TURNING THE TABLES BY THE FLEET

Southland Times, Issue 17655, 12 February 1916, Page 7

TURNING THE TABLES BY THE FLEET

••The fables have .been turned on the Germans hy the Hritish l'’leet," writes Mr Archibald Hurd in the Telegraph. “Throughout Hie winter of IS7H-1— wiiieti was intensely cold they besieged I'aris, caring neither for women nor children though they starved; cats, dogs, and rats became luxuries. With absolnle imlb lessness. they kept out. all provisions, 'War was war,’ they claimed. tliev were ’ cruel only to be kind—• to shorten hostilities.’ The results were agonising to the whole world, lull not to tiie Germans.

"With the passage of time nothing was rvgip'tted. Count Caprivi some years later, when thinking of the dependence of the United Kingdom on oversea supplies, remarked that ' the private introduction of provisions Into Paris was prohibited during the siege, and in the same way a nation would lie just 'died in preventing the import of fond and raw produce. That was Germane's policy towards ns; hence her fleet, hence her large number of ehuisers lienee her snhmarines. We are not happily in the picture—thunks to tiie Hritish Navy.

"Neither (lie Germans nor their friends are going to he starved, however severe tiie weather, for they have resoiirees on which to fall hack. So let no sympathy be wasted I Hut the people who have left a trail of I’dood over Knrope and over the seas are going to experience in a verv minor degree wnat I’aris experienced* in IS7O-I. and what it was intended we should experience in a major degree for standing in Hie way of tiermany's aiutiiliou- *