protective measures were speedily developed, and, except in the Mediterranean, the Germans for a long period up to the battle of Jutland had no record of legitimate naval action. In the interval, there were bombardments of undefended English coastal towns, and the futile attempt to limit British food supplies and British trade by submarine attacks upon merchant shipping. The recent development dating from'the Jutland battle may be said at least to be more creditable to Germany and more in keeping with her prewar naval pretensions than the submarine piracy which has shocked the civilised world. Attacks upon transports must be expected, and it is gratifying to note that the most ambitious attempt Germany has yet made in this direction found the British naval men true to their traditions and able to adequately protect the ships under their charge. There is evidence of a change in the German naval outlook, but it would appear to be due more to a consciousness of the failure of the submarine campaign than to any desire to exclude " ruthlessness" from Germany's future sea policy. The intimation now made that Allied merchant captains are in future to be regarded as prisoners is a thoroughly German sequel to the murder of Captain Fryatt. It appears that the German is not able to rid himself of the belief, on which his submarine

piracy. was framed, that British seamen are likely, to be affected by threats of danger, and that fear of the consequences may keep them in port. The tenacity with which the Germans hold to this grotesque conception suggests not only a lack of knowledge of the characteristics of British seamen, but a low standard of moral courage among themselves.