Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE. MONDAY, FEB. 8, 1915. BLOCKADE OF BRITAIN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13603, 8 February 1915, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE. MONDAY, FEB. 8, 1915. BLOCKADE OF BRITAIN

hot. for these commerce destroyers,. and the probability is that if Germany descends 'to acts of piracy such as she has threatened the German naval officers when taken, instead of being accorded the honors of war will be treated as were the pirates of old — strung to the yardarm. The neutral nations must side with Britain if she takes strong repressive methods for dealing with such outlawry. Let a single American ship be sunk, says a New York paper, and the American people will exact the bitterest retribution. Without wishing any harm to our American cousins, we can almost hope 'that if Germany does attempt to enforce a policy of blockade an American ship will be one of the first to be caught and sunk. Our trans-Atlantic friends would perhaps then realise something of 'the service that Britain is rendering to civilisation m endeavoring to get the mad dog under control. Germany's wild threat looks almost like a last desperate throw. The Kaiser is cornered and knows it, and m the madness of despair he is prepared to go to any length to inflict injury upon •those" who are bringing him to submission.- We may expect ebullitions of vindictive passion and daring and desperate attempts to bring "trouble to Britain, but will welcome them because we know that they afford good evidence that the end is m sight.

Theodore Roosevelt has said . it. Speaking of the latest exhibition of German barbarity, the threat to sink neutral vessels • engaged m commerce with Great Britain, as well as .peaceful British merchantmen^ the exrPresident of the United States remarks that his country may yet be called to join Hie Allies "and help to chain up "this mad dog of Europe." "Mad'dog of Europe" is the word for a nation wincn, disregarding of the distates of humanity, runs, amok through all the international laws governing civilised warfare. The tact that Germany, •m her insensate desire to inflict injury on England, has intimated her intention ,-to make an effective blockade of the British coasts and thus starve England' into submission, has not; created any great .perturbation m the public -mind at Home, though it has caused'the war risks on shipping to rise slightly."- The peoplo of Great Britain have become used to the Nidle threats of the Kaiser. German terrorism has long since lost its power to terrorise. The advance on Calais having failed of accomplishment; the .bombardment of Eugiisli ..coast towns by the "baby-killers" having .-'failed to produce any moral "effects exqept upoii the German navy, which returned to its home, port sadly chastened after the little brush wifli the Lion and her consorts m the North Sea, it was only to bo expected that the. Emperor Wilhelm' would ■try some fresh method of striking fear into the of ins hated enemies. William, however, miscalculated, if he thinks this threat to" deprive English.-folk of their food supplies is likely to be taken seriously. .English people have a supreme confidence m the British, Navy and a supreme contempt for the Kaiser, and the latter's policy of bluff and bounce will bo taken at its true worth. How can Germany with its navy bottled up effectually a>t,"*"Kiel talk of an effective blockade?, Tho -daily prayer of the British Navy is that the Kaiser's ships may come out into the open. Since they have no intention of doing |his, tho schome probably is ito effect all the damage they can to British mercantile interests by means of their submarines, several of which have shown activity lately, one m particular having distinguished itself by nn attempt' on a hospital ship. It is quite possible that by means of these- lurking vessels the Germans may take occasional toll of British shipping, and we must be prepared for casualties of this sort, but to protend that they have sufficient submarines to make anything like an effective blockade of the British coast is simply ludicrous. The Navy can, be depended upon lo make the pace very